Ann Repetto asked:

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Lori 4902

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Leanne

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Mark Emmett had a perfect plan to delay Duchess. But he did not know about the wind that came at 5pm, as Woolly fortold earlier in the book.

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Cathy

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Cathy I was shocked that Emmett, as portrayed, left him in the boat as described. There is no way he could be sure Duchess would survive with a hole in the boat and knowing he could not swim. So in accepting the possibility that he could drown, he killed him. It would have made more sense if when leaving, he threw an oar in the boat or had a string tied to it that he could attach to the dock. What also leads me to not give Emmett the benefit of the doubt is at the end of Emmetts last chapter it is noted - “the power within him was new in nature, that no one but he could know what he was capable of, and that he had only just begun to know it himself.” I was bummed by that turn but it made for a very good ending. As we are all pondering it.

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Marin Ward

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Denise Summers

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Darkloom

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Lisa

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Viktoriya Kokareva I think many of us here give Emmett way more credit than we should. Emmett is not Billy, meaning while he is smart, he is not "complicated" smart, planning out the steps in a sophisticated way. What he did was just try to slow him down and school him a bit. However, the almost-biblical end to it is all on Duchess, not just because he chose or didn't choose smth (while I think that there was no "choice" here at all because Duchess is Duchess, he is like a shark that bites its' tail off if it has blood flowing from it) etc. but the whole vaudeville-ian ring to the scene

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Emily Edmundson

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Bobbye Trotter

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Joel Severino So Emmett is so impeccable that he can get away with murder? he knew Duchess could not swim why put him in that predicament? With out an oar or anything? If indeed Duchess died as a result of this, Emmett is responsible. What gives Emmett the power to force Duchess’s hand with an ultimatum “greed or your life”? These vague endings from Towels kind of piss me off lol same thing with Rules of Civility. Great writer but come on man closeeeee it.

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Karna Bosman I think we can't know. There was the scene with Ulysses in the open grave that must have only been a dream. When Ulysses became conscious again he was back to camping out with his homeless buddies again.
The end scene may have been the same kind of situation.

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Janet Kirch Wenner

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Rebecca

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Jack Straub

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Jenny I read somewhere...that in the part about the boat was Dutchess dreaming that whole thing because previously it said he was left in the car and stashed the money in the trunk...do you think it could have been a dream and that he really wasn't in the boat?

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Charlene Atkinson Ledbetter

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Linda Zielinski Billy made Emmett promise he would not hurt Duchess any more than he had. That’s when Emmett decided to stall him by putting him in the boat.

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Maureen

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Gary

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H-Grace It surprised me at first, but as I thought more it was a good solution to the dilemma of Duchess. If he lived, he likely would have outright killed people. The author let us identify with Duchess, see his good parts, yet his behavior was troublesome. He had been dealt a lousy hand in life; still, he had freewill about how to handle it. Ultimately, chose revenge and greed.

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Jill Benson

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Kelly

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Cheryl McCann I've thought about this a lot. And,no, I do not think Emmet killed Duchess. Like many others I think he set it up for Duchess to float his way to shore. Ok maybe there was a little bit of getting back at Duchess here and knowing he would go for the money at his feet. But Emmet did not know about the wind at 5pm. I hope Emmet never finds out about what happened to Duchess. It could ruin him. Also, think about the horror show the care taker or family found when they arrived at the house. I still want to believe that Duchess lived somehow but never bothered Emmet and Billy again.

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Colin

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Judith Not really. Duchess would have eventually drifted in to shore if he'd sat tight instead of thrashing around in the boat trying to grab the money. But Duchess was all about evening things up & settling scores, so he probably realized that's what was happening for all he did to Emmet.

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Robert Swanson

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Margaret

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Ann Repetto

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Vilda Rosenblad Yes. And I hated that and I am going to forget those pages and pretend I never read them.

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John

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Bizzler

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W. Stephen What was the medicine Wooly took?

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Shuchir Bhatia

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Sandra

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Peggy Griffin what is the medicine Wooley takes ?

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Suzi

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Carolyn R.

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Babs I don't think Emmet was concerned a wind would cause Dutchess a problem being that he put him in a boat with a hole in it and no oars.

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Keshav Anirudh

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Georgiana Cave I thought so too. Very out of character, but I did not remember that he wouldn't know about the wind, as foretold by Wooly. Still....

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Tony and Jeannine Pound Ugh! [I REALLY ENJOYED the whole book until the last page. I feel that Emmet would NOT have put Duchess in a dangerous position like the lake and instead this situation was so CONTRIVED to selfishly show off the wit of the author ~ ugh! ~ I agree with all the comments about how the situation paralleled the myths & was vaudevillian and all that, but it’s just too neat in that way and Emmet would not have done it knowing Duchess couldn’t swim, not in his character. Hooray, author, you showed how clever you are but boo! You took too many liberties with the characters in the last chapter. Hate that. ]

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MaryAnn That is what I suspected too and it was so out of synch with Emmett's character that I came here to check that out.

I could have gone back and re read the book to answer this question and some of the other unanswered questions noted.

But frankly, I did not enjoy the book enough to want to re spend that time and effort.

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Deborah A G

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Alexander

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Joy Lupo He didn't put him in the trunk of the car because he might never had gotten out, so that leaves me to believe he either thought he would float ashore or didn't care what happened to him.

Why didn't duchess splash water on the bills to get them wet? They wouldn't have blown away then and he could have just waited until he either floated to the other side of the lake or started paddling again once the breeze stopped.

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