1. Does Anna's response to her brother Bill's problems seem plausible?

2. What do you think of Anna's reaction to meeting Kirk Cunningham?

Does her abandonment of Tony Nardone for Kirk seem well motivated?

3. What aspects of Anna's personality seem to make the local people guarded in their encounters with her?

4. In what ways does Scoppettone's portrayal of the detective Harvard Smolley draw upon television and film stereotypes?

5. Does the failure of Kirk's parents and other adults to ascertain his evil nature seem believable? Do you think he escaped detection too long?

6. In what ways does Scoppettone continue the tradition of Nancy Drew and other female teen-age detectives?

7. How does Scoppettone drop clues throughout the story as well as false leads to alert the reader to matters Anna may not grasp?

8. In what ways is this an antiromantic novel? How does Anna's final decision not to...