One of Us Read online

  “Is that it?” he asks me, staring at the box.

  “Yes.”

  He reaches out his hands to me through the open window.

  “We can put that in the trunk,” I tell him.

  “No.”

  He opens it and takes out a carved rosewood urn sealed with a golden lid and places it on his knees.

  This is how he will make the entire drive, with the ashes of his granddaughter sitting in his lap.

  twenty-nine

  ON A WINDBLOWN IRISH hillside surrounded by humped grazing land crisscrossed with stone walls like a sloppily stitched blanket, we finally find her grave.

  The name was worn away by the elements long ago, but the three of us agree this one belonged to Jimmy McNab’s mother. We can easily picture her young son sitting here beside the bleached headstone, battered now by the winds until it’s as smooth as glass, discussing his future with her. He was going to America, the land of danger, progress, and prosperity.

  Tommy stares hypnotically out at the wild gray sea. We can smell the salt from here and hear the thunder of the waves.

  The sight of the three of us in our dark suits and impractical Sunday shoes tromping through the fields and up the hill to the little cemetery has brought out a small knot of onlookers gathered at the bottom of the road. All of them are men. I can make out various caps and walking sticks and one bicycle. A border collie keeps running up to join us. Each time he circles us, sniffing, and returns to the men where he reports back with several sharp barks.

  Without saying a word, Tommy moves on, gripping his own stick, away from the little graves, toward the nearest cliff face. Rafe and I follow, him holding a bottle of whiskey and me carrying Molly’s ashes.

  He stops only a few feet away from the edge. The wind is fierce here. It fills up his suit jacket and whips it around his skinny frame. His tie flaps behind him like the tail of a kite.

  I fear he might be blown off the island but if it happens, I know he’ll spread his arms and smile and whoop and fly off happily to his own death.

  “This is the place,” he says.

  I give him the wooden urn. He takes off the golden lid and without saying a word, shakes her ashes over the ocean.

  The wind catches them and blows them back onto land. We turn and watch the cloud of her remains dissolve over the snail-gleam of the road behind us and the green of the hills.

  Each of us takes a shot glass out of our pants pockets. Rafe pours.

  A few of her ashes still float in the air. I watch them drift and fall and land on the back of my hand and in my drink. I think of Prosperity, not so many years after the conversations he had here with his mother, as dawn broke on his last day on earth. He would have been lying on a wooden bed a world away in Lost Creek jail watching the ever-present flakes of black soot twirl in the gray light of dawn looking the same, like snowflakes dressed in mourning.

  Tommy raises his glass.

  “The one who has suffered the most isn’t here. I feel this is the way it should be. We, as the men in her life, should be able to take care of at least this one crushing task for her.

  “To Arlene,” he says.

  We drink. Tommy drops his head and I can tell by the shaking of his shoulders that he’s crying. Rafe goes to him. I’ve never seen Rafe hug anyone, not a wife, not a grandchild, not the teammate who hit the double that scored the winning run when the police department played First National Bank.

  Watching the two of them I suddenly understand that a man’s life story is written before it even begins, all of his choices made for him by a history he’s helpless against yet he believes is of his own making.

  I know now what Tommy has always known and why he has always felt such affection for his ill-fated ancestor. Prosperity McNab’s decision to band with the organization that would bring about his infamy and his death had nothing to do with the various reasons history likes to claim. He joined their ranks not because he had an interest in bettering conditions in the mines, or a desire to wreak vengeance on the rich and the racist, or even a wish to impress the woman he loved with his patriotic zeal for the ould sod, but because he couldn’t help feeling drawn to a group of men who fought in the name of a mother who had committed an extraordinary act for her son.

  acknowledgments

  I’M FAIRLY CERTAIN THAT I’d still be working on One of Us and might be doing so for the next twenty years if it weren’t for my agent, Liza Dawson, who once again saw me through the doubt, panic, and bouts of self-loathing that always accompany the writing of one of my novels. Thank you, Liza, for your unflappable encouragement and magical ability to get me to do what needs to be done without actually telling me what it is that I need to do.

  The greatest gift a writer can receive is a smart, passionate, intuitive editor who seems to have an immediate understanding of her work. I received such a gift earlier this year in the form of Karen Kosztolnyik at Gallery Books who turned out to be a lovely incarnation of the nagging voice inside my head that tells me I’m not done yet. Thank you, Karen, for your insight and care. Every suggestion you made was dead-on except for your original thoughts on Wade but don’t worry; we both forgive you.

  Thank you, Mom, for always being there for me; Roy, for your unwavering support and elbow grease; and Molly Meghan, for your rock ’em sock ’em spirit and steadfast devotion to me. And to Tirzah and Connor, my sweet babies who are now amazing adults, without you my life would be a dull, plodding thing with no shine or sizzle to it: thank you, Fate, for giving them to me.

  Gallery Readers Group Guide

  One of Us

  Tawni O'Dell

  Introduction

  From New York Times bestselling author Tawni O’Dell comes a fast-paced thriller where a forensic psychologist is forced to face his own demons when he returns to his childhood home of Lost Creek to find the community terrorized by a serial killer.

  Dr. Sheridan Doyle is the go-to shrink for the Philadelphia District Attorney’s office whenever a twisted killer’s mind eludes other experts. But beneath is accomplished exterior, he’s still Danny Doyle, the awkward, bullied boy from a blue-collar mining family, haunted by a past marked by tragedy.

  When Danny returns to Lost Creek, his hometown, he comes face to face with the town’s legacy of violence when a dead body is discovered at the famous gallows where the Nellie O’Neills, band of rebellious Irish miners were executed one hundred years prior. The body also has an eerie connection to the wealthy mining family behind the deaths of the Nellie O’Neills. When Danny teams up with veteran detective Rafe to get to the bottom of the crimes, he realizes hi’s coming dangerously close to uncovering secrets of his own past.

  In this masterfully told psychological thriller, the past and the present collide to put Lost Creek’s long-lived ghosts to bed.

  TOPICS AND QUESTIONS FOR DISCUSSION

  1. Why do you think O’Dell chose to call her novel One of Us ? Who does the “us” in the title of the novel refer to? Discuss the importance of allegiances in Lost Creek. How do those allegiances play out throughout One of Us?

  2. Of the Nellie O’Neills, Danny says “it was impossible to live in Lost Creek and not know something about them even as a young child.” What is the story of the Nellie O’Neills? Do you think that they were correct in their actions and the reasons behind them? How does their story affect the citizens of Lost Creek?

  3. Max tells Danny that he was inspired by Danny’s writing, particularly the quote “What lies in our power to do, list in our power not to do.” Discuss the quote. Where did it initially appear? How does this advice apply to Max’s life and to Danny’s own? What actions does Danny take that ultimately change his life?

  4. Although Danny has achieved success as Sheridan Doyle, almost everyone in Lost Creek still refers to him as Danny. What does each name indicate both the people who refer to Danny as such and about Danny himself? Discuss the import
ance of names throughout One of Us .

  5. Danny first encounters Rafe as a young boy, on the day that his mother is being arrested and “for the first time in my young life I felt I could be honest.” Why does Danny feel safe and able to speak truthfully in Rafe’s presence? Later Danny calls Rafe “A man I admired but didn’t envy. A man I wanted to mimic but didn’t want to be.” Discuss their relationship. What lessons has Rafe taught Danny? How do the two men relate to each other as adults?

  6. After her encounter with Marcella Greger, Scarlet says “I probably could have trusted her to keep her mouth shut. That’s not the point. I didn’t like the idea of her knowing.” Do you believe Scarlet? Why do you think she acted in the way she did with Marcella? What were your initial impressions of Scarlet? Did they change throughout One of Us ? If so, how? Were you surprised by her secret? Why or why not?

  7. Who is Carson Shupe? Why does Danny maintain a relationship with him, visiting him in jail and planning to attend Carson’s execution? When Carson asks Danny, “Do you think I deserve this?” about his impending execution, were you surprised by Danny’s response? Why or why not? How does Carson’s crime serve as a counterpoint to the other crimes in One of Us ?

  8. In recounting her reaction to seeing the effects of the mine explosion, Scarlet says, “What I saw bothered me but I didn’t feel bad . . . I didn’t feel in any way responsible for what I was seeing or that my father was responsible either. I sensed something wasn’t fair, but injustice without a defined villain is only bad luck.” Do you think Anna was right to take Scarlet to see how the citizens of Lost Creek were reacting to the tragedy? Do you agree with Scarlet’s assessment that, without villains, injustice is simply bad luck? Are there villains in One of Us? Who are they?

  9. Danny says that, as a child, he let Tommy believe that his nightmares were about his mother and his sister “because I could never reveal to him what they were really about. They were shameful. I was afraid of the mines.” Why is Danny ashamed of his fear? Does he ever overcome his fear? If so, how? What’s Tommy’s reaction when Danny does admit to being afraid of the mines?

  10. Describe Danny’s first meeting with Scarlet. Why do you think that the encounter induces a panic attack for Danny? Does their initial meeting foreshadow their final one? If so, how?

  11. When Gwendolyn Dawes and Arlene Doyle meet, Danny describes them as “a wild rose and a hothouse orchid who have both managed to survive in the same scorched earth.” Describe both of the women. Is Danny’s description of both accurate? Why does Danny believe that his mother is “better equipped to deal with the inconceivable than the rest of us”? Were you surprised to learn the truth of Molly’s disappearance and how it related to both of the women?

  12. When Scarlet asks Danny how he feels about his mother, his response is “I love her.” Scarlet says, “I’m stunned. I expected so much better from him, yet at at the same time, I realize this means he fully understands the rules of the game.” Why is Scarlet stunned by Danny’s response? What does this show about Scarlet? Do you think she’s misread the situation when she says Danny “fully understands the rules of the game”? If so, how?

  13. In the mine, Rick tells Danny, “Your problem is you think too much.” Do you agree? How do Rick’s works cause Danny to rethink his mother’s actions? Do you agree with Rick that Arlene Doyle is a strong woman? Why or why not?

  14. When Danny returns to Lost Creek and sees Tommy, he says “My dejection lifts as I realize wanting to lay eyes on [Tommy] again isn’t the only reason I needed to come home.” What other reasons does Danny have for needing to come home? Do you think his trip was successful?

  15. Of his time in Vietnam, Rafe says “It may have been the worst thing that would ever happen to me, but it was also the most significant.” What does he mean? How was he changed by his time in Vietnam? What do you think that the most significant thing to happy to Danny has been? Why?

  ENHANCE YOUR BOOK CLUB

  1. After one of Tommy’s stories, Danny asks him what the point of the story was, to which he replies, “Does there have to be a point?” Do you think that there has to be a point to a story? Discuss what you look for in a book when you read with the other members of your book club, taking care to consider how your book club selections, including One of Us, have measured up to your criteria.

  2. Of his hometown, Danny says, “The history of the entire region is summer up in a glance: Man ruins Nature; Nature ruins Man.” Read about the history of the mining industry and discuss the statement. How is it particularly true in Lost Creek?

  3. One of Us has drawn comparisons to Gone Girl . Read both books, then, compare and contrast them in your book club. In what ways are Scarlet and Amy alike? How do they differ?

  4. To learn more about Tawni O’Dell, read more of her writing and connect with her online, visit her official site at http://www.tawniodell.com/

  A CONVERSATION WITH TAWNI O’DELL

  You are the author of several New York Times bestselling novels, including Black Roads, which was an Oprah’s Book Club pick. Did the experience of writing One of Us differ from writing your previous novels? If so, how?

  One of Us was the most difficult novel for me to write so far, but this had nothing to do with its content or any outside factors. I’ve discovered as an author that the process of writing a novel becomes harder over time, not easier. I used to think the reverse must be true, that it would be like any task, and the more I practiced, the more adept I’d become. I do believe I’ve become a better writer with each novel and I like to think that each novel has surpassed the previous one. But as I struggle to find my way with the latest one, I’m always convinced I’ll never finish it and if I do, it will be awful.

  Can you tell us about your writing process? Does your process differ when you’re writing essays rather than stories?

  Writing an essay is like a school assignment: I have my topic, I organize my thoughts, and I write it. I have complete control over what I’m doing. Writing a novel is like setting out on a journey without knowing who or what I’ll encounter, how long it’s going to take, or where I’m going to end up. It’s exciting but also nerve-racking. It takes me several years to completely understand my characters and decipher their stories. I often feel as though I have no control over the process even though I know on a subconscious level that I do. My mind is constantly creating and searching, but I can’t make myself put the right words on paper until I’m ready. Once I’m ready, I’m a focused, disciplined writer who will put in twelve hours a day at the computer, but I also spend a lot of time away from the computer getting to that point.

  The legend of the Nellie O’Neills is incredibly compelling. Was it based on any mining stories? Can you tell us how you fleshed out their story?

  The Nellie O’Neills were inspired by the Molly Maguires, a secret society of militant Irish coal miners living in central Pennsylvania in the 1870s who battled their exploitation by mine owners with violence, intimidation, and sometimes murder. Twenty of them were eventually executed. Growing up in a Pennsylvania coal town, Molly Maguire lore was all around me and I’ve always been engrossed by their story. It’s an intriguing one, partially due to the fact that there has been enormous disagreement over who they were, what they did, and why they did it. I’ve wanted to write about them for as long as I can remember but didn’t want to be creatively shackled by historical accuracy, so I made up my own version of them. For anyone wanting to know more about the Mollies, I highly recommend Kevin Kenny’s book, Making Sense of the Molly Maguires, and checking out the 1969 Paramount film The Molly Maguires starring Sean Connery and Richard Harris. (It’s worth watching just to see Sean Connery and Richard Harris in the same movie.)

  At the end of One of Us , Danny says, “I suddenly understand that a man’s life story is written before it even begins, all of his choices made for him by a history he’s helpless against yet he believes is of his own making.” How does Danny’s statement apply to your own writing? Did you kn
ow the outcome of Danny’s story before you began writing? Or did the plot take several unexpected turns that were not in your initial imaginings of the story?

  That quote actually sums up my writing process fairly accurately. Somewhere deep in my psyche my characters’ life stories are “already written before they begin,” and I have to discover them and then document them. Like Danny having this epiphany that he’s powerless against his fate but wants to believe he controls it—I know I am the creator of my characters and their stories but I often feel more like a farmer who can only do so much with his land then has to wait for the whims of nature to determine whether anything will grow. When I begin writing, I have no idea what my novels are ultimately going to be about. I don’t have a plot. I never consider a theme. I don’t make notes or outlines. (By the way, I don’t recommend writing this way if you can avoid it.) I think this comes from the fact I’m not someone who wants to write a book and then searches for an idea. I get an idea and need to write a book.

  You write so compellingly in Scarlet’s voice. Given that she is responsible for some truly horrific crimes, was it difficult to channel her?

  Being Scarlet was fun. Not that I have any desire to run around killing people, but it’s liberating to write a character who only thinks about herself and her desires and gives no thought to anyone else. Just as in real life, caring about others, weighing right and wrong, navigating societal expectations, takes energy in a character. Making decisions based purely on what makes the character feel good is easy. When I wrote in Scarlet’s voice I needed to feel what she felt and she felt no pain or regret so even though she was repellent on many levels, she didn’t cause me the kind of empathetic anguish I’ve experienced writing some of my other characters.