Six Degrees of Separation – from Wuthering Heights to One Night That Changes Everything

It’s time for #6degrees, inspired by Kate at Books Are My Favourite and Best. We all start at the same place as other readers, add six books, and see where it ends up. February’s starting point is Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte. The movie is getting terrible reviews: I enjoyed this quote from the Boston Globe’s review:

Emerald Fennell’s overdone adaptation casts Jacob Elordi as Heathcliff, Margot Robbie as Cathy, Alison Oliver as Isabella, and Hong Chau as Nelly. If you don’t know who those characters are, you should have paid more attention to your English teacher. The most positive thing I can say about the umpteenth version of this material is that it continues a grand tradition of cinematic literary adaptations. That is, students will fail the “Wuthering Heights” question on their final exam if they watch this instead of reading the book.

First Degree

So no need to reread the book or see the movie but I did just start reading The Heights by Louise Candlish (2021). No moors: it’s a revenge novel set at an apartment building in London.

Second Degree

I listened to the audio of The Killer Next Door by Alex Marwood (2013) while I was painting my guest room during the snowy winter of 2015. It’s about six people living in a run-down London apartment building, one of whom is a killer – but which one?

Third Degree

Deanna Raybourn, who I think was previously best known for her historical romances, entered the “senior sleuth” sub-genre with Killers of a Certain Age (2022), which I enjoyed. Four women who are former assassins have retired and are enjoyed a cruise when they realize they have been targeted for death by their former employer, so will need to kill or be killed! My review.

Fourth Degree

Another entry into senior sleuths is The Night in Question by Susan Fletcher (2024). The author adds to the stakes by putting her detective in a wheelchair! I really enjoyed this mystery and its plucky heroine. My review.

Fifth Degree

In contrast to a fateful night of murder, Marsha Qualey’s One Night (2002) focuses on a fateful but romantic night featuring Kelly Ray (get it? Marsha is a Betsy-Tacy fan), a recovering addict who has botched an interview at her new job and is trying to make amends. When she encounters Prince Tomas Teronovich, heir apparent to some Ruritanian country, she helps him escape from his bodyguards and shows him all her favorite parts of Minnesota (but not Deep Valley).

Sixth Degree

Eliza is also faced with a momentous night in One Night That Changes Everything by Lauren Barnholdt (2010). Her ex-boyfriend found her journal, including a list of things she is afraid to do, and will expose all her secrets unless she completes, even the most embarrassing items. This was a cute YA story by a local author and I suppose it connects to Cathy and Heathcliff, who are also exes!

See how I connected Wuthering Heights with One Night That Changes Everything, moving from the Yorkshire moors to London, a Caribbean retirement cruise, Oxfordshire, Minnesota, and finally, Boston. Have you read any of these? 

Next month, the starting point is Constable’s Skies by Mark Evans. on April 4, 2026.