Question A

[Jonetta]

What was the relationship of the book's title to the story?

[Veronica]

I'm not sure that there was one this time around, to be honest. I recall that the author originally wanted to call it When Doves Fall, which would have gone with the scene where Hero and Charles Bonaparte are watching a hawk swoop in to kill a dove. Hero is rooting for the dove to get away. The dove would have been Emma, of course, surrounded by predators she wasn't even aware of until it was too late. But the publisher nixed the original title. Maybe the falcon is supposed to be Jude?

[Jonetta]

I thought the Falcon was Jude and all of the people he killed were his prey. Like the dove in the story, they never saw him coming or recognized him as he fell/struck quickly.

[Charlene]

Jonetta, I am glad you suggested this. I finished the book last night and wondered how the poem at the beginning related to the story. I was wondering more, though, about whether Sebastian would get his answers.

[Jonetta]

I've attempted to make these connections with each book.

[Lauren]

I took the word "fall" to mean downfall and associated it more with Napoleon's dwindling power. But Jonetta's explanation makes more sense.

[Mary Beth]

Since the title is When Falcons Fall instead of When a falcon falls it could mean that there are two falcons. One of course being Jude and the other Falcon being Napoleon.

[Veronica]

Now there's a good thought, Mary.

[Lauren]

Yes, very insightful, Mary. Makes even more sense.

[Jonetta]

Nice catch, Mary Beth!

[Jasmine]

I think when Hero and Charles watch the dove being killed, it actually is a peregrine falcon that is the hunter.

My initial association was with Lord Seaton because of the way he preyed on the girls of the village, and I have this association of falcons with the aristocracy. When Jude was revealed as the killer, I sort of made this connection that it was because of all the things that had happened in the village (the executions, the rapes) that could be traced back to the aristocracy that had gone into making Jude who he was. And then there was the Jude/Judas connection which made me thing of Satan/Fallen Angels and Hero (I think?) talking about him as being evil.