A Kiss Before Dying: Unraveling a Murder Mystery

A Kiss Before Dying

Key Events and Clues

1. A home that… CARAVAN
2. Be sick: THROW UP
3. After taking the pills: PAIN
4. He read the books: PAIN
5. All around the room: GELATIN CAPSULES
6. If he didn’t marry: SUSPICIOUS
7. The young man dropped: (Left Blank)
8. ''We have to go…: BIRTH CERTIFICATE
9. Personal FILES
10. A lawyer. A person: ATTORNEY

Questions and Answers

1. What do you know about Dorothy’s mother?

   She was married to Dorothy's father when Dorothy was born, but eight years later, her father realized that she was with another man. He broke up with her. She was ill when she was with Leo, but after he broke up with her, she died.

2. What is the relationship between the book La Casa de las Flores Negras and Dorothy’s suicide note?

   Bud told Dorothy that he didn’t know how to translate some sentences of the book La Casa de las Flores Negras, where some sentences were written that the police might confuse with a suicide note.

3. Why did Dorothy and her boyfriend go to the Marriage License Bureau at 12:30?

   Because he knew it was closed, and they waited on the highest floor of the building. There was an “air shaft” where Bud threw Dorothy, causing her to fall to the ground and die. It was all a plan of Bud’s to kill Dorothy because it was the last time he could kill her before the letter Dorothy had written would be received by her sister at 3 p.m.

4. How did Dorothy die?

   They were waiting for the opening of the Marriage License Bureau on the highest floor of the building. There was an air shaft, and they sat down on the edge. When Bud got down to the edge of the wall, Dorothy told him she wouldn’t be happy if she didn’t tell him that she hadn’t taken the capsules to abort. When she asked him to apologize to her, he threw her, and she fell to the ground and died.

5. Why did the police think that Dorothy killed herself? Give two reasons.

   First, they interpreted the letter as a suicide note. Second, she was pregnant, and they thought she knew it was punished in that state and that her father would be angry with her. She thought it was the correct option.

6. What was Dorothy wearing the day she died? Why?

   She was wearing a belt from her partner, an old shirt, and a blue scarf. She wore all these things because people say if you’re going to be married, you have to wear something borrowed, something new, something old, and something blue.

7. Who was Dwight Powell?

   He was an ex-boyfriend of Dorothy's; they were in the same class. He was the boy whom Ellen remembered, but he broke up with Dorothy before she died.

8. Marion Kingship was quite different from her sister. What things did she like?

   She liked Asian food, classical music, and some painters like Van Gogh, as well as writers of classical books.

9. What did Gordon Gant find in Bud Corliss’s bedroom when he broke into his house?

   He found a box containing leaflets from Leo's company. Moreover, there was a list of Marion's preferences.

10. How did Bud Corliss die?

    He was on a catwalk without the security chain. When he saw Marion with her father, they tried to apprehend him. He panicked, fell into a vat of hot copper, and died.