View a FREE sample

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

Short Answer Questions

1. What is the name of Dickie Lockhart's cable fishing show?

2. What is the name of the pathologist who conducts Bobby Clinch's autopsy?

3. As Skink and Decker sit in their boat waiting for the cheating fishermen to retrieve the marked fish, Decker asks if Skink is wanted for something. How does Skink respond?

4. After Decker and Skink leave Tile's car and begin heading through the woods, they are shot at. How many people are after them?

5. On what date does Bobby Clinch "go fishing" for the last time?

Short Essay Questions

1. Years earlier, when Dennis Gault offered money to an undercover federal officer to kill Dickie Lockhart, why wasn't Dennis arrested?

2. As Decker returns to Skink's house after Bobby's funeral, why does Decker honk his horn twice?

3. What does Dennis Gault hope to gain by pulling out of the next few fishing tournaments?

4. What are the demands which Weeb agrees to when confronted by Dickie in Weeb's hotel room in New Orleans?

5. Why has Dennis Gault never rigged a bass tournament himself?

6. Why did Decker quit doing photography as a living?

7. Why does Decker not bother to hide his expensive camera equipment in his trailer home?

8. When Decker first sees the state trooper after arriving back in Harney, Decker notices something different about this trooper. What makes this trooper different from the others?

9. Describe Clinton Tyree's political ideology during his run for office in the 1970s.

10. After Skink releases all but two of the bass that were stashed in fish cages the night before the bass tournament in New Orleans, Skink clips the first two spines on the dorsal fins of the remaining two bass. Why?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Compare and contrast how the character of R.J. Decker changes as the story progresses. Be sure to include your assessment of Decker's character when he is first introduced in the story, when he agrees to work for Dennis, when he finds Dickie's body, after Catherine is abducted, and when Decker confronts Curl. Use examples from the story to support your answer.

Essay Topic 2

Bobby Clinch and Ott Pickney can be seen as kindred spirits. Although they are not quite the same, they share a number of similarities. Identify and describe these similarities. Then, based on your discussion of their similarities, identify the ways in which these two men's similarities facilitate the plot's development and moves the story forward.

Essay Topic 3

Throughout the course of the novel, R.J. Decker is involved with two quite different women. Compare and contrast the relationship Decker has with Catherine to the relationship Decker has with Lanie. Then, compare and contrast these two women. How do these two relationships influence not only Decker, but also the other men working with Decker to stop the cheating and solve the murders?

(see the answer keys)

This section contains 811 words (approx. 3 pages at 300 words per page) View a FREE sample