The Night We Lost Him: 20-Question Book Quiz

Test your understanding of Laura Dave's The Night We Lost Him with this comprehensive 20-question quiz. Questions cover plot sequence, character motivations, themes, and synthesis. Use the quiz to review key details before discussing or re-reading. For a full summary, visit our book overview. For common questions, see our questions and answers page. For the ending analysis, check the ending explained.

Plot / Sequence Questions

What is the name of the cliffside cottage that Liam Noone owns?
Multiple choice
A) The Overlook
B) Windbreak
C) The Retreat
D) Seacliff
Who confesses to pushing Liam Noone off the cliff?
Multiple choice
A) Uncle Joe
B) Cece Salinger
C) Paul Turner
D) Grace
What does Nora find in her father's childhood closet in Midwood, Brooklyn?
Short answer
What was the cause of Grace's (Cordelia Ryan's) death?
Multiple choice
A) Car accident
B) Heart attack
C) Cancer
D) She did not die during the novel
Where does Nora discover the literary journal Jabberwocky that reveals Grace's true identity?
Multiple choice
A) In her father's office at Noone Properties
B) At Windbreak cottage
C) In her father's Perry Street apartment
D) At the Strand bookstore
What critical detail from the police report makes Nora realize her father's cell phone is missing?
Short answer
Who do Sam and Nora first visit as part of their own investigation into their father's death?
Multiple choice
A) Detective O'Brien
B) Cece Salinger
C) Uncle Joe
D) Tommy
To whom did Liam leave Windbreak in his revised will?
Multiple choice
A) Sam
B) Nora
C) Grace
D) Uncle Joe

Character Motivation Questions

Why does Nora initially refuse to fly to California with Sam to investigate their father's death?
Short answer
What makes Sam suspect that their father's fall was not an accident?
Multiple choice
A) He saw someone on the cliff that night
B) The recent will changes and his father's strange behavior
C) He found a suicide note
D) The detective told him it was suspicious
Why does Cory refuse Liam's marriage proposal at the Strand bookstore?
Multiple choice
A) She does not love him
B) She believes he is not ready and that legal commitment would ruin their bond
C) She is already married to another man
D) She plans to move to Europe
What emotional trigger causes Paul to push Liam?
Short answer
Why did Liam decide to leave his company to Grace?
Multiple choice
A) He wanted to spite his other children
B) She was the only person who understood his business vision
C) He was in love with her and wanted to be together openly
D) She blackmailed him with their secret

Theme / Symbol Questions

In the novel's epigraph, what does the high‑wire walker's pole represent?
Multiple choice
A) Ambition and reaching higher
B) Balance and mutual support between two people
C) The danger of performing alone
D) The performer's need for an audience
What does the cottage Windbreak symbolize for Liam and Cory?
Short answer
How does Nora's profession as a neuroarchitect influence the way she investigates her father's death?
Short answer
What does the carved heart reading “Cory & Liam” in the Midwood closet represent?
Multiple choice
A) A childhood prank by Liam's cousins
B) A hidden relationship from Liam's past
C) A message from Liam's first wife
D) An advertisement for a local restaurant

Synthesis Questions

The novel presents the idea that “fidelity is who you tell your stories to.” How does Grace embody this concept?
Short answer
In what way does the narrative structure of flashbacks and epigraphs help the reader understand the central mystery?
Short answer
The novel ends with Nora taking Paul's hand instead of taking him to the police. What does this gesture suggest about the theme of compassion over justice?
Short answer

Answer Key

1. B) Windbreak
The prologue and throughout the novel, the cliffside cottage is called Windbreak.

2. C) Paul Turner
In chapter 36 (“New York City Misses You”), Paul confesses to pushing Liam during an argument at Windbreak.

3. A wooden plank with height markings and a carved heart reading “Cory & Liam.”
In chapter 27, Nora finds this carving inside the closet of her father's childhood home, revealing his long‑hidden relationship with Cory.

4. B) Heart attack
Chapter 36 mentions that Grace had a heart attack, which complicated her relationship with Paul in the years before Liam's death.

5. C) In her father's Perry Street apartment
Chapter 33: Nora finds the literary journal Jabberwocky on a shelf in her father's apartment and discovers Cordelia Ryan (Grace) is the editor in chief.

6. The cell phone was not recovered from the scene, and it pinged in Santa Barbara eighteen days after the death.
Chapter 13 and chapter 15: Nora notices the phone is missing from the police report and later learns it pinged in Santa Barbara.

7. C) Uncle Joe
After receiving a manila envelope from Sam, they go to Uncle Joe to question him about the will and possible involvement (chapter 8 and 10).

8. B) Nora
In chapter 4, Sam shows Nora the revised will that leaves Windbreak to her.

9. She was in denial about the murder theory, felt estranged from Sam, and wanted to avoid confronting her father's death.
Chapters 3 and 4 show Nora's resistance and eventual agreement after Sam's emotional appeal.

10. B) The recent will changes and his father's strange behavior
Sam points to the sudden reversal of the company sale, the revised will, and his father's unusual actions as evidence that it was not an accident.

11. B) She believes he is not ready and that legal commitment would ruin their bond
Chapter 14: Cory tells Liam that marrying would spoil what they have; she defines their relationship as being “witnesses to each other's lives.”

12. Liam confides that he cannot figure out how to live without Grace, overwhelming Paul with grief and anger.
Chapter 36: Paul explains that hearing Liam's pain “tipped me over,” leading to the accidental push.

13. C) He was in love with her and wanted to be together openly
Chapter 35: Five years before his death, Liam tells Cory (Grace) that he is leaving her the company because he is done hiding their relationship.

14. B) Balance and mutual support between two people
The epigraph describes the pole as a means of carrying each other through life; the final lines are “You carried me I carried you / through this world.”

15. It symbolizes a shared dream, a place of starting over, and the life they could have had together.
Chapter 25 (thirty‑two years ago) and later references emphasize Windbreak as “our place,” built around the bookshelves Cory loved.

16. She applies the neuroarchitecture principle of finding a simple, elegant solution that makes all pieces fit, and she tries to understand her father's emotional “axis.”
Chapter 12 and chapter 30 show Nora using her architect's problem‑solving mindset to evaluate clues and reframe the question.

17. B) A hidden relationship from Liam's past
The carving (chapter 27) confirms that Liam and Cory had a deep, secret bond long before the present timeline.

18. Grace was the person to whom Liam told his true stories and revealed his innermost self; she was his secret confidante for decades, and he ultimately left her his company as a symbol of that fidelity.
From the reading group guide and the revelation that Grace is Cory, Liam's fidelity was directed at her, even though he married others.

19. The flashbacks reveal the decades‑long hidden relationship between Liam and Grace, showing the emotional stakes and secrets that led to the events of his death. The epigraphs set themes of balance and carrying another, mirroring the characters' interdependence.
The structure allows readers to piece together the mystery alongside Nora and Sam.

20. Nora's gesture suggests that understanding and forgiveness can be more important than retribution; she recognizes Paul's grief and chooses to bear witness to his pain rather than punish him, reflecting the novel's theme of compassion over justice.
In chapter 36, Nora takes Paul's hand after his confession, choosing connection over vengeance.