7. This novel was written before the 2010 Deepwater Horizon oil rig disaster in the Gulf of Mexico, although its publication date was a few months after the accident. How did your knowledge of the oil spill affect your reading of the novel, with its repeated references to “emerald-green waters … sugar-white sands” (this page)?
8. Platt’s theory that the mystery illness felling wounded soldiers stems from biomechanical implements tainted by donor decomposition is the first and only plausible theory anyone has proposed. Why does Ganz dismiss it immediately and so thoroughly?
9. Maggie and Platt walk a delicate line between friendship and romance. Does their relationship develop over the course of the novel? Is either of them psychologically equipped for intimacy?
10. Despite the Florida Panhandle being at the storm’s bull’s-eye, there are repeated references in the novel to New Orleans being “where all the media is” (this page). What is the author’s intent with this crack?
11. What does Maggie refer to as “her leaky compartments” (this page)? What is her strategy for handling them? What do you think would solve the issue?
12. At what point does Liz realize she’s made the grade with Wilson, Ellis, and Kesnick?
13. As the novel closes, Trish and Mr. B cook dinner for the hungry neighbors, side by side in the Coney Island Canteen. Since his rescue, “Trish hadn’t left his side” (this page). How do you explain this total turnaround by Liz’s angry, aloof sister?
14. What was your reaction to the last few lines of the novel and the enormity of the task now facing Maggie O’Dell and her colleagues? What does the author seem to be saying about the plight of the FBI profiler?
(For a complete list of available reading group guides, and to sign up for the Reading Group Center enewsletter, visit: www.readinggroupcenter.com.)
SUGGESTED READING
Alex Kava, A Perfect Evil; Split Second; The Soul Catcher; At the Stroke of Madness; A Necessary Evil; Exposed; Black Friday; Lee Child, 61 Hours; Worth Dying For; Persuader; The Enemy; The Hard Way; One Shot; Gone Tomorrow; Bad Luck and Trouble
AUTHOR’S NOTE
I’ve spent most of my life in tornado country, so I have a healthy respect for the forces of nature. In 2004 I bought what I believed would be a writing retreat just outside of Pensacola, Florida. Six months later, Hurricane Ivan roared ashore.
It’s difficult to describe the damage, and even more difficult to explain how deep the damage cuts beyond that done to physical property. There’s a transformation that takes place within the community. You spend long, hot days without running water and electricity. Gasoline and groceries are limited to what you’ve stocked before the storm. The clean-up is physically and emotionally draining, but you find yourself grateful to be working alongside neighbors—in my case, people I had only recently met. They taught me what true strength and perseverance looks like.
Nine months after Ivan, Hurricane Dennis made a direct hit. And the Pensacola community simply rolled up their collective sleeves and started cleaning up all over again.
To the community of Pensacola: please know that it was out of respect and admiration that I decided to use your piece of paradise as the backdrop of Damaged.
As in all my novels, I have blended fact with fiction. For the record, here are some of the facts and some of the fiction.
The premise of infecting an entire tissue bank is based solely on my speculation. There have been, however, fatalities caused by infected donor tissue. One such case occurred in 2001 when it was determined that a twenty-three-year-old man who died after routine knee surgery was killed by a rare bacterium—Clostridium sordellii—and that he had contracted the infection from cadaver cartilage that was used to repair his knee.
Unlike those of organ donor banks, the standards for tissue, bone, and other donated body parts are more loosely regulated. Even though the FDA established the HTTF (Human Tissue Task Force) in 2006, they continue, by their own admission, to lack the resources to inspect and regulate this vast and growing industry.
The Uniform Anatomical Gift Act does prohibit the buying and selling of dead bodies, but the law allows for companies to recover their costs for expenses such as labor, transportation, processing, and storage. Demand is high, supply low, which sometimes opens the way to fraudulent brokers, as in the case of a New York funeral home where PVC pipe was swapped out for bones.