Question R

[Jonetta]

Any other topics you’d like to discuss? Your overall opinion of the story?

[Sharon]

I'm still trying to wrap my head around everything that happened in this story before I can answer this.

I honestly thought that Great Britain had a more accepting population. I see so many comments, on social media about the U.S. and our issues. I thought racism is an American phenomenon. I guess I'm very naive about "the world" and people are evil and hate filled every where.

[Jonetta]

Sharon, they created colonialism and spread that throughout Europe and the colonies. It was the foundation for the new class system, which breeds racist attitudes.

The friction created with the recent influx of Syrian refugees to England was epic. The conflicts with immigrants of African origin are also notorious.

No, deep rooted racism is not just an American phenomenon but one that has begun to rear its awful head in Europe within the last decade. Even with my own experiences living abroad, I was woefully unprepared for this story.

[Lisa - (Aussie Girl)]

Yes, ladies, unfortunately some of the issues brought up this story happen all around the world. And all cultures and religions have some element of it. All we can hope is that issues are being brought out into the light to be rationally discussed and change implemented moving forward. Although I feel it will take a long time till every person in the world is treated with the same respect and dignity as equal human beings. But we can't give up, hope springs eternal!

[Lynn]

The issues raised in this story made it a tough read.
I'm curious, did anyone else have trouble with the chapters that jumped from subplot to subplot? Each time it happened, I had to stop and think about everything I knew about that story line before moving on with the chapter. It kind of threw me off.

[Lisa - (Aussie Girl)]

There was a lot of tooing and froing between the various threads. I agree Lynn I had to concentrate to keep them all straight. I like the way they all converged by the end to make a really good story.

[Sharon]

Lynn it didn't really throw me off, but my mind did need an adjustment sometimes to keep the story straight. I liked it though. The whole story kept me guessing and thinking about the events.

[Robin]

This was a good story that gave me a lot to think about.

Lynn - I had a problem jumping between Kim's case, Stacey's investigation, and Bryant & Dawson's cases. Like you, each time I had to sit and think what was happening the last time they popped up. I usually don't have trouble following multiple story threads. Maybe I was a little confused because they were all police investigations, many involving obvious hate crimes.

[Lynn]

Well, I'm glad to know it wasn't just me.

[Jonetta]

I also had a tough time keeping track of the victims, past and present. And, if you include Stacey’s side action, we were following what we thought were three investigations. This was one time where I had to go back to the book to sort things out (I’m listening to the series).