Name: After Anna
Rating: 5.0 (2 reviews)
Author: Lisa Scottoline

About this book

Summary
Book Club Questions

Book Summary

Riveting and disquieting, After Anna is a groundbreaking domestic thriller, as well as a novel of emotional justice and legal intrigue.

Nobody cuts deeper than family...

Dr. Noah Alderman, a widower and single father, has remarried a wonderful woman, Maggie Ippolitti, and for the first time in a long time, he and his young son are happy. Despite her longing for the daughter she hasn't seen since she was a baby, Maggie is happy too, and she's even more overjoyed when she unexpectedly gets another chance to be a mother to the child she thought she'd lost forever, her only daughter Anna.

Maggie and Noah know that having Anna around will change their lives, but they would never have guessed that everything would go wrong, and so quickly. Anna turns out to be a gorgeous seventeen-year-old who balks at living under their rules, though Maggie, ecstatic to have her daughter back, ignores the red flags that hint at the trouble brewing in a once-perfect marriage and home.

Events take a heartbreaking turn when Anna is murdered and Noah is accused and tried for the heinous crime. Maggie must face not only the devastation of losing her daughter, but the realization that Anna's murder may have been at the hands of a husband she loves. In the wake of this tragedy, new information drives Maggie to search for the truth, leading her to discover something darker than she could have ever imagined.

Please be aware that this discussion guide will contain spoilers!

After Anna is told in alternating perspectives and several different timelines. What did you think of this unique structure and what did it add to your reading experience?
Maggie was separated from Anna after suffering a severe bout of postpartum psychosis, an extreme form of postpartum depression. In the real world, as in After Anna, postpartum depression often goes untreated or is considered shameful. Why do you think there is so much stigma surrounding these illnesses? What can we do to help better support new mothers?
Anna was used as a pawn by her father, and he wielded his power and money, and even lied to Anna to keep her away from Maggie. What do you think motivated him to do it? What do you think his motivation...

Media Reviews

"Filled with plenty of twists and complex characters, this entertaining story builds to a satisfying conclusion." - Publishers Weekly

"Scottoline, a master at crafting intense family dramas, expertly twists Maggie's reality with a page-turning mix of guilt, self-delusion, and manipulation." - Booklist

"The result is a nail-biting thriller but a terrible mystery, with the third-act jitters so frequently in evidence in the author's earlier work running amok as they spin out a series of improbable complications, a barrage of shameless cliffhangers, and a culprit ex machina before the absurdly happy ending." - Kirkus

This information about After Anna was first featured in "The BookBrowse Review" - BookBrowse's membership magazine, and in our weekly "Publishing This Week" newsletter. Publication information is for the USA, and (unless stated otherwise) represents the first print edition. The reviews are necessarily limited to those that were available to us ahead of publication. If you are the publisher or author and feel that they do not properly reflect the range of media opinion now available, send us a message with the mainstream reviews that you would like to see added.

Any "Author Information" displayed below reflects the author's biography at the time this particular book was published.

Reader Reviews

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Betty Taylor

“After Anna” may well be her best book yet
Have you ever made a mistake in your life and desperately wished for a do-over? For 17 years Maggie Alderman has lived with regret over losing custody of her infant daughter Anna. But Anna’s father has died in a plane crash leaving her in a boarding school, and Anna now wants to come to live with Maggie, her husband Dr. Noah Alderman, and stepson Caleb.

The days of what was once a loving happy family are over…after Anna came to live with them.

It quickly becomes apparent that Anna is quite the manipulator. She wants her stepfather out of the picture, and what Anna wants, Anna gets. I found it impossible to like Anna as she cunningly destroys the lives of Maggie and Noah, who out of love opened their home to her and completely accepted her.

The book alternates between Maggie’s chapters and Noah’s chapters. As the story opens Noah has been charged with first degree murder and awaits the jury’s verdict. Maggie’s storyline begins with the phone call from Anna wanting to reconnect with her mother.

The characters felt very real, the situation very credible. It tore at my heart watching Maggie and Noah being torn apart by this evil teenager. Yet in the midst of this, both Maggie and Noah sought to protect ten-year-old Caleb from the emotional upheaval the adults were dealing with.

Ms. Scottoline writes a couple of series, but her standalone books are my favorite. “After Anna” may well be her best book yet. With building suspense and unseen twists this book may result in sleep deprivation.

Marcia S

Worth the Read
I enjoy Lisa Scottoline and this book didn't let me down. Maggie lost custody of her child, Anna, who is now 17. Anna's father and step-mother are killed in an accident and Maggie finally has the opportunity to have Anna rejoin her life. Her husband, Noah, and step-son are eager to have Anna join the family. However, Anna is not the sweet girl they expected. Anna sets Noah up. I won't tell you more as there are twists to this story. It definitely holds one's attention. My only complaint is the bouncing back and forth of the story in the beginning. Hang in there, because it is worth the read!

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Author Information

Biography
Books by this Author

Lisa Scottoline Author Biography

Lisa Scottoline is a #1 bestselling author, New York Times bestselling author and Edgar award-winning author of 33 novels, including Eternal, her first-ever historical novel.

She also writes a weekly column with her daughter Francesca Serritella for the Philadelphia Inquirer titled "Chick Wit" which is a witty and fun take on life from a woman's perspective. These stories, along with many other never-before-published stories, have been collected in a New York Times bestselling series of humorous memoirs including their most recent, I See Life Through Rosé-Colored Glasses, and earlier books, I Need A Lifeguard Everywhere But The Pool; I've Got Sand in All the Wrong Places; Does This Beach Make Me Look Fat?; Have a Nice Guilt Trip; Meet Me at Emotional Baggage Claim; Best Friends, ...