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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. About what do Dave and Annie continue to argue?

2. What does Dave do to some strippers at Keats' bar?

3. What does Dave do?

4. Why is Dave angry with Robin?

5. Of what does Dautrieve warn Dave?

Short Essay Questions

1. What murder scene does Dave investigate?

2. What happens that Dave is able to start his new job?

3. When Dave calls Dautrieve, what does Dave learn?

4. What happens with Dave's visit to Monroe?

5. Who does Dave go to see after Annie is buried and what happens?

6. What is the government offering Romero and why is Dave informed of the fact?

7. What does Romero tell Dave when he calls Dave and what is Dave's reaction?

8. What does Dave ask Annie to do and how does she respond both to his request and her meeting Claudette?/

9. Describe Claudette Rocque.

10. What is the consequence of Claudette's visit?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Annie wants Dave to live a life resigned of all involvement in the shady side of life. She wants him to remain sober and entirely detached from any police-type involvement--and she is very verbal and increasingly forceful about her desires in this regard. Discuss the following:

1. Trace and analyze Dave and Annie's relationship. Is it stable? Loving? What causes the problems in the relationship when there are problems?

2. Do you think it is fair of Annie to ask Dave to stay out of the situation that revolves around the plane crash? Does she expect him to be someone he is not?

3. Annie meets Dave after he has already resigned from the police force in New Orleans; therefore, she marries a man who is not engaged in police operations. Do you think she would have married Dave had he still been a police officer?

Essay Topic 2

In most fiction, readers would like all the loose ends to be neatly "tied up." Discuss the following:

1. Do you think HEAVEN'S PRISONERS is successful as a detective novel? Why or why not.

2. What about this book would motivate you to read another of James Lee Burke's Robicheaux series? What would discourage you from doing so?

3. Were all the "loose ends" satisfactorily settled for you? Why or why not.

Essay Topic 3

Often, authors will write about "what they know," and sometimes knowing a little about the author makes the books more interesting. Discuss the following:

1. Research and give a brief biographical sketch of James Lee Burke.

2. What in Burke's background may have helped Burke in writing HEAVEN'S PRISONERS? What may have influenced the way he depicts various characters and scenes?

3. Do you think there is always some of the author's own life in his/her novels? Why or why not? Give examples.

(see the answer keys)

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