Scott seems pretty certain that the leaked audiotape will make him a national villain by dinnertime. Is his scenario accurate? Or is he just being dramatic?
I'm not sure how accurate his timeframe is, but the progression of events he charts at the top of page 434 (audiotape + Miranda + Harmony = Armageddon) is right on the money. That's exactly how it would have happened if the leaked tape had been real.

If the tape had been real, how screwed would Harmony be?
The media would slap her around for a few weeks and then move on to the next big controversy. But the stink around Harmony would follow her forever. I couldn't imagine anyone ever hiring her for a job. And her dreams as a children's book writer would certainly be over before they began.

Why is Hunta hiding out at Doug's place?
As Scott explains on page 437, it was a cost-saving measure on the part of Mean World Records, since it was becoming painfully clear that Hunta's second album would never hit the shelves and there'd be no Hunta-related income to recoup expenses.

On page 438, Scott tells Hunta that the media only has two modes: attack and ignore. And yet at the very start of this scheme, Scott promised Hunta repeatedly that the press would be kissing his ass and apologizing around the clock. What's the deal?
Actually, what Scott promised way back in Chapter 7 is that the press will "do a total 180 and go after all the people who were going after Hunta" (p. 109). Then again, he does resort to hyperbole three pages later by predicting that the whole country will be kissing Hunta's ass and apologizing for ever doubting him.

So yes, Scott's guilty of inconsistency. But come on. A lot has happened between Chapters 7 and 22. I think it's safe to say that his attitude has changed.

Did you pick Jean and Madison's names just to set up the "gin/medicine" pun on page 439?
No. I named Jean after Jean Grey of the X-Men, and I named Madison after Madison Avenue, since she (like every American teenager) is overwhelmed by marketing and corporate conditioning. The "gin/medicine" opportunity just sort of presented itself as I was writing the scene, as did the "Scott-free" pun on page 447.

Also on page 439, Hunta tells Scott that even if he reconciled with Simba, he'd soon have to mess up the relationship all over again. What does he mean by that?
He's basically confessing that he's not strong enough to handle being loved unconditionally. The song he wrote with Lisa Glassman, "Love is Real," is all about a man who overcomes that problem. So it's all sorts of tragic that Hunta himself can't seem to make the leap.

Maxina tells everyone that Harmony was up all night working on her confession speech. Knowing what she was about to do, why would Harmony even bother?
To throw Maxina and the others off guard, of course. I'd say it worked.

Assuming the leaked tape was real, would Scott's confession plan (pp. 446-447) have really saved Harmony?
Provided that both Harmony and Hunta cooperated with Scott's new version of events, I'm quite convinced the plan would have adequately saved everyone. That is, everyone except Scott.

But wouldn't Scott be a fugitive for the rest of his life?
Only for the rest of the summer. I suspect that after September 11th, the number of people hunting for Scott would settle safely down at 'zero.'

Okay, now the big question: could Harmony have really come up such a diabolically clever plan?
On her own? Doubtful. But as Scott explains on page 453, they gave her the idea. Since Harmony was hired to frame and then exonerate Hunta before Lisa Glassman could bury him, it was just a small leap for Harmony to frame and exonerate herself before the real audiotape could bury her. And it was Scott's little diatribe about audio experts and vocal authentication (p. 402) that gave Harmony the added inspiration.

I assume, of course, that Harmony had a million doubts and fears about her last-minute scheme. But since she was due to confess in the morning or face public exposure, she really didn't have too much to lose.

So who are the voices on the fake tape?
Scott correctly assumes that the female voice is Harmony's roommate, Tracy. As for who did the white man impression, it should be noted that one of Harmony's male roommates is nicknamed 'Whitey,' and not because of his skin tone.

But how did they get the tape over to Fox News so quickly?
I'm willing to bet that it was Alonso, no stranger to news leaks, who found a fast and effective way to get the tape into the right hands.

Wouldn't Fox try to authenticate the tape before airing it nationwide?
Ideally, yes. But keep in mind that in the TV news game, it's not who's right, it's who's first. Just two weeks prior to SLICK's publication, a gruesome video of San Francisco resident Ben Vanderford being decapitated by terrorists was picked up by Reuters and the Associated Press, and was subsequently shown on dozens of TV newscasts all over the world. Unfortunately for the newsfolk, the video was a fake, as Vanderford himself readily admitted.

I don't know if Fox was one of the many news organizations that was duped by the Vanderford hoax, but I will go out on a limb and say that the network's journalistic standards aren't any higher than the AP or Reuters.

How does the fake tape save Scott from Miranda?
Miranda can't implicate Scott without Harmony's corroboration. And with this latest twist, Harmony now has every reason in the world to keep Scott's name out of the papers.

How much does this suck for Hunta?
Very, very much. The dude has every reason to curse me and God, in that order.

Will Maxina really ruin Scott's career? Can she?
She probably could, but I imagine that when the dust settles and she does her own investigation, she'll see that Scott had nothing to do with Harmony's clever escape act. So I doubt she'll wage an active campaign to trash his livelihood.

Still, I imagine Scott won't be calling Maxina for a reference anytime soon.

Where does Scott go from here?
Where does Harmony go from here?
What happens with Scott and Jean?
What happens when Madison finds out about Scott and Jean?
What happens when Scott tells Madison the truth about Harmony?
Will the world ever learn the truth about Harmony?
What happens to Hunta and Simba?
What happens with Alonso and his novel?
What happens with Ira and Move My Cheese?!
Why won't you give me the closure I so desperately crave?!
Because the book is long enough, and I've learned the hard way that there is such a thing as too much closure.

Should you happen to meet me at a book signing, speaking event, police line-up, or what not, you are free to ask me any of the above questions and I promise I'll give you a nice speculative answer. But be forewarned that my scenarios will vary greatly, depending on my mood and sobriety level.

Just trust me when I say that this is a book about Scott Singer, and that in the end he turns out okay.