Treasure Hunt Answers
Chapter 1
-(p. 6) What is William doing, and what does he call a “Beamer”?
He's spotting car badges and calling them out. a BMW
-(p. 6) What is a “spur-of-the-moment decision” and what is Joe referring to?
A sudden and unplanned decision. Here, following Mel to surprise her.
Chapter 2
-(p. 10) Find a phrasal verb meaning “to end a phone call”. to hang up
-(p. 11) Find a phrasal verb meaning “to understand (a situation)”. to work out
Chapter 3
-(p. 14) Find a phrasal verb meaning “to star to move, to leave”, e.g. for a car. to pull off
Chapter 4
-(p. 15) Find a phrasal verb meaning “to light a cigarette”. to light up
-(p. 17) Find three words or phrases referring to Joe, suggesting that in Ben's opinion he is 1° a loser or nonentity; 2° weak because as an ordinary teacher he has no real experience of competition; and 3° not as successful as he could have been (p.16-17)? 1° “an also-ran”; 2° “just another private-sector softie”; 3° “classic underachiever” (= performing below expectations)
-(p. 17) Convert “six inches” and “three stone” into metric measurements. 6 inches = approx. 15 cm; 3 stone(s) = approx. 19 kg.
-(p. 19) Find a phrase meaning that an event occurs suddenly and unexpectedly, without warning or preparation. out of the blue
Chapter 5
-(p. 25) Find a phrase meaning to set something going in the right direction again. to get it back on track
- (p. 25) Find the past participle of a phrasal verb meaning "isolated”. cut off
Chapter 6
-(p. 30) Why is Joe relieved when William explains to his mum why he said that his dad had been bad? Joe first thought that his son was going to tell Mel about his fight with Ben, but instead the little boy talks about his not being allowed to have a hamster.
-(p. 31) Find a phrasal verb meaning “to break into pieces”. to fall apart
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>>>> Answers to worksheet questions on chapters 1 to 6
- In chapter 1, how does Joe make sure that the car his son spotted is actually his wife's? It's the same make and model (a VW Golf), same colour (powder-blue = bleu pastel), has five doors and a SpongeBob SquarePants sun shade (= pare-soleil Bob l'Éponge), and above all, the registration number plate is the same.
- While waiting for Mel in the hotel car park (ch.3), what does Joe hear on the radio, and how does it affect him? What is Joe's own family situation? A programme about dating websites, with interviews of women describing their ideal man (with criteria that would be virtually impossible to combine). Their expectations are so high that Joe finds it exhausting “just keeping track of it all” (and probably depressing). Joe and Mel have been married for nearly ten years, and he is planning to offer her a diamond.
- In chapter 4, what first impression do Ben's car and clothes convey about him? wealthy (expensive designer clothes, expensive car), successful, a winner (cf number plate: W1NNR). cf also p.16: "compared to his usual alpha-male demeanour".
- Why does Joe suddenly panic and decide to leave Ben lying in the car park? His son Will is having a severe asthma attack and he has no inhaler, so instead of taking care of Ben to make sure he's all right, he rushes home to get an inhaler.
- What does Joe do later (ch.5), as he attempts to make up for this behaviour? He first phones the hotel receptionist to ask him to go and check if Ben is OK, but as the young man won't do it, Joe drives back to the hotel to find that Ben, his car and Joe's own mobile phone are no longer there.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
Chapter 7
-(p. 33) Find a phrasal verb meaning “to earn”. to bring in
-(p. 34) Find a phrase suggesting that a thought made Joe suddenly stop what he was doing. to bring sb up short
-(p. 36) Find a phrase meaning that something is scarce or infrequent. few and far between
Chapter 8
-(p. 40) Find an image suggesting that this is a small world. “It was like suddenly realising you lived in a goldfish bowl”. (un bocal à poisson rouge)
-(p. 41) Find a phrase meaning “I was realising”. it was dawning on me (il m'apparaissait, je comprenais)
Chapter 9
-(p. 42) Find a phrase meaning “to defeat someone by superior strength or ability”. to get the better of somebody (l'emporter sur, prendre le dessus)
-(p. 42) Find a phrasal verb meaning “to trick someone in order to make them seem guilty of something they have not done”. to set sb up (piéger qqn, préparer un coup monté)
Chapter 10
-(p. 46) Find a phrasal verb meaning “to reduce the number of possibilities or choices”. to narrow sth down (to)
-(p. 46) Find a phrasal verb meaning “to give someone a warning or a hint about something”. to tip sb off (avertir, prévenir)
-(p. 48) Find a phrasal verb meaning “to give someone little or no punishment for something that they did wrong”. to let sb off
Chapter 11
-(p. 56) Find a phrasal verb meaning “to hit someone hard and repeatedly”. to beat up
---------------------------------------------------------------------
>>>> Answers to worksheet questions on chapters 7 to 11
- At the beginning of chapter 7, how does Mel react when Joe tells her he saw her at a hotel? She laughs and lies self-assuredly, claiming she was playing tennis.
- What does Joe find out at the end of chapter 7? His phone is missing and his facebook account has been hacked or tampered with.
- In chapter 8, what does Joe explain about his facebook account? And what comments are prompted by the new status update (p.39)? Although he initially wanted to make his profile private, he has never taken the time to do so, so anyone can see what is posted from his account, including friends, colleagues and family members. People who comment on his status update are mainly surprised and intrigued.
- In chapter 9, what makes Joe suspect Ben of hacking his facebook account (pp.42-43)? Joe thinks that by getting him in deep trouble, Ben is seeking revenge for being “on the losing end of a confrontation”, and as a “smartphone app developer” it would be very easy for Ben to crack a mobile phone password, etc.
- In chapter 10, according to Mel, what did Ben tell her about his former employee Matthew Goring (p.47)? He sensed that he was about to be dismissed for gross misconduct (because he was excluded from some meetings, etc.) and in the few hours before he was actually fired (“to get the chop”), he managed to code pornographic images into a game app aimed at young children, which could have caused Ben's company to go bankrupt.
- In chapter 11, what does Joe find when he googles Ben's name?
In addition to Ben’s company website, LinkedIn profile and media accounts, Joe finds articles in the media mentioning him, his career and rise to fortune, notably one in the Evening Standard which draws on his rags-to-riches story, and a more qualified one in the Daily Mail which mentions an incident involving Ben and Alex Kolnik.
---------------------------------------------------------------------
Chapter 12
-(p. 61) Find a phrasal verb meaning “to encourage someone to put more effort into something”. to urge on
-(p. 63) Find a phrasal verb meaning “to leave furtively, quietly, in secret”. to sneak out
-(p. 67) Find a phrasal verb meaning “to shock and upset somebody”. to shake sb up (secouer, bouleverser)
Chapter 13
-(p. 70) Paraphrase “In normal circumstances I would have taken the hint and made myself scarce”. “Normally, I would have understood and gone away.” (to take a/the hint: to understand sth that is communicated indirectly (comprendre l'allusion); to make oneself scarce: to go or stay away in order to avoid a difficult or embarrassing situation (s'esquiver))
-(p. 75) Why does Joe compare Beth to a “little old lady”? Because she never swears or use coarse language: she uses euphemisms such as “effing”, “blummin’ ”, “Lord” or “blimey” instead of more offensive words.
-(p. 76) Paraphrase “Work was getting on top of him and he just had to let off some steam”. “He was getting overwhelmed with work and he simply needed to release his emotions.” (se défouler)
Chapter 14
-(p. 79) Find a phrasal verb meaning “to arrive, to come back”. to roll in
-(p. 80) Find an idiom meaning “to do what someone else wants one to do”. to dance to someone's tune (faire les quatre volontés de qqn, lui obéir au doigt et à l'œil)
Chapter 16
-(p. 90) Which car make does “Say-dees” refer to in William's baby talk? Mercedes
---------------------------------------------------------------------
>>>>Answers to worksheet questions on chapters 12 to 16
- In chapter 12, why does Mrs. Pendlebury's face look vaguely familiar to Joe, and what do the two parents mainly talk about in the kitchen (pp.63-64)? They happen to be friends on Facebook (although Joe had forgotten about it), so they start talking about Facebook (which can be used to spy on other people – or “stalk” them) and about the recent posts from Joe's account (regarding the lost leather bracelet).
- What does the word “fraped” (p.67) mean, and what does it suggest?
- In chapter 13, what lie does Mel make up as the reason for Joe and Ben's “falling out”, and how does Joe explain that lie? p.75
- What does Beth tell Joe and Mel about Ben's recent behaviour?
- In chapter 14, how does Joe interpret Beth's answer (“He wouldn't hurt us.”) after his suggestion that she needs to protect her daughter Alice? p.79
- At the beginning of chapter 15, how does Joe feel when Beth finally leaves, and what does he do as a result?
- In chapter 16, what does Mel refer to as the “mistake” she made a couple of years ago?
---------------------------------------------------------------------
Chapter 17
-(p. 95) Find a verb meaning “to punch someone very hard, knocking them to the ground in some cases”. to deck
-(p. 97) Find an idiom meaning “to sound familiar, to remind one of something”. to ring a bell
Chapter 18
-(p. 102) Explain what Joe means by “some of the blame lay with” his wife Mel. He suggests that Mel was partly responsible for the drunken kiss with Ben she has told him about.
-(p. 102) Find a phrase meaning “to give a warning to someone to stop or change what they are doing”. to put a (warning) shot across someone's bows (tirer un coup de semonce)
-(p. 105) Find a phrasal verb meaning “to lead someone to the door when they are leaving”. to show sb out
Chapter 19
-(p. 107) Find a phrase suggesting that Joe is the only one talking. “our rather one-sided conversation” (unilatérale, à sens unique)
-(p. 107) Find an idiom meaning “full of energy, not at all tired” (especially after a good night's sleep). fresh as a daisy (frais comme un gardon)
-(p. 112) Which sentence suggests that William might wake up any moment? He was a light sleeper. (il avait le sommeil léger)
Chapter 20
-(p. 118) Find a phrase meaning that someone wants to join in, to be included in an activity. Count me in (je suis partant(e), je m'inscris).
-(p. 119) Find two phrases conveying the idea of “relaxing” or “having a rest”. to put one's feet up (se détendre, se reposer); to take it easy (se laisser vivre, se la couler douce; y aller mollo)
---------------------------------------------------------------------
>>>> Worksheet questions on chapters 17 to 20
- In chapter 17, how does Mel account for her argument with Ben at the hotel, and how does that alter Joe's interpretation of Ben's general attitude to him? p.96
- In chapter 18, what prompts Joe to tell PC Khan that he too had seen Ben at the hotel? p.102
- In chapter 19, what does Mel keep doing while having dinner with Joe at a Chinese restaurant, and how does Joe attempt to change that? pp.106-110
- What happens at the Stratford at the end of chapter 20, and how does Joe instinctively react? pp.120-121
---------------------------------------------------------------------
SECTION 2 : CHAPTERS 21- 39
p. 122. an alarm, a burglar alarm, a fire alarm, a siren, an alarm clock, a firework
p. 122 process
p.123. peered
p. 124 must
p. 125 must
p.125 read aloud
p. 125 read out
p. 125 high-pitched
p. 126 clutched
p.126 hood / un break
p.127 except (for), apart from, save, besides, beside, excluding, exclusive of,
p.127 till death us do part. = a subjunctive. An archaism.
p.128 man cave
p. 128 ‘occurred to me’
p.128 a nightcap (littéralement, un bonnet de nuit)
p.129 ‘All the fight had gone out of her.’
p. 130 ‘had been spot on’ : to be spot on
p. 130 spaghetti hoops : des spaghettis en forme de petits anneaux
p. 130 lounge
p.131 ‘I stood my ground beside the window.’
p.131 ‘a lump in my throat’
p. 132 ‘I’ll go for full custody and fight you every inch of the way, and you’ll lose.’ ‘Custody’ also means ‘détention’. eg. To be placed / remanded / held in custody .
p.134 ‘they bumped into each other’
p.134 a ‘do’
p.135 a roller coaster
p. 136 to get on with it
p. 136 ‘That brought me up short.’
p. 136 ‘she had stuck it out’ : to stick something out
p.136 ‘A-level results’
p. 137 Postgraduate Certificate in Education. It is Joe’s teacher training year ( théorie et stage) which he includes as one of his teaching years. nb. Il n’existe pas de concours de l’enseignement comme en France au Royaume-Uni. Il s’agit d’un diplôme obtenu après la Licence.
p.137 ‘deputy’ : ‘deputy head’ = directeur adjoint ou proviseur adjoint. ‘Un député’ = an MP, par exemple. nb. Deputy sheriff.
p.137 water / rut : Mel asks Joe if he has been ‘treading water’ ( se maintenir ou faire du sur place dans l’eau.. = Joe stagne dans sa carrière..) Or lets himself be carried by a nice, steady ‘current’ ( il s’est laissé emporter par son quotidien confortable) until he has ‘got into a bit of a rut’ : ‘a rut’ = une ornière… (Joe est coincé dans sa routine, dans une ornière.) The metaphor shifts from water to land.
p.139 ‘He had insisted that she send one of herself as well.’ As in French, ‘insister pour que quelqu’un fasse quelque chose.’
p.140 ‘worn down’
p.145 a venue : = a place where an event, usually entertainment, takes place. Par ex. Une salle de concert. eg. The venue for the next Ed Sheeran concert is the Stade de France. He’s playing at several venues this summer.
p.146 ‘to go down’ here = ‘susciter une réaction’ / ‘être accueilli’ , eg. ‘The message of this film went down badly with the public.’ In this context, « Je n’ose pas imaginer comment il ( Ben) a réagi quand tu as lâché cette bombe-là. »
p. 146 Phrasal verbs : went down, to fall into place, calling the whole thing off, went off, staying away, made up, carry it on, went out, split up, came along, gave up, look after, go back
p.147 ‘It was a cheap shot but I couldn’t resist it’
p. 148 ‘I can’t cope with it.’
p.148 to get something off one’s chest. : se soulager/ dire ce qu’on a sur le coeur : ‘But also relieved, as if she was glad to have finally got it off her chest.’
p. 150 in a bad way. ‘She’s (Beth) in a bad way.’
p. 153 Truth or Dare (Action ou Vérité / Vérité ou un gage)
p. 153 ‘blurry tail-end of a house party’ = flou / vaseux ; La fin d’une soirée dont ses souvenirs ne sont pas très nets/ clairs
p.153 15 or 16. Fifth form or Year 11 = La classe de Seconde.
---------------------------------------------------------------------
>>>> Answers to worksheet questions on chapters 21-25
1) Intimate text messages and topless or naked photos of Mel found on one of Ben’s mobile phones.
2) Joe feels as if he is out of his own body, watching someone else. He feels like a spectator of his own life. But the sentences in italics, parts of his and Mel’s wedding vows show that he feels his whole marriage has been betrayed. He feels like ‘the world’s biggest sucker’…. A fool who has let himself been tricked ( un pigeon).
3) He threatens to throw Mel out on the street with only what she can fit into the two suitcases he has opened on the bed and says he will apply for and obtain full custody ( la garde) of William, if she lies again.
4) Mel says Ben had started to be interested in her and pursued her. Then at the Park Lane hotel their first sexual encounter ‘just happened.’
She says Ben was different, suggesting she was a bit fed up with her daily routine of ‘Work, commute, home, bed’. She hints that she wants life to be exciting and not miss out on her dreams as her mother had. She hints at Joe’s lack of ambition, saying that he is in ‘a rut’ in his career and that Joe also has a closer relationship, a special ‘bond’ with William, their son, than she does. Then Ben started the game of sending naked selfies . Mel says her resistance to Ben had been ‘worn down’ by Ben and Ben also said he loved her and wanted to dump everything to be with her.
5) He suddenly wonders whether William is really his son.
6) She seems to be ‘relieved’ as if she has ‘finally got it all off her chest’.
7) During a party game before they were even engaged, Mel admitted a single infidelity when she was in Fifth form, so she says it doesn’t count.
8) Perhaps it suggests that the ‘meeting’ will also be ‘distorted’, that something about it will be wrong or will go wrong.
---------------------------------------------------------------------
p. 155 ‘We were in uncharted territory : my marriage was a shipwreck and I had been washed up on some strange shore where I didn’t speak the langage.’ = ‘Nous nous retrouvions en terrain inconnu : mon marriage avait fait naufrage et m’étais échoué sur la côte d’une contrée étrangère dont je ne parlais pas la langue.’
p. 163 peeled. ‘Keeping my eyes peeled and my hands out of my pockets, ready to react if necessary.’ garder l’oeil à l’affût de quelque chose, rester vigilant, les yeux grands ouverts
p. 164 ‘I tried to get my bearings.’ to get one’s bearings = se repérer (dans l’espace) : or, for eg. ‘When I arrived at university it took me a couple of weeks to find my bearings on the campus.’
p. 167 ‘scouring my lungs’ : to scour = récurer / frotter / Ici, ‘l’air froid d’octobre me râclait les poumons’
p. 171 ‘with a day’s worth of stubble on his face’
p. 174 ‘Since we appear to have missed the boat here’ : manquer le coche
p. 174 Naylor’s ‘left ear was cauliflowered’ and ‘a small white scar curling below his lip’. The ‘cauliflowered ears’ ( oreille en chou-fleur) (frippée) suggest that Naylor may have been a rugby player in the position of ‘tight-head prop’ = ‘pilier droit’.
p. 175 cover : ‘Bad doesn’t really cover it, to be honest.’
p. 176 ‘a case in point’.
p. 176 nondescript
p.177 to clock
p. 177 Ben bloody Delaney
---------------------------------------------------------------------
>>>> Answers to worksheet questions on chapters 26-30
1) Joe feels lost (‘in uncharted territory’) and he asks himself a lot of questions. He suspects that Ben’s suggestion of a meet-up might ne a trap.
2) No. He sees a person on the far side of the lake and recognises Ben’s Louis Vuitton jacket and the black baseball cap he had been wearing on Thursday night.
3) He realises it could indeed be a trap and that he is now alone and Ben appears to have a gun in a bag. So he realises he has probably been stupid to get into this situation.
4) He doesn’t like it at all. He finds it as depressing as the one he had been in on a bike-coding day. The walls are bare, the furniture is old and Joe describes the place as ‘dingy’ (miteux).
5) Joe realises that he should be at school teaching Of Mice and Men (by John Steinbeck) to his Year Ten class.
6) He is trying to find out what kind of relationship Joe and Ben have and whether there is any reason why they might not ne friends anymore.
---------------------------------------------------------------------
p. 181 realm
p. 182 on the loose
p. 183 on the deck
p. 183 ‘by the by’ :’All that’s by the by now, of course….’
p.188 ‘the long and the short of’
p. 191 ‘On the back of these blood results’
p. 195 to be on the front foot / ‘to get back on the front foot’
p. 196 pick up the tab. Payer la note. In other contexts ‘payer les frais’( au sans propre par ex. Pay the expenses………...ou parfois plus figuré …. par ex. Le contribuable va payer les frais de cette politique.)
p. 196 ‘when Ben had last raised his head above the parapet’ : la dernière fois que Ben était sorti du bois / s’était manifesté
p. 197 ‘to give up the ghost’
p. 199 to be torn between two things : ‘I was torn between wanting to see the rest of the message and needing to photograph it as evidence.’
p. 200 beeped ( beeping) (émettre un bip), to slam ( poser brutalement/ bruyamment) , with a clatter (bruyamment/ avec fracas), whine ( gémissement), whirring ( un ronronnement)
p. 202 Une fois les formalités d’usage échangées…
p. 202 rates
p. 202 ‘Better safe than sorry’
p. 204 devious / underhand
p. 204 ‘I wouldn’t trust him as far as I could throw him.’
p. 204 the boys in blue
p. 205 to end up
p. 205 to take / make an educated guess.
p. 206 break down / set up / break up : ‘break it down’ = décomposer, analyser, diviser ( pour analyser) : ‘Ben’s trying to set me up’ = Ben essaye de me faire porter le chapeau…/ de me faire accuser : ‘break up my family’ = briser ma famille
p. 206 under any circumstances
p. 207 to get one’s head around something : ‘it’s a struggle to get me head around it’
p.207 to wrap up : eg. It’s time to wrap up this meeting and go for lunch.
---------------------------------------------------------------------
>>>> Answers to worksheet questions on chapters 31-35
1) The police are aware that Joe and Ben had an argument on Thursday night, thanks to Mel’s statement, therefore the police are a bit more suspicious about what happened. Joe feels uncomfortable and feels as if he is ‘ten years old again’ because he being forced to admit that he didn’t tell the whole truth to PC Khan and he is also annoyed that Mel has not told the police the same story as him.
2) pp. 186-188 The police have found Ben’s Porsche Cayenne partly burnt out in an alleyway quite near the Premier Inn and it has traces of Ben’s blood in it.
3) Naylor suggests that Joe might be jealous of Ben because Ben is a self-made millionaire while Joe is only a teacher. He also more brutally suggests that Joe is angry with Ben because has has found out that Ben has been sleeping with Joe’s wife.
4) The tone is very formal, official and serious and Naylor smiles without any humour. Naylor has to be careful about legal procedure and is cold and nutral if not defensive.He doesn’t give Joe advice about getting a solicitor.
5) Joe starts to text Mel and to look at Ben’s Facebook timeline and starts to search in the bedroom to see if he can find a clue as to why Mel chose another man over him. He feels quite determined . He wants to be in control of things and react and so to ‘get back on the front foot’. He feels determined not to let Ben have Mel.
6) Someone has been playing games with Joe via his computer. It clearly seems to be Ben who is taunting ( en train de narguer) Joe and is threatening him with messgaes on the screen that Joe does nos have time to photograph or save to give to the police as proof. Because Ben has brilliant computer skills, it makes sense that the person manipulating Joe’s computer from a a distance is indeed Ben.
7) Larssen does nos like Naylor at all and says he is ‘ a devious, ‘underhand little rat’ , that he knows how to accuse people (‘your neck is halfway into the noose’) and that he ‘wouldn’t trust him as far as (he) could throw him.’
8) Joe feels comforted because Larssen says it is quite likely that Ben will probably turn up sooner or later.
---------------------------------------------------------------------
p. 211 detention ( des heures de colle/ retenue)
p. 211 untucked ( débraillée) : nb. To tuck in one’s shirt ( rentrer sa chemise)
p. 211 push boundaries : tester les limites
p.211 unyielding : infléxible, intransigeant
p. 211 detention-bait : bait = un appât : The pupils are ‘une proie à retenue’
p. 211 form rooms : les salles d’appel ( chaque ‘form’ (classe) a une salle désignée pour l’appel de début de journée.
p. 212 He is ‘six feet plus’ ( plus d’un mètre 80) but is only in Year 9 ( so maybe around 14 years old.
p. 212 ‘ a brew’ : to brew = ‘infuser’ ( pour le thé) or ‘brasser’ pour la bière ( to brew beer in a brewery). Therefore in other contexts ‘a brew’ might mean signify beer.
p. 213 ‘En dépit de nos petites blagues à ses ( Carl Draper) dépens…...’
p. 213 to give someone a dressing down : ‘he was going to give me a dressing down for it ( not actually being off sick’. = passer un savon à quelqu’un, réprimander quelqu’un
‘bollockings’ : to give someone a bollocking = engueuler quelqu’un
p. 213 the hatchet man ( littéralement , l’homme à la hâche) : homme de main, tueur à gages
p. 215 reception : ‘He’s in reception at St Hilda’s.’ = ‘Il est en Grande Section à l’école Sainte Hilda.’
p. 215 ‘Good Ofsted.’ Ofsted = Office for Standards in Education : = a non-ministerial (so quite independent) department that inspects a range of educational institutions. For English parents, knowing the Ofsted ratings of a school is very important. ‘Good Ofsted’ means = Elle (l’école) a eu des appréciations très positives de la part d’Ofsted.
p. 216 PR
p. 218 ‘shell-shocked’ : ‘en état de choc’, ‘sidéré’ : Littéralement ‘(un soldat) traumatisé par le bruit des obus’
p. 219 Gotcha !
p.219 tittle-tattle ( indénombrable)
p.219 smallpox (la variole) : Joe says ‘Viral, as it spread like smallpox’ : usually the expresion is ‘to spread like wildfire ( un feu de fôret) but as the photo of Joe has ‘gone viral’, he adds extra strength to his expression by distorting the idiom and comparing it to a real, biological virus. ‘Cela s’est répandu comme une épidémie de variole’.
p. 220 to be given a grilling : a grilling : to be grilled by, for example, the police ( se faire cuisiner par la police)
p. 221 ‘He’s just messing everyone around.’
p. 223 to let on : ‘he knew more than he was letting on.’
p. 225 take one for the team. ‘De temps en temps il faut qu’on se sacrifie pour le bien de l’équipe, mon ami. Seulement il s’avère qu’aujourd’hui c’est ton tour.’
p.225 pound : pound my fist .. enfoncer mon poing dans.. sa gueule
p.226 ‘There’s a good chap.’ = ‘Merci, mon gars.’
p. 229 brazen
p. 231 foul play ; un délit, un crime : eg. The police sometimes suspect foul play when investigating a case.
p.235 put a different slant on ( voir d’un autre angle : slant = angle, d’un autre biais)
p. 235 a smear campaign : smear = une tâche : to smear = entâcher ( par ex. ma réputation) : A smear campaign = une campagne de dénigrement / diffamation
p. 235 to run down
p. 236 ‘a heads-up’ : to give someone the heads-up = to give information about something : to give someone a heads-up = give a hint, a clue, ( filer un tuyeau, une indication)
p. 239 ‘a quick and dirty forensic authorship analysis, done by our friends at Goldsmiths College, of the Facebook post...’ : ‘Quick’= longer than usual standard procedure : ‘dirty’ : probably not done oficially or done in exchange for some favour : perhaps the police have good contacts with the IT specialists there ; Goldsmiths College is part of the University of London.
p.243 le but du jeu / ( le but du jeu est de trouver / une preuve de vie...la preuve que Ben est en vie)
---------------------------------------------------------------------
>>>> Answers to worksheet questions on chapters 36- 39
1) The schoolboys he meets seem to find soemthing amusing about him. One boy has a smirk or a teenage grin on his face and asks Joe if he is all right. His friends are all sniggering.
The atmosphere in the teachers’ staffroom is subdued and all eyes are on Joe.
2) Carl Draper is assistant head in charge of pastoral and disciplinary issues (and staff development). His reputation seems to be of someone who is sinister and strict becuse his nickname is ‘Darth Draper’ as in ‘Darth Vader’. He is the head teacher’s ‘hatchet man’ who does all the unpleasant disciplinary work.
3) The photo shows Joe being led into the police station and someone has photoshopped handcuffs on to Joe’s hands. Draper is chiefly worried about the harm this will do to the school’s reputation.
4) Draper suspends Joe with immediate effect so Joe has to go home and is not allowed to teach or be seen on the school premises. Joe is angry and feels like punching Carl Draper (‘and pound my fist into his smug, self-satisfied face.’)
5) Larssen anounces that the police now suspect foul play might be involved. (p.231) The police are focusing on the theory that something bad might have happened to Ben.
6) Joe says he is being set up by Ben who is taunting him and using his computing skills so as to wreck his career in a kind of smear campaign.Also to get Mel.
7) The police have established that Ben’s mobile phone was in the same place as Joe’s when they exchanged text messages, as if Joe had had Ben’s mobile and sent the messages to himself. Also the punctuation of the messages does not match the punctuation of Ben’s usual Facebook posts, clearly suggesting that it was not Ben who wrote the text messages.
Joe was alone in the park the morning before so no-one else is a witness to confirm that Joe saw Ben and so that Ben was alive.
Also, Joe’s injured hand, with scratches and bruises, also looks supicious, as if he had hit soemone with his right fist.
‘How’s your hand, by the way ? Your knuckles all right ?’ (poing, jointures des doigts).
---------------------------------------------------------------------
SECTION 3 : CHAPTERS 40 to 59
Chapter 40
-(p. 244) to be framed.
-(p. 244) take it easy
-(p. 245) bloke
-(p. 245) albeit
-(p. 246) the GCSEs (i.e. the General Certificate of Secondary Education, an academic qualification taken by 16-year-olds in England, Wales and Northern Ireland).
-(p. 246) take on the world
-(p. 247) to ache (ex: to have a headache / stomachache / toothache)
-(p. 247) I can’t stand it anymore ; I can’t stand someone/something.
-(p. 251) he drops in out of the blue
-(p. 251) (mightily) pissed off
Chapter 41
-(p. 253) thick
-(p. 256) by fair means or foul
-(p. 257) to turn the clock back to (Sundy morning for ex.)
-(p. 258) to spin (past tense : spun ; past participle : span)
Chapter 42
-(p. 259) I can’t make head nor tail of it.
-(p. 261) to make out
-(p. 261) to resume
Chapter 43
-(p. 266) to creep (crept-crept)
-(p. 266) bunch
-(p. 266) rolling pin
-(p. 267) to work (it) out
-(p. 267) to spook someone
-(p. 268) technical (technique, pointu)
-(p. 269) the irony was so thick (la collocation française serait : ‘l’ironie était si forte’) that you could cut it with a knife.
-(p. 270) You should get better security on your back door by the way big fellow, never know who might be waiting for you one of these days.
Chapter 44
-(p. 273) return the favour.
-(p. 273) break cover (sortir de sa planque)
-(p. 274) to start from scratch
-(p. 275) to beat a bloke up
-(p. 277) to take the bait (mordre à l’hameçon)
-----------------------------------------------------------------
>>>> Answers to worksheet questions on chapters 40-44
-Who is Mark Ruddington ?
An old friend of Mel’s, who left a cryptic comment on one of her Facebook post (« The after-show party sticks in my memory for some reason Melissa Lynch »). To try and find out more about him, Joe both sends him a friend’s request on Facebook and goes through his Facebook profile and timeline. There, among boring snaps of his dogs or even of the meals he was eating, Joe finds out something interesting : Mark looks a lot like Ben (as they’re both dark-haired, have the same height and build) ; he, too, is married, has kids and dogs. Joe comes to think he is Mel’s former lover (the one with whom she first cheated on him).
-Which piece of information does Beth give Joe when he pays her a visit at home after their terrible confrontation at the Stratford pub? She tells him about Alex Kolnik, a tough guy going by the name of Kalashnikov, whom Ben drove out of business and who didn’t hesitate to come to their house one day and threaten them before Ben took his shotgun and kicked him out.
-When Joe realizes his house has been broken into, which tool does he grab to defend himself and what does he find out? He grabs a rolling pin in case he should come face to face with the burglar but the latter’s gone. He eventually finds out that, although his house is in a real mess, nothing’s been stolen. On the contrary, an object’s been left behind on his kitchen counter: a shotgun cartridge (la cartouche d’un fusil de chasse).
-Which solution does Joe think he’s found to make Ben break cover? He’s going to try and make Ben break cover for Mel by asking her to send her former lover a text telling him she wanted to get back with him and therefore wanted to see him.
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Chapter 45
-(p. 279) sheepish
-(p. 280) in her living room, by her side, scattered on the table.
-(p. 280) to turn up
-(p. 281) spaced out
-(p. 282) forlorn
-(p. 283) zoned out
Chapter 46
-(p. 285) to split up (to split-split-split)
-(p. 285) elated
-(p. 286) to go by (“went by”)
-(p. 287) “My stomach lurched”
-(p. 288) panted (haleter)
-(p. 288) a set-up
Chapter 47
-(p. 290) sluggish (a slug: une limace)
-(p. 290) clinging to Mel like a limpet (=un type de coquillage= une patelle, un chapeau chinois) : accroché à Mel comme une moule à un rocher.
-(p. 294) wiped
-(p. 294) to go back to square one
-(p. 295) topless
-(p. 297) useless crap
Chapter 48
-(p. 300) trying to keep his voice level (= at the same height as usual)
-(p. 302) dead on your feet
Chapter 49
-(p. 303) it had taken my breath away : j’en avais eu le souffle coupé.
-(p. 303) knocking the wind out of me. To knock the wind/breath out of someone = to hit someone so that they can no longer breathe easily.
-(p. 304) she looked pleased as punch.
-----------------------------------------------------------------
>>>> Answers to worksheet questions on chapters 45 to 49
-Joe thinks he has found a solution to make Ben break cover, but which difficulty does he first face and what does this suggest? He finds it hard to find someone to look after William. His calling his friend Adam has proved useless. The latter has picked up but has come up with excuses not to look after William, so Joe has no choice but to ask Beth, which is delicate given the situation. To top it all, she does not answer the phone and when Joe goes to her place to ask her in person he has to ring the doorbell several times before Alice eventually opens it. (Alice looks sheepish because she knows her attitude (and her mum’s) were inappropriate). All this tends to show Joe is now on his own and can no longer rely on people he or his wife used to be friends with.
-What does Joe find out in Beth’s living room? The room is quite messy. Tablets and pills are scattered all over the coffee table; there’s a tipped over glass of alcohol on the floor, the carpet is stained and Beth is lying on the sofa amid that mess, a shotgun laid across the other sofa.
-After the failed set-up at the mall, which strategy does Joe find to have enough time to go through his wife’s handbag and which object does he find in it? He pretends he needs a drink and asks his wife whether she’d be ok to put their son to bed because he knows the whole “go and brush your teeth then go to the toilet ritual” will buy him some time. Feeling the bag with his fingers, he soon notices a solid shape and eventually finds a cut in the lining, where he finds a mobile phone. A Samsung.
-Does his discovery prove useful? What are the two difficulties he faces? To a certain extent, yes, as he manages to figure out the passcode (thinking of William’s birthday for the 4 digit pin) before the phone locks (=difficulty nb 1: he tried 3 times). Although he doesn’t find anything when hitting the text message and then the history call icons, or even in the Album app (as Mel probably takes care to delete everything) (=difficulty nb 2), he discovers something indeed in the automatic back up file. A JPEG file (an image of Mel, topless), as well as 8 phone numbers.
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Chapter 50
-(p. 309) it is predawn: avant l’aube
-(p. 309) doing chores (corvées, taches)
-(p. 309) stands for
-(p. 311) out of the mouths of babes, indeed. = babies can be wise (la vérité sort bien de la bouche des enfants)
-(p. 311) to put things right
-(p. 313) hack
-(p. 314) an egg timer (un minuteur, sablier)
-(p. 314) innocuous /ɪˈnɒkjuəs/ /ˈhɑːmləs/
-(p. 315) a fling
Chapter 51
-(p. 318) to fill someone in
-(p. 319) to do somebody in.
-(p. 320) pretty (which is an adverb here).
-(p. 321) hunch (un pressentiment)
-(p. 321) rough
-(p. 322) to sort out
Chapter 52
-(p. 323) to stink (stank-stunk)
-(p. 324) to put someone through to someone else
-(p. 325) to deceive
-(p. 326) fuck off
-(p. 327) taken aback
-(p. 327) chillax
-(p. 328) he had now graduated summa cum laude from the arsehole academy.
Summa cum laude: expression latine significant mot à mot “avec la plus haute louange”: ici idée de mention: “avec les felicitations du jury”.
Chapter 53
-(p. 330) screw it !
-(p. 331) drawn
-(p. 332) to fish out
-(p. 332) nosy (also : nosey)
-----------------------------------------------------------------
>>>> Answers to worksheet questions on chapters 50 to 53
-What did Joe use to do for a living? At that point in the story, is he being nostalgic about his past job?
p. 326. He was a teacher until he was fired because of his dealings with the police. No, he is not being nostalgic at all. He casts a rather negative light on this experience as a teacher, focusing on the difficulties of the job, on his pupils’ disrespect and on his having to bite the bullet all the time, trying to stay calm no matter what, because he was an adult and a professionnal.
-Who is Riley Warner? The lanky youth in the dark hooded top and cannabis leaf cap who knocks on the phone booth to ask Joe whether he’ll be soon done with his calls and whom Joe tells off (p. 326-7). Joe eventually realizes he knows the kid he’s just insulted (a former pupil) and that he’s taking pictures of him in the booth.
-Where and when did Joe ask Mel to marry him? What happened on that occasion which shows she wasn’t expecting a proposal (=which shows this came as a total surprise)? Quite romantically, he proposed in Regent’s Park, on the lake, during the summer (9 years before). They were in a rowing boat and Joe went down on one knee, which took her so much by surprise that she stood up all of a sudden and almost tipped them both into the water. (p. 331)
-At one point in the story (chap. 54), Mel feels moved into revealing something apparently important to Joe. What is it that moves her so much and what stops her short of telling him the whole truth? She seems to feel bad because of two things : first, because she can see how much her husband trusts her in spite of her betrayal (he truly believes her when she tells him she had completely forgotten about her secret cellphone, for instance (p. 334). Second, because she understands he’s still very much in love with her, as he plans on offering her a new and bigger engagement ring for their 10th anniversary (p. 339).
However, she’s —literally speaking— saved by the gong, as she is interrupted by a loud sound coming from Joe’s mobile — a text from Larssen, asking Joe to call him back— which puts an end to their conversation.
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Chapter 54
-(p. 335) 49. Biros are a type of ballpoint pens =stylos bille (named after Laszlo Jozsef Biro, the Hungarian inventor of the ballpoint)
-(p. 335) to put up with someone
-(p. 336) startled
-(p. 336) faint
-(p. 339) the shutters had come down (les rideaux s’étaient baissés)
-(p. 339) We’ll get through it.
Chapter 55
-(p. 340) to cheer someone up.
-(p. 340) to have someone’s back
-(p. 342) to freak somebody out. To freak out.
-(p. 343) ant workers.
Chapter 56
-(p. 345) upset
Chapter 57
-(p. 349) stricken
-(p. 349) guilty as sin
-(p. 350) DNA
-(p. 350) to step out of line
-(p. 352) evidence
-(p. 354) to disclose
-(p. 354) « laid » is the past tense of « to lay » (to lay-laid-laid), not to be mixed up with to lie-lay-lain.
Chapter 58
-(p. 360) bullshit
-(p. 361) keep your mouth shut.
-(p. 361) like a razor blade sawing up and down my spine : comme si une lame de rasoir me parcourait l’échine.
Chapter 59
-(p. 363) legwork
-(p. 364) fight your corner (défendre son point de vue)
-(p. 365) give or take
-(p. 367) a dead end
-(p. 368) to keep one’s powder dry
-----------------------------------------------------------------
>>>> Answers to worksheet questions on chapters 54 to 59
-On what ground is Joe being arrested? What new evidence led the police to arrest him? Although Ben’s corpse has not been found yet, Joe is being arrested on suspicion of murder. Three new pieces of evidence came to light indeed : 1/ A DNA match : blood traces were found in the underground car park of the Premier Inn Hotel, which were matched to Ben. 2/ The police also found Joe’s leather bracelet there. 3/ They also found the cellphone that he had claimed he had lost and the metadata tend to incrimate him as well, as they locate him in the underground car park indeed.
-Who is present when Joe gets arrested ? The police of course (and notably Naylor and DS Redford) but also his wife and kid as well as neighbours (i.e people who talked to him on a regular basis, like the widower who lived opposite or the woman across the street, whose children the Lynches sometimes babysat). Bystanders are also present, notably one teenage boy whom Joe recognizes from school and who’s filming it all (in a video which is very likely to end up on Facebook and be watched by a lot of people).
-During the police interrogation, does Joe strictly follow Larssen’s advice? What could this indicate to the police? In a private interview before the interrogation, his lawyer had advised him to stay calm and keep his mouth shut and only answer the questions he’d allow him to answer. Unfortunately, Joe loses his temper, which draws further suscpicion on him, indicating he could have called Ben in a jealous rage. (p. 360).
-Does Larssen believe his client? What does this suggest? Given the amount of evidence against Joe, Larssen, too, seems to doubt him (p. 364-5). This not only suggests that the evidence is quite strong against him but, again, that the people on his side are fewer and fewer and that he’s very likely to en up in prison for murder.
-How come the Facebook posts, the David Bramley account and the Messenger texts can’t count as evidence in favour of Joe? What does it tell us about Joe’s enemy? Because the IP address these posts were sent from can’t be traced (as the sender took great care not to send them from an existing mobile account, or a desktop PC, and didn’t access Facebook via the app on his phone, but used a pay-as-you-go phone and a web browser instead of an app). It tells us Joe’s enemy is particularly clever and au fait with technology (that « he lives and breathes technology »), which is indeed Ben’s case.
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Chapter 60
-(p. 371) “Tonight is when I start to make up for it”? = to compensate for the fact I betrayed you with Ben, had an affair with Ben = me racheter
-(p. 371) “Larssen had told me that if the police did end up charging me with murder, it was highly likely that I would be remanded in custody rather than being bailed.“
si la police finissait par m’inculper pour meurtre (m’accuser de meurtre)/ il était très probable que je sois placé en détention provisoire plutôt que libéré sous caution (mis en liberté provisoire).
-(p. 372) to come up with
-(p. 372) because no phone, no computer, taken away by the police
Chapter 61
-(p. 379) “she seemed to have deleted (most of it) when she upgraded”: Effacé/ quand elle en avait acheté un plus haut de gamme.
Chapter 62
-(p. 388) he was paid to beat some bloke half to death with an iron bar.
-(p. 388) a replacement plan
Chapter 63
-(p. 391) pulled in
-(p. 391) spook
-(p. 392) to give up on sb.
-(p. 393) shaken up
Chapter 64
-(p. 396) The police find useful information in mobile phones in every case today.
-(p. 398) to take it over
Chapter 65
-(p. 402) Charges
-----------------------------------------------------------------
>>>> Worksheet questions on chapters 60-65
1. When he comes back home after being interrogated by the police, Joe says the situation at home is “beyond weird”. Why?
Mel is Joe’s soulmate, the most important person in his life. He would like to confide in Mel, but he can’t because he doesn’t trust her anymore. This is what makes the situation weird.
2. What attitude did Joe and Mel adopt? Mel hugged him, kissed him, plied him with questions. Joe resisted and kept his answers short.
3. “Tonight’s when I start to make up for it”, Mel said. “Perhaps I should hold out”, Joe thought. What attitudes both of Mel and Joe are referred to? Mel expressed love and led Joe to their bedroom to have sex, to make up for her past betrayal (with Ben). At first, Joe felt it wasn’t maybe the right thing to do and he’d better hold out, but then his resistance vanished.
2. p. 369-371, How did Mel interpret the fact he didn’t want to talk? What did she do later to get Joe to relax, and how did he react to it? She said he was in shock exhausted, had had a terrible day, but she did not mention the affair with Ben. She gave Joe three whiskies and seduced him..
3. “Everything else… Mel seemed to have deleted when she upgraded.” What is Joe referring to?
The phone Mel gave him was blank, except for a few pictures of William. Mel had removed all personal items after switching to a high-end, more sophisticated mobile.
4. Why was the second email from bret 911 particularly revealing according to Joe? Why not so according to Larssen? (p. 380, 381).
The second mail gave very concrete information about how Ben had consulted a law firm specialising in family law about his wife’s “unreasonable behaviour”. As this was relevant information, Joe started to wonder whether the first message had really been sent by Ben as a joke, a taunt, or if it was a warning rather, and had not been sent by Ben.
Larssen, on the other hand, is still convinced the first message is a joke (“mischief making”) and hasn’t read the second one yet..
5. Who did Joe forward the email to, and for what reason?
To Beth. Because Joe found Ben’s decision to take legal steps against Beth brutal, but quite in line with how Ben usually dealt with people who annoyed him (“scorched earth”).Joe thought Beth should know “what was coming down the tracks at her.”
6. When discussing the best attitude for Joe to adopt in the future, why do Joe and Larssen differ? (p. 380)
Larssen tells Joe to keep a low profile, keep quiet, not run hither and thither, whereas Joe wants to go on looking for Ben.
7. “I was reminded that looking at a stranger’s Facebook timeline gave a warped view of that person’s life.” (p. 382). What and who is Joe referring to?
To Mark Ruddington, who has just accepted Joe as a Facebook friend. His posts and selfies are of rather low interest. Joe reflects that Facebook posts do not reflect people’s true or better self.
8. “And nobody was going to bust up our exclusive club.” (p. 382). Explain.
The exclusive club is Joe’s family. They mean everything to him, he will not let anything destroy them.
9. At Golders Hill Park, why does Beth mention “yin and yang”? What document did she bring along? (p. 385)
Beth started crying at one point, as if she were a victim and couldn’t cope any more. In Chinese spirituality, the yin and yang is an attempt to balance two opposite forces, to make them complementary. Beth used to believe that ”things turned out ok in the end”, that problems were solved and order restored, but she is not so sure now.
She brought a letter from the Mirage Casino in Sunderland thanking Ben for renewing his membership.
10. How did Joe finally work out the meaning of the STEB post-it note?
p.388. It’s two words actually: Steven Beecham, a bouncer working in the casino.
Joe thinks he is part of Ben’s plan to frame him, that he is Ben’s ‘backup plan”. (“Two is one, one is none”: having only one plan means you have got none actually in case of trouble).
11. Who mentioned the name of Alex Kolnik? What was the reason for mentioning him and what was Beth’s reaction?
p. 389. Joe. Because he saw a car like Kolnik’s in the car park. He believed the car was following Beth. Later Beth said she was worried “they might come” for her if they couldn’t find Ben.
12. What did the forensic people find on Ben’s phone? Why were forensic people called in on this case?
Google searches on points of law and searches about the nearest landfill site (or dump site). They are routinely called in every case now (“ubiquitous”).
13. Why does Joe put much hope in the message he received on his home PC, the threat message from Ben, and why does Larssen’s commentary on it wreck Joe’s hopes?
p. 398. For Joe, the threats (from Ben) should prove that he is being harassed, but according to Larssen, the police will probably think Joe sent the message to himself to pretend to be a victim.
14. “It’s another piece of the puzzle as far as Naylor is concerned. Circumstantial, but telling all the same, in the eyes of a jury.” (p. 399). What is Larssen referring to here, and why does he think it can be serious? The Google searches. This is not direct evidence, but it could influence a jury.
15. Why is the case no longer likely to “fizzle out” contrary to what Larrsen had said earlier? There is too much evidence against Joe now: the Google searches, the police searches in the park. Larssen also knows the police have found some blood in Joe’s car.
16. What evidence apart from the Google searches is likely to be the most incriminating for Joe?
The fact that one of the sample of blood has been matched to Ben.
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Chapter 66
-(p. 405) give me away
-(p. 409) a withheld number (to withhold)
Chapter 67
-(p. 411) rows of semi-detached houses, all alike, usually in working class neigbourhoods.
-(p. 414) cut adrift from everything normal
Chapter 68
-(p. 425) to gamble
-(p. 426) I was marched off
-(p. 428) knocked him out
Chapter 70
-(p. 430) checked in
-(p. 430) tabassé mais pas vaincu
Chapter 75
First, a search history on Google, but he didn”t find anything suspicious.
The he studied the applications. Most of them were familiar, and were preinstalled, except one.The special app was the only one which had been downloaded
-(p. 451) It is a piece of software giving access to other people’s phones. The people who installed it were able to spy on Joe. They knew everuthing that went on through the phone (communications, messages and texts, Google search, location…) Cf. also p. 477/ 491/
It was first developed to warn against intrusions on people’s cell phones, to demonstrate the weaknesses of cellphone operating systems, their vulnerabilities to potential intrusion, by well-meaning people (white hat hackers).
The app has been banned in the USA because of fears over privacy.
-(p. 453) Parts of his conversation with Mel in the park. For Joe, this means that Ben has been secretly listening to them, eavesdropping on them.
-----------------------------------------------------------------
>>>> Worksheet questions on chapters 65-76
1. What did Larssen fear for Joe’s family and what did he advise Joe to go back home for?
p. 402-403. After the police found some of Ben’s blood in Joe’s car, Larssen says the police has enough evidence to charge Joe and arrest him. Joe must prepare for this and prepare his family, because it would be terrible for them if they discovered his arrest out of the blue.
2. Joe was eventually prevented Joe from going back home. Why?
p.404. The police are at Joe’s home, Naylor with three other policemen ( he came mob-handed) to arrest him.
3. What is the main difference between Joe and Ben as regards their respective behaviours as decent (or not) citizens? What shows Ben is being more successful than Joe in the present situation by far?
p. 405-406. Joe is a law-abiding, tax-paying citizen who plays by the rules. Ben’s rules are entirely different: the rules of the jungle, red in tooth and claw= not content with winning, he wants everybody else to lose. Here Ben was winning hands down.
4. What course of action did Joe finally decide on as going back home was not an option any more?
Find Ben and prove he is alive. Ben’s email to Mel said he needed to see an old mate, so Joe figured out he had gone to the Casino in Sunderland (to see Beecham).
5. How did Joe manage to get information about Mel’s former deal with the escort agency?
He asked for a repeat booking (that way, he did not have to give specific details).
6. Why does Joe say the Range Rover lead is a bust?
Because they have no means of finding out who rented it from the car rental company.
7. At the mere mention of Joe’s little jaunt, we know Larssen is not pleased. Why? What could Larssen’s and Joe’s conflicting views on the situation result in?
p.412. The word “jaunt” has an ironical connotation. Larssen is not pleased because Joe is doing exactly what Larssen had told him not to do (running hither and thither instead of going to the police).
p. 415-416: Larssen could stop being Joe’s solicitor. (“I am starting to suspect that we no longer have an understanding, Joe…. Our contractual relationship might be terminated.”)
8. Is the reason why Joe doesn’t want to go to the police the fact that he is likely to get bail?
No, he won’t get bail. He is likely to be remanded in custody, and so he won’t be able to see his family, which is what really matters for Joe..
9. What does Joe imply when he says “the die was cast”?
He made a choice, maybe a good one, maybe not, but he now has to go all the way.
10. Why did Joe believe he would find Ben not in the main room but in the exclusive lounge?
Because the high rollers, the people who can afford to gamble a lot of money, like Ben, are in the lounge.
11. What was Joe’s plan when the clients started to leave the room and go outside?
Find Ben and take a picture of him on his mobile phone, as a piece of evidence.
12. Did Joe walk serenely all the way to the hotel after running away from the Casino?
p. 430. No. When he heard a siren and saw blue flashing lights, he was afraid the police were after him. So he hid. (“it made me duck into an alleyway…. I stumbled..…; I crouched behind a wheelie bin”)
13. Did Mrs. Delaney live in a terraced house in a mean street back of town? How did Joe take his leave at the end of his visit?
p. 436. No. She lives in a smart Victorian house with an immaculate garden, in a posh neighbourhood.
p. 445-446. He had to run away to escape from the police, and was bitten by one of the dogs. He smashed through a treillis panel, jumped a wall, and dived headlong into the neighbour’s garden.
14. “Does that include …. giving myself up?” What does Joe mean in his answer to Larssen?
Joe once told Larssen he wouldn’t go to the police to be arrested, and now Joe wants to know if Larssen still thinks it’s what he should do.
15. What are Joe’s ambivalent feelings for his phone? What did his wondering about this ambiguous partner lead him to do and discover?
p. 450-451: His phone was his only companion and his only weapon in the fight, and yet it had betrayed him twice. He explored his phone, the different apps, and found the SysAdminTrack app.
16. How did Joe interpret the fact that he found bits of his conversation with Mel on the phone?
Ben had been eavesdropping on them all along.
17. Why did Mark Ruddington find Joe’s request weird given the occasion he wanted it for?
p. 454-455: The occasion was their tenth wedding anniversary. Joe wants to know about the after-show party. Mark says what happened wasn’t at all funny, that it is not proper for a party speech and Joe should leave it out. He accepts to talk only because Joe insists it’s just for background.
18. On his arrival in London, what new elements or information totally wrecked Joe’s former assumptions? How did his behaviour reflect his sense of shock?
p. 456-458. Two new elements. First Joe understands why the picture of Mel half naked in the kitchen had bothered him. Then he gets a message with a picture from the Escort agency confirming the repeat booking.
He stared at the picture, blinking fast. He stopped walking. He scrolled down to the name and up again to the picture.
19. Would you say that the thought that “crawled out from somewhere dark” in Joe’s mind was crooked or perverted?
Yes. Because of the pictures, he probably understood his wife was trying to set him up.
20. For what reason did he put off his meeting with Larsen?
When Joe got a message for help from an unrecognised number, he believed it was Alice who needed help.
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Chapters 77, 78, 79
-(p. 464) The room was a mess… pictures scattered (to scatter= éparpiller) across the floor… a broken mirror…cracks fom top to bottom a pattern of black marks scored (entaillé) out of the wall which I assumed was from the shotgun I had heard
Chapters 80-81
-(p. 472) take it all in
Chapters 82-83
-(p. 479) Complete and utter humiliation /Capitulate and grovel (= ramper) for another chance/ He was going to screw me.
–(p. 279) What synonyms of « scorched earth », Ben’s usual practise, does Beth give? He gave her an ultimatum: end the affair, admit in writing to everything that had gone on. Apologise to him, his daughter, his mother. Complete humiliation.
Ben would also have obliged her to sign a post-nup agreement after dissolving their pre-nuptial one. There would have been terrible clauses, like total forfeiture of assets (confiscation des biens) and ( forfeiture) of guardianship of Alice (déchéance de la tutelle d’Alice) in case of further adultery. To show who was the boss.
-(p. 488) you’ll never get away with this.
----------------------------------------------------------------
>>>> Worksheet questions on chapters 77-the end
1. How did Joe get into Beth’s house after being called to rescue? What elements made him worry about Beth and Alice’s safety? P. 460. Through the conservatory (the door was ajar). There was shattered glass in the conservatory. The house was silent, and then he heard thuds, then muffled words.
2. What weapon did Joe get hold of in Beth’s bedroom?
p. 461. He smashed the mirror and grabbed the biggest piece. He used the six-inch shard as a makeshift dagger, after wrapping a T-shirt around it.
3. When Mel joined Beth into the room, what transformation did Joe notice in her?
p. 466. All fear had gone from her face. She looked jubilant, like the female lead about to take a bow at the end of a show.
4. What does Joe mean when he says” I had got so spun around these last eight days it had taken me all that time to work out the truth? (p. 467) He was caught in a whirlwind (un tourbillon) of activities (fighting for his defence, investigating, discovering information) and he did not have the time to think properly.
5. “The magician’s flourish with his right hand – while his left hand is flipping open the secret compartment.” Why does Beth mention the magician’s trick at this stage?
p. 468. The magician gets people to look in the wrong direction while he is performing his trick. This sort of misdirection was Beth’s technique: using deceptive red-herrings or bait to send Joe on the wrong track and thus prevent him from looking too closely at them.
6. Joe feels like a rat.” He has followed the trap, all the way in, and now the bait is about to close”, he says. Is the quotation logical?
NO. He followed the bait (l’appât) …. the trap is about to close.
7. What form did the women’s acting take?
Improvisation. Beth tells Joe “you handed us the situation” (leaving a knocked out Ben out in the car park) “and we improvised like a couple of Oscar winners.” (p. 469)
8. Is it true that the obsession with Alex Kolnik was not one of Beth’s ideas and that the women actually found it hard to integrate it into their plan?
p. 469. It’s true that Joe himself provided them with the Alex Kolnik story. Joe who mentioned seeing a black Range Rover at the hotel, giving the women the idea to “throw it into the mix”. Beth says she “had never seen the man.”
They had no problem using it. Beth says they “were really good at (improvising)” … “Oscar winners”
9. Is it true that Ben was going to get a restraining order against Mel?
p. 469. No, against Alex Kolnik, to stop him from harassing him at home (“keep him at arm’s length”). (He was going to make Beth sign a very strict “post-nup agreement” (p. 479).
Ben had asked Mel (at the hotel) to stop her relationship with Beth.
10. What does Joe want to prove when he tells Beth that “there wouldn’t have been a need for any of this... misdirection. I would have gone down for it”? (p. 471) Beth’s argument is that Joe can’t know what really happened and that maybe Ben died because Joe had fatally injured him in the car park. Joe dismisses the argument because, if such was the case, the women would not have been obliged to stage this very complex story. It would have been simple: there would have been a dead body and he would have been charged with murder.
11. Which role was Joe’s and which was Beth’s? Who was calling the shots and who was the fall guy? Explain.
Joe was the fall guy, the perfect patsy who stumbled unknowingly into a play that was going on. Beth was calling the shots: she was the boss, contrary to Mel who was in thrall. (p. 473)
12. What would have happened if Joe had kept plodding along?
p.474-475. If Joe had gone on plodding along, stuck in his rut, he needn’t have been involved, nothing would probably have happened to him.
13. How did Mel and Beth find out that the hang-up call had been made by Joe from a telephone booth?
p. 475-476. Quite by chance, not from the SysAdminTrack app. Some random chav (Ryley Warner actually) had retweeted a picture of Joe in the booth and Mel was one of those who got it.
14. When Joe tells them he phoned the police from a telephone booth, why don’t they believe him?
p. 476. Because, as he had deleted the spying device or so he thought), he felt safe, he believed his mobile was no longer hacked, and so there was no need to use a landline.
15. How did they Know Joe had found out about the app?
Because he did a Google search about it.
16. How did Ben intend to apply his scorched earth policy to Beth?
p. 478-479. Dissolve their nuptial agreement. Humiliate her (end the affair and apologise in writing). Deprive her of important things.(total forfeiture of assets and guardianship of Alice in case of further adultery).
17. What were the two things Joe discovered that made it click for him?
p. 480-481. First, the selfie on Mel’s secret phone. There was William’s Superstar certificate on it, which means it was taken after the scene at the hotel. So the picture was a lie.
Second, the picture from the Escort agency with a photo of a man who was a dead ringer for Ben.
18. What struck Joe in the picture of Mel naked in the kitchen and in the booking confirmation message from the escort agency?
Same answer as 17. He knew Mel was involved in something.
19. How did Beth react when she understood Joe was getting close to the truth?
p. 481. She wanted him out of the way. She sent him a text for help, knowing he would “do the full white-knight routine” (come to the rescue).
20. What thought was uppermost in Joe’s mind as he was dragging himself with his shattered leg towards Beth?
p. 489. Grab her weapon, kill her, to save William (for William to have a chance). He couldn’t accept being killed and letting William be raised by a murderess.
21. What evidence of Joe’s innocence did Alice have and how did she use it?
p. 491-494.She had hidden a spying app in both Mel’s and Beth’s phones, and she recorded all the conversation.
She had emailed it to her phone and forwarded it to the police.
22. Does the fact that Joe has gone cold turkey mean he admits that sharing emotions with people on social media once made him feel calmer, more focused?
p. 497-498. No, on the contrary. He has gone cold turkey on (his) generation’s compulsion and stopped using social media completely. Now that he has ditched social media he feels calmer (and) more focused. He focuses on living.
-----------------------------------------------------------------
