Cities Criminals Should Avoid Trivia Quiz

Answer: Edinburgh

Ian Rankin's detective, John Rebus, has appeared in more than 20 novels since 1987. Rebus entered the Midlothian and Borders Police Department after a short career in the SAS. A gruff, but dedicated, policeman, Rebus has constant bouts with authorities and is troubled by alcoholism.

He is aided by Siobhan Clarke, a hoped-for civilizing police partner, and later Malcolm Fox. Rebus is unrelenting in his search for justice and sympathy for the little man. Later in the series he is forced into retirement, but is asked to return to resolve cold cases and work internal affairs.

Answer: Santa Teresa

Sue Grafton has written a series of novels that include an alphabetic letter in the title (A is for Alibi, B is for Burglary etc.). Her detective, Kinsey Milhone, works in the fictional town of Santa Teresa, north of Los Angeles. After a lackluster education, she joined the local police force for two years before embarking on a career as a detective for an insurance company. She survived two failed marriages before the series started, and is generally uninterested in her physical appearance. Throughout the series she has remained in her thirties.

Ironically, Santa Teresa was also the home base for Ross MacDonald's Lew Archer, and many of Grafton's plots use the theme of older forgotten events causing havoc in current times - a trademark of MacDonald's stories.

Answer: London

Anne Perry has written two series of novels that feature Victorian era policemen, Thomas Pitt and William Monk. Pitt is a rather tall, ungainly man who was the son of the gameskeeper at a northern estate. He had the good fortune to be educated alongside the son of the estate owner.

He joined the London police and first appeared in the book "The Cater Street Hangman", where he met Charlotte Ellison, the unconventional daughter of a titled family. Against her family's wishes, Charlotte married Pitt and was instrumental in his success.

Many of Pitt's cases involved upper class families, who resisted helping a lower-class policeman; and Charlotte, her sister Emily, and her great aunt Vespesia often had access to information that Pitt was unable to obtain.

Answer: Chicago

Victoria Iphigenia Warshawski is the main character in Sara Paretsky's mystery books. V.I. is the daughter of an Italian mother, who fled Mussolini's crackdown on Jews, and a Polish father, who is a policeman. She became involved in the counterculture of the 1960s before earning a law degree.

After practicing law for two years as a public defender, she became a detective to identify white collar crime. Her stories revolve around the south Chicago area neighborhood.

Answer: New York

Linda Fairstein was a long-time assistant district attorney in New York City, heading the sex crimes unit. She started a series of books featuring Alexandra (Alex) Cooper in that same role. Most of her cases involve a murder committed at a New York City landmark, such as Grand Central Station, and provide a great deal of background information and history about each site.

In her cases, she is aided by policemen Mike Chapman and Mercer Wallace. The three of them have a long-established tradition, seen in her initial novel "Final Jeopardy", of tuning into the TV show Jeopardy and betting among themselves on the answer to the final jeopardy question. Alex is independently wealthy due to her father's medical invention, owns a second home in Martha's vineyard, and has been involved with several high profile men during the series.

Answer: Oslo

Harry Hole (pronounced Hoo-leh) is a loner in the Oslo Police Department. He has little contact with his father and his Sami (native) mother died of cancer when he was in his early twenties. Created by Norwegian author Jo Nesbo, Hole has been featured in over ten novels, including "Redbreast", "Nemesis", and Snowman". Like many other fictional male detectives, he struggles with alcohol and stable relationships. For a short period, Hole went into a self-imposed exile to Hong Kong before returning.

But the primary focus is Oslo and the novels include many real locations and eating places in the city.

Answer: Stockholm

The Stieg Larsson novels about Lisbeth Salander were an international sensation in the early 2000s, although only three were published before his early death. Salander is a troubled genius, who survived an abusive upbringing to become a renowned computer hacker. With dyed hair, a pierced nose, and huge tattoos over her body, she fits the profile of a deeply troubled young woman. She assists the older newspaperman Mikael Blomkvist resolve several cases with her computer skills. Both are based in Stockholm, although some of the action takes place elsewhere.

Larsson's family allowed David Lagercrantz to write a fourth book in the series, which met with mixed reception. Larsson's partner, Eva Gabrielsson, claimed (in 2017) to have a draft of a fourth book Larsson had written and notes for several additional books.

Answer: Charlotte and Montreal

There are noticeable differences between the Kathy Reichs' novels and the TV show "Bones", including Brennan's workplace, love interest, and character. Like Brennan, Kathy Reichs was a forensic anthropologist at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte and a Montreal police laboratory. Brennan is a recovering alcoholic, separated from her husband Pete, and the mother to a college-aged daughter Katy.

Her sometimes love interest, Andrew Ryan, works for Montreal police, although he has flown in to help Tempe at other locations. Most of Brennan's cases involve examining older bones near her workplaces, although she has ventured into Guatemala and Canada's Northwest Territories in books in the series.

Answer: Eastvale, Yorkshire

Alan Banks is the protagonist in Peter Robinson's novels. Banks was originally stationed in London, but moved to the fictional town of Eastvale, near Ripon in North Yorkshire. The series began with Banks married to Sandra with a son and a daughter. As the series progressed, the Banks separated and eventually divorced. Detective Annie Cabot began to play a larger role as his partner and sometimes love interest. Most of the novels are set in the small Yorskhire villages near Eastvale and the nearest large city (Leeds), although Banks has also aided in cases in nearby Derbyshire and even London.

Answer: Los Angeles

Hieronymus (Harry) Bosch is the protagonist in Michael Connelly's books. Bosch, the son of a murdered Los Angles prostitute, grew up in orphanages. He served a a tunnel rat during the Vietnam War before joining the Los Angeles Police Department. He lives in a house in the Hollywood Hills, overlooking the city, which was financed by serving as a movie consultant. Bosch has serious problems with authorities figures and has been investigated by Internal Affairs several times for his not-by-the-books behavior.

He had several love interests during the series, marrying and then divorcing former FBI agent Eleanor Wish. After her murder, their daughter Maddie moved into Bosch's home. Eventually Bosch retired from the LAPD, but was called back to close some cold cases.

Answer: Trenton (The Burg)

Stephanie Plum is the heroine of Janet Evanovich's series of novels, each including a number in the title (One for the Money, Two for the Dough etc.). Stephanie grew up in the Chambersbug neighborhood ("The Burg") of Trenton New Jersey. After she was laid off her job in the lingerie department of a local store, her cousin Vinnie hires her as a bounty hunter for his bail bonds company.

She has the oftentimes dangerous job of finding and returning criminals who have skipped out on their bonds. Invariably, this leads to more complicated and dangerous situations in which dreamboats Joseph Morelli and the Ranger assist her. Along the way we learn more of her extended Italian-Hungarian Plum family, Grandma Mazur, her co-worker Lula, and nemesis Joyce Barnhardt, among others.

Answer: Three Pines, Quebec

Armand Gamache, the hero of Louise Penny's series, is an inspector for the Surete du Quebec. He is stationed in the fictional town of Three Pines in Quebec province. Like many of our detectives, Gamache is plagued by incompetent and ambitious superiors. Three Pines seems relatively small, but contains many hidden secrets and reluctant witnesses for Gamache to deal with.

Answer: U.S National Parks

Nevada Barr, the author of the Anna Pigeon series of novels, wrote her first book while working as a park ranger at the Natchez Trace park in Mississippi. Barr's experiences as a ranger helped define the character of her heroine. Anna Pigeon has rotated through many different national parks in the US, such as Carlsbad Caverns (New Mexico), Yosemite (California), and Dry Tortugas (Florida), and solved murders that occurred within the park boundaries.

Answer: Moscow

Arkady Renko is the hero in several novels by Martin Cruz Smith, starting with "Gorky Park" in 1981. Renko is the son of a Red Army general of unrepentant Stalinist views, who is gravely disappointed that his son entered the police force and has not joined the Communist party. Over the span of these novels Renko has worked under a Russia controlled by Communists, by corrupt oligarchs, and finally by Vladimir Putin. Under each of them, Renko has struggled against corruption, indifference, and inertia to seek justice. Most of his cases are centered in Moscow, although he has also worked in West Germany and Cuba.

Answer: Fort Lauderdale

Travis McGee was in 21 novels by John MacDonald, each containing a color in the title. McGee, who lists himself as a salvage consultant, lives onboard a 52 foot boat named the Busted Flash. Most of his cases involve recovering stolen money or property. McGee himself is 6'4"" tall and quite fit, using his stature in salvage operations and to woo female admirers.

Although most of the stories begin with someone contacting McGee on his boat, he often travels to exotic locations outside Florida to resolve his cases.

The last book in the series was published in 1984, two years before MacDonald's death. His family has refused attempts by other authors to continue the series.