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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. Where does Porter live?

2. Why does Bosch sometimes think solving homicide cases are all that matter?

3. Why does Teresa conclude that Moore's death was not a homicide?

4. Where does Moore reveal to Harry that he (Moore) is from?

5. Why is Harry more worried about spending New Year's Eve alone than Christmas?

Short Essay Questions

1. Why does Harry seem so drawn to the teenager he and Rickard arrested when he goes and talks to him after he returns to visit him in jail?

2. What does Harry's boss tell him at the beginning of Chapter 5, and what is Harry's response?

3. Why does Harry have to sweet talk the crime scene technician who processed the Moore case in Chapter 8?

4. What is Rickard doing when he calls Harry in Chapter 11?

5. What does Harry learn from the crime scene technician in Chapter 8?

6. Why does Harry begin to think that Moore was a bad cop?

7. What does Harry learn in Chapter 12 about why Porter did not come clean with what he knew about Juan Doe?

8. How does Harry think Juan Doe's body, killed in Mexicali, made it to Los Angeles?

9. How did the "Juan Doe" die, and how did the case reach Bosch?

10. Why does Bosch act so upset in the first chapter?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Many of the best and most successful mysteries are structured through withholding information. Whether it is a first person narrator who is unreliable, or characters who lie to each other or the reader, this kind of information mediation is a key technique of fiction writing. Construct a thesis that responds to Connelly's use of this technique and the way he withholds information from the reader or from his characters and write an argumentative essay.

Essay Topic 2

A satisfying mystery must keep tension up to draw interest, but also withhold information from the reader in order to make the mystery "pay off." One primary way a mystery author can achieve this balance is through clues released along the way. Write an essay that explains and interrogates at least three key clues Michael Connelly's character uses to solve the mystery. Questions to consider include: how does Harry find the clue? What mental leap must he make to put it together with other information? How satisfying is it for the reader? Is the pay off of the solve great enough to justify these clues?

Essay Topic 3

This novel is a contemporary mystery that uses the trade of illegal drugs as both setting and plot. In an analytical essay, offer an explanation and analysis of how the drug trade functions 1) as setting and 2) as the source of the plot. Be sure to use specific examples from the text that richly illustrate the claims you make. In addition, you may also consider what you learned about the drug trade during our class discussion on it.

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