All Around the Town
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40 free All Around the Town trivia questions with answers — literature quiz, new questions added Oct 2026.
All Around the Town is one of Mary Higgins Clark's most unsettling thrillers. A student with no memory of the crime stands accused of killing her professor, and the truth lies somewhere in the two years she lost as a small girl, when she was taken from her family and held by strangers. This quiz covers the story and the people in it: the heroine and her alter personalities, the kidnappers who fear her memory, the courtroom fight to save her and the evidence that points her way. It also takes in the book's publication and reviews, the 2002 TV film, and the life of the author behind it. It suits readers who have just finished the novel, book clubs looking for a discussion warm-up, and longtime Clark fans. Every answer comes with a short explanation, so you can guess first and pick up the background afterwards.
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Q 01In All Around the Town, which careers have Laurie Kenyon's kidnappers built by the time she reaches college?
Televangelists
Televangelists on the brink of stardom is what the couple have become, which is why they fear being recognized by the girl they once held captive.
Q 02In All Around the Town, what is the profession of Justin Donnelly, who helps Laurie Kenyon unlock her lost years?
Psychiatrist
Psychiatrist Justin Donnelly is brought in by Laurie's sister to tease the truth out of the alter personalities, and a quiet romance grows between the doctor and the sister along the way.
Q 03Which future Hollywood star modeled for Remington Rand brochures alongside the young Mary Higgins Clark?
Grace Kelly
Grace Kelly was still unknown when the two posed for the company's brochures. Clark was a secretary there, and her job grew to include writing catalog copy beside Joseph Heller.
Q 04In All Around the Town, Laurie Kenyon's fingerprints are found on which weapon used to kill her English professor?
A knife
A knife carrying her prints is only part of the case: they are also on the door and the curtain, yet Laurie has no memory of the night at all.
Q 05Which US president is the hero of Mary Higgins Clark's first novel, a love story that sold poorly?
George Washington
George Washington and his wife Martha are the couple in Aspire to the Heavens, which flopped so badly that Clark turned to suspense. It was reissued in 2002 as Mount Vernon Love Story.
Q 06Which German star of Tess and Paris, Texas plays the murdered professor's wife in the 2002 film All Around the Town?
Nastassja Kinski
Nastassja Kinski took top billing as the widow left to avenge her husband, while Canadian actress Kim Schraner played the accused student.
Q 07In All Around the Town, from a comfortable family home in which state is little Laurie Kenyon abducted?
New Jersey
New Jersey was home ground for the author, who moved there in 1956 and later settled in Saddle River. In the story the girl is held for two years before she is released.
Q 08For which airline did Mary Higgins Clark work as a flight attendant in 1949, flying to Europe, Africa and Asia?
Pan American
Pan American took her on for a single year of international routes, including the last flight allowed into Czechoslovakia before the Iron Curtain fell. She then left to marry Warren Clark.
Q 09In All Around the Town, what is the name of Laurie Kenyon's fiercely protective older sister, a lawyer?
Sarah
Sarah gives up her own job to take charge of her sister's defense when Laurie is charged with killing her professor.
Q 10With which family member did Mary Higgins Clark co-write a run of light-hearted Christmas suspense novels?
Her daughter
Her daughter Carol Higgins Clark, a crime novelist in her own right, shared the byline, and Carol's detective Regan Reilly teamed up with her mother's amateur sleuth Alvirah Meehan.
Q 11In All Around the Town, Laurie Kenyon's sister quits her job with whom to lead the murder defense?
The district attorney
The district attorney loses a member of staff when she switches sides of the courtroom, because nobody else will fight as hard for a sister who cannot remember the night of the killing.
Q 12Which publisher released All Around the Town in May 1992, as it did all of Mary Higgins Clark's suspense novels?
Simon & Schuster
Simon & Schuster bought her first thriller for just $3,000 in the 1970s and never let her go, later signing her to a four-book contract worth $64 million.
Q 13Which Mary Higgins Clark novel, her first suspense bestseller, was filmed in 1986 with Jill Clayburgh?
Q 21In All Around the Town, which machine is shown to have produced the love letters sent to Laurie Kenyon's professor?
Her typewriter
Her typewriter gives her away: the professor takes the match to the college administration, and soon afterwards Laurie finds herself standing over his body, unable to remember what happened.
Q 22In All Around the Town, which family tragedy strikes Laurie Kenyon shortly before the murder case begins?
Losing both her parents
Losing both her parents in an accident is the second great shock of her life, and in her grief she grows closer to the teacher she will later be accused of killing.
Q 23Kirkus Reviews joked that readers of All Around the Town should be grateful Mary Higgins Clark was not doing what?
Where Are the Children?
Where Are the Children? sold to its publisher for only $3,000, then earned $100,000 for the paperback rights three months later and ended her money worries.
Q 14In which borough did Mary Higgins Clark grow up, in a home paid for by her family's Irish pub?
The Bronx
The Bronx named her one of its Bronx Legends in 1999, long after her father's early death forced the family to take in boarders and finally give up the house.
Q 15Which annual New York City procession did novelist Mary Higgins Clark lead as Grand Marshal in 2011?
St. Patrick's Day Parade
St. Patrick's Day Parade organizers chose the child of an Irish immigrant father, and in the same year an Irish-American hall of fame inducted her.
Q 16In All Around the Town, what is the name of the English professor Laurie Kenyon is accused of murdering?
Allan Grant
Allan Grant had just shown the college administration proof that the love letters he was receiving came from Laurie, which made her the obvious suspect when he was found dead.
Q 17In All Around the Town, by which pair of nicknames are the couple who kidnap little Laurie Kenyon known?
Bic and Opal
Bic and Opal Hawkins hold the girl for two years before the search gets too close and they turn her loose, and those lost years are what her mind later walls off.
Q 18In All Around the Town, which of Laurie Kenyon's alter personalities writes steamy letters to her English professor?
Leona
Leona is the bold, flirtatious alter, and Laurie herself has no idea that this side of her has been writing to the man or slipping into his house while his wife is away.
Q 19Which Stargate SG-1 actor plays Justin Donnelly in the 2002 TV film of All Around the Town?
Michael Shanks
Michael Shanks is best known as Daniel Jackson in the military sci-fi series; here he trades alien worlds for a murder case, as the man helping Laurie recover her lost years.
Q 20In All Around the Town, which unexpected figure is among the alter personalities Laurie Kenyon develops?
A nine-year-old boy
A nine-year-old boy is one of several alters, each built to keep the memories of her captivity out of reach, and Laurie is unaware that any of them exist.
Running for office
Running for office was the worry, a wry tribute to her skill at pushing her fans' buttons, even in a whodunit the critic thought far too easy to solve.
Q 24Which Stephen King novel topped the 1992 Publishers Weekly fiction list on which All Around the Town placed tenth?
Dolores Claiborne
Dolores Claiborne led a year in which King also held third place with another title, while John Grisham's The Pelican Brief sat between the two.
Q 25Which 1890s song, also known as East Side, West Side, includes the phrase All Around the Town in its chorus?
The Sidewalks of New York
The Sidewalks of New York supplies the words of the thriller's title, and Governor Al Smith later made the waltz his presidential campaign theme.
Q 26What did the widowed Mary Higgins Clark write for a living for years before her suspense novels took off?
Radio scripts
Radio scripts just four minutes long, beginning with a series called Portrait of a Patriot, taught her to write tightly and to move the story forward with every paragraph.
Q 27Which organization named Mary Higgins Clark a Grand Master and presents an annual suspense award in her name?
Mystery Writers of America
Mystery Writers of America made her its president in 1987 and a Grand Master in 2000, and the prize in her name goes to suspense with no on-scene violence or strong language.
Q 28As a hotel switchboard operator, the young Mary Higgins Clark listened in on which playwright's phone calls?
Tennessee Williams
Tennessee Williams was a resident of the Shelton Hotel, and her memoir complains that for all her eavesdropping he never said anything interesting.
Q 29In All Around the Town, where do the kidnappers leave young Laurie Kenyon when they finally let her go?
Outside a school
Outside a school is where she is found two years after she vanished, and she is back with her family soon afterwards.
Q 30Which Mary Higgins Clark thriller about personal ads was her last novel before All Around the Town?
Loves Music, Loves to Dance
Loves Music, Loves to Dance came out in 1991 and was one of that year's ten bestselling novels. A TV film of it followed in 2001, a year before this book's own adaptation.