Dark Pursuit
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Discussion Leader: Dark Pursuit is the fast-paced, twisting story of Darell Brooke and his granddaughter, Kaitlan. But underneath the waters of that surface story flow deep themes of mankind's fall and spiritual blindness. These questions are designed to foster discussion about these themes and how they apply to readers' lives.

Why is the character of Darell Brooke introduced in the first chapter, and the action of Kaitlan finding the body deferred until chapter two? How does this set up the ultimate arcs for these two characters?

In the beginning of this book the relationship between Darell and Kaitlan is broken. Have you experienced broken relationships in your life that were ultimately mended?

Kaitlan has struggled to bring herself out of a dark past that involved drug use and now wants her grandfather to give her another chance. Without her present predicament, do you think Darell would have given her that chance? Do you know people in your own life who deserve a second chance?

Margaret lets Kaitlan through the gate when she knows Darell wouldn’t approve. At that moment, without the luxury of hindsight, was she right to do so?

Why is the excerpt to John Milton’s Paradise Lost included in the front of the book? What does this passage have to say about the theme of Dark Pursuit?

The “vain empires” of mankind aren’t always negative pursuits. They can be the dark pursuit of something positive—but without God’s leading in them. What “vain empire” has Kaitlan been pursuing?

What  "vain empire" has Darell been pursuing?

What do the green and black colors of the fabric symbolize?

How did Satan’s offer to mankind, as displayed in Paradise Lost, cunningly skew the definitions of life and death?

The killer comes to believe the silk fabric has brought a purpose to life. Yet that warped purpose is so clearly wrong to everyone else. In a cosmic sense, who does the killer represent?

The first scene of Darell's untitled manuscript shows his fictional killer, Leland Hugh, plagued by guilt after he’s been caught. Two subsequent scenes show Hugh intent on his own dark pursuit of murder. The last time we see Leland Hugh is in Darell's dream, in which Hugh morphs into Darell just as the dream ends. What do these scenes have to say of Darell’s repressed conscience about his own "dark pursuit?"

Why did the author leave unanswered questions about Kaitlan’s new relationship? Do you think this relationship will continue?

What does Darell learn by the end of the book? How have his priorities changed? Throughout the story how did he display small character arc choices that foreshadowed this final decision he makes?

Which came first—the title of Darell's new manuscript at the end? Or the title of Collins' novel? (A chicken and egg question?)