Reading Group Guide

1. What factors led to Paula’s decision to blackmail Ryan Hooks? If you were in Paula’s financial situation, what would you do with Hooks’s phone?

2. Why do you think Paula jumped to conclusions about the relationship between Ryan and Emma? What clues did she miss? How did the memories of her mother’s illness and her parents’ relationship affect Paula’s decision-making? How did it affect Paula and Keith’s relationship?

3. Why do you think Keith was against having the surgery? Why was Paula pushing for it? What do you think caused this disconnect in their relationship?

4 Why do you think Emma fascinated Paula? How are the two women different? Similar?

5. After everything Paula did, Claire seems to trust her more than she trusts Emma Bentley, following the interrogations. Why do you think that is?

6. Describe Paula’s relationship with the truth. How was she able to convince herself that it was okay to lie to her family and friends?

7. Do you think it’s ever okay to lie to someone you love? Explain.

8. Is Paula a good person?

A Conversation with the Author

Where did you get the inspiration for The Night in Question?

I take a lot of rideshares. One day, I was chatting with a driver about all the things he’d seen during his brief stint as a driver. He laughed and said I wouldn’t believe some of the stories. He looked up at me in the rearview mirror as he said this, and that’s a scene that made it into The Night in Question. I took out my phone during that ride and made a note to explore a story about a rideshare driver who saw something she shouldn’t have seen. It spiraled from there.

I love writing and reading stories about good people who convince themselves that it’s okay to do bad things. I think those kinds of stories are easy to relate to because we’ve all been in tough spots where we had to make a choice about what kind of person we were going to be in that moment. Paula makes a bad choice and must deal with the consequences of that decision.

Do you think Paula is a likable character?

I do! I think readers may vary in their reactions to her choices, but I think they’ll see that she, at the very least, thinks she’s doing her best. She’s convinced herself that she and her husband need the money much more than Ryan Hooks does and that what she’s doing isn’t all that bad. Not great, certainly, but not unforgivable. That’s important to her.

Why are so many of your books based in Chicago and/or the Midwest?