History of Mystery Trivia Quiz

Answer: 1800-1920

Edgar Allan Poe (1809-1849) published "The Murders in the Rue Morgue" in 1841. In the Parisian street mentioned in the title, a woman and her daughter were found killed in a locked room. Who perpetrated this crime? And how? Enter Auguste Dupin, member of the low French nobility, who disposed of a more than average ability to examine situations logically.
Auguste Dupin appeared also in some other short stories by Edgar Allan Poe.
Poe may better be remembered for his horror stories ("The Tell-Tale Heart", "The Pit and the Pendulum") and for his poetry ("The Raven", "Annabel Lee").

Answer: 1800-1920

Fyodor Dostoevsky (1821-1881) explored in his masterpiece "Crime and Punishment" (1866) the psychological motives of Raskolnikov, a poor former student who committed murder on a pawnbroker. He had the guts to kill two women, would he find now the courage to confess his crimes to the police? It seemed the police inspector Porfiry Petrovich was convinced of Raskolnikov's guilt from the very beginning, but he lacked either convincing proof or Raskolnikov's confession to solve the case. Dostoevsky was also known for "The Brothers Karamazov" (1880), another murder mystery.

When the father Fyodor Karamazov was murdered, the suspicion fell alternately upon his sons Dmitry and Ivan, and his presumed son Pavel. Only Fyodor's third son Alexei was never a suspect.

Answer: 1800-1920

Wilkie Collins (1824-1889) published in 1868 a mystery novel titled "The Moonstone", in which the central crime was not a murder but the theft of a precious diamond.
Collins also wrote "The Woman in White" (1860), a mystery about a woman locked in a mental asylum without having lost her sanity.

Answer: 1800-1920

One of the most famous mystery writers before the First World War was Sir Arthur Conan Doyle (1859-1930). He introduced the legendary sleuth Sherlock Holmes and his assistant Dr. Watson in "A Study in Scarlet" (1887), and completed three other novels and several short stories with the same characters. In "The Hound of the Baskervilles" (1902), Holmes and Watson were asked to investigate some deaths in suspect circumstances in the marshy region of Dartmoor. Various heirs of the Baskerville mansion died of fear at locations where dog trails were found, and according to a legendary curse a giant dog would wander through the marshes.

But did the dog commit the killings, or was there someone else involved?

Answer: 1921-1945

The Golden Age of Mystery (1920s and 1930s) was the time in which several British authors, mostly women, published their murder mysteries. Typical elements were the red herrings, the setting (most of the time a mansion of the nouveau riche), the incompetence of the official police and the wits of an amateur sleuth.
Agatha Christie (1890-1976) was probably the best-selling mystery author, and she deserved the title "Queen of Crime". In many of her novels the case is solved either by the retired Belgian detective Hercule Poirot (such as "The Mysterious Affair at Styles", 1921) or by the elderly Miss Jane Marple (for instance "Death at the Vicarage", 1930). However, there are other novels too - such as her masterpiece "And Then There Were None" (1939), probably the best-selling mystery novel ever.
Originally this novel was titled "Ten Little Niggers", but this title was deemed too racist. Another alternative title "Ten Little Indians" was found unacceptable for the same reason.
The plot to "And Then There Were None" revolved upon a minstrel song, about ten people who were killed one by one. The perpetrator to the killings in the novel found ten people who had caused (directly or indirectly) the death of one or more people, and never were convicted. So these were gathered on a remote island, and one by one they were killed - in curious circumstances inspired by the minstrel song. At the end, indeed none survived - but who did it? And how? The three final suspects (in harmony with the minstrel song) were found dead in a way indicating they could not have killed themselves.

Answer: 1921-1945

Dorothy L. Sayers (1893-1957) was another author of the Golden Age. She debuted in 1923 with "Whose Body?", the first of about a dozen cases solved by the aristocrat Lord Peter Wimsey.
The aforesaid novel starts with the discovery of an unidentified body in a bathtub and the simultaneous disappearance of the banker Sir Reuben Levy. After having ascertained that the found body was not the banker, Lord Wimsey lead a private investigation that solved both cases - much to the disappointment of the police charged with the missing person's case.

Answer: 1921-1945

Dame Edith Ngaio Marsh (1895-1982) created the police Chief Inspector Roderick Alleyn, a genuine police officer - not the usual amateur sleuth. Ngaio Marsh completed 32 Alleyn mystery novels, and her unfinished story was posthumously completed by her younger colleague Stella Duffy.
In the seventh instalment, "Death in a White Tie" (1938), Alleyn called a friend, Sir Robert Gospell, to assist in a case of blackmail. But sir Robert was killed in a cab after having telephoned with Alleyn about the case.

Answer: 1921-1945

Margery Allingham (1904-1966) is the fourth author who was titled a "Queen of Crime", together with Dorothy Sayers, Dame Edith Ngaio Marsh and the inevitable Agatha Christie. These four dominated the Golden Era of English mystery novels.
Allingham may have had plans to make the Scotland Yard pathologist George Abbershaw the star of her novels, but it was the mysterious gentleman Albert Campion who gradually took over all the stories. Abbershaw appeared in the first novel, "The Crime at Black Dudley" (1929), but no longer in the others.
In "Police at the Funeral" (1931) Campion is drawn into the police enquiry after the death of Andrew Seeley, and the subsequent deaths of other family members. As is the case in many of the classical mystery novels, the killer is one whom no one suspected.

Answer: After WW II

Sue Grafton (1940-2017) decided at the end of the 1970s to write 26 detective novels with the private investigator Kinsey Millhone as central personage. Alas, she died before she could start writing the final story, "Z is for Zero".
Grafton's style is the hardboiled style typically used by American authors.
The first novel in the alphabet series, "A is For Alibi" (1982), was not really a great success because of the overcomplicated plot. In "B is For Burglar" (1985), Millhone investigated the disappearance of a woman named Elaine Boldt, who was about to spend the winter in Florida a few days after a murder in her neighbours' home. However, Elaine did never arrive in Florida.

Answer: After WW II

Ellis Peters (born Edith Pargeter, 1913-1995) created the medieval monk Brother Cadfael as protagonist in a series of detective stories. The first novel, "A Morbid Taste for Bones", was published in 1977. I chose "Monk's Hood" (1980), the third instalment of the twenty-odd novels, as an example. In "Monk's Hood", Abbot Heribert was summoned to travel to London for a hearing. Meanwhile, the elderly Gervase Bonel bequeathed his manor to the abbey, but the final contract had still to be signed by the abbot.

While the abbot was away, someone in Bonel's household poisoned a partridge with monkshood oil, and Gervase died on the spot. Was the murderer Gervase's stepson Edwin, as the police suspected, or someone else? Brother Cadfael had only one chance to prove the truth.

Answer: After WW II

Nora Roberts (born 1950) started her prolific writing career in 1981. For her detective novels she chose the pen name J.D. Robb.
As J.D. Robb, she published the first novel of the "In Death" series in 1995. "Naked in Death", set in 2058, started with the discovery of a murdered sex worker, granddaughter of a senator famous for his crusade against sexual crimes. Eve Dallas, lieutenant with the New York police, had to solve the case as well as two other related murders.

Answer: After WW II

Patricia Cornwell (born 1956) debuted in 1990 with "Postmortem", the first in a series starring Kay Scarpetta, chief pathologist. The plot started with the discovery of a strangled woman, with a remarkable clue: the presence of a cleaning substance that probably was used to mask a specific body odour. Who did kill Lori Ann Petersen and four other women?