Detective Fiction
Take Home Test #3
As you respond to the following questions, stick to
the word limits. I will take off if you
exceed them. Your purpose is not to
recopy your notebook in essay form.
Don’t tell me everything you know.
Just answer the question. Of
course, the more directly and efficiently you write, the more you will be able
to say.
Please type your responses in Microsoft Word and
e-mail them to me as attachments.
Please respond to the
following question in no more than 300 words. (20 points)
Discuss some differences
between Sue Grafton’s “H” is for Homicide and Sarah
Paretsky’s Guardian Angel. You may
consider writing style, plot construction, character values and behavior and/or
theme. Of course you may consider
anything else that seems relevant.
Please respond to the following questions in no more than 300 words. (30 points)
Discuss some of the
similarities and differences you have noted between the male detective
novelists and the female novelists we have read so far. Once again, feel free to consider
Writing style, plot
construction, character design and theme.
Of course you may discuss anything else that seems relevant.
Please respond to the following questions in no more than 200 words. (20 points)
Raymond Chandler once said,
“No really good detective ever gets married.”
And yet readers have often argued that V.I. Warshawski and Kinsey
Millhone should remarry. What is your
opinion and why?
Please respond to the following questions in no more than 200 words. (20 points)
In class, we have discussed
the relationship of the case to the detective’s life. Some people think too much emphasis on the
detective’s life detracts from the mystery of the case. Others think the opposite. What do you think and why?