Ellery Queen Trivia

1. Mrs. French's body was discovered when it fell out of what piece of furniture?

From Quiz The French Powder Mystery

Answer: Bed

On a Tuesday afternoon at French's Department Store, a model gives a demonstration of a display of modern furniture. She shows a pullout bed but when she presses the button to make the bed unfold, Mrs. Winifred French's dead body falls out. Mrs. French is the wife of the president of the store and has been shot twice.

From Quiz There was an Old Woman

Answer: Buy a gun

Thurlow had filed a lawsuit against a man whom he said offended his family name. According to the Potts family attorney, Charley Paxton, this was Thurlow's forty-somethingth lawsuit of the kind and it was dismissed like the others. Angry at the court, Thurlow then attacked reporters outside the court house and one fought back. That prompted Thurlow to declare that he would buy a gun to protect himself. He actually would go and buy 14 guns. Ellery noted that Thurlow probably purposely got into that fight as an excuse to buy a gun.

From Quiz Calamity Town

Answer: Ellery Smith

Ellery uses the surname Smith throughout the entire novel, only telling Patricia his real name because she recognized him from a lecture he gave. Ellery apparently signed legal documents and testified under oath under the name Ellery Smith, which would be illegal. Ellery does reveal himself as Ellery Queen at the end of the novel when asked his real name while under oath, even though he swore in as Ellery Smith.

From Quiz Queen's Bureau of Investigation

Answer: three

The stories are: "Money Talks", where a blackmailer accidentally discloses his identity when he uses such British idioms as "sweets" (chocolates), "fanlight" (transom) and "tin" (can), "A Question of Honor", where a seeming suicide note by a Brit is proved false by Queen when he sees "honor" spelled American fashion...without a U, as Brits spell it, and "Driver's Seat", where a murderer is exposed when Queen notices his right sleeve is wet from rain because his car is a British brand with a righthand steering wheel.

From Quiz Ellery Queen

Answer: Cousins

Frederick Dannay and Manfred B. Lee created Ellery Queen over lunch one day.

From Quiz The French Powder Mystery

Answer: Bernice Carmody, her daughter

Prior to the discovery of the body, Hortense Underhill, the French's housekeeper, phones Mr. French to inform him that neither his wife nor stepdaughter Bernice returned home the night before. After Mrs. French's body is found, Bernice is still missing. There is some evidence she was in the private apartment above the store the night before, such as her shoes being in the closet. No one has seen her since the day before when the housekeeper saw her leave the house alone.

From Quiz The Finishing Stroke

Answer: No one knows who it is in the costume

The members of Arthur Craig's Christmas party were all baffled by the sudden appearance of the Santa Claus since it was only the twelve of them and three servants in the house, and all were present when the Santa arrived. The Santa gave each of the twelve guests either a money clip (for the men) or a brooch (for the women) in the shape of their zodiac signs. By pure coincidence (or perhaps not) each of the twelve guests had a different zodiac sign.

From Quiz Queen's Bureau of Investigation

Answer: boxing

In "A Matter of Seconds" Queen uncovers a fixed boxing bout when he realizes that a sportswriter at the match doesn't know the fight game lingo; he talks of a "right hook", when there is no such thing in boxing! He knows the phony sportswriter is involved in the kidnapping of a boxer.

From Quiz Ellery Queen

Answer: A Dead Dog

Didn't have a clue? The dead dog is a sign that scares the victim to death.

From Quiz The French Powder Mystery

Answer: Lipstick

As most of the characters are aware, Bernice Carmody was a cocaine addict. She hid her stash in her toiletries, including some at the false bottom of her lipstick tube. This lipstick is found in Mrs. French's purse, but does not match the shade she was wearing and has Bernice's initials engraved in it.

From Quiz The Finishing Stroke

Answer: An ox, a house and a camel

Beginning on Christmas night, John Jr. started receiving strange gift boxes with messages that played on the "Twelve Days of Christmas" carol. In the first box he received a small ox, a doll house and a miniature camel. No one understood the meaning of these gifts and as the days went on, John Jr. received more baffling gifts that seemed to have no meaning whatsoever.

From Quiz Calamity Town

Answer: Halloween

The letters were found in a toxicology book. Ellery and Pat snoop around and read the letters, which leads them to believe Jim will poison Nora. Jim and Nora had been fighting about money and Jim's gambling and drinking. In a drunken stupor, Jim was even heard saying that he would murder his wife. Nora found the letters on Halloween, which, as Pat and Ellery note at the end of the novel, is the first of a series of events that occur on holidays. Nora's first bought of illness occurs on Thanksgiving and then again on Christmas. Jim's sister Rosemary dies on New Year's. Jim is arrested for the murder on Valentine's Day. Nora gives birth and dies on Easter. Ellery tells Pat and her future husband Carter Bradford the solution to the case on Mother's Day.

From Quiz Queen's Bureau of Investigation

Answer: two

The two are "The Robber of Wrightsville", about how a policeman is involved in payroll theft and "GI Story", a dying message tale. Wrightsville first appeared in the novel "Calamity Town" and last appeared in "Double, Double". Outside New York, Queen seems to find the most cases in Wrightsville.

From Quiz Ellery Queen

Answer: Tom Velie

Sgt. Velie was very loyal to the Queens and he often referred to Ellery as Maestro.

From Quiz The French Powder Mystery

Answer: Fingerprint powder

Ellery's interest in books caused him to examine a pair of expensive bookends in Mr. French's apartment. He notices the green felt on the bottoms are two different colors. One is a vibrant, bright green while the other is faded. Westley Weaver tells Ellery the bookends were a gift to Mr. French from a member of the board of directors and are brand new. Upon closer examination, Ellery finds a white powder in the glue seam of the bookend with the dull felt. He determines it to be fingerprint powder and speculates the murderer must have gotten blood on the bookend, replaced the felt and then dusted the bookend for fingerprints to remove any.

From Quiz The Finishing Stroke

Answer: An unknown old man

Just like with the Santa Claus, no one in the house will admit to knowing who the dead man was. Moreover, all of the labels were removed from his clothes and the dead man had no wallet or ID. The discovery of this corpse made many of the guests change their minds about John Jr.'s mysterious gifts, which had been played off as a joke until then.

From Quiz There was an Old Woman

Answer: A whip and a bowl of broth

The whip and the broth are a clear reference to the lines "she gave them some broth without any bread" and "she whipped them all soundly and put them to bed", which Ellery immediately notices. Maclyn's murder provided yet another seemingly impossible crime for Ellery and his father to solve. It also provides Sheila with something to fear. With Bob and Maclyn dead, she is the only living child from Cornelia's second marriage. Sheila is convinced either she or her father will be the next to be killed. In addition to the whip and the broth, the murder weapon is also discovered. It is one of Thurlow's missing guns, and the duplicate of the gun Bob had intended to use during the duel.

From Quiz Calamity Town

Answer: She is immensely disliked by the women

The women in town hate Rosemary because of her outlandish lifestyle. For instance, she dominated the men's attention at the fatal New Year's party and drank way too much. The Wrights saw her as a nuisance because she stayed with Jim and Nora for months and never left. It was also believed that Rosemary was the cause of some of the tension between Jim and Nora.

From Quiz Queen's Bureau of Investigation

Answer: chambermaid

The chambermaid turns out to be the accomplice to a payroll robbery and kills her partner to get the loot. The clue that gives her away is the towels she brings to her victim for his shaving in the bathroom; since there are no used ones there, she's the one who took them out and is the killer.

From Quiz Ellery Queen

Answer: Jim Hutton

The short lived series featured a challenge to the viewer in which Jim Hutton turned to the camera and asked if you had figured it out yet.

From Quiz The French Powder Mystery

Answer: Six

Each of the four members of the French family has a key to the apartment. Mr. French's secretary, Westley Weaver, also has a key since he prepares things in the apartment each morning before Mr. French arrives. The sixth key is the master key held by the security department. Several store detectives verified the master key had not been moved or stolen. Four of the keys are accounted for: Mr. French's, the master key, Weaver's and French's daughter Marion's. Bernice's key, which she previously lost, is found soon after at the back of her closet. Mrs. French's, however, is still missing. Ellery reasons the killer probably didn't have his or her own key and stole Mrs. French's in order to enter and exit the apartment with ease since the door locks automatically.

From Quiz Calamity Town

Answer: Because he watched Jim the whole the evening

After seeing the incriminating letters and watching Nora go through two illnesses on the dates the letters said, Ellery watched Jim closely on New Year's Eve because the letters said Jim's wife would die on New Year's Day. Ellery did not take his eyes off Jim all evening, especially when he was making the cocktails. He did not see Jim poison the drinks. Police Chief Dakin and Carter Bradford, the district attorney and a close friend of Pat's, still believed Jim was guilty because he handed that specific cocktail to Nora, who then passed it to Rosemary when Rosemary demanded it.

From Quiz Queen's Bureau of Investigation

Answer: mounted patrolman

When Shakes Clooney, a racetrack tout, is found murdered in Central Park, three men, a Senator, financier and politician are suspected. But Queen, seeing the sugar in the victim's fist, knows it points to the real killer: the mounted patrolman who "found" the corpse, since you feed lumps of sugar to horses!

From Quiz Ellery Queen

Answer: 3000 miles away

Just goes to show that man or woman can be very resourceful.

From Quiz The French Powder Mystery

Answer: Book

Springer, the manager of the book department, is responsible for the setting code each week. He writes the address and date in the back of a book and places it on the shelf for the accomplice to pick up. Each book is identified by the first two letters of the author's last name. For instance, on a Tuesday, the book's author's last name begins with the letters TU.

From Quiz Calamity Town

Answer: Nora blurts it out

Dakin and Carter Bradford already suspected Jim of being the poisoner because he had the best opportunity and was the only person with a motive to kill Nora. Nora misinterprets this and, in front of everyone, accuses Ellery of having told the police about the letters. The police find the letters in Nora's hat box during a search for them after that incident. Nora's outburst worries Ellery and Pat, who Nora knew both knew about the letters, because technically they were withholding evidence and may have been considered an accessory before the fact.

From Quiz Queen's Bureau of Investigation

Answer: a man named George

Queen may not have invented the dying message, but he made it his trademark! In "GI Story", we have three brothers named for American presidents accused of murder. The "GI" actually points to the brother named George (for Washington); the victim was about to write "George" when he died, leaving "GI".

From Quiz Ellery Queen

Answer: A serial killer

The 'Cat' has set the city of New york into a panic through a series of apparent random stranglings.

From Quiz The French Powder Mystery

Answer: The ring had cleared out

Westley confesses to the Queens that he grew suspicious of Springer, the head of the book department, one night. He witnessed Springer scribbling into a book and placing it on the shelf. When he looked, Wes saw an address and date. Ellery solves the cryptic code and determines the address is the site of the drug ring's next distribution center. The Queens, Wes and store security head William Crouther tag along with the police and raid the newest address. However, they discover the ring has cleared out completely before the date of distribution. Someone tipped them off that their code had been revealed.

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Last Updated Dec 21 2024 5:54 AM

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