by Tyson, Wendy
2. How does Allison’s career choice reflect the themes of the book?
3. Family and family dynamics play an important role. Allison thinks about her own family and realizes “there are so many ways to be a motherless daughter. Illness. Death. And abandonment. Her. Violet. And now, Maggie.” But the book is also about finding that nurturing from other sources. Can you think of where the characters developed maternal-type relationships with people to whom they are not related? How has that affected them?
4. One of the themes running throughout the story is change–the ability of people to change, to have a second chance. Are there times when characters had the opportunity to change and chose not to, for better or worse? How does this theme play into Arnie Feldman’s murder?
5. Another consistent theme is image versus reality. How is this theme reflected in the characters? In the murders of Arnie and Udele? In the setting?
6. For Vaughn, the pain of seeing his brother is a constant reminder of his own past. How has Vaughn dealt with his youthful transgressions? How are Allison and Vaughn similar?
7. When Mia and Allison reconcile, Mia says, “maybe those of us who’ve touched the void and lived–and losing a child immerses you in the void, Allison, believe me–maybe we survivors need to protect ourselves from ever visiting its depths again.” In what ways have Mia’s decisions–moving to the country, leaving her practice, even her relationship with Vaughn–reflected that need?
8. Allison accuses Jason of giving up on his dreams following the death of his sister. He responds by saying, “Wake up, Al. People don’t come all neatly packaged. You’ve spent your whole adult life trying to force people into these tidy little boxes. Things don’t work that way.” What events in Allison’s past may have led her to view the world this way? Does this change as the story progresses?
9. Maggie and Violet come from very different backgrounds, yet Allison sees similarities. How are the two girls alike? In what ways are they quite different?
10. Allison gives Violet We the Living by Ayn Rand to help with her insomnia. The book, and the very act of reading, helps to broaden Violet’s world and her perspective. Why might Allison have chosen that book? What impact did books, and Allison’s actions related to reading, have on Violet and Violet’s choices?
About the Author
Wendy Tyson wrote her first story at age eight and it’s been love ever since. When not writing, Wendy enjoys reading other people’s novels, traveling, hiking, and playing hooky at the beach—and if she can combine all four, even better.
Originally from the Philadelphia area, Wendy has returned to her roots and lives there again with her husband, three kids and two muses, dogs Molly and Driggs. She and her husband are passionate organic gardeners and have turned their small urban lot into a micro farm. Killer Image is the first novel in the Allison Campbell mystery series.
Don’t Miss the 2nd Book in the Series
DEADLY ASSETS
Wendy Tyson
An Allison Campbell Mystery (#2)
An eccentric Italian heiress from the Finger Lakes. An eighteen-year-old pop star from Scranton, Pennsylvania. Allison Campbell’s latest clients seem worlds apart in every respect, except one: Both women disappear on the same day. And Allison’s colleague Vaughn is the last to have seen each.
Allison’s search for a connection uncovers an intricate web of family secrets, corporate transgressions and an age-old rivalry that crosses continents. The closer Allison gets to the truth, the deadlier her quest becomes. All paths lead back to their sinister Finger Lakes estate and the suicide of a woman thirty years earlier. Allison soon realizes the lives of her clients and the safety of those closest to her aren’t the only things at stake.
Read all about it at www.henerypress.com
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Henery Press Mystery Books
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Chicago PI Carter Mays is thrust into a perilous masquerade when local rich girl Cindy Bedford hires him. Turns out her fiancé failed to show up on their wedding day, the same day millions of dollars are stolen from her father’s company. While Carter takes the case, Cindy’s father tries to find him his own way. With nasty secrets, hidden finances, and a trail of revenge, it’s soon apparent no one is who they say they are.
Carter searches for the truth, but the situation grows more volatile as panic collides with vulnerability. Broken relationships and blurred loyalties turn deadly, fueled by past offenses and present vendettas in a quest to reveal the truth behind the masks before no one, including Carter, gets out alive.
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THE AMBITIOUS CARD
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The life of a magician isn’t all kiddie shows and card tricks. Some-times it’s murder. Especially when magician Eli Marks very publicly debunks a famed psychic, and said psychic ends up dead. The evidence, including a bloody King of Diamonds playing card (one from Eli’s own Ambitious Card routine), directs the police right to Eli.
As more psychics are slain, and more King cards rise to the top, Eli can’t escape suspicion. Things get really complicated when romance blooms with a beautiful psychic, and Eli discovers she’s the next target for murder, and he’s scheduled to die with her. Now Eli must use every trick he knows to keep them both alive and reveal the true killer.
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CIRCLE OF INFLUENCE
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Zoe Chambers, paramedic and deputy coroner in rural Pennsylvania’s tight-knit Vance Township, has been privy to a number of local secrets over the years, some of them her own. But secrets become explosive when a dead body is found in the Township Board President’s abandoned car.
As a January blizzard rages, Zoe and Police Chief Pete Adams launch a desperate search for the killer, even if it means uncovering secrets that could not only destroy Zoe and Pete, but also those closest to them.
Read all about it at www.henerypress.com
FATAL BRUSHSTROKE
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A dead body in her garden and a homicide detective on her doorstep…
Computer programmer and tole-painting enthusiast Aurora (Rory) Anderson doesn’t envision finding either when she steps outside to investigate the frenzied yipping coming from her own back yard. After all, she lives in Vista Beach, a quiet California beach community where violent crime is rare and murder even rarer.
Suspicion falls on Rory when the body buried in her flowerbed turns out to be someone she knows—her tole painting teacher, Hester Bouquet. Just two weekends before, Rory attended one of Hester’s weekend painting seminars, an unpleasant experience she vowed never to repeat. As evidence piles up against Rory, she embarks on a quest to identify the killer and clear her name. Can Rory unearth the truth before she encounters her own brush with death?
Read all about it at www.henerypress.com
DEATH BY BLUE WATER
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Paralegal Hayden Kent knows first-hand that life in the Florida Keys can change from perfect to perilous in a heartbeat. When she discovers a man’s body at 120’ beneath the sea, she thinks she is witness
to a tragic accident. She becomes the prime suspect when the victim is revealed to be the brother of the man who recently jilted her, and she has no alibi. A migraine stole Hayden’s memory of the night of the death.
As the evidence mounts, she joins forces with an Officer Janice Kirby. Together the two women follow the clues that uncover criminal activities at the highest levels and put Hayden’s life in jeopardy while she fights to stay free.
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A Carol Childs Mystery (#1)
When a top Hollywood Agent is found poisoned in the bathtub of her home suspicion quickly turns to one of her two nieces. But Carol Childs, a reporter for a local talk radio station doesn’t believe it. The suspect is her neighbor and friend, and also her primary source for insider industry news. When a media frenzy pits one niece against the other—and the body count starts to rise—Carol knows she must save her friend from being tried in courts of public opinion.
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THE RED QUEEN’S RUN
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A Meredith Solaris Mystery (#1)
A famous journalism dean is found dead at the bottom of a stairwell. Accident or murder? The police suspect members of the faculty who had engaged in fierce quarrels with the dean—distinguished scholars who were known to attack the dean like brutal schoolyard bullies. When Meredith “Red” Solaris is appointed interim dean, the faculty suspects are furious.
Will the beautiful red-haired professor be next? The case detective tries to protect her as he heads the investigation, but incoming threats lead him to believe Red’s the next target for death.
Read all about it at www.henerypress.com