Before reading b) Mrs. O’Neill is upset because her husband has phoned three times. 1. Look at the front cover. What does the picture c) Nat found several books about poker in a show? Now look at the title. What genre do you locked drawer. think the story is? d) Mrs. O’Neill didn’t know her husband played 2. Now read the blurb on the back cover. Who do poker. you think is ‘hiding’? Do you think it is easy or e) Steinmann and Van Zandt had paid a lot of difficult to hide in a city? money to O’Neill. 3. Look at the list of characters on page 4. How can 2. What did Nat think O’Neill had been doing the various people be grouped? when playing poker? 4. Look at the map on page 5. What does it show? What special places are named? Chapter 4 5. If you have the recording, listen to Chapter 1. 1. Who said these things to whom? a) ‘… see if you can find a phone number for Check your reading this Van Zandt.’ b) ‘Who are you and what’s your business with Chapter 1 Mr. Steinmann?’ 1. Write short answers to these questions: c) ‘Great to hear your voice again!’ a) What season is it? d) ‘Please come quickly. I’m so afraid they’ll b) Who is Nat Marley? come back.’ c) What is the NYPD? 2. What had happened when Mrs. O’Neill went to d) Who is Nat’s personal assistant? her Henry St. house? e) Where is Nat’s office? 3. What was missing from the house? 2. Why is Joyce O’Neill worried? 4. Where was Mrs. O’Neill going to stay? 3. What do you find out about relations between 5. Why doesn’t she call the NYPD? Patrick O’Neill and Ronald Steinmann? Chapter 5 4. What do you think has happened to Patrick O’Neill? 1. Match the beginnings and endings. 1) Frank Van Zandt Chapter 2 2) Nat Marley 3) Oldenberg 1. What kind of company is Ocean Star Finance? 4) The police doctor 2. What sort of person is Lorraine Houston? 5) Mrs O’Neill 3. What does Nat find out about Steinmann when a) showed Steinmann’s dead body to Nat. he phones Ocean Star? b) agrees to talk to the NYPD. 4. What was strange about Ocean Star’s promise to c) doesn’t want to give Nat any information. Nat and Stella? d) said Steinmann had been dead for two or 5. What two people did Nat meet in McFadden’s Bar? three days. Chapter 3 e) went to meet Oldenberg at the 79th Street Boat Basin. 1. True or False? 2. Oldenberg thinks O’Neill killed Steinmann. a) Nat sends Stella to Mrs. O’Neill’s house. What facts lead him to believe this?
Chapter 6 c) ‘Through here … Follow me.’ d) ‘Turn off any lights and lock doors behind us 1. True or False? if you can.’ a) Oldenberg interviewed Mrs. O’Neill at Nat’s e) ‘They got to be here someplace … They can’t office. have gotten far.’ b) Steinmann took over Patrick O’Neill’s job. f ) ‘Am I pleased to see you!’ c) Mrs. O’Neill is unable to phone Patrick. 2. Where did Nat and Joe go after they’d talked to d) Mrs. O’Neill refuses to let Oldenberg search the police? Who was there? her house. 2. Who is Joe Blaney? What does Nat ask him to Chapter 10 bring and why? 1. Match the beginnings and endings. 3. What do you think Nat and Joe Blaney are going 1) Everybody meets to do? 2) O’Neill had hidden Chapter 7 3) Joyce was happy 4) O’Neill explained 1. What did Nat find out at Frank Van Zandt’s 5) Oldenberg keeps Cocktail Lounge about the following: a) to see her husband again. a) how Frank knew Patrick O’Neill? b) O’Neill as his prisoner. b) why O’Neill had paid Frank so much money? c) in a blanket cupboard when the three men in c) where O’Neill went on Sunday? dark glasses came in. d) an envelope for O’Neill which Frank had? d) at Frankie’s Cocktail Lounge. 2. Why is Mrs. O’Neill worried about the police? e) what the papers in the envelope meant. Chapter 8 Chapter 11 1. Put the following events in the correct order: 1. Which of these things does O’Neill tell a) They see a Lexus car with three men in it Oldenberg? drive off. b) The receptionist tells them three men just a) He thought he would become head of went up to O’Neill’s room. department. c) Marley and Blaney start to search the hotels b) Lorraine Houston became head of in East Village. department instead. d) They run to the Metro Hotel. c) Most people at Ocean Star liked Steinmann e) They find Blaney’s car tyres have been cut. a lot. f) They find out O’Neill stayed one night at the d) Steinmann said he was worried how the Madigan Inn. company paid so much money to its clients. 2. What do you think Marley and Blaney will find e) Steinmann told him to do his job and not ask in the room? questions. 2. Which of these things is true about Ocean Star? Chapter 9 a) It stole the money to pay its clients so much. 1. Who said these things to whom? b) It used money from new clients to pay the old a) ‘I guess you ain’t going no place fast.’ ones. b) ‘Back inside the hotel, now!’ c) It used money from old clients to pay the new ones.
3. What did Steinmann do when O’Neill explained After reading what he had found out? 4. What happened to make O’Neill leave home? Choose some of the following activities: 1. Write a newspaper report about the end of the Chapter 12 case. 2. If you were making a film of the story, who 1. What is Marley’s plan to catch Lorraine would you choose to play the main characters – Houston? Marley, Oldenberg, Houston, O’Neill – 2. How does Marley find out at breakfast what and why? Oldenberg has said about the incident at the 3. Think of another title for No Place to Hide and Metro Hotel? explain why it would be good. 3. At what time does Marley arrange to call 4. Write to the author, Alan Battersby, saying what Lorraine Houston the next day? you liked and didn’t like about the story. Chapter 13 5. Choose one of the characters and write a paragraph describing his or her appearance and 1. Put these events in the correct order. character. a) Houston arrives at Battery Park and meets 6. Imagine you are Julia O’Neill. Write the story Marley. from her point of view. b) Houston gets out a gun and says she will kill 7. Make a quiz about the story for other students, Marley if doesn’t give her all the accounts. including some true/false questions and correct/ c) Marley phones Houston and tells her what incorrect sentences. to do. 8. Make a timeline of the story, labelling the main d) Marley goes to Battery Park. events on points where they happen. e) The NYPD catch Houston. 9. Write the conversation between Patrick and f) Houston shows Marley the money. Joyce O’Neill when he gets home from the police g) Marley records Houston saying she killed station. Steinmann. 2. What will now happen to O’Neill?