Essay Questions

What is the significance of Broken Heart, Turtle, and the Stacks?

These three terms all connect with a fourth: Standing Man. Taken together, they all represent descriptions of natural rock formations. The faces of Rushmore are far from the only faces that appear in rocky terrain around the world. The difference is everyone can agree that the faces on Mt. Rushmore look like American presidents, but it may only be until someone refers to a natural formation as the Turtle that it starts looking to everybody like a turtle. Rock formations are plentiful around the setting of the story and when they begin to assume names reflecting their structure, they become geographical markers. This aspect will become a thing of great significance to the mystery at the center of the novel.

What is Rockview Ridge?

Although it may sound like a rock formation given a name by a particularly uninspired person, that is not the case. It is a further indication of the importance of rocks as a recurring motif in the story, however. Rockview Ridge is actually a nursing home. Not just a nursing home, but the most popular choice in Denton. Not because of its highly rated service or even because of its affordability. No, the reason for the popularity of Rockview Ridge is that it is the only nursing home in Denton and the closest one to most residents in the region. That popularity will serve to make it an essential element in the investigation into the mystery driving the narrative.

Why is Josie Quinn a cop without a gun?

The way Josie recalls it: losing your temper in the heat of the moment and being driven to do "something regrettable, something stupid or maybe, yes, a little crazy." Her superiors look at it from a different perspective: actions worthy of temporary suspension from regular duties. The victim has yet another perspective: assault by an out of control of cop. Noah Fraley doesn't think it was a crazy thing to do. In fact, he admits that if he had come across a woman selling her four-year-old daughter for drugs, he wouldn't have stopped with physical attack. He would have shot her on the spot.