So glad you enjoyed The Good Thief enough to lose a night’s sleep! I’ve written about 100 pages of a sequel, though I am also working another novel at the moment and developing a comic book as well, so not sure when it will see the light of day. It will eventually, I’m sure, and then more on all of the characters will certainly be revealed. Will Benjamin return someday and see Ren again? I think so. As for whether or not Dolly & McGinty are sociopaths, they probably are in different ways, but that doesn’t mean they don’t have redeeming qualities too. I believe that even the worst people have some hidden parts of them that are good.

cheers,
Hannah

I’m a history buff too, but for The Good Thief I was deliberately vague about the exact year, not wanting the history of the country to affect the characters or the plot too much. In my mind I was thinking 1830-1840s. Some links to some of the research I did for the book can be found here. Hope that helps, and that you enjoy the rest of the book.

cheers,
Hannah

Thanks for writing in. I’m not sure if there were any mousetrap factories in New England in the 1800s–but I did do research at the patent office and found some interesting mousetrap designs that I used in the book. (The “Little Nipper”, which we use today, was not patented until 1897). You can find out more here. But I also wrote a whole post about the inspiration behind the mousetrap factory in The Good Thief. You can find that here!

Best,
Hannah

I really am enjoying your book, and I am a history buff, so this suits my love for history perfectly. I just had one small question though: about which decade in the 1800s is the story set? I know that it must predate the Civil War, and post date the Revolutionary War.

Thank you,
Ben Schaffer

I’m so glad you enjoyed the book, and that your students are too. I will do my best to resurrect Dolly again, though that might prove difficult.

I kept changing the ages of the characters, so it’s no wonder you had mixed readings. Ultimately I am thinking the mousetrap girls are anywhere from 12-18.

Hope that clears things up, and thanks again.

Cheers,
Hannah

Thanks for writing in. I’m so glad you enjoyed the book. I have been toying around with a sequel to The Good Thief, but whether it will see the light of day or not is still undecided. The movie rights to The Good Thief have been optioned by the writer Richard Russo, who has written the screenplay. They are now taking it around to directors, so keep your fingers crossed.

Best wishes,
Hannah

Thanks for writing in. I’ve been a Catholic my whole life, and we always end the Our Father at ‘Deliver Us From Evil.’ Whenever I’ve been to a Protestant Service, I’ve always been intrigued by the final phrase, “For thine is the kingdom, the power, and the glory,
for ever and ever.” It’s interesting to be saying the same prayer and then have part of the audience stop and the rest continue, which is why I wrote it into the book.

As for the prepositions, I am probably guilty. And the explosion, which people keep asking about, so I will clarify here: was caused by the Harelip shooting McGinty from the factory floor.

I hope your enjoyment outweighed your difficulties with the book!

cheers,
Hannah