1. What equipment should people take on a hiking and camping trip? Were the hikers in Swept Away properly equipped? Why do people embark on "adventures" without adequate preparation? Do they bear a measure of complicity in any difficult situation they 366 Swept Away may find themselves in? If so, how much?

2. Jeanette mentions the sort of childhood that some psychologists say is typical for serial killers. What do psychological researchers actually say about the childhoods of serial killers?

3. California has an elaborate search-andrescue system that includes several state agencies. Who would have been sent to search for the missing hikers? How would the search have been conducted? Would the searchers have failed to look in the right place, as Jeanette fears?

4. Irony is a very important literary device: it enables readers to know more about what is going on than a...