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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. How does Director Howarth respond to Dalgliesh's question about what Dr. Lorrimer is like outside of work?

2. What is lying open on the table?

3. About what does Susan Bradley call Middlemass?

4. Who does Dalgliesh first interview in opening his investigation into the murder of Dr. Lorrimer?

5. Who requested that Angela check the keys in the safe?

Short Essay Questions

1. How is the staff at Hoggatt's Lab sorted for who needs to stay and who may go home?

2. Describe Adam Dalgliesh.

3. How does the interview between Dalgliesh and Easterbrook go and what does Dalgliesh learn?

4. Describe Dr. Kerrison.

5. What is Howarth doing the night of Dr. Lorrimer's murder and how does he back up his story?

6. Describe the conversation between Angela Foley and Adam Dalgliesh.

7. Describe Brenda Pridmore.

8. What does Howarth do after Dalgliesh arrives and what does Dalgliesh learn about the case?

9. Why is Dr. Kerrison leaving his home in the middle of the night and what is his biggest concern?

10. What does Brenda Pridmore talk about with her parents at breakfast and what is their reaction?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Brenda Pridmore's character serves at least two functions in the novel. Discuss the following:

1. Analyze Brenda Pridmore's character. What are her strengths, weaknesses and personality? Is she a sympathetic character?

2. One of Brenda Pridmore's function in the story is to be as "ignorant" as the reader about criminal investigations and evidence gathering in order to ask questions that the reader might ask and thus educate the reader. How well does Brenda Pridmore serve in this function?

3. A second function for the character of Brenda Pridmore is to serve as a literary foil to several of the character. Define the term "literary foil" and analyze how Pridmore serves as a foil and to what characters and how she does so.

Essay Topic 2

One of the themes of the novel, as alluded to over and over, is the idea that the investigation into a crime disregards all claims to privacy. Discuss the following:

1. Trace and analyze the ways in which Dr. Lorrimer's privacy is violated after his death. Is this right and necessary? Is there any way to conduct an investigation to discover his murderer without violating his privacy?

2. Not only is Dr. Lorrimer's privacy violated, but so, too, is the privacy of several other characters. Discuss two other characters (besides Dr. Larrimer) whose privacy is violated in the course of the murder investigation. Is this invasion of privacy right? Necessary? Is there any way to conduct an investigation to discover the murderer without violating these people's privacy?

3. In the "real" world, many times the privacy of the victim's and perpetrator's families are also violated. Do you believe the police and press have the right to invade innocent people's privacy? What can be done to minimize the effects of this on the families of those involved in a crime? Do you think the criminal's family deserves as much respect to privacy as the victim's family? Why or why not? Do Nell and William deserve privacy?

Essay Topic 3

The murder of Stella Mawson comes late in the book. Discuss the following:

1. How does the murder of Stella Mawson contribute to the basic plot line or not?

2. How different would Death of an Expert Witness be if Mawson has not been murdered?

3. How did you as a reader react to Mawson's murder? Explain thoroughly.

4. Most readers have heard of the term "gratuitous violence" when referring to violence that seems to be a part of a story for no good reason. Is this true of Mawson's murder? Explain your thoughts with examples.

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