Hachette Livre

Hachette Reading Group Guides

Welcome to our Reading Group guide for The Interpretation of Murder by Jed Rubenfeld. We invite you to consider and discuss the following questions when reading this book:

  1. With the action moving from the Waldorf-Astoria to Chinatown, from Gramercy Park to the Manhattan Bridge, the New York backdrop plays an integral role in this novel. Do you think the author has captured the city during this period well?
  2. Over the course of the book, the author uses several red herrings to throw readers off the scent. Can you identify them? Did you feel they enhanced your reading experience?
  3. We’re presented with a lot of information about psychoanalysis and Freudian theory. How does the author weave it into the plot and make it engaging?
  4. The story contains a fairly radical interpretation of Hamlet. What does this add to the story?
  5. How does the relationship between Freud and Younger develop over the course of the book? What does this add to our understanding of the characters?
  6. We frequently see Freud and his group debating matters of psychoanalysis, with Jung often disagreeing with the others. What impact does this divergence in opinion have on the group, and how does it contribute to the tension in the novel?
  7. Littlemore’s cheerful, down-to-earth nature sets him apart from most of the other characters. What does his character bring to the novel?
  8. How does the author knit the various strands of the story together at the end of the novel to create impact?
  9. Were you surprised by the ending?
  10. What other books would you recommend to other readers who have enjoyed this one?

As Freud aficionados will have instantly recognized, Nora is based on Dora, the young woman described in Freud’s most controversial case history. Her story is published as ‘A Case of Hysteria’ in Volume 7 of The Complete Psychological Works of Sigmund Freud, or as a short stand-alone paperback, Dora—An Analysis of a Case of Hysteria. Interested readers would find Dora’s Case, a collection of essays edited by C. Bernheimer and C. Kahane, particularly illuminating. A recommended biography is Freud: A Life for Our Time by Peter Gay.

Current Reading Group Titles

  1. The Irresistible Inheritance of Wilberforce by Paul Torday
  2. The Disappeared by Kim Echlin
  3. The Luminous Life of Lilly Aphrodite by Beatrice Colin
  4. Little Giant of Aberdeen County by Tiffany Baker
  5. The Other Hand by Chris Cleave
  6. Testimony by Anita Shreve
  7. Home by Marilynne Robinson
  8. The Good Thief by Hannah Tinti
  9. City of Thieves by David Benioff
  10. Remembering The Bones by Frances Itani
  11. The Camel Bookmobile by Masha Hamilton
  12. Lies by Enrique de Heriz
  13. Sophie’s World by Jostein Gaardner
  14. Sorrows of an American by Siri Hustvedt
  15. Thirteenth Tale by Diane Setterfield
  16. Sharp Objects by Gillian Flynn
  17. The Sisterhood by Emily Barr
  18. The Secret Life of Bees by Sue Monk Kidd
  19. The Rose Labyrinth by Titania Hardie
  20. The Return by Victoria Hislop
  21. A Small Part of History by Peggy Elliott
  22. A Carrion Death by Michael Stanley
  23. Scapegallows by Carol Birch
  24. Sea of Poppies by Amitav Ghosh
  25. Prisoner of Tehran by Marina Nemat
  26. Radiance by Shaena Lambert
  27. Rose of Sebastopol by Katharine McMahon
  28. The Siege of Krishnapur by J.G. Farrell
  29. Ghostwalk by Rebecca Stott
  30. The God of Animals by Aryn Kyle
  31. Golden Age by Tahmima Anam
  32. Sarah's Key by Tatiana de Rosnay
  33. The Keep by Jennifer Egan
  34. The Saffron Kitchen by Yasmin Crowther
  35. Pirate’s Daughter by Margaret Cezair-Thompson
  36. The Blood of Flowers by Anita Amirrezvani
  37. April in Paris by Michael Wallner
  38. Salmon Fishing in the Yemen by Paul Torday
  39. The Reader by Bernhard Schlink
  40. Born on a Blue Day by Daniel Tammet
  41. Red River by Lalita Tademy
  42. The Meaning of Night by Michael Cox
  43. Rosetta by Barbara Ewing
  44. The Mathematics of Love by Emma Darwin
  45. The Interpretation of Murder by Jed Rubenfeld
  46. The Vanishing Act of Esme Lennox by Maggie O’Farrell

Suggested Further Reading