1. Critics in Woolrich's day considered him the "king of the thriller." Would you agree?

2. Rendezvous in Black was a radical departure from the detective stories popular in Woolrich's day. What sets it apart?

3. In the essay "Cornell Woolrich: Psychologist, Poet, Painter, Moralist," Francis Lacassin states that the reader identifies with the main characters through Woolrich's elements of "the noble or pathetic." Is Johnny pathetic or noble? Is he in fact the hero or the victim?

4. Woolrich described his writing as a "form of subconscious selfexpression." Some critics have interpreted this statement as Woolrich using his own fanciful crimes as therapy for his personal problems and have gone so far as to suggest that Woolrich's readers view the story in the same light. Is this nontraditional detective story cathartic in any way? If so, how?