Gone, Baby, Gone (Lehane)

Book Club Discussion Questions

Use our LitLovers Book Club Resources; they can help with discussions for any book:

• How to Discuss a Book (helpful discussion tips)
• Generic Discussion Questions—Fiction and Nonfiction
• Read-Think-Talk (a guided reading chart)

Also consider these LitLovers talking points to help get a discussion started for Gone, Baby, Gone:

1. Why are Kenzie and Gennaro initially reluctant to take the case? Why do they finally agree?

2.. Talk about Helene McCready, Amanda's mother. No need to ask "what kind of mother is she"; nonetheless...what makes her the way she is—is there any explanation? Why does the investigation team suspect she has something to do with her daughter's disappearance?

3. What clues begin to lead everyone to believe Amanda has been killed? Did you also believe she was dead?

4. Why is Cheese Olamon willing to cooperate with Kenzie and Gennaro?

5. What complications arise because of the fact that the investigation takes place in Dorchester? Given a similar starting point, what is it that determines the starkly different paths two people choose?

6. Why does Lionel decide to take matters into his own hands? Is he correct in his assessment? Is his decision morally just? Is there a difference between legality and morality?

7. Broussard remarks, "If society doesn’t work, how do we, as allegedly honorable men, live? On the fringes." He believes, in other words, that because society fails in its duty, that he and others are forced to take action, even if illegal. Do you agree with him?

8. Does Angie condone Broussard and Lionel's actions? Is she, ultimately, like Broussard?

9. In the stand-off between Angie and Patrick at the end...whom do you side with? What would your decision have been had it been up to you? What would you have done?

10. Were you surprised by the twists and turns of the plot? What about the conclusion—satisfying...or not?

(Questions by LitLovers. Please feel free to use them, online or off, with attribution. Thanks.)

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