Questions for your Book Club’s discussion of Yellow as Legal Pads
1. Journaling and gratitude lists form part of the structure of Yellow as Legal Pads. What
functions do you feel they serve in the narrative?
2. Fran Stewart has said in various interviews and in the acknowledgments for this book
that keeping a gratitude list helped her to change her life. What has been your
experience with gratitude lists?
3. The entries from the journal of Colly Sloan give a view of the way she gradually
uncovers evidence leading to the discovery of the murderer. What else do they show
about her? Why do you think the personal journals rather than her official police notes
are used?
4. Biscuit McKee often tends to think rather than talk. In what ways does this pattern serve
her? How does it create a problem? Who are the people in your life who react in that
way? What sort of challenges have you experienced as a result?
5. Nonverbal communication is the topic of one of Dr. Bugg’s lectures. If Biscuit McKee,
Margaret Casperson, and Joan Fredericks had paid attention to non-verbal
communication, in what ways could they each have been forewarned? What role has
non-verbal communication played in your life?
6. Compare Margaret’s view of Brenda to Conrad’s view of Peter. How does each
perspective help to define the characters involved?
7. When Biscuit talks about the hat veil and the way it was believed that women needed to
be instructed in everything in the 1950's, there is a disturbing foreshadowing of
Monica’s revelation that, although she was raped in 1955, she couldn’t talk about it to
anyone. What sort of changes have you seen in the intervening years? Are some things
still the same?
8. Peter Holvers was never caught for having hired someone to murder Ernst Wilhelm III.
Is it possible for someone to live a vindictive life and not pay for it?
9. There are people who swear that their animal companions speak to them. What has been
your experience in this realm? Is Marmalade an effective character in terms of
furthering the action of the story? Are her comments consistent with your view of the
cat world?
10. Fran Stewart has described her Biscuit McKee Mystery series as metaphysical murder
stories. Would you agree or disagree? Why?
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