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This test consists of 5 short answer questions, 10 short essay questions, and 1 (of 3) essay topics.

Short Answer Questions

1. Who accompanies Penn on his stakeout of Marston's office?

2. As Penn and his bodyguard are at the warehouse, shots are fired. How many men wind up dead?

3. Where is Peter Lutjens being transferred to?

4. What is the name of the Marston family home?

5. As Tom and Penn discuss the Payton murder, what do the two men agree is most important as the investigation progresses?

Short Essay Questions

1. When Penn receives a phone call from Althea after the Hanratty execution, what does Althea tell Penn?

2. What happened to the woman in the car when she revealed what she had seen the night of the Payton murder?

3. What advice does Penn's Colorado interviewee give to Penn regarding the Payton case?

4. What discrepancy catches Penn's eye about the Fairlane that is sitting in Althea's garden?

5. Why does Tom Cage at first not believe that Leo Marston would have been involved in Payton's murder?

6. What does Penn learn from the eyewitness that Penn tracks down upon his return to Natchez?

7. How does the person who interrupts Penn at Biscuit and Blues learn that her birth certificate does not list a father's name?

8. Why does Penn ask Caitlin to accompany him on his upcoming trip?

9. After Johnson speaks at Ruby's funeral, Althea gets up to speak. What does Althea say?

10. When Penn arrives at his interview in Colorado, the interviewee does not want to talk. What changes the interviewee's mind?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Compare and contrast Tom Cage and Leo Marston.

a. How are the two characters similar? How are they different?

b. Compare the role that honesty plays in each of their lives. How is each character affected by the concept of honesty - both positively and negatively?

Essay Topic 2

Compare and contrast Dwight Stone and Penn Cage, the two men that find the truth regarding Del Payton's murder.

a. How are the two characters similar in terms of their professional lives? How are they different?

b. How are the two characters similar in their personality characteristics, strengths, and weaknesses? How are they different?

c. Each of these men has a daughter they want to protect, were the men similarly affected by this desire or not? Explain your answers and your reasoning.

Essay Topic 3

Ilse uses this story to examine the role that truth plays in our daily lives. Examine the author's beliefs through his storytelling. Why would the author choose this story to overlay his demonstration of the consequences realized when the truth is distorted or hidden? What did you learn from the author's discussion on truth? What other avenues, if any, could the author have used to express his beliefs? Would those avenues have been as effective as the story? Why or why not?

(see the answer keys)

This section contains 810 words (approx. 3 pages at 300 words per page) View a FREE sample