But Kev's answers only lead to more questions, and as Thomas seeks answers in the only way he knows how the net slowly closes in.
There are few authors whose writing crosses genres and styles; fewer still do so successfully. Dave Eggers is one of these authors.
While his debut novel, You Shall Know our Velocity, was a fast-paced, exhilarating read, his ''autobiographical'' novel What is the What set a more sombre tone, tracing the true story of a young Sudanese boy's flight from his war-torn homeland to the United States via the refugee camps of Ethiopia and Kenya.
In Your Fathers, Where Are They? And the Prophets, Do They Live Forever? Eggers resets the pace yet again. Consisting entirely of the dialogue between Thomas and his captives, this story challenges conventional style and requires the reader to judge the characters based only on their words and Thomas' reaction.
Yet despite the absence of any descriptive text an image of each character - their age, background and personality - comes unbidden through Eggers' clever manipulation of conversational styles.
Thomas himself is reminiscent of Holden Caulfield, the angst-ridden protagonist of J. D. Salinger's Catcher in the Rye.
Like Holden, Thomas is trying to make sense of his life, his country, and his place in it. Instead of the great causes that have defined America in the past, Thomas sees only emptiness. He is angry at the world for having failed him, angry at the untimely death of his childhood friend at the hands of the police, and angry at the childhood experiences that have led to his current predicament.
And yet, while we see in Thomas a lonely, damaged boy from a broken household (echoes of which resonate with Dave Eggers' own past; orphaned at age 21, he was left to raise his 8-year-old brother), it is hard to sympathise with someone who lays the blame for his shortcomings at all doors except his own.
As is evident from the ''interrogation-style'' title, this is a novel about questions. While Thomas seeks to answer these questions by steadily imprisoning more and more people, they are questions that are relevant to contemporary society and the story leaves the reader pondering.
But it is also a story about hope, and when Thomas encounters the woman of his dreams on the beach he unexpectedly turns from interrogating his captives to asking for advice.
Maria van't Klooster is an avid Dunedin reader.
