Introduction

In the dead of a Michigan winter, pieces of a snowmobile wash up near the crumbling, small town of Starvation Lake -- the same snowmobile that went down with Starvation's legendary hockey coach years earlier. But everybody knows Coach Blackburn's accident happened five miles away on a different lake. As rumors buzz about mysterious underground tunnels, the evidence from the snowmobile says one thing: murder.

Gus Carpenter, editor of the local newspaper, has recently returned to Starvation after a failed attempt to make it big at the Detroit Times. In his youth, Gus was the goalie who let a state championship get away, crushing Coach's dreams and earning the town's enmity. Now he's investigating the murder of his former coach. But even more unsettling to Gus are the holes in the town's past and the gnawing suspicion that those holes may conceal some dark and disturbing secrets secrets that some of the people closest to him may have killed to keep.

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Excerpt

one

You can never look into their eyes. Not once. Not for a second. Not if you're a goaltender, like me. Because the guy shooting the puck wants you to look there. Then he'll glance one way and shoot the other, or he'll draw your eyes up just as he snaps the puck between your legs. Or he'll lock on you just long enough to remind you that he knows exactly what he's about to do and you don't, that you're just wishing and hoping that you'll guess right. That you're not at all in control. ... view entire excerpt...

Discussion Questions

1. Some of the residents of Starvation Lake seem to think that opening the Blackburn investigation is only stirring up the mud, and would prefer to keep the past in the past. “Why bother? Nobody here wants to know the truth anyway” (361). Should the town be made aware of the truth, or do you think that the investigation opens old wounds unnecessarily?

2. Starvation Lake is a hockey town. How has the sport, and his failure to save a championship-winning shot in particular, informed the way Gus has lived his life?

3. In Starvation Lake the newspaper, television station, lawyers and police force often compete with another to piece together clues and uncover evidence. Do you think that this is an accurate portrayal of how the media and law enforcement interact with one another in the real world?

4. As a coach, Jack Blackburn emphasized “the ultimate goal” of winning the state championship, and even told his players that “losing is good for winning” (59). Discuss this coaching technique. Do you agree or disagree with this approach? Does his coaching style provide any insight towards his crimes?

5. To what do you attribute Gus's naiveté regarding the felonies going on “right under his nose” during his youth? Do you think his guilt he feels for being unaware is warranted?

6. Blackburn attributes the “demand” for his willingness to “supply,” and states, “Because people are going to get it anyway, one way or another” (425). Given his rationale, does Blackburn's refusal to accept responsibility have any validity? Who do you think has committed the greater crime - the person who provides the illegal material, or the person who consumes it?

7. How did the discovery that Jeff Champagne has followed in Coach Blackburn's footsteps affect your understanding of Blackburn's crimes? (440)

8. Discuss Gus's relationship with his father. How does the realization that his father was involved in Blackburn's scheme affect Gus' memories? Do you think that there may be more to discover regarding Gus' father in the upcoming books in the series?

9. By the end of the novel, has Gus' failed save in overtime at the state championship game ceased to haunt him? Has Starvation Lake finally been given something else to talk about?



10. “Many of the rules of journalism are dressed in shades of gray” (187). By the end of the novel do you consider Gus to be a moral journalist? Which of his career decisions have helped you come to this conclusion? Beyond his experiences as a young man on a newspaper staff, what do you think motivated Gus to become a reporter?

What do you think the future holds for each character? Gus? Darlene? Joanie?

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