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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. What does Fanshawe do two months after his sister has her first breakdown?

2. How does Blue enter Black's apartment while he is out?

3. What is a speculum?

4. In what condition does Blue leave Black in the apartment?

5. Why is the narrator apprehensive about opening the suitcases and reading Fanshawe's work?

Short Essay Questions

1. In The Locked Room, what is Sophie Fanshawe's condition when her husband goes missing? Describe the trajectory of her emotional reaction to his disappearance.

2. Who told Blue stories about the construction of the Brooklyn Bridge? What was this person's profession and what became of him?

3. What does Jane Fanshawe do after lunch? What does the narrator think motivates this act?

4. According to the narrator's recollection, why does Fanshawe give his birthday gift to Dennis Walden? What is the outcome and why is this incident significant for the narrator?

5. When Blue first meets White in the novel Ghosts, what type of case does he think he is becoming involved in? What does he notice about White that makes him change his opinion?

6. What project does Stuart Green commission from the narrator? What does Sophie suggest the narrator do to make the project more interesting?

7. What is Jane Fanshawe's critique of her son? How does she describe the relationship between Fanshawe and his parents?

8. When Blue receives his first payment from White, why is he surprised and then disappointed? What was he expecting?

9. What does Fanshawe do during his trip to the cemetery with the narrator on the day of his father's death? What does his action remind the narrator of from their early childhood?

10. When the narrator agrees to Stuart Green's project, what does he decide he will have to be deceitful about? How does this change the work he has been commissioned to do?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Throughout The New York Trilogy, writers and detectives are constantly confused. Writers become detectives and detectives become writers and readers. Give two examples of this concept and then compare and contrast the two professions. How are language and action important in both?

Essay Topic 2

Deception is a major theme in The Locked Room. Give three examples of deception in the story and explain the consequences for the writer. What message is communicated about deception and truth in the story?

Essay Topic 3

Discuss the symbol of the Tower of Babel in City of Glass. Why is this symbol so important to Stillman? What is his project and how does it relate to the Tower of Babel?

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