The Wrong Good Deed

A Novel

Formats and Prices

Format

Trade Paperback

Format:

Trade Paperback

This item is a preorder. Your payment method will be charged immediately, and the product is expected to ship on or around May 2, 2023. This date is subject to change due to shipping delays beyond our control.

She thought she had left that life behind forever. She was wrong.

1964: Christaphine is twenty years old, newly married, and determined to make a home and a life for her and her husband, Tommy. But when Christaphine discovers Tommy and his friends on the verge of committing a horrible crime, she does what she has to do to stop them. Afterwards, she knows she can’t ever go home again–so she disappears.

50 years later: When Clemmie’s neighbor, Muffin, drags her from Sunday morning service at Trinity Hill Church, convinced that the man she’s just spotted across the aisle is a dangerous figure from her past, at first Clemmie thinks she’s being dramatic. But as Muffin reveals to Clemmie what happened in the middle of a field in South Carolina five decades ago, Clemmie realizes her friend has been keeping dark secrets–just as Clemmie herself has. And the secrets that belong to both women are not the kind that can be revealed without dire consequences…

Excerpt

ONE
TWO
THREE
FOUR
FIVE
SIX
SEVEN
EIGHT
NINE
MONDAY
TEN
ELEVEN
TWELVE
THIRTEEN
FOURTEEN
FIFTEEN
SIXTEEN
TUESDAY
SEVENTEEN
EIGHTEEN
NINETEEN
TWENTY
WEDNESDAY
TWENTY-ONE
TWENTY-TWO
THURSDAY
TWENTY-THREE
TWENTY-FOUR
TWENTY-FIVE
FRIDAY
TWENTY-SIX
TWENTY-SEVEN
TWENTY-EIGHT
Reading Group Guide

READING GROUP GUIDE

  1. What does it cost Clemmie to stay silent about her past? Is there any potential alternative?
  2. The news exhausts Clemmie, especially because she doesn’t feel like she can affect it. Now that you can access the news from anywhere, at any time, how can you prevent it from overwhelming you? How does the pace of the news bury stories that don’t have satisfying endings?
  3. After saving MacBurton Ward, Muffin realizes she can never return home. Would you have made the same choice if you knew it meant you’d have to start over somewhere else?
  4. Clemmie recalls that during the trials of integration, she was “that questionable thing: the bystander.” Do you think our expectations of bystanders have changed since 1964? How?
  5. Muffin decides to stay silent about Micah’s death partially out of respect to her ex-husband’s living children. Should you protect anyone’s reputation if it prevents justice?
  6. Daniel assures himself that he is innocent because Muffin intervened before any crimes had been committed. Is he right?
  7. Clemmie frequently thinks of herself as a bad person despite her best attempts to live a good life. Do you think people can redeem themselves even if their guilt never passes?
  8. What did you think of Muffin’s inability or unwillingness to change how she referred to Ro’Seffanie when she learned her real name? How else does her stubbornness appear throughout the book?
  9. Discuss Haven Nearing. What kind of closure did he give to Ro’Seffanie, and what kind of closure does he himself need?
  10. How did you feel about the true reason behind Muffin’s death? Should we fear doing good deeds that may turn out to be the wrong ones?



On Sale
May 2, 2023
Page Count
272 pages
ISBN-13
9781728269863