Quiz Badlands Douglas Preston & Lincoln Child

Badlands Quiz: How Well Do You Know the Mystery?

About This Quiz

This 20‑question quiz covers the major events, character motivations, themes, and symbols in Douglas Preston’s Badlands (the fifth Nora Kelly thriller). The questions are split into four categories:

  • 8 Plot and Sequence questions
  • 5 Character Motivation questions
  • 4 Theme and Symbol questions
  • 3 Synthesis questions

A mix of multiple‑choice and short‑answer formats. After the last question you will find the complete answer key, with a brief explanation for each answer.

Part I: Plot and Sequence (8 questions)

1. What does Alex Bondi’s drone camera first spot in the Ah‑shi‑sle‑pah badlands?

A. An abandoned film prop
B. A human skull and scattered bones
C. A coyote den
D. An ancient kiva entrance

2. Who places probationary agent Corrie Swanson in charge of the FBI investigation?

A. Detective Sergeant Jack Benally
B. Sheriff Homer Watts
C. Supervisory Agent Sharp
D. ERT leader Cliff Gradinski

3. Which artifacts found near the first skeleton cause Nora Kelly to immediately cancel her vacation and travel to New Mexico?

A. A Folsom spearpoint and a pop‑top tab
B. Shredded lace panties and a running shoe
C. Two rare prasiolite lightning stones
D. A bone flute and an obsidian knife

4. Using facial reconstruction and the NamUs AI copilot, whom does Corrie identify as the first victim?

A. Martha Jane Markey
B. Elodie Bastien
C. Molly D. Vine
D. Susan Franco

5. Where is the second victim, Mandy Driver, discovered?

A. Kutz Canyon
B. Gallina Canyon
C. Pierre’s Ruins
D. Chaco Canyon

6. What does Nora find when she free‑solos the pinnacle above Molly Vine’s death site?

A. A mummified corpse and prasiolite crystals
B. A stone hearth, a hut, and charred human bones
C. A complete set of ancient flutes
D. The wreckage of a crashed helicopter

7. Who captures Skip and Edison Nash in Gallina Canyon?

A. Oil‑field security guards
B. A rogue band of artifact looters
C. The Convocatoria de Brujos cult
D. Mexican cartel members

8. How is the summoned creature ultimately defeated during the climax?

A. Corrie shoots the cult leader
B. Sheriff Watts arrives with an FBI team
C. Nora plays an ancient skinwalker‑repelling melody on a flute
D. Skip sets fire to the kiva

Part II: Character Motivation (5 questions)

9. In Chapter 4, Corrie flatters Gradinski’s reputation. Why does she use this approach?

  • Short answer: _________________________________________________________________

10. What is Skip’s main personal reason for secretly joining Edison Nash’s camping trip despite Nora’s warnings?

  • Short answer: _________________________________________________________________

11. Why did Molly Vine abandon her promising archaeology PhD and eventually walk into the desert to die?

A. She was fleeing an abusive husband
B. She had been brainwashed by a cult led by her former advisor Oskarbi
C. She was terminally ill and wanted a dramatic death
D. She was trying to prove a Guinness World Record

12. After the helicopter crash, why does Sheriff Watts insist on setting out alone to rescue Corrie and the others?

A. He believes he is the only one who can navigate the canyon
B. He feels a personal duty and deep attachment to Corrie
C. FBI protocol requires the highest‑ranking officer to go first
D. He wants to retrieve the lightning stones for himself

13. What drives collector Edison Nash to pursue the Gallina artifacts so relentlessly?

  • Short answer: _________________________________________________________________

Part III: Theme and Symbol (4 questions)

14. What do the prasiolite lightning stones primarily symbolize in the novel?

A. The scientific curiosity of archaeologists
B. Ancient evil, forbidden knowledge, and the link between past and present rituals
C. The hope of rescue from the desert
D. The innocence of the Gallina children

15. How does the novel use the “witch’s finger” formations?

A. As a signpost for lost hikers
B. As a representation of the Great Gambler’s lingering curse and a place of evil
C. As a natural feature with no symbolic weight
D. As a marker for buried treasure

16. The reverse spiral and Feathered Serpent carved on a stone artifact represent:

  • Short answer: _________________________________________________________________

17. Why is the Pueblo flute melody so effective against the smoky creature?

  • Short answer: _________________________________________________________________

Part IV: Synthesis (3 questions)

18. How do the Chacoan lighthouse pinnacles connect the ancient Gallina genocide to the modern ritual killings?

  • Short answer: _________________________________________________________________

19. What common pattern links the three main female victims—Molly Vine, Mandy Driver, and Elodie Bastien—to Carlos Oskarbi?

A. They all worked for a fracking company before they died
B. They were all his former graduate students or research assistants and were drawn into his cult
C. They all dated the same FBI agent during the investigation
D. They wrote their doctoral dissertations about the same kiva

20. At the end of the novel, Nora insists that the apparition was a hallucination, yet privately accepts that something otherworldly occurred. What does this reveal about her character and about the story’s handling of the supernatural?

  • Short answer: _________________________________________________________________

Answer Key

  1. B. The drone camera reveals a human skull and scattered bones (Chapter 2).
  2. C. Supervisory Agent Sharp tells Corrie, “I’m expecting you to take the lead on this case” (Chapter 3).
  3. C. Nora sees two green prasiolite lightning stones in the crime‑scene photos and is immediately intrigued (Chapter 9).
  4. C. After Corrie loads the reconstruction and AI prompts into NamUs, the system identifies Molly D. Vine, whose M.A. thesis centered on the same cultural period as the Gallina culture (Chapter 13).
  5. C. The helicopter spots Mandy Driver’s body near Pierre’s Ruins, another isolated volcanic plug (Chapter 17).
  6. B. Nora finds a stone hut with a keyhole door, a scorched hearth, and human remains showing violent death—remnants of the ancient lighthouse guardians (Chapter 28).
  7. C. The Convocatoria de Brujos cult ambushes Skip and Edison at their camp; they are dragged into a kiva (Chapter 39).
  8. C. Nora blows the ancient melody on a replica Pueblo flute, causing the smoke‑creature to turn on Bromley and lead the cultists over the cliff (Chapter 62).
  9. Short answer. She needs Gradinski to collect items he had dismissed because she is a young female agent. By praising his reputation, she changes his attitude and gets the evidence gathered (Chapter 4).
  10. Short answer. Skip is fascinated by artifacts, wants adventure, and sees a chance to prove himself outside of Nora’s shadow. He also hopes to find prasiolite stones or other treasures before the authorities do (Chapters 24, 31).
  11. B. Molly was part of Oskarbi’s graduate‑student “groupies” and later fell under the cult’s control, leading to her ritual suicide in the desert (Chapters 15, 16).
  12. B. Watts has developed a strong personal bond with Corrie during the investigation and feels an urgent responsibility to save her (Chapters 50, 60).
  13. Short answer. Nash is a wealthy, obsessive collector who resents the Institute’s rejection of his earlier donations. He is determined to unearth rare Gallina artifacts—especially the lightning stones—and prove that his knowledge surpasses that of professional archaeologists (Chapters 24, 34).
  14. B. The stones are repeatedly linked to the power of the diablero, ancient Totonteac dark knowledge, and the sacrifices that join past and present (Chapters 8, 51, 62).
  15. B. Jack Bia explains that such black spires were left by the Great Gambler as a sign of lingering evil; the Navajo elder also calls the location a place of skinwalkers and ghosts (Chapters 11, 22).
  16. Short answer. It symbolizes Gallina witchcraft, evil, and the Feathered Serpent deity that the cult worships. Nora recognizes it as a reverse spiral—a sign of malevolent power (Chapter 45).
  17. Short answer. The melody was composed as a skinwalker‑repelling song; the sound disrupts the summoning ritual and forces the entity to consume its summoners (Chapters 14, 62).
  18. Short answer. The ancient Chacoans built fire‑signal lighthouses on seven volcanic plugs to warn of Gallina attacks, and Nora discovers that each pinnacle likely held a sacrificial guardian. The modern cult, following Oskarbi’s revived rituals, uses the same remote pillars to stage ritual suicides, literally reviving the ancient pattern of sacrifice and death (Chapters 29, 36, 51).
  19. B. All three women were part of Oskarbi’s academic circle—Molly was a doctoral student, Mandy was his personal research assistant, and Elodie was another archaeologist who attended his field schools. Each was drawn into the Convocatoria de Brujos and manipulated into a ritual walk (Chapters 13, 15, 21, 40).
  20. Short answer. Nora is a scientist who values evidence and resists crediting supernatural forces publicly. By privately accepting that the apparition was real, she shows the story’s central tension: the characters must rely on official, rational reports even though they have experienced something that defies explanation. This mirrors the novel’s larger ambiguity about the line between hallucination, folklore, and genuine evil (Chapter 64).