Left Behind: A Novel of the Earth's Last Days Quiz

Answer: Christopher Smith

Christopher Smith commits suicide soon after he finds out his sons were raptured, and his wife died in a car accident.

Nicholas Edwards and Mac McCullum were his co-pilots in other books in the series, and Abdullah Smith was Mac's co-pilot when Mac permanently took over for Rayford.

Answer: 15 years

Hattie is 27 years old, and Rayford is 42 years old.

Answer: Lucinda Washington

She hates being called Lucy, but seems to hate being scooped even more. She gets raptured.

Answer: More than 100

When Rayford expresses surprise at this number, his first officer responds "Yeah, like it'd be better if it was only fifty?"

The plane Rayford is talking to on the radio lost almost 50.

Answer: Romanian Deputy Nicolae Carpathia

Nicolae Carpathia was in the Romanian House of Deputies (Lower House of Parliament) at the time of his meeting with Dr. Rosenzweig, but Rosenzweig sees great potential in the young politician.

All of the others are dignitaries in the novel.

Answer: Kryptonite

Buck is actually in the "top three percent of air travelers in the world".

Answer: He refused to pilot an unsafe aircraft

Apparently, there was a certain model of aircraft that had been crashing in icy conditions. He refused to fly one even after the insistence that the other incidents were freak accidents. Soon afterward another crash occurred. At the time the novel takes place, not one of that model of plane is still flying.

Answer: UFOs

He believes in the more documented instances, such as those reported by pilots and astronauts.

Answer: Alan Tompkins and Dirk Burton

Dirk Burton gives Buck information that would be considered "conspiracy theories" if they weren't so accurate. When he dies in an apparent suicide, Buck flies to England to meet with his contact in Scotland Yard, Alan Tompkins, to find out what really happened. Alan tells him that he is certain that Dirk was murdered, but he is being threatened, and so is Buck. If they doesn't back off, they, or their families, might be killed. Alan dies right afterward in a car bomb.

Answer: Visitation Pastor

It is embarrassing to Bruce to have been in such a position, and to have "missed the boat" so to speak.

Answer: George Oreskovich

While he does assume each of those names at different times (and different novels for two of them), George Oreskovich is the one he uses when he fakes his own death. Buck realizes that the bomb was for both him, and his friend, Alan Tompkins, due to their investigation into Dirk Burton's death. Buck throws his true identification in the burning wreckage, and flies out with his fake ID. Steve Plank even has press credentials made up in that name.

Answer: Nuclear and electromagnetic forces

He believes that the combination of atmospheric electromagnetism and the proliferation atomic and nuclear armaments reached a point where a natural event, like a lightning strike, could have caused the mass disappearance of people.

Answer: Seaboard Monthly

Eric Miller dies that night, mysteriously falling off the Staten Island Ferry and drowning, when it is doubtful that he would be outside in the cold, and he was a good swimmer. His wife, and Buck, believe there was some foul play involved in his death.

Answer: Publisher, "Global Weekly"

Steve Plank and Buck Williams have a good deal of trouble keeping secrets from him.

Answer: Creeping Crud

This is one of the first hints of the developing romance between the two.

Answer: 10 years

Chloe is 20 years old and Buck is 30.

Answer: President of Romania

President Carpathia had only just taken over that office about a week earlier. It was a surprising turn of events that led a first term Deputy to become President of his nation, in an off election year.

Answer: Scott M. Otterness

Mr. Otterness is amazed by the fact that Carpathia even knew his middle initial.

Answer: Staff Writer

After his publisher thinks Buck was not present at the special U.N. meeting he was supposed to be, he is reduced in rank to Staff Writer (from Executive Editor), and moved to the Chicago Bureau.

Buck was a Senior Writer at the beginning of the novel, and was promoted to Executive Editor when Steve Plank resigned. His publisher briefly considered firing him, but was afraid he might go to the competition.

Answer: New Babylon, Iraq

While New Babylon is mentioned as the new home of the U.N. nothing actually takes place there in this novel.