Absolute Beginners Trivia Quiz

Answer: In a house

When screams are heard emanating from a house standing on the street in Paris called Rue Morgue, a group of male neighbours race to the house and force entry. The body of the owner occupant, Madame L'Espanaye, is found in the garden with its throat slashed so severely that her head is barely attached to her body, and that of her daughter is discovered wedged tightly inside a chimney. The men claim to have heard the voice of the culprit but their reports are contradictory; they all name a different language that the voice was speaking, yet none of them are able to speak the language they themselves name. C. Auguste Dupin, accompanied by the narrator of the story (his name is never given) are granted permission by the police prefect to view the crime scene. Using the already known information, and some clues obtained by himself, Dupin concludes that there is no possible way a human could have the strength to carry out what has been done.

'The Murders in the Rue Morgue' first appeared in 'Graham's Magazine' in 1841, a publication that Poe himself worked on as editor. C. Auguste Dupin was featured again the following year in 'The Mystery of Marie Roget' and for a third and final time in 'The Purloined Letter' in 1844. While there is little doubt that the methods used by Dupin to solve mysteries influenced other writers and their characters, the claim that 'The Murders in the Rue Morgue' was the first ever detective story is, at best, dubious. There is no reference in the entire story to Dupin being a detective, either private or official, and his services are never solicited. European writers, not least amongst them Voltaire, had already experimented in this type of story with characters whose credentials as detectives were no greater or lesser than those of Dupin. Even earlier 'The Three Apples', a story from the collection of Arabic tales 'One Thousand and One Nights' has certain elements of detective fiction within it.

Answer: The Mystery of a Hansom Cab

Composed in the style of a newspaper report, 'What the Argus Said' is the opening chapter of 'The Mystery of a Hansom Cab'. In it the reader learns of a highly intoxicated man being assisted to a hansom cab by another gentleman, but upon learning the identity of the drunken man the would-be good Samaritan leaves him in the gutter to fend for himself. Soon after, what is believed to be the same gentleman returns, gets the drunk into the cab, enters it himself and instructs the driver where to go. Before reaching their destination, the gentleman leaves the cab, pays the driver and tells him to continue driving to St. Kilda. Upon reaching this suburb the driver asks the intoxicated fellow for his address. Receiving no response, he gets down from his seat, looks into the carriage and is confronted with the dead body of the drunk with a chloroform-soaked handkerchief on his face.

Within a few weeks a Detective Gorby arrests Brian Fitzgerald, a young and wealthy acquaintance of the deceased, for murder and a trial date is set. Fitzgerald enlists the aid of a lawyer named Calton and confesses to him that he has an alibi but would rather be hanged as an innocent man than divulge it. Calton then calls upon Detective Kilsip, an arch-rival of Detective Gorby, and the two of them set about finding the exact nature of Fitzgerald's alibi to save him from the gallows and finding the true identity of the murderer.

Fergus Hume was born in England in 1859 but spent most of his younger years in New Zealand. He studied law and was called to the bar, but he had a stronger yearning to write plays. He moved to Melbourne in his late twenties to pursue this but could not find any theatre managers interested in staging his plays so turned his hand to novels instead. After asking a bookseller what type of novels were the most popular amongst his customers and being given the answer of the detective novels of Emile Gaboriau, Hume read as many of those he could lay hands on and settled on that genre for himself. At first, 'The Mystery of a Hansom Cab' was self-published and sold 5,000 copies within three weeks and 20,000 copies after three months. Hume then sold the copyright to a group of English investors for a measly £50. The book went on to be a huge international success with 300,000 copies being sold in England alone in its first six months and is regarded as the highest selling crime novel of the nineteenth century. Hume would again use the characters of Detective Kilsip and Calton in his 1888 novel 'Madame Midas' which was also set in Melbourne as well as the goldfields of Ballarat.

Answer: Beeton's Christmas Annual

'A Study in Scarlet' is a story in two parts. The first sees the initial meeting of Sherlock Holmes and John Watson via a mutual acquaintance, and their agreement to share lodgings. It is not long before Holmes is requested by the Scotland Yard detectives Gregson and Le Strade to assist them in a case of murder. In a style that would become his trademark, Holmes is many steps ahead of the police in finding clues and piecing them together. Both Gregson and Le Strade are adamant that they have solved the murder until Le Strade's suspect is also found murdered and Gregson's is provided with an alibi as a result. Holmes, of course, has already solved the case long before this, and not long after names and apprehends the true culprit.

The second part of the story is told in flashback mode, the events happening many years prior to those of the first part. A man and a young girl, the only survivors of a small party of travellers, are found starving and close to death in the wilderness of Utah by a caravan of Mormons en-route to Salt Lake City. The man agrees to becoming a Mormon himself in return for being rescued by the party. Years pass and the young girl, whom he has raised as his own daughter, becomes a young woman and is seen as a suitable bride by two Mormon men. She has already been promised to another man, however, an outsider of the Mormon community. The two would-be husbands are far from pleased with this arrangement and set about to change things to their own advantage. ( I will stop at this point so as not to give away the mystery of how the two parts are linked.)

'A Study in Scarlet' first appeared in print in the November 1887 edition of 'Beeton's Christmas Annual', a once yearly paperback magazine. Arthur Conan Doyle sold the rights to the story for £25 and it was published the following year as a book by Ward, Lock and Co., the same publishers of the magazine. It was a humble beginning for a character who would become synonymous with detective fiction and inspire many other authors. Sales figures were far from great, the way in which the plot unfolded gave readers next to no chance of solving the mystery themselves and Doyle was accused of being anti-Mormon for the way such characters were portrayed.

Answer: G. K. Chesterton

The following paragraph contains major details of the plot and might spoil the story for those who have not read it. If you wish to do so, skip this paragraph and resume reading from paragraph three.

A typical detective story sees a crime committed, clues left by the culprit and an analysis of these clues to determine the identity of the culprit. 'The Blue Cross' is more than a little different, however. Father Brown, a Roman Catholic Priest, is in possession of a parcel containing the titular blue cross, a valuable church relic made of silver and sapphires. He has been forewarned by the French Detective Valentin that the famous criminal mastermind Flambeau, of whom Valentin is in pursuit, has his eyes on this precious item. Father Brown does indeed make the acquaintance of Flambeau, dressed as another priest, but through a couple of tricks of his own sees through the disguise quite early. It is Father Brown himself who then commits a series of minor misdemeanours, such as throwing soup at the wall of a restaurant, tipping over a greengrocer's apple cart and breaking a window at another restaurant. But these are not wanton acts of random violence or destruction; they are meant to serve as a trail of clues for Detective Valentin to follow and lead him to Father Brown and the would-be thief Flambeau.

G. K. Chesterton wrote fifty-one Father Brown short story mysteries between 1910 and 1935. With the exception of three, all were collected and published in five separate volumes. 'The Blue Cross' appeared alongside eleven other stories in the first volume published in 1911 under the title 'The Innocence of Father Brown.' The three stories not originally included in these volumes have since been included in subsequent collections.

Answer: Lord Peter Wimsey

Tres bien mon ami. Within the walls of the country manor known as Styles Court, the lady of the house, Emily Inglethorp, is taken violently ill through the night and dies from what is suspected to be strychnine poisoning. Hercule Poirot is called in by his old friend Arthur Hastings, the narrator of the story and a guest at Styles Court at the time, to investigate the death. In typical fashion Poirot uses his "little grey cells" to piece together clues, questions the house guests, excites himself when finding things of importance and curses himself for overlooking the same, all the while leaving Hastings baffled. The role of Inspector James Japp of Scotland Yard is a minor one; most of what we learn about Japp's involvement in the investigation comes from conversations between Poirot and Hastings.

Hercule Poirot appeared in thirty-three of Agatha Christie's novels and dozens of short stories. Arthur Hastings featured in eight of these Poirot novels and James Japp in seven. A total of five novels saw all three of these men appearing together. Lord Peter Wimsey never appeared in any Agatha Christie novels; he was the creation of Dorothy L. Sayers and his absolute beginning was in the 1923 publication 'Whose Body?'

Answer: Martin Beck

When the body of a woman is discovered in the bucket of a dredging ship on Lake Vattern, Martin Beck and his fellow detectives are called in to investigate. An autopsy reveals that the woman has been strangled and physically abused, but with no identity or significant clues it soon becomes a cold case. A breakthrough finally arrives when the girl is identified as Roseanna McGraw, an American tourist. With this information Beck is able to establish that she was a passenger aboard a tourist cruise ship and it was there she was probably murdered. The detectives begin the arduous task of tracking down all of the passengers and crew from the cruise for questioning. They still have no luck in finding the culprit until they come up with the ingenious idea of examining all of the photos and home movies taken by the tourists, thus piecing together the final days of Roseanna's life.

Per Wahloo and Maj Sjowall wrote a total of ten books for the Martin Beck series. They were both heavily and unashamedly influenced by Ed McBain and the books show similarities to his 87th Precinct novels. Although there is one major character in both series (Beck is the equivalent of McBain's Steve Carella) the fellow officers also have important ongoing roles in the stories. The private lives of the detectives and their families are also glimpsed at, and the authors use their novels as vehicles for expressing their own personal commentaries and criticisms of the social state of their respective nations at the time they were written. The Martin Beck series is highly regarded by critics and has been credited with influencing many other Scandanavian crime writers, most notably Henning Mankell, author of the 'Kurt Wallander' series, and contributing to the beginnings of the niche genre known as Nordic noir.

Answer: Gardening and herbal medicine

Aged somewhere in his forties when doing so, Brother Cadfael was a latecomer to the monastic life. His younger years had seen him enjoy the company of women, earn his living as a soldier and a sailor and travel to the Holy Land to fight in The Crusades. It was there that he learnt much about herbal remedies and so, after many years, he laid down his weapons and joined the Benedictine monks of Shrewsbury Abbey. His philosophy was that it was better to heal than to harm. Brother Cadfael was the caretaker of the gardens at Shrewsbury, and it was from the plants he grew there that he made his medicines and other concoctions.

In 'A Morbid Taste For Bones' a small group of monks from Shrewsbury Abbey make the short trek across the border to the Welsh village of Gwytherin. Their objective is to exhume the remains of St. Winifred and bring them to Shrewsbury so that their abbey, like others around them, can display some holy relics to entice people to their church. Brother Cadfael is one of the select few to travel to Gwytherin; being Welsh by birth and speaking the language fluently his role is that of interpreter. The local priest of Gwytherin, Father Huw, informs the monks that he cannot allow the bones of St. Winifred to be removed without the consent of the local villagers. A meeting is arranged for the two groups where Rhisiart, the spokesman for the village, strongly objects to the removal of the bones. When Rhisiart is later found murdered, Brother Cadfael's skill as an amateur sleuth come to the fore.

Answer: Silver mine

It is Rome, 70 A.D., the year of the four emperors has passed and Vespasian sits comfortably on the imperial throne. Our hero, Marcus Didius Falco, has a roving eye for pretty girls, so when he sees sixteen year old beauty Sosia Camillina distressed and being chased by thugs, he is more than willing to come to her rescue. It turns out that young Sosia has come into the possession of a very valuable silver ingot and has it locked away in a safety deposit box. The silver has been stolen from the Imperial mines of Britain and subsequently lost, and the thieves want to relieve Sosia of it, by fair means or foul. Unfortunately for Sosia, foul means win and she is murdered. Falco is then employed by Decimus Camillus Verus, Sosia's uncle and a Roman senator, to find the murderer of his niece and the conspiracy behind the stolen silver. He travels to Britain and works undercover in the silver mines under the guise of a runaway slave. He is beaten, shackled, starved and endures hard labour before being claimed by Helena Justina, the daughter of Decimus and cousin of Sosia, posing as the owner of the fake slave. It's a hard way to make a living but it pays dividends. Falco unveils an elaborate and sophisticated scheme that is ripping off precious silver from the Roman treasury involving mine operators, Roman senators and even a member of the Imperial family. And you wouldn't even believe me if I revealed the identity of the killer.

There have been twenty Falco novels published between 1989 and 2010, and they are highly entertaining on more than one level. The crime story elements are carefully plotted and the depictions of daily life in ancient Rome are well researched and historically accurate. Set between the years 70-77 A.D., the stories also follow Falco's personal life and those of his family and friends, many of whom are introduced in 'The Silver Pigs.' Lindsey Davis also has a great sense of humour and, as a tradition, hides a Roman influenced joke within the text of each novel. The following comes from the second Falco novel 'Shadows in Bronze' which was set eight years before the eruption of Mount Vesuvius:

"Pompeii's a place that intends to last."

Answer: Sicily

In the early hours of the morning, two garbage collectors make two separate discoveries in an area of Vigata known as the Pasture, a place notorious for its outdoor moonlit meetings between willing service providers and paying customers. The one finds a large gold and diamond necklace, the other a dead body in a car. The deceased is well known and respected city engineer and political party leader Silvio Luparello. An autopsy reveals that he has died of a heart attack with no evidence of foul play. Inspector Montalbano accepts this finding but still believes there is more of the story to be told. His theory is that political enemies, or political allies even, might be involved and a plan to have him caught in a compromising position has gone wrong. Montalbano also realises that tracking down the owner of the necklace might also provide him with some valuable clues.

Andrea Camilleri was born on the island of Sicily himself in 1925 and based the fictional town of Vigata in the Montalbano novels on Porto Empedocle, his childhood Sicilian home. Moving to mainland Italy he has worked as a theatre director as well as behind the scenes on film and television productions. His first efforts in the field of literature were poems and short stories before turning to full length novels and he has written some best sellers in Italy away from the Inspector Montalbano series.

Answer: Death in Breslau

'Death in Breslau' is set during the interwar period of the 1930's. Breslau, (now Wroclaw), is under Nazi rule and the police force is controlled by the Gestapo. It is a city where almost everybody has one vice or another, and these vices are well catered for. Eberhard Mock has his own vice which involves the game of chess with special rules devised by himself, and two girls from a certain type of establishment operated by Madame le Goef. It is during his weekly game of chess when Mock is interrupted with the news that a triple murder has taken place on a train carriage. Mock investigates and finds the bodies of a railway employee, a seventeen year old girl, (the daughter of the wealthy Baron von der Malten), and the girl's governess. Sharing the carriage with these victims is a number of scorpions, one of which is found in the sliced-open stomach of the Baron's daughter. Strange and indecipherable symbols written in the blood of the victims are also found on the walls of the carriage.

Eberhard Mock is well acquainted with Baron von der Malten; they are both Freemasons and it was the Baron who pulled strings to get Mock his high position within the police. So when the Baron asks for the murderer of his daughter to be handed to him, Mock obliges. The problem is, however, that Mock frames an innocent man who is then tortured to death by the Baron who, in the process of doing so, realises the man's innocence. He then employs Mock privately to hunt down the true killer of his daughter.