A World of Fictional Detectives Quiz

Answer: Armand Gamache

Chief Inspector Armand Gamache appears in over a dozen novels by Louise Penny. "Bury Your Dead" is the sixth novel in the series. In it, during Winter Carnival in Quebec City, Gamache finds himself involved in three crimes: a terrorist plot he earlier averted (ending in his current leave); discovering the murderer in a crime committed in the Literary and Historical Society, possibly involving the founder of Quebec, Samuel de Champlain; and dealing with a murder in the village of Three Pines.

The society of Quebec and its environs are highlighted.

Answer: Inspector Espinoza

Espinoza is the Chief of Rio's 12th Precinct. In "A Window In Copacabana", three police officers are murdered within a few days. When Espinoza discovers that all three kept separate apartments with mistresses, he knows that the officers had been accepting bribes.

When two of the mistresses are killed, along with a woman mistaken for the third, he has a real mystery to solve, one in which not everything is as it first appears to be.

Answer: Richard Kunzmann

Kunzmann sets his novels in and around Johannesburg, South Africa, where several cultures and religions strive to co-exist. Because Mason is a white Christian Englishman and Tsahbalala is a black Christian tribesman, they bring a blend of European and African experiences to their cases.

In "Bloody Harvests", they confront an enemy known as The Albino who has built up an extensive criminal empire of heroin and human smuggling based on traditional African magic. He has many people murdered, mostly children, to obtain human organs to use in his controlling spells.

This exploration of the clash of backgrounds and values provides incite into the factions that make up Johannesburg.

Answer: Brahim Llob

In "Double Blank", the second Superintendent Llob novel, a series of gruesome killings by, it is thought, a gang of Islamic fundamentalists has Llob considering gang members among other suspects. However, when members of the gang start showing up dead, Llob and his cohorts have to descend through the sights, sounds, and aromas of several layers of Algerian society and politics to seek the solution. [The author, Mohammed Moulessehoul, adopted the pen name Yasmina Khadra, the name of his wife.]

Answer: The Laughing Policeman

In their books, Wahloo and Stowall explore the strengths and the shortcomings of Sweden's socialist society, as well as present Beck's complicated personal life. "The Laughing Policeman", the fourth Beck novel, won the Edgar Award for Best Novel and was made into a motion picture with Walter Matthau.

In the novel, an assassin murders nine bus riders, including a police detective, leaving Beck to head a major manhunt to find the mass-murderer. The case becomes extremely complicated and points toward an old unsolved mystery.

Answer: Boris Akunin

Erast Fandorin is a late 19th century detective involved in the Russian historical and social events of that era. Together, the novels offer a perspective on Russia, and Moscow, from 1876 to 1912 and after. "The Decorator" is set in Moscow during Holy Week of 1889.

It has Fandorin, as Deputy for Special Assignments for the Moscow Governor-General, investigating a serial killer who murders and mutilates women (a Moscow version of London's Jack the Ripper). Suspects are numerous, but pinpointing the killer is a very long and complicated matter.

Answer: The 1990s

The novels not only present an in-depth view of 1990s Shanghai when China was increasing its influence and altering the people's lives, it also provides diverse views of Chinese culture in general--history, philosophy, and cuisine, for example. In the first novel, "Death of a Red Heroine", Cao confronts the murder of a young 'National Worker Model' (a Chinese heroine who embraced and preached China's political positions). Cao must tread very carefully because he must not only solve the murder but also seek justice. [Qiu Xiaolong, born in Shanghai, was on a trip to the US when the Tiananmen Square protests occurred.

He was forced to remain in the US to avoid persecution because of his earlier efforts to raise funds for the Chinese student movement.]

Answer: India

Between 2009 and 2013, Tarquin Hall wrote four novels featuring the Punjab Private Detective Vish Puri that explore nuances of the modern India of Delhi and beyond. Puri enjoys boasting of his achievements and consuming deep fried cuisine. "The Case of the Missing Servant", the first of Puri's cases, involves him taking on a client accused of murdering his maidservant.

His search for the actual killer takes him to a desert oasis, remote mines, exclusive clubs, and the slums, presenting much of modern India's complexity.

Answer: The Bone is Pointed

Upfield wrote 29 novels about "Bony" whose mother was Aborigine and whose father was white. All the works portray the Aboriginal culture in great detail and with dignity and sympathy, and all present a realistic look at Australian itself. In "The Bone is Pointed", Inspector Bonaparte goes to the bush country in western Queensland to investigate the disappearance of Jack Anderson some five months after Anderson's horse returned riderless. No one there seems to care about what happened to Anderson, a drunken bully. "Bony" must deal with two large, competing stations, owned by the Gordons and the Laceys, and with the Kalchut tribe of Aborigines, to determine what happened to Jack Anderson.

Answer: Joe Leaphorn and Jim Chee

Some of Hillerman's novels feature either Leaphorn or Chee, and some feature both. In "Coyote Waits", Delbert Nez, a tribal police officer, is murdered and an old Navajo Shaman, Ashie Pinto, is charged with the crime because he has the murder weapon. To both Leaphorn and Chee, something does not add up. Approaching the case from opposite ends, they explore the Navajo reservation and its members, Navajo customs, and Navajo mythology. Complicating the investigation are the presence of the niece of Ashie Pinto and her colleague who are writing a book, a history professor named Tagert who is studying Butch Cassidy, and the FBI and CIA who are protecting an informant.