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This test consists of 5 multiple choice questions, 5 short answer questions, and 10 short essay questions.

Multiple Choice Questions

1. What does Catherine pass on her way to the tenant shack at the beginning of the novel?
(a) A farmer.
(b) A strawberry farm.
(c) A dead dog.
(d) A dead squirrel.

2. Who is the receptionist at the Lowfield Gazette interested in?
(a) Martin.
(b) Randall.
(c) Catherine.
(d) Tom.

3. What does Catherine do at the end of Chapter 1 that enables her steady her nerves?
(a) She drinks a beer.
(b) She has a cigarette.
(c) She screams.
(d) She takes deep breaths.

4. What type of book is Catherine halfway through when the murder takes place?
(a) A poetry book.
(b) A romance novel.
(c) A murder mystery.
(d) A book of short stories.

5. Which of the following does NOT describe Tom?
(a) Clean shaven.
(b) A reporter at the newspaper.
(c) Catherine's neighbor.
(d) Long lean frame.

Short Answer Questions

1. Who does the sheriff choose as the first person to attempt to cross the tenant shack's collapsed porch at the crime scene?

2. Who does the body the Catherine discovers turn out to be?

3. What is the name of Molly Perkins' son?

4. What is the name of Lowfield's new doctor?

5. Who left the beer in Catherine's refrigerator?

Short Essay Questions

1. How does Catherine feel when she gets home from the sheriff's office in Chapter 4? Why?

2. How does Catherine know that Tom is in trouble in Chapter 11?

3. Who does Catherine see on the way to the farm the day she discovers the body? Where does she see this person? How does she feel about telling this to the sheriff?

4. Why does Carl Perkins come to see Catherine at the Lowfield Gazette on Tuesday? What is notable about their conversation?

5. What happens between Randall and Catherine at her house after she comes home from the sheriff's office on the day she finds the body?

6. From the descriptions in Chapter 1, describe where this novel is taking place.

7. What does Catherine's state of mind appear to be in the beginning of the novel?

8. Why does Catherine become suspicious of everyone in town in Chapter 10? What does this tell us about her at this point in the novel?

9. What do we learn about the death of Catherine's parents in Chapter 4? How does it connect with Leona Gaites?

10. How does Randall explain his feelings to Catherine? What had he done to get her to notice him? How did he feel when she did not notice him?

(see the answer keys)

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