The Butler Didn't Do It Trivia Quiz

Answer: Why Shoot A Butler?

Whilst on his way to visit relatives, barrister Frank Amberley comes across a parked car with a dead body inside it and a girl attempting to leave the scene of the crime. She swears she didn't do it, he believes her and sets out to find the murderer. Published in 1933, "Why Shoot A Butler?" is Georgette Heyer's second detective novel.

Answer: Death In The Stocks

The local policeman finds a dead body locked into the stocks in the village square. The man has been knifed in the back. Suspicion falls on his half-brother who is his heir and who has no alibi. Scotland Yard are called in but it takes another murder before a cousin of the dead man solves the mystery.
"Death In The Stocks" was the first book to feature Sergeant (later Inspector) Hemingway.

Answer: A Christmas house party

"Envious Casca" has been likened to an Agatha Christie novel because of the setting and cast of characters. The question is not so much who, as that becomes fairly obvious about a third of the way in, but how. This is a classic 'locked room' mystery with the customary ingenious explanation at the end.

Answer: Footsteps In The Dark

Published in 1932 "Footsteps In The Dark" was Georgette Heyer's first departure from historical subjects. In later years she asked her publishers not to re-print the book as she did not regard it as one of her better works. It did however set the tone of her subsequent detective novels, all of which focus on upper class family murder.

Answer: Penhallow

Published in 1942 "Penhallow" has the typical Heyer theme of a dysfunctional family. Unlike most of her other books the murder does not happen until almost halfway through the story, the first part of the book dealing exclusively with setting the scene and characters.

Answer: Detection Unlimited

Published in 1953, "Detection Unlimited" sounds as though it should be about a firm of private investigators. Instead it is set in a small village and is about the murder of Sampson Warrenby, who was so disliked that virtually the whole village are suspects.

Answer: A Blunt Instrument

The Bible-quoting policeman finds Ernest Fletcher dead in his own study. He has been killed with a blunt instrument. As the plot unfolds Fletcher's secret life is exposed and he gradually changes from a thoroughly nice man who no-one would want to hurt, to an extremely unpleasant womaniser.

Answer: The Unfinished Clue

Published in 1934 "The Unfinished Clue" is a country house murder in which Sir Arthur Billington-Smith is so furious at his son's unsuitable choice of companion he makes life a misery for everyone else in the house. When he is found stabbed in his study everyone in the house is a suspect.

Answer: 12

Starting with "Footsteps In The Dark" in 1932 and ending with "Detection Unlimited" in 1953 she published one romance and one detective novel per year. The romances far outsold the detective novels, selling approximately 150,000 copies per romance to approximately 16,000 per detective novel. The one thing they do both have in common is humour, especially in the dialogue.

Answer: Bridge

A guest at a duplicate bridge party is strangled with piano wire. A few days later the hostess of the party is killed in exactly the same way. All of the guests are suspects and Inspector Hemingway must unravel their relationships with both each other and the murder victims.