Finding My Way Back Home #2 Trivia Quiz

Answer: Gabarone, Botswana

Precious first appeared in 1998's "The #1 Ladies' Detective Agency" by Alexander McCall Smith the first in a series of over fifteen books. The author was born in Southern Rhodesia (present-day Zimbabwe). He spent time in Scotland and Ireland, before returning to Africa in 1981 to help co-found and teach law at the University of Botswana.

Answer: New York

Rex Stout wrote 33 novels and 39 short stories featuring genius private detective Nero Wolfe, who loves orchids and food. Wolfe rarely leaves his luxurious brownstone on West 35th St in Manhattan. Any legwork is done by his assistant, Archie Goodwin. Stout was born in Indiana and made his home in High Meadow, NY, about an hour north of New York City.

In addition to his writing, he invented a banking system for schools, served as yeoman on Theodore Roosevelt's presidential yacht, and wrote propaganda during WWII.

Answer: Trenton, NJ

Stephanie Plum is a bounty hunter, working for her cousin. Her adventures are complicated by wacky family, friends, and love interests. In the first chapter of "One for the Money", author Janet Evanovich describes the setting as "a blue-collar chunk of Trenton called the Burg. Houses were attached and narrow. Yards were small. Cars were American.

The people were mostly of Italian descent, with enough Hungarians and Germans thrown in to offset inbreeding. It was a good place to buy calzone or play the numbers. And, if you had to live in Trenton anyway, it was an okay place to raise a family." Evanovich herself was born in South River, New Jersey.

Answer: St Mary Mead

Miss Marple appeared in 12 novels and 20 short stories by Agatha Christie. She is a spinster living in the fictional village of St Mary Mead. Only three of the books take place in that location. However, Miss Marple often often draws parallels to characters and situations from the village during her investigations, using those insights to understand the nature of the crime.

Answer: Arizona

Tony Hillerman wrote 15 books featuring Leaphorn, an officer of the Navajo Tribal Police (some of which also feature a younger colleague, Jim Chee). The detective lives in Window Rock, Arizona, although his jurisdiction ranges over parts of Arizona, Colorado, New Mexico, and Utah.

The novels are notable for their depiction of the culture of Navajo, Hopi, and Zuni peoples. Hillerman is a white man who was born in Oklahoma, grew up among native Americans of the Southwest, and lived in Santa Fe and Albequerque, New Mexico.

Answer: Los Angeles

The quintessential hard-boiled detective was introduced in "The Big Sleep", by Raymond Chandler. That novel also defined noir style and a dark view of 1940s Los Angeles. Marlowe appeared in a series of novels in the 1940s and 1950s. A tour company in Los Angeles offers a Chandler-inspired bus tour of LA. Chandler himself was born in Chicago and spent most of his youth in England.

After WWI, he settled in California.

Answer: North Carolina

Margaret Maron introduced district court judge Deborah Knott in "The Bootlegger's Daughter". Knott is the youngest child of 12 children (and the only daughter) of Kezzie Knott and his two wives. The members of the extended family provide local color, as well as occasional help in solving mysteries. The author herself was born in Greensboro, North Carolina.

Answer: Three Pines, Quebec

Louise Penney first introduced Chief Inspector Gamache of the Surete du Quebec in "Still Life". Gamache is called to investigate a murder in the quaint town of Three Pines, with its charming bistro, boulangerie, and bookstore. Despite its idyllic setting, Three Pines ends up being the location for most of the books in the series. Penny is a Canadian herself, having been born in Toronto. One of the recurring characters in Gamache's world is poet Ruth Zardo, whose verse is actually written by fellow Canadian Margaret Atwood.

Answer: Rome

Falco is the hero of a series of historical detective novels written by Lindsay Davis. The books are set in Ancient Rome, during the rule of Vespasian. A related series features Flavia Albia, Falco's adopted daughter, who is also a private investigator. Davis has a degree in English from Oxford, University.

Her interest in history led her to write a novel about the Emperor Vespasian. When she couldn't get it published, she decided to use that research to write a historical who-done-it.

Answer: Chicago

Victoria (V.I.) Warshawski is the ground-breaking feminist detective created by Sarah Paretsky. V.I. grew up under the shadow of the steel mills on Chicago's South Side, the child of a cop and Italian refugee. She went to the University of Chicago and now lives on the North Side, where she roots for the Cubs and Bears.

Her investigations into white-collar crime take her through many neighborhoods of the city. The author was born in Kansas but moved to Chicago in 1966 to do community service work on the South Side.

She has two graduate degrees from the University of Chicago, where her husband is a professor.