QC Reads 2015
what strange creatures by Emily Arsenault
The Battle siblings are used to disappointment. Seven years after starting her PhD program—one marriage and divorce, three cats, and a dog later—Theresa still hasn’t finished her dissertation. Instead of a degree, she’s got a houseful of adoring pets and a dead-end copywriting job for a local candle company.
Jeff, her so-called genius older brother, doesn’t have it together, either. Creative, and loyal, he’s also aimless in work and love. But his new girlfriend, Kim, a pretty waitress in her twenties, appears smitten. When Theresa agrees to dog-sit Kim’s puggle for a weekend, she has no idea that it is the beginning of a terrifying nightmare that will shatter her quiet academic world.
Soon Kim’s body is found in the woods, and Jeff becomes the prime suspect.
Though the evidence is overwhelming, Theresa knows that her brother is not a murderer. As she investigates Kim’s past, she uncovers a treacherous secret involving politics, murder, and scandal—and becomes entangled in a potentially dangerous romance. But the deeper she falls into this troubling case, the more it becomes clear that, in trying to save her brother’s life, she may be sacrificing her own.
read an excerpt
Wall Street Journal Review
Q & A with Caroline Leavitt
discussion questions
Emily Arsenault is also the author of The Broken Teaglass, In Search of the Rose Notes, and Miss Me When I’m Gone. She lives in Shelburne Falls, Massachusetts, with her husband and daughter.
other interesting bits & pieces
Dog Talk radio interview with Tracy Hotchner
Danco Modern cameo!
My Book, the Movie: who would Emily like to cast?
The Book of Margery Kempe
The British Library digitized version
of the original manuscript!
or from Rochester University, Teams Middle English Text Series,
with introduction by Lynn Staley
What strange creatures brothers are! You would not write to each other but upon the most urgent necessity in the world, and when obliged to take up the pen to say that such a horse is ill, or such a relation dead, it is done in the fewest possible words. You have but one style among you. – Mary Crawford, Mansfield Park Jane Austen
Brothers and sisters are as close as hands and feet. ~Vietnamese Proverb
To the outside world we all grow old. But not to brothers and sisters. We know each other as we always were. We know each other’s hearts. We share private family jokes. We remember family feuds and secrets, family griefs and joys. We live outside the touch of time. ~Clara Ortega
The mildest, drowsiest sister has been known to turn tiger if her sibling is in trouble. ~Clara Ortega
The highlight of my childhood was making my brother laugh so hard that food came out his nose. ~Garrison Keillor