Moon Over Soho Trivia Quiz

Answer: Sadie Weintroub

Simone, Cherie and Peggy were at school together. Their teacher was Miss Paternoster who taught them to appreciate Jazz. Miss Paternoster eventually moved to America and lived with Sadie Weintroub in California.

The understanding the girls had of Jazz enabled them to live and breathe it, literally, after their mortal deaths. Some call them Jazz vampires, on the other hand they could just be a particularly harsh type of music critic.

Answer: London Nightclub, the Blitz 1941

In a situation where they should have died, the three ladies were saved by their mental picturing of music. Thereafter they "lived" for want of a better word, by draining life energy from Jazz musicians, the more skilled the musician the better. They appear not to have realised what they were doing, not having memories of the past and not consciously causing the demise of the musicians.

The bombing incident is a matter of history, not the author's imagination. The nightclub in question was the Café Paris in Soho. During the blitz, they owners thought that the club ballroom was safe, being underground. Sadly, in March 1941, a bomb penetrated the nightclub via a ventilation shaft. Over 30 people were killed. The club reopened after WWII and remained open until closing down due to the Covid lockdowns in 2020.

Answer: Suicide by drugs and alcohol

Having had the self-realisation that they are not normal humans, the three sisters, as they describe themselves, commit suicide with phenobarbital tablets washed down with alcohol. The scene of this was the same place as they had died originally, the Café Paris in Soho.

DCI Nightingale was preparing to call in the phosphorus grenades, the standard method of ethnically cleansing vampires. Not unreasonable as they were guilty of the deaths of a number of musicians whilst maintain their apparent age of early 20s. Demon Traps do appear in the book, described as a sort of magical landmine and whilst the story is part of the "Rivers of London" series and drowning in a Thames tributary would be suitably thematic, neither of these is the resolution.

Answer: Little Crocodiles

After World War 2, those few surviving users of magic retired or stopped practising. The exception was Thomas Nightingale who turned to policing. Or at least that was what was believed.

Investigating a suspicious death, it appears that one of DCI Nightingale's former colleagues did provide magical instruction. This gentleman is found to have been the late Geoffrey Wheatcroft, who, after World War 2, taught Theology at Oxford University. Lady Tyburn, goddess of the river Tyburn, was at Oxford University at the same time. It is from her recollections that the Folly learn the name of the dining club involved.

Answer: Wood carving

Although Thomas Nightingale has skills as a blacksmith, the hobby he took up was wood carving. He used this to inscribe more than 2,000 names of British wizards who fell in World War 2 onto a memorial.

Despite his year of birth being 1900, DCI Nightingale is not a decrepit person. Since the mid-sixties the aging process has been reversed, although the pace of this is not constant. After several decades of his physical age decreasing, Thomas has the appearance of being in his forties.

Answer: Ambulance

The sons of Father Thames are the gods of the various tributaries of the non-tidal portion of the River Thames. Ash Thames is the god of the River Ash. In "Moon Over Soho", Ash is attacked by a creature known as the Pale Lady, a human-appearing creature with some unpleasant attributes.

The Pale Lady is also very strong and impales Ash with an iron railing. The quickest way to save Ash (a river god) is for PC Grant to throw him into the River Thames. To this end the ambulance is hijacked and written off in the process.

This does not please the Metropolitan Police Commissioner.

Answer: Larry the Lark

Larry the Lark, so-called because he would do his rounds of debt collection and thuggery early in the day, had his first outing as a head at a meeting of the criminal underworld in the 1970s. Presumably it was a warning to the gathered gallery of London's underworld to keep off of the Faceless Man's turf. His final outing is some 40 years later, still able to talk but neither truly alive nor truly dead.

Answer: Ken Johnson, "Body and Soul"

Ken "Snakehips" Johnson, both in the book and in real life, died in the bombing of the Café Paris during World War 2. According to the author's notes at the back of the book, in real life he was playing "Oh Johnny" as the explosion happened. The author decided that "Body and Soul" suited the novel better. This is the same incident which created the Jazz Vampires.

Al Bowlly also died as a result of damage caused by a bomb during the Blitz.

Answer: Obscene Publications Squad

The famed Obscene Publications Unit was notorious for taking bribes not to raid the porn shops of Soho. Or if they did raid protected shops, they would give you notice so you could remove the dodgy stuff in advance. For examples of the real-world corruption of the time, look up Detective Chief Superintendent Bill Moody and Commander Wally Virgo.

In the novel, DCI Jerry "Greasy" Johnson, appears to have been murdered by the second Faceless Man, the motive being that he had some video tapes from a very specialised nightclub that the first Faceless Man had run and the second Faceless Man wished to reinstate.

Answer: Lord Grant

It is known that Peter's father is heavily into Jazz. He has had several careers as a Jazz musician and by the end of this novel is commencing yet another. The revelation comes as Peter is talking his way into a Jazz club when he tells the bouncer to contact the management. Finding out that Peter is the son of "Jazz royalty" has a significant impression on the musicians he is talking to.

These musicians are the remains of "The Better Quartet" after their saxophonist Cyrus Wilkinson had died, leading to the involvement of Peter Grant.

By the end of the novel they are playing with Peter's father as "Lord Grant and the Irregulars".