Explore our new BookBrowse Community Forum!

Book Club Discussion Questions for A Question of Mercy by Elizabeth Cox

Summary |  Excerpt |  Reading Guide |  Reviews |  Beyond the Book |  Read-Alikes |  Genres & Themes |  Author Bio

A Question of Mercy by Elizabeth Cox

A Question of Mercy

A Novel

by Elizabeth Cox
  • BookBrowse Review:
  • Critics' Consensus:
  • First Published:
  • Oct 4, 2016, 224 pages
  • Rate this book

About this Book

Book Club Discussion Questions

Print PDF

Please be aware that this discussion guide will contain spoilers!

  1. A disturbing moral choice lies at the center of this novel. How did you respond to that choice? Would you have made that same choice, or a different one? What would have happened if that choice had not been made? How do you think the choice affected (and will always affect) Jess Booker?
  2. How does the Korean War serve as a backdrop for this novel? What do you learn from the letters that Sam writes to Jess? How would you compare Sam's experience in the war to Jess's experience?
  3. What does Calder Finney add to the ongoing story? How is he central to the novel?
  4. How do you understand Adam through the "sensory" sections which focus on his experience of the world?
  5. Describe the relationship between Edward Booker and Clementine Finney?
  6. Clementine Finney's complexity is sometimes disturbing. Do you understand her struggle?
  7. The Boardinghouse section offers a place of healing and humor. How does this healing happen? What did this family of characters in the boardinghouse add to the novel?
  8. What do you learn at the trial about Cadwell Institution/Asylum? Why do you think Clementine changes her mind?
  9. Why did the author end with an Adam section and the emphasis on drowning?
  10. What is the effect of a two-page prologue beginning with Jess and her father talking to a lawyer?
  11. The novel moves back and forth through time. The final move back in time comes when we learn what happened that day at the river. What was your feeling about Jess's guilt or lack of guilt at that moment?


Unless otherwise stated, this discussion guide is reprinted with the permission of Story River Books. Any page references refer to a USA edition of the book, usually the trade paperback version, and may vary in other editions.

Membership Advantages
  • Reviews
  • "Beyond the Book" articles
  • Free books to read and review (US only)
  • Find books by time period, setting & theme
  • Read-alike suggestions by book and author
  • Book club discussions
  • and much more!
  • Just $45 for 12 months or $15 for 3 months.
  • More about membership!

Top Picks

  • Book Jacket: Our Evenings
    Our Evenings
    by Alan Hollinghurst
    Alan Hollinghurst's novel Our Evenings is the fictional autobiography of Dave Win, a British ...
  • Book Jacket: Graveyard Shift
    Graveyard Shift
    by M. L. Rio
    Following the success of her debut novel, If We Were Villains, M. L. Rio's latest book is the quasi-...
  • Book Jacket: The Sisters K
    The Sisters K
    by Maureen Sun
    The Kim sisters—Minah, Sarah, and Esther—have just learned their father is dying of ...
  • Book Jacket: Linguaphile
    Linguaphile
    by Julie Sedivy
    From an infant's first attempts to connect with the world around them to the final words shared with...

Members Recommend

  • Book Jacket

    Pony Confidential
    by Christina Lynch

    In this whimsical mystery, a grumpy pony must clear his beloved human's name from a murder accusation.

Who Said...

There is no such thing as a moral or immoral book. Books are either well written or badly written. That is all.

Click Here to find out who said this, as well as discovering other famous literary quotes!

Wordplay

Solve this clue:

F the M

and be entered to win..

Your guide toexceptional          books

BookBrowse seeks out and recommends the best in contemporary fiction and nonfiction—books that not only engage and entertain but also deepen our understanding of ourselves and the world around us.