Mystery Mistresses Trivia Quiz

Answer: Donna Andrews

All these authors tend to use titles containing something in common.
Donna Andrews (born 1967) is the correct answer. Besides the titles I gave in the question, I could also mention "We'll Always Have Parrots" (2004) and "The Penguin Who Knew Too Much" (2008). All these novels feature the blacksmith Meg Langslow and her dad, who loves to protect all kinds of birds.
Kate Collins has something with flowers, as shown in the titles of her series "Flower Shop Mysteries": "Slay It with Flowers" (2005), "Dearly Depotted" (2005) and "Acts of Violets" (2007), to name a few of these.
Kate Charles is interested in a clerical setting for crime. This predilection shows in her anthologies "Unholy Orders: Mysteries with a Religious Twist" (2000) and "Murder Most Catholic" (2002).
Laurien Berenson is frequently inspired by dogs. Some titles: "A Pedigree to Die For" (1994), "Dog Eat Dog" (1996) and "Jingle Bell Bark" (2004).

Answer: Lilian Jackson Braun

The novels featuring Qwill and his cats have all similar titles: "The Cat Who" and then an activity that is highly uncommon for a cat. Some examples: "The Cat Who Could Read Backwards" (1966), "The Cat Who Knew Shakespeare" (1988) , "The Cat Who Talked Turkey" (2004). In "The Cat Who Came to Breakfast" (1994) Koko identifies the suspects by knocking over domino tiles with the exact number of pips corresponding to a letter in the suspects' name.
Lilian Jackson Braun (born 1913) is the author we're looking for.
Rita Mae Brown (born 1944) and her cat Sneaky Pie Brown have published mystery novels such as "Murder, She Meowed" (1996) and "The Purrfect Murder" (2008). (Note: this last title is NOT a typo, it was intended that way).
Carole Nelson Douglas (born 1944) is another cat loving mystery author. One of her main sleuths is Midnight Louie, a black tomcat, with his 'servant' Temple Barr.
Enid Blyton (1897-1968) was the author of the "Famous Five" series -novels for young readers. Her series on "The Five Find-Outers" contains 15 books in which young children solve mysteries.

Answer: Miss Felicity Lemon

Hercule Poirot employs Miss Felicity Lemon, an incredibly efficient secretary. Miss Lemon's greatest ambition is to create the perfect filing system. Poirot is very fond of her remarks, which are almost always to the point.
Ariadne Oliver is a fictitious mystery writer invented by Agatha Christie. Miss Oliver frequently appears in books featuring Hercule Poirot.
Miss Jane Marple and Prudence Cowley (better known as Tuppence Beresford) are other characters in books by Agatha Christie.
Agatha Christie (born Miller) was born in 1890. She started her literary career in 1920 with "The Mysterious Affair at Styles", featuring Poirot. About 80 novels and about 160 short stories would follow. Agatha Christie, nicknamed "the Queen of Crime", died in 1976.

Answer: Patricia Cornwell

In order to answer correctly this question, you should remember who are the protagonists in the books by each of these authors.
Patricia Cornwell (born Patricia Daniels, 1956) is the American author of the books featuring Kay Scarpetta, who started her career as the Chief Medical examiner in Virginia. Scarpetta is from Italian descent and loves to cook. While preparing typical Italian dishes, Kay Scarpetta lets her mind wander over the murder cases with which she is confronted professionally.
As for the others, they all have written detective stories starring English policemen.
Rodney David Wingfield (1928-2007) was a male mystery author. He created the character Jack Frost, detective inspector in the fictional town of Denton, UK.
Caroline Graham (born 1931) has authored some books starring Detective Chief Inspector Tom Barnaby. Barnaby operates in another fictitious part of the UK, near the Lake District.
Elizabeth George (born 1949 as Susan Elizabeth George) is an American mystery author. Her protagonist is English: Thomas Lynley, Lord Asherton, who works as a Scotland Yard Inspector. Lynley works throughout the UK.

Answer: Nancy Fairbanks

Nancy Fairbanks started writing historical fiction in 1989. She switched to the Carolyn Blue Culinary Mysteries in 2001. Some titles: "Crime Brûlée" (2001, the start of the series), "Death à l'Orange" (2002) and "Holy Guacamole" (2004). The protagonist Carolyn Blue starts a new career as a food reporter and is frequently confronted with kitchen related crimes.
Dianne Mott Davidson (born 1949) writes a series starring Goldy Schulz, a professional caterer.
Jerrilyn Farmer's amateur sleuth is called Madeline Bean, another professional caterer.
Joanne Fluke (born 1943) writes the Hannah Swensen mysteries, starring a bakery assistant.

Answer: C Is for Corpse

All these titles are from Sue Grafton's "Alphabet Series". This series starring private investigator Kinsey Millhone was published in a strictly alphabetical order, starting in 1982 with "A is for Alibi".
"C Is for Corpse" (1986) starts with the request made by a young man (Bobby Callahan) suffering from amnesia to inquire about a car accident in which Bobby was seriously wounded. Only a few days after Bobby contacted Kinsey Millhone, he died in another car accident.
In "E Is for Evidence" (1988) Kinsey investigates a fire in a factory.
"K Is for Killer" (1994) searches for someone who murdered a high class prostitute.
"T Is for Trespass" (2007) tackles identity theft.

Answer: P.D. James

From the intro to this quiz you should remember we're looking for *female* mystery authors. Only one of these is a single woman: Lady Phyllis Dorothy James, Baroness James of Holland Park. She was born in 1920 in Oxford and published her first mystery novel in 1962. The protagonist, Adam Dalgliesh, is frequently confronted with closed communities such as a hospital administration ("Cover her Face",1962), a nursing school ("Shroud for a Nightingale", 1971) or a private clinic ("The Private Patient", 2008).
Norman Colin Dexter (born 1930) is the English author of the detective novels starring Inspector Morse.
Ellery Queen is the nom de plume invented by two cousins: Frederic Dannay (1905-1982, born Daniel Nathan) and Manfred Bennington Lee (born Manford Lepofsky, 1905-1971). Their protagonist is also named Ellery Queen.
Nicci French is the pseudonym chosen by the couple Nicci Gerard (born 1958) - Sean French (born 1959), who write mystery novels together.

Answer: Venice

All these European cities are the settings for intriguing European detective novels.
Donna Leon (born 1942) moved to Venice, Italy, where she wrote her first mystery novel: "Death at La Fenice" (1992). Commissario Guido Brunetti is the police officer charged with solving a murder case in the famous Venetian opera. Since 1992, Donna Leon has published on average one book a year starring Guido Brunetti.
Paris, France is the setting for the mysteries solved by commissaire Jules Maigret, a sleuth conceived by the Belgian author Georges Simenon.
Pieter Aspe, another Belgian author, has invented the character of Pieter Van In. Van In starts his career as detective inspector in Bruges, Belgium.
Amsterdam has a police station where detective inspector Jurriaan De Cock works. This character was created by the Dutch author Albert Cornelis Baantjer.

Answer: Brother Cadfael

All these characters have a function within the Roman Catholic Church.
Brother Cadfael is the name of a Benedictine monk in Shrewsbury Abbey. This character created by Ellis Peters (born Edith Pargeter, 1913-1995) stars in twenty detective stories set between 1137 and 1145. Brother Cadfael has many talents. His occupation as herbalist helps him to solve some poisoning cases.
Father Brown, the parish priest of a small village in Essex, is a character created by Gilbert Keith Chesterton (1874-1936).
William of Baskerville is the name of a Franciscan friar and inquisitor invented by Umberto Eco and featuring in "The Name of the Rose".
Carlo Ventresca is the name given to the camerlengo (assistant of the Pope) in Dan Brown's novel "Angels and Demons".

Answer: The Unpleasantness at the Bellona Club

Dorothy Sayers (1893-1957) was quite famous for the mystery novels starring Lord Peter Wimsey, an upper class amateur sleuth. "The Unpleasantness at the Bellona Club" (1928) is a novel starring Lord Peter Wimsey. To ensure a large inheritance goes to the rightful heir, Lord Peter Wimsey has to pinpoint the time of death of General Fentiman, who was found dead in his club.
Agatha Christie wrote "And Then There Were None" (1939), also known as "Ten Little Indians".
"The Hound of the Baskervilles" (1902) is a novel by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle.
And Edgar Allan Poe published the short story "The Pit and the Pendulum" (1842).