His Third Wife

While Thirjane said she’d never visit her child in jail, she all but had to when she realized there’d be no bail set for her daughter’s return home and the only chance Kerry would have of seeing her son again was in short visits in tiny rooms. Kerry begged to see, to just smell Tyrian. To look at his smile. His eyes. Alive and a part of Jamison.

So, one afternoon, when the inmates had been called to the front to greet visitors who’d braved the touch and prodding of guards funneling them in single file lines to prepare them for a thirty-minute visit with their sequestered loved ones, she was sure she’d find Tyrian and her mother standing at the middle of the line with open arms and smiles. But that wasn’t who she found.

In a familiar beige Chanel suit and thin-heeled red lacquer pumps that seemed oddly placed in the unadorned, pale blue room that hosted the short unions, there was a female face found less sad than it had been the last time Kerry had seen it.

The women hardly said anything to each other at first. Awkward greetings and something less than a handshake. They sat and looked into each other’s eyes.

“I’m going to get you out of here,” one said to the other.

“They have evidence against me. So many witnesses who saw me on top of that building,” the other said. “I didn’t do it. I didn’t push him.”

“I know. And I know who did.”

A READING GROUP GUIDE

HIS THIRD WIFE

Grace Octavia

ABOUT THIS GUIDE

The suggested questions that follow are included to enhance your group’s reading of this book.

Discussion Questions

1. Jamison is Tyrian’s hero in most every respect. Still, while he remains a constant in one son’s life, there’s a child on a different coast who bears his name but only sees him in bits and as his “godfather.” Was Jamison just in his actions concerning the treatment of his unexpected child with Coreen or was he acting selfishly and only seeking to secure his political platform? What effect might this have on the child even if he has Jamison in his life?

2. Jamison is his mother’s “baby boy” and he assumes all of the rights and privileges of this position in her life—even as a married adult male. Though he realizes his mother’s wrongs, he vows to stick by her side because she’s his “mama.” Was he correct to do this? How might different decisions concerning his mother have changed Jamison’s fate throughout this novel? In His First Wife? How does this interdependent relationship reflect any you see in reality?

3. During her final reflections on her relationship with Jamison, Kerry reveals that she’s always loved him and because they shared so much together, it was impossible for her to move on. Do divorcees, especially those with long histories together and maybe even children, ever really move on from their pasts? Or was this a unique case of true love?

4. The politicians and community leaders in the novel just can’t seem to keep their hands clean. Interesting in that much of what they do is allegedly to stop corruption and protect the public from criminals. Who’s the biggest fraud in the story? While much of their dealings may seem out of this world, do the actions mirror what happens in local and national and international politics on a daily basis?

5. There are so many factions vying for power in the world of the novel. How do

people maneuver to try to protect their elite status or gain it? What does this do to Val?

6. There are three women speaking directly to the reader in this novel. All are hurt by and in love with the same man. How do their stories differ? How are they exactly the same? What happens when the women look beyond their differences to see their similarities?

7. It is said that those who are hurting hurt others. Revenge is a major point of motivation for many of the characters in the climaxes in this book. How did a need for revenge control people’s emotions, even in the face of clear wrongdoing on the part of the person seeking revenge?

Don’t miss Jamison’s scandalous beginnings in

His First Wife

Available now at your local book store!

E-MAIL TRANSMISSION

TO: [email protected]

FROM: [email protected]

DATE: 3/15/07

TIME: 9:57 PM

Hello. If this e-mail works and it’s Jamison Taylor, I think I