She’s a specialist on memory, but what has she chosen to forget?
Our memories are rarely a perfect reflection of events and as an expert in eye witness testimony, Dr Amanda Dunstan should know. She’s well aware of the errors and biases in our recall.
When her book on memory gains publicity, she’s thrilled to win some recognition for her work. But then a friend from her pasts reappears, bringing with her a story of an incident with life-changing consequence. An event that Amanda had elected to forget.
Driven by her need to atone for her past behaviour, Amanda moves into a far removed from her middle-class existence, ultimately breaking the laws she previously upheld in order to help her friend.
But whose memory can she trust?
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BOOK CLUB QUESTIONS
- What do you see as the main themes of the novel?
- Amanda was deemed to have a difficult personality by her work colleagues. Did you warm to her?
- Why do you think the excerpts on memory were included where they were in the novel? Did they make you question your own memories?
- How did the fallibility of memory link back to the other themes of the book?
- If you were in Amanda’s shoes, how would you have reacted to Kathleen when she reappeared? How would you have handled Turner?
- Imagine a spin-off series – what character’s story would you like to follow further?
- Do you think the title The Expert Witness is fitting for the story? What else might you have called the novel?
Psychological suspense or thriller? As the author I describe it as suspense rather than thriller. Typically in a thriller there is an external villain or protagonist and a fast paced sense of danger; in suspense it is more often focused on the mental and emotional states of the characters. Suspense is a ‘why dunnit’ rather than a ‘who dunnit’. Do you agree?