High Life, Low Life
Chapter 1: Summer in the city
1)Who is Nat Marley? (Where does he live? Where does he work?)
2)Who is Annie Clayton? What was she wearing? What happened to her (at the Grand
Central Station) when they were going to have breakfast?
3)Where did Nat go after the accident? Who is Stella Delgado?
4)Where did they both go?
5)Is Nat a married man?
6)What did Annie Clayton asked Nat Marley to do? Why?
Chapter 2: Central Park West
1)What did Marley get the next morning, at his office? Whom was the letter from? What did
she request?
2)Where did they go?
3)Who was Martha? What did she look like?
4)What do we learn about Mrs. Joanna Whittaker? Does she have a family?
5)What does Nat look like, according to [Link]?
6)What does she need from Nat?
Chapter 3: The Will
1)Why does [Link] need a lawyer?
2) What does Stella think of Mrs. Whittaker and the whole situation?
3)Back at the office, who did Nat call? Where did they go again?
4)What does [Link] want to do with the inheritance? Was there any problem with
that? (Why?) What did Nat think about it?
5)What did Mrs. Whittaker give everybody as a present?
Chapter 4: Beneath the city streets
1)What did Ed tell Nat about Tom Whittaker?
2)Where did Leona take him? Where were they? Who lived there?
4)What did Leona give Nat? Why?
5)Back at the hospital, what was inside the box? What did Annie ask Nat to do? Why?
6)Where did Annie and her family use to live? What had Jackie been doing in the past?
When was the last time she saw him?
7)What happened to Annie after the last meeting with her son?
8) What did Annie hear about Jackie’s whereabouts? What kind of tattoo does Jackie
have?
Chapter 5: Inside Information
1)What did Ed say about Tom Whittaker? What happened during the 1950s? What
happened during the 1960s?
2)How did Stella feel after Nat talk with her about the information gathered?
3)Where did Nat go after? Who did he talk to?
4)What did he say about [Link]?
Chapter 6: East Village
1) What did the police say about Jackie?
2) What did the cab driver of Chinatown tell him?
3)What did the bartender say about Jackie? According to him, what does Jackie do, and
where does he work?
4)At Wiseman’s Cabs, what did Wiseman want of Jackie? Did he want to speak about the
matter?
Chapter 7: Developments
1)Who called Nat at the office? What did he say? What did the doctor say about Annie?
2)What did Stella suggest to do?
3)Who was the man with Jackie Clayton in the old newspaper? What did they use to do?
4)What was the real name of Wiseman (that Nat realised after seeing the photos)?
Chapter 8: A Death in the family
1)What did Martha say about Mrs. Whittaker? What was Martha doing when they got to
the Century Apartments?
2)Who found the body? What did Nat think of Martha and the situation?
3)What did the doctor say about Mrs. Whittaker’s death?
Chapter 9: The lost son found
1)Who arrived at the Century Apartments? Did Nat want the inheritance?
2)What did Captain Oldenberg say about Wiseman? What did Nat do after speaking with
the Captain?
3)What did Wiseman (Ernst Weissmann) say about Jackie?
4)What was the name of the place where Jackie was working? What did he do when Nat
called for him?
Chapter 10: We’re the good guys
1)What had happened with Martha and the apartment, according to Charlie Whittaker?
Had anything been stolen?
2)What did Nat think about Martha?
3)What was the place Jackie was living?
4)What did Jackie try to do after reading the message?
5)Did he finally agree to see her? How many years had it been without seeing his mother?
Chapter 11: Martha Bianchi
1)Why did Jackie want to leave Wiseman’s organization? What was Jackie doing all the
time, after leaving the organization?
2)Could Annie finally meet again with her son?
3)What happened to [Link]’s bank account? How did Martha manage to withdraw
the money from [Link]’s bank account?
4)According to the message, where did Nat think Martha was going?
5)What did Nat think of Martha’s message on the mirror?
Chapter 12: Atlantic City
1)What did the autopsy say about [Link]’s death?
2)Where did Nat and Joe go to find Martha? Could they find her? What was she doing?
3)Did Martha confess murdering [Link]? How did she do it? Where did she get that
idea? Why did she do it?
4)In the end, was Martha put into jail?
5)Where did Nat go after taking Martha to the police headquarters? In the end, what
happened to Annie? Who were with her in her final moments?
Chapter 13: Rain
1)What did Captain Oldenberg promise Jackie if he helped him catch Wiseman?
2)Did the results on the drug test show that [Link] had been poisoned? As a result,
could Martha be tried for murder?
3)In the end, what will happen to [Link]’s inheritance?
4)What was inside Annie’s metal box?
5)Who was the father of Jackie Clayton?
6)What would have happened to Annie’s inheritance if Nat had never found Jackie, or
Jackie had refused to see her?
7)Was Jackie going to help Oldenberg catch Wiseman?
Chapter 14: The Annie Clayton Center
1)Who was the letter Nat received from? What did she say?
2)In the end, what did Jackie and his half-brother and half-sister decide to do with the
money from their respective inheritances?
3)Did Jackie get on well with his siblings? What did they have in common?
4)What was the thing Nat Marley use to say about the life in New York City?
5)What did Nat Marley think of the new Annie Clayton Center for homeless women?
Personal Questions regarding the story
1)What do you think of the story? Did you like it? Why / Why not? Did you like the ending?
Why? / Why not?
2)What do you think of the characters in the story? Did you like them? Why? / Why not?
3) Tell me something about the story. What is it about, generally speaking? What genre do
you think it belongs?
4) How does the story end?