Help the dramatic detective finish his final case report by selecting the correct option for each blank.
Little _________________________ that the sweet old librarian was actually an international art thief. Not only ___________________________ the famous painting with a clever forgery, but she had also framed the mayor! No sooner _________________________ enough evidence to arrest her _________________________ she vanished through a secret trapdoor behind the poetry section.
Little did I suspect
When beginning a sentence with a restrictive word like Little, we invert the subject and auxiliary verb. For the past simple tense, we use did + subject + base verb.
Not only had she replaced
Not only at the beginning of a clause requires inversion. Since this action happened before another past action, the past perfect (had + subject + past participle) is used.
No sooner had I gathered ... than
No sooner requires inversion (usually past perfect) and is always paired with the conjunction than to introduce the second event.