A Detective's Lot has its Ups and Downs! Quiz

Answer: MARPLE

MAPLE + R = MARPLE

Miss Jane Marple must be one of the most popular fictional lady detectives and one wonders how many people have tried to find St Mary Mead on a map. Film and television adaptations have given her many forms, from the hearty robust and unconvincing Margaret Rutherford to the slight mouse like Joan Hickson. The books, however, describe her as tall and rather angular. Moreover, her sharp mind and acute observation and analysis of character and events are mixed with more than a little spinster nosiness. Would Agatha Christie always recognize her creation?

She almost certainly would not recognize the incredible plot mangling of some of the Marple mysteries by other media. In "The Body in the Library" for instance the two murderers inexplicably become two lesbians while in "Sleeping Murder" so many extraneous characters are introduced and so many plot changes made that only Miss Marple and the murderer remain the same. And as for the Miss Marple aka Margaret Rutherford's boyfriend ...
Miss Marple is an irritant to most of the police but Sir Henry Clithering is her devoted champion. She has no regular sidekick but in some of the books she has her helpers.

Answer: THANET

THANE + T = THANET

In Shakespeare's play the Thane of Cawdor is killed and the witches bribe Macbeth with the promise of his title.

All detectives, fictional or otherwise, have their sidekicks and the relationship between them is often revealing. Sergeant Mike Lineham is the colleague of Inspector Luke Thanet, the likeable creation of British crime novelist Dorothy Simpson. Lineham has a very dominant mother who is subject to heart attacks when things don't go her way and Thanet's support shows him as intuitive, understanding and supportive.

He is a kindly humane man who digs deep for basic reasons and motives and his dry wit masks a real sympathy with both offender and victim.

Answer: FROST

FOREST - E = FROST

Detective Inspector William Edward "Jack" Frost, GC, is a fictional detective created by R. D. Wingfield- characterised as sloppy, untidy, hopeless with paperwork- but a brilliant detective though his methods are unorthodox and often forceful. He is often crude and his sense of humour is questionable. However he is outraged by cruelty and injustice and will stop at nothing to root it out.
Frost is a widower, his marriage having deteriorated rapidly under the strain of a wife dying slowly and painfully of cancer.The bane of his life is "Hornrim Harry" aka Superintendent Mullett his immediate superior.His complaints about Frost are always ignored however since Frost's having been awarded the George Cross has endeared him to the Chief Constable.
In the TV series he is played by David Jason who is also well known as the star of the sitcoms "Open All Hours" and "Only Fools and Horses".

Answer: MORSE

MORE + S = MORSE

Morse could add another letter to his name as he is in fact rather morose. The creation of British crime novelist Colin Dexter he is a hard drinking, woman loving bachelor who refuses to reveal his given name to anyone.He has a penchant for crosswords and is supported by a devoted side kick in Sergeant Lewis. His parents were Quakers which explains his embarrassing Christian name of "Endeavour".
He is a fanatical opera lover with a respectable singing voice and he plays Wagner records loudly and often ( see " Masonic Mysteries")
He was known as "Pagan" at Oxford where he was a promising Classics student until an involvement with a girl led to his failure and he subsequently joined the police force.
He eventually succumbs to a comparatively early death from diabetes, heart problems and a wrecked liver.

Answer: CUFF

SCUFF - S = CUFF

Sergeant Cuff is the detective in the fascinating Wilkie Collins novel "The Moonstone". Cuff is the astute yet seemingly pedestrian sleuth set to track down the elusive moonstone an Eastern jewel carrying a curse which is maliciously willed to one Rachel Verinder. He painstakingly works his way through the web of Indian mysticism. hypnotism, thwarted love and hypocrisy to a fascinating end and the discovery of the spider at its heart.

Answer: HOLMES

HOMES + L = HOLMES

Arthur Conan Doyle was born on May 22, 1859, in Edinburgh, Scotland into a prosperous Irish-Catholic family. Most people only know him for his creation of Sherlock Holmes- a frighteningly intelligent, intuitive, sardonic and misogynistic sleuth, addicted to cocaine and violin playing. He seems totally without emotion yet on two occasions at least he displays affection for his devoted Dr Watson - once when he almost kills him by subjecting him to the fumes of a burning deadly root and once when watching him search for his supposed body at the Falls where Moriarty dies.
Interestingly enough. he never actually says "Elementary, my dear Watson".

Many people believe that Holmes actually existed and the myth is perpetuated by the fact that one can visit 221B Baker Street and see all the possessions and artifacts connected with him - including Mrs Hudson's kitchen.

Answer: POIROT

TROOP + I = POIROT

Many people think Hercule Poirot is Agatha Christie's greatest creation. He first appears with Captain Arthur Hastings in "The Mysterious Affair at Styles" when he appears as a refugee from his native Belgium. He uses his famous "little grey cells" and solves the mystery by reasoning. His passion for order and symmetry also help as he reaches the right conclusion partly by noticing that the spill jars on a mantelpiece have been rearranged in a less pleasing arrangement than that in which he had left them. He knew romance once as a young policeman in Belgium and in his later life there is a certain Countess he has a penchant for but mostly he is content to protect Hastings from his injudicious proposals and to be kind to Miss Lemon. His last case takes place where his first began-- at Styles Court.

Answer: FATHER BROWN

BROWN FEATHER - E = FATHER BROWN

G.K. Chesterton was the creator of a very unlikely little sleuth who looks like the wooden Noah from a child's Noah's Ark. He comes from the little village of Cobb's Hole and has a deep insight into the souls of men. Father Brown sees himself as the instrument of God's justice and yet he has a real compassion for those with whom he has to do. Flambeau begins as a criminal, his enemy but is overcome by the little priest's love and compassion and finally undergoes a complete conversion

Answer: Sam Spade

MADE A PASS - A = SAM SPADE

Sam Spade is a fictional private detective and the protagonist of Dashiell Hammett's 1930 novel, "The Maltese Falcon." Spade is involved in a great deal of violence in his work but with a genuine desire to see justice done. He is apparently cynical but this may be a defence mechanism- a kind of protection against his own unacknowledged emotions. Hammett had been a San Francisco "cop" and doubtless a great deal of his own experience is reflected in his book.

Answer: GIDEON

DOING + E GIDEON

John Creasey created several memorable characters,the most popular of whom was Gideon of Scotland Yard- a kindly man with a brood of six very talented children. He appears in two books describing his work experiences - Gideon's Day" and "Gideon's Night".
Known to his colleagues as G.G. he was usually mild mannered but could occasionally explode.at which times let others beware.
His relationship with his wife is sensitively explored - She finds his job demanding; he tries not to resent her growing independence and there is the memory of the early death of one of their children between them.