The Drop Reading Guide
Use these questions to help start a conversation about the book. SPOILER WARNING! These questions cover the entire book. Don’t read this unless you have read the book.
SPOILERS! SPOILERS!
“From time to time you must have thought about where the darkness in people comes from.”
In The Drop, Hannah Stone asks Harry Bosch where he thinks evil comes from and he says he doesn’t know. It’s the age old “nature versus nurture” question. Do you think Chilton Hardy turned Clayton Pell into a predator? Or was there something born in Pell that emerged under the right circumstances?
“Bosch got the idea that her decision to change her professional life and work with the most hated members of society was some sort of penance but he didn’t know her well enough to go further with his suspicion.”
There are many examples of the role of a parent in The Drop. We see the two examples of Harry and Maddie Bosch and Irvin and George Irving, where the children seem to be following in the parent’s footsteps. We also read about Hannah Stone and her dismay over her son, a convicted rapist. It is asked in the book: are parents responsible for the sins of their children? What do you think?
“He knew it was home and that he would get to stay — for now.”
Harry’s retirement is looming. He has been given a definitive date of when he must leave the LAPD. At that point, he will be in his mid 60s. What do you hope happens in his last years on the force? And after that?
“She had told him a year earlier that she wanted to be a cop when she grew up.”
Harry seems proud and excited to be passing his knowledge on to his daughter, Maddie. He believes he is raising a warrior. But Harry does not want his daughter to make the same mistakes he made, letting her past haunt her. If Maddie becomes a cop, will it be a mistake for her? Do you hope to read about her as a cop in the future?
“You’re going to be famous, Bosch. You caught the goddamn record holder.”
Many serial killers become the subject of much attention and notoriety and become infamous. Why are so many people in our society fascinated by them?
“He had acted to save the monster and now his thoughts were clouded with regret.”
Harry felt guilty over stopping Pell in the end. Was he wrong to stop him? Would killing Hardy have given Pell his redemption?
“It’s starting. With Irving.”
Do you have any predictions of what will happen next with Harry and Irvin Irving? Or with Harry and Kizmin Rider?
