No Place to Hide (43 page)

By Susan Lewis

Fiction

A Class Apart • Dance While You Can

Stolen Beginnings • Darkest Longings

Obsession • Vengeance • Summer Madness

Last Resort • Wildfire • Chasing Dreams

Taking Chances • Cruel Venus • Strange Allure

Silent Truths • Wicked Beauty • Intimate Strangers

The Hornbeam Tree • The Mill House

A French Affair • Missing • Out of the Shadows

Lost Innocence • The Choice • Forgotten

Stolen • No Turning Back • Losing You

The Truth About You • Never Say Goodbye

No Child of Mine • Don’t Let Me Go

Behind Closed Doors • No Place to Hide

Memoir

Just One More Day • One Day at a Time

PHOTO: © COLIN THOMAS

S
USAN
L
EWIS
is the internationally bestselling author of thirty-three novels. She is also the author of
Just One More Day
and
One Day at a Time,
the deeply moving and often hilarious memoirs of her childhood in Bristol. She lives in Gloucestershire, United Kingdom.

susanlewis.com

Facebook.com/SusanLewisBooks

@susandlewis

Dear Reader,

The question I’ve been asked most frequently since I began the research for this book, and throughout the writing of it, is, “How on earth did you, a Brit, come to choose Culver, Indiana, for a setting?”

It’s a good question, given that my experience of living in the States has, to date, all been in Los Angeles, and the US cities I’ve visited are all major centers in their own ways.

However, I never seem to tire of reading about smaller towns and communities in the States, particularly those in the Midwest, when I get a real sense of who and what America is really all about. As I’m British, it would be hard for me to do full justice to that without going to live in a small town for a considerable period of time, so in this instance I enlisted the help of a dear friend in LA, Chip Mitchell, to set me on the right road.

It took no time at all, for when I asked Chip if he could recommend a small town in the Midwest to set my story, he immediately put me in touch with his aunt and uncle, Dorry and Channing Mitzell, who have a long history with the Culver Academies and continue to live in Culver. I had no idea at that time what an absolute jewel of a place he was connecting me with, how unusual and inspirational it would turn out to be, or how enthusiastically his family and their many friends in Culver were going to embrace the story. Actually, I shouldn’t really have been so surprised, as I’ve met many Americans during my travels around the world, and so have much experience of just how engaged and even gallant they can be. (I’ve been rescued from many a tight corner by an American, from Morocco to Manila, but that’s for another time!)

So I traveled to Culver, hoping and praying that I was doing the right thing. After all, I’m not American, and the way of life in the Midwest was surely going to be very different from anything I’d experienced in the States to date. I needed to have no fear. Within minutes of arriving I found myself standing on a secluded beach at the top end of town, gazing out at the mesmerizing waters of Lake Maxincuckee toward the glittering, multimillion-dollar homes on the far shore. (If you’ve already read the book, you will know that it is from this spot that I chose to begin the story). It was impossible not to be moved by such a peaceful and yet intriguingly different setting from the one I’d envisaged in my mind’s eye. There was already something about this place that was getting to me.

Within a very short time I found myself, thanks to the Mitzells, actually meeting characters I’d already devised in my head: Susie Mahler, owner of Café Max and real estate agent; Jeff Kenney, editor of the Culver Citizen; Wayne Bean, chief of police; Marcia Adams, writer and longtime resident of Culver; and Sallie Jo Tardy Mitzell, who so generously took time from her busy schedule in Indianapolis to cruise us around the lake in her boat and introduce us to her family’s dreamy cottage on the South Shore.

Among the many experiences and enlightening conversations I enjoyed during my stay, there are two that stand out as firsts for me: giving a talk to a creative writing group from the Culver Girls Academy, wonderful students, an absolute privilege to spend time with. And the invitation to be part of an exercise that would never happen in Britain, and one can only feel sad that it does in the United States: shooter training at the local elementary and high schools. That really was a surreal experience.

Another surreal but totally divine experience was Dorry Channing’s coffee cake, so good that it has a mention in the book, and I can only hope she bakes again the next time I’m in Culver.

Though many of my earlier books have whole chapters set in various parts of the States, this is the first time I’ve located so much of a book in a place I didn’t know before. I’d love to write more set in America, so I’m very interested to know how well, or not, you feel I have portrayed this small town and the mainly fictional people I’ve used to bring it to life.

A very warm thank-you for reading this one, and I hope it’s left you interested enough to explore some more of my books.

Questions and Topics for Discussion

1.  
The subject of violence among children is central to the plot of this novel. Discuss violence in schools. What causes it? How can it be stopped?

2.  
How well do you feel Susan Lewis captured life in America? How does her experience living in Britain color her view of American life? Does her “outsider” status afford her unique insight, or are there elements of midwestern life that must be lived to be understood?

3.  
What do you think of Justine’s decision to leave England? Would you have done the same in her position?

4.  
Who surprised you most in this novel? Why?

5.  
Justine’s memories of England and of summers spent with her grandmother in Indiana are driving forces in this novel. Describe the function of memory and the past. How do Justine’s memories influence her decisions?

6.  
Both Justine and Grandma May kept carefully guarded secrets. Compare and contrast their secrets and their motivations for hiding them. In what ways are Justine and her grandmother similar? How are they different? Are there any parallels between their experiences?

7.  
Discuss Justine and Matt’s relationship. What were its primary strengths? Weaknesses?

8.  
Discuss the themes of prejudice and bullying among schoolchildren that come into play in this novel. What, if anything, could have changed in order for Ben’s experience to be different?

9.  
How would you describe Justine as a mother? How is her relationship with Tallulah different from her relationship with Ben? How is it similar? Did Justine inherit any parenting styles from her own mother?

10. 
What is the community in Culver like? How do Justine’s friends in America differ from her friends in England? Are there any particular qualities they have in common?

11. 
The theme of escaping the past is prominent in this novel. Can we ever truly escape the past? Is it possible to have a fresh start, or do we always carry our emotional baggage with us?

If you enjoyed
No Place to Hide
by Susan Lewis

read on for an exciting preview of

Too Close to Home

Coming in December 2015

Nothing was happening.

Everything was completely still, motionless, not a single rustle in the atmosphere, no stirrings within.

The only sounds, muted by closed windows, were the cries of white-bellied gulls as they soared around the neutral sky.

Jenna Moore, petite, dark-haired, and emerald-eyed, was sitting at the cluttered dining room table staring out at the winter-bleak garden. Looking at her, no one would have guessed she was the mother of four, the eldest being fifteen. Her smooth, playfully freckled features and girlish frame made her appear far closer to thirty than the forty she actually was.

It was Sunday afternoon and she was supposed to be making the most of some rare hours alone. The younger children—Josh, age eight, and the five-year-old twins, Flora and Wills—were on playdates down in the village, while Paige, fifteen last birthday, was somewhere with her stepfather on this sprawling misty peninsula, though Jenna wasn’t for the moment entirely sure where. All she knew was that it never failed to warm her to think of how close Paige and Jack were. He was the only father Paige had ever known, since her own had abandoned them when Paige was barely a year old. They’d never heard from him again, though Jenna had felt genuinely sorry when she’d heard how he’d lost his life in a rock-climbing accident at the age of thirty. By then Paige was seven years old and Jenna was married to Jack, who’d accompanied them to the funeral and had sat with Paige for a long time afterward explaining how losing her real father wasn’t going to make any difference to them.