Book Club Questions

Book Club Questions for: BLOND FAITH by Jayne Ormerod

1.  Ellery and Sam are two amateur sleuths with completely different personalities and views of life.. Are you Team Ellery or Team Sam?

2.  Some people think the first sentence of a novel is the most important. Would you agree or disagree with that, based on this book?

3. Part of the fun of reading a mystery is the suspense of not knowing who the killer is until the end. BUT…some people (the author included) read the end first then go back and read from start to finish. So....true confession time...are you an End Reader?

4. What scene(s) from BLOND FAITH stood out for you?

5. What other books/authors did BLOND FAITH remind you of that you might recommend to your book club buddies?

6.  Cozy mysteries are often set in small towns where everyone knows everyone else’s business.  Do you think this adds or detracts from the story? Do you think this story would have worked in a big city setting?

7.  Did the pace of BLOND FAITH seem too fast, too slow, or just right?

8.  Food (or lack thereof) plays a role in the story. What is your favorite thing to eat when you are at the beach?

9. If you could ask the Ellery or Sam a questions, what would you ask them?

10.  What is your favorite beach memory?

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Book Club Questions for: THE BLOND LEADING THE BLOND  by Jayne Ormerod

1. What scene(s) from the book stood out for you?

2. Which actresses, living or dead, do you think would be best cast for the roles of Ellery and Sam in the movie version?  (I did write the book with one specific actress in mind for Sam.  If you email me at jayneormerod@protonmail-dot-com with your guess, I’ll be happy to tell you if were thinking the same person.) 

3. Is Ellery the type of person you’d like to have for a friend?  Why or why not?

4. Samantha Rose Greene—love her or hate her?  Did your feelings for her change over the course of the book?

5. How does Ellery’s previous life as an elementary school teacher conflict with her new role as a societal leader?  Do you think she will succeed?

6. Is there such a thing as “too much money?”  Even though Ellery hasn’t received any of her inheritance yet, do you think it has changed her?  Do you expect it will change her?  Do you think it would change you?

7. Nicknames play a significant role in Braddocks Beach society.  Do you have or have you ever had a nickname?  Know someone with an interesting one?

8. The Blond Leading the Blond is considered a “cozy mystery,” meaning all the gruesome stuff happens off stage.  Which do you think makes for a better story, having all the gory stuff spelled out in vivid detail or leaving that icky stuff up to the reader’s imagination?  What other cozy mysteries have you read?

9. Another element that defines a cozy mystery is leaving enough clues for the reader to figure out who the killer is along with the fictional sleuths.  Did you deduce who the killer was before Ellery and Sam or were you as surprised as they were?

10. A common writer’s trick to engage the reader immediately is to take the main character from his/her “ordinary world” and plop them own into an “extraordinary world.”  One of the ways this is taught in writer’s classes is by examining the movie Pretty Woman starring Julia Roberts and Richard Gere.  Did you think this trick was used effectively in this book?  What other books/movies have you seen this element of story-telling used?