Nostalgia City Mysteries

Mark S. Bacon

Category Archives: book clubs

Reading group / book club guide

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Dark Ride Deception – Questions for discussion
  1. What motivated Lyle to tell Rey that he searched Wyrick’s condo?
  1. How does the author use the senses in his description of the theme park trade show in Florida?
  1. Many murder mysteries begin with a body in the first chapter. Why do you think the author delayed exposing the first murder?
  1. Did you figure out the identity of Sarah Needham’s boyfriend before Lyle did?
  1. How are characters in the book identified or explained by other characters?
  1. Do you recognize the songs Lyle and others listen to? What other 1970’s reminders did you pick up in scenes at the Nostalgia City theme park?

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Reading group guide for “The Marijuana Murders”

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Discussion questions

1.  How would you describe Kate’s relationship with Arthur Poole?  Does she act appropriately?

2.  The author mentions songs from the 1970s. Do these songs, and their artists, contribute to particular scenes or the overall focus of the book?  How important is the 1970s setting to the story?

3.  What factor’s influence the Nostalgia City CEO’s opinion of legalizing pot?

4.  Excluding Kate, how would you categorize the role of women in the book?

5.  How is the case for legalizing marijuana presented? Do you think the author has an opinion of legal pot?

6.  The author’s narrative technique is to alternate point-of-view chapters between Lyle and Kate. Was each character’s POV obvious with the change of chapters?

7.  When Arthur Poole says that heroin and cocaine are dangerous drugs it elicits laughs from his audience. Why is that? How does this establish what comes next at the public forum?

8.  This is a mystery. What was the biggest surprise in the book?

9.  How does the author differentiate the voices of the various characters? Is it effective?

10.  What do you think happened to Tony Guerra? Was the author specific enough for you about Guerra’s plight?

“Death in Nostalgia City” is library assn. selection

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Death in Nostalgia City was recommended this month for book clubs  by the American Library Association’s Book Club Central.

The book was selected for its fresh start theme.  In Death in Nostalgia City, one of my two protagonists is ex-cop Lyle Deming. His wife divorced him then he was dismissed from the police department, in part for his erratic behavior.  Anxiety is his default setting.  Desperate  for a stress-free job that has nothing to do with consoling murder victims’ families, Lyle becomes a cab driver—in a theme park.

Nostalgia City is no ordinary theme park.  Covering several square miles in central Arizona, the park is a re-creation of an entire small town from the mid-1970s. Peace and relaxation reigns–until someone starts sabotaging rides and killing tourists.
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