Queen's Bureau of Investigation Quiz

Answer: three

The stories are: "Money Talks", where a blackmailer accidentally discloses his identity when he uses such British idioms as "sweets" (chocolates), "fanlight" (transom) and "tin" (can), "A Question of Honor", where a seeming suicide note by a Brit is proved false by Queen when he sees "honor" spelled American fashion...without a U, as Brits spell it, and "Driver's Seat", where a murderer is exposed when Queen notices his right sleeve is wet from rain because his car is a British brand with a righthand steering wheel.

Answer: boxing

In "A Matter of Seconds" Queen uncovers a fixed boxing bout when he realizes that a sportswriter at the match doesn't know the fight game lingo; he talks of a "right hook", when there is no such thing in boxing! He knows the phony sportswriter is involved in the kidnapping of a boxer.

Answer: two

The two are "The Robber of Wrightsville", about how a policeman is involved in payroll theft and "GI Story", a dying message tale.

Wrightsville first appeared in the novel "Calamity Town" and last appeared in "Double, Double". Outside New York, Queen seems to find the most cases in Wrightsville.

Answer: chambermaid

The chambermaid turns out to be the accomplice to a payroll robbery and kills her partner to get the loot. The clue that gives her away is the towels she brings to her victim for his shaving in the bathroom; since there are no used ones there, she's the one who took them out and is the killer.

Answer: mounted patrolman

When Shakes Clooney, a racetrack tout, is found murdered in Central Park, three men, a Senator, financier and politician are suspected. But Queen, seeing the sugar in the victim's fist, knows it points to the real killer: the mounted patrolman who "found" the corpse, since you feed lumps of sugar to horses!

Answer: a man named George

Queen may not have invented the dying message, but he made it his trademark! In "GI Story", we have three brothers named for American presidents accused of murder. The "GI" actually points to the brother named George (for Washington); the victim was about to write "George" when he died, leaving "GI".

Answer: myna birds

"The Myna Birds" are the pets of a rich old lady who's the target of three killers. One of the birds says "Cut!cut!" pointing to the cards the killers cut to see which one does the murder.

Answer: spoonerism

Spoonerisms are named for Reverend Spooner who transposed sounds in sentences: "blushing crow" for "crushing blow". A spoonerizing professor announces the discovery of a rare volume about Shakespeare when a robber attacks him and steals the book. Queen deduces the identity of the thief when he realizes the professor spoonerized when saying the name of his assailant.

The story's title? "My Queer Dean!"

Answer: pawnshop; O. Henry

A pawnshop was the setting for the Sherlock Holmes classic "The Red-Headed League", which was used by robbers to heist a neighboring bank. Queen aids the relatives of a dead pawnbroker to find his hidden hoard; the title of an O. Henry collection, "Between Rounds" means the three gilded balls on every pawnshop, here the ones where the money's hidden!

O. Henry, alias Willaim Sidney Porter, is synonymous with the short story. Porter himself was convicted of and imprisoned for embezzlement, and many of his stories concern crooks and conmen.

The other authors are also given by their pen names: George Eliot (Mary Ann Evans), Saki (Hector Hugh Munro) and Henry Green (Henry Vincent Yorke)!

Answer: train

A train carrying a female witness to a gangster's trial is aboard an express train that vanishes before arriving at a depot. Queen deduces it was stopped by gunmen and that the stationmaster was bribed to keep it a secret.

Answer: three

In "The Three Widows" Queen deduces that the killer of one of them is the physician who checks them, poisoning her by putting the poison on the thermometer he sticks in her mouth!

Answer: a witch

Sorry, couldn't resist those false answers!

In "The Witch of Times Square" Queen tracks down the last relative of the title character (based on Hetty Green perhaps?). Through a ruse based on hereditary eye color Queen unmasks a conman and finds the heir.

Answer: The Gambler's Club

In "The Gambler's Club" Queen uncovers a racket ring when noticing one note to a victim comes in a larger envelope than the one that carries another note to another patsy; one of the victims must be the mastermind of the scheme!

"Double Your Money", in the same collection, concerns a different swindle, involving a con artist who uses disguise for his scheme.

The other two titles are my own fake ones.

Answer: narcotics

In "The Black Ledger" Queen is transporting a list of narcotics dealers on a train to Washington, D.C. But the head of the gang is aboard with some of his aides and they nearly strip Queen of his clothes searching for the list. They don't find it on Queen, but later after the boss stands trial he learns the list was in Queen's pipe: it was a roll of microfilm in a fireproof brass cartridge hidden in Queen pipe!

Answer: kidnapping

"Child Missing" is seemingly concerned with a kidnapping...until Queen shows it's been all planned by the child himself to get attention from his neglectful parents!

Hope you enjoyed this quiz, which I dedicate to the writing team behind the Queen stories: the late cousins Frederic Dannay and Manfred B. Lee, who created Ellery Queen!