Darkness and the Devil Behind Me: Reading Guide

Darkness and the Devil Behind Me: A Lanie Price Mystery

1.	DARKNESS AND THE DEVIL BEHIND ME introduces Lanie Atkins Price, a spirited, compassionate society reporter who covered 1920s Harlem. After reading the book, what do you believe are her main characteristics? What are her strengths? When do they help her and when do they get her into trouble?
2.	“None of us has ever forgotten. We live with it day in and day out…. Can’t none of us remember what it was like before … well, before it happened.” For the Todd family, time virtually stood still after Esther disappeared. When Ruth Todd asks Lanie to write about Esther, she says, “Last year, Daddy died. It was the not knowing that killed him.” Later, Lanie reads in The New York Times, how a woman waiting for news of her missing soldier husband feels that hope “had become a curse … one that caused her to live in endless limbo.” Today, we’d say that the Todds and this woman needed closure. Do you agree that hope can become a “curse?”
3.	“’Light’ news often has its dark side, too.” When Lanie first joined the Harlem Chronicle, she was tired of writing about death and misery. She felt she could achieve good by reporting inspiring, positive news about the doings of Harlem’s uppercrust. Now, however, she tells Sam that “readers will find a story about a family battling grief a hundred times more uplifting that another story about A’Lelia Walker and the shenanigans of people who don’t have a care in the world.” What kind of reporting do you feel provides a greater public service: stories about happy, successful people, or news about loss and suffering?
4.	“What kind of colored woman would have the audacity to think she could question a white man?” Do you believe an affluent, educated black would’ve spoken to whites the way Lanie does, given that it’s New York City, in the 1920s and the whites consider themselves “progressive?”
5.	“What makes you think you’ll succeed? You’re just a columnist at a small Negro newspaper. How many people actually read it? How many who might make a difference?” When Mrs. Goodfellowe discourages Lanie, makes her try to feel insignificant, Lanie wonders about all the donations the dowager has given to black publications. Was it all a pretense? Have you ever known anyone like Mrs. Goodfellowe, who thinks she’s “progressive,” but still harbors narrow-minded opinions and prejudice?
6.	DARKNESS AND THE DEVIL BEHIND ME raises questions about the seductiveness of money and power. (a) “Just as she’d feared, Esther became caught like a fly in a Venus flytrap, lured by the money only to be held under creative control.” Should Esther’s family have felt guilty for urging her to accept Mrs. Goodfellowe’s offer? (b) “Mrs. Goodfellowe is an important patron. The Movement needs people like her.” / “She’s just the kind it doesn’t need…. People like her undermine the Movement with their money. We’re nothing but puppets on a string for her.” Lanie contended that Bryan Canfield had allowed himself to become co-opted by Mrs. Goodfellowe’s money. What do you think? Have you ever feared losing your emotional, mental or artistic independence in exchange for financial support? If not, can you imagine a situation in which you would be?
7.	“Get off your high horse. You don’t care about the case any more than I do. It’s the story you’re after, the Big One that every reporter dreams about.” Rival Selena Troy feels that Lanie has ulterior motives in investigating the Todd case. She’s not the only one who questions why Lanie would care so much about a woman she barely knew. What do you think motivated Lanie to finally solve the secret behind Todd’s disappearance?
8.	“If it was up to me, I’d do you right here, right now … but Mr. Whitefield wants to give you a second chance.” Attacked in her own home, did Lanie have good reason to suspect Sexton Whitefield or did she move too quickly? Would you have suspected him and proceeded as she did? Later, she’s devastated to learn how she was manipulated. Was she was right to blame herself for what happened to him? Given his violence and arrogance, did you feel sympathy for him or that he got his just desserts?
9.	“It was champagne pink … a very pretty little dress. I’d thought I’d feel strange wearing it, as though I was betraying Hamp, but I didn’t. I did feel a renewed sense of his presence. … What would he have thought of Sam?” Good question. Do you think Hamp would have encouraged his Lanie to become involved with Sam? Why do you think she’s reluctant to start seeing Sam? What stops her from trying to find a new love? Or allowing love to find her? If you’d lost the love of your life, would you react the same way?
10.	“(I) knew he wasn’t the kind of man to fire me if something happened, but I was the kind of woman who might not want to stay. I couldn’t risk my job. It was all I had.”Lanie worries about the wisdom of becoming involved with her boss. Would you be receptive to a relationship with yours?
11.	“I used to be just like you…. I won’t go into details. Now’s not the time, but this much I can tell you: You don’t want to go where I’ve been.” Sam Delaney seems like an open book. But at one point, Lanie realizes that he has at least one dark secret of his own. What do you think it might be?
12.	“No, Sam. I can do it myself.” / “I know you can. The point is, you don’ t have to.”Is Lanie too independent? Can a person, whether male or female, go too far in refusing to accept help? Was Lanie’s reluctance to accept Sam’s help a matter of defending her independence, protecting her investigation, or protecting her heart?
13.	“The enemy loves it when we destroy ourselves.” Bryan Canfield worries that Lanie is doing more harm than good by making a black man of achievement, an important role model and powerful official, the subject of suspicion. He speaks of the need to maintain “a cohesive front.” Lanie feels that heroes should be chosen for their moral honesty and not their political clout. Do you agree? Should a minority bestow ethical and civil immunity on its leading members and protect them from potentially destructive criticism for the sake of advancing the race? Can you think of contemporary instances when leading minority politicians or power brokers have been accused of severe civil, even criminal, infractions but were defended because of who they were, irrespective of what they’d done? Was the accuser right to speak out or should s/he have kept quiet?
14.	“I could’ve blocked you from writing that column to begin with. I almost wish I had, ‘cause you don’t appreciate what anybody does for you. You keep demanding more and more. Nobody’s sacrifice counts but your own.” Sam finally explodes with frustration over the danger Lanie is causing the paper — and her apparent inability to understand that she could hurt many people by trying to help a few. (a) Do you sympathize with Sam and believe that he stood up for Lanie as much as he could have, should have? If you were in Sam’s shoes, forced to choose between the newspaper and a reporter like Lanie, what would you do? What would you see as the pros and cons of having someone like her on your staff? (b) Do you believe that Lanie doesn’t appreciate what he’s done to protect her, or has lost perspective? (c) Do you know people who get so caught up in a charitable effort that they don’t see the harm it may be doing to those closest to them?
15.	“Lanie, you and I have different responsibilities. I have to see the whole picture. I don’t have the luxury of concentrating on just your column.” It’s clear that Sam loves Lanie. It’s also clear that when it comes to the paper, he can’t always put her first. How can they develop a lasting, loving relationship, when her actions continually put him in a position of having to choose between her and the paper?