Who Created That Fictional Detective? Quiz

Answer: Arthur Conan Doyle

Almost certainly the most famous fictional detective of all time, Sherlock Holmes was the creation of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle (1859-1930). Holmes made his first appearance in the novel "A Study in Scarlet", published in 1887, and his last in the short story "The Adventure of Shoscombe Old Place" (April 1927). Along with his companion, Doctor Watson, he appeared in a total of four novels and 56 short stories, as well as a stage play which Doyle wrote with the American actor William Gillette.

Holmes has been portrayed many times on screen, by actors including Basil Rathbone (14 films between 1939 and 1946), Jeremy Brett (41 television episodes between 1984 and 1994) and Benedict Cumberbatch (in an updated television version beginning in 2010).

Answer: Michael Dibdin

Michael Dibdin (1947-2007) was a British writer who wrote eleven detective novels about the Italian detective Aurelio Zen, starting with "Ratking" in 1988 and concluding with "End Games" in 2007, which was published after Dibdin's early death at the age of 60. Unlike most British detective novelists, Dibdin set his books in a foreign country (Italy), with an Italian protagonist. Dibdin had previously lived and worked for four years in Italy, which gave him an insight into Italian culture and society which he used to good effect in his novels.

The first three Zen books were adapted for TV by the BBC in 2011, starring Rufus Sewell in the title role. Although well-reviewed, the BBC decided there were already plenty of male detectives on TV, and decided not to make any more, thus depriving both actors and crew of a regular holiday in the picturesque Italian countryside.

Answer: Gilbert Keith Chesterton

The Roman Catholic priest, Father Brown, was created by G. K. Chesterton (1874-1936). He made his first appearance in the short story "The Blue Cross", which was published in July 1910 in the American magazine "The Saturday Evening Post", under the title "Valentin Follows a Curious Trail". In total, Chesterton wrote around fifty short stories featuring the character, the last appearing in the year of his death. Unlike his partial contemporary, Sherlock Holmes, Father Brown solves his mysteries through a combination of intuition and a profound understanding of human nature.

Sir Alec Guiness appeared as the character in a 1954 film entitled "Father Brown", and twenty years later Kenneth More played him in 13 episodes made for television. More recently, in 2013 the BBC began broadcasting an adaptation of the stories starring Mark Williams, set in the 1950s. By 2022 the show was in its ninth series, having long ago run out of original Chesterton stories to adapt, but continuing to be extremely popular.

Answer: Robert Galbraith

Cormoran Strike is a war veteran and private detective who appears in a series of novels by Robert Galbraith, which is the pen-name of J. K. Rowling (born 1965), author of the "Harry Potter" series of children's books. The first novel in the Strike series, "The Cuckoo's Calling", was published in 2013 and initially sold a mere 1,500 copies. However, once Rowling's identity as the real author became known, the novel (and its successors) became much more popular. The sixth in the series, "The Ink Black Heart", was published in 2022.

A TV series starring Tom Burke as Strike was first broadcast in 2017, adapting the first two novels in the series. Further series were broadcast in 2018 and 2020, adapting the third and fourth books.

The protagonist's unusual name of "Cormoran" is derived from a legendary Cornish giant, associated with the island of St Michael's Mount.

Answer: Ian Rankin

The Edinburgh detective Inspector John Rebus is the creation of Ian Rankin (born 1960), who has also lived for most of his life in the Scottish capital. The first Rebus story, "Knots and Crosses", appeared in 1987, and by 2022 Rebus had appeared in a total of 24 novels and many short stories. Like many more "modern" fictional detectives, Rebus is something of a maverick, not averse to taking the law into his own hands and often at odds with his superior officers.

Between 2000 and 2007, ITV broadcast 14 episodes of a TV adaptation of the stories, with first John Hannah and then Ken Stott playing the title character.

Answer: Agatha Christie

Agatha Christie (1890-1976) first introduced her amateur detective Miss Jane Marple in a short story entitled "The Tuesday Night Club" (1927). The novel "The Murder at the Vicarage" followed in 1930. In total, Miss Marple appeared in twelve full-length novels as well as several collections of short stories. She is an elderly spinster whose superficially scatty character belies a keen mind and a subtle knowledge of human character which often helps in her crime-solving efforts.

The character has been portrayed many times on both film and television. In the early 1960s Margaret Rutherford played her in four successful low-budget British films, although apparently Christie did not particularly like this portrayal. In the 1980s and 90s, Joan Hickson played her in a series of BBC TV films which adapted all twelve Marple novels, and both Geraldine McEwen and Julia McKenzie shared the role in a later ITV series between 2004 and 2014.

Answer: Margery Allingham

Margery Allingham (1904-66) created the amateur sleuth Albert Campion in 1929. He originally appeared as a minor character in her first mystery novel, "The Crime at Black Dudley", but soon became the protagonist of a further 17 novels as well as many short stories. He is a member of the English upper classes, and is assisted by his manservant, the splendidly named Magersfontein Lugg, a reformed ex-burglar. Allingham left a final Campion novel, "Cargo of Eagles", unfinished at the time of her death, and this was completed by her husband, Philip Youngman Carter. Carter then wrote two further Campion novels, and after his death the baton was taken up by Mike Ripley, who between 2015 and 2022 had written another eight.

In 1989 and 1990, eight of the Campion novels were adapted for television, with Peter Davison as Campion and Brian Glover as Lugg.

Answer: Colin Dexter

Colin Dexter (1930-2017) published the first of thirteen novels featuring Inspector Endeavour Morse in 1975, entitled "Last Bus to Woodstock" (Woodstock being the town near Oxford rather than the American music festival). The Morse novels are mostly set in and around Oxford. Morse himself is a lover of opera (especially Wagner), real ale and cryptic crosswords. Unusually, Dexter killed off the character in 1999 at the end of the thirteenth novel ("The Remorseful Day"), bringing his career (and the books) to an end. Throughout the books, Morse's first name is never revealed, until the closing pages of the final book, when it is revealed to be Endeavour.

In 1987, the first of 33 two-hour television episodes based on the character was broadcast on ITV, with Morse played by John Thaw and Kevin Whately as his Sergeant, Lewis. Not all of these were based on Dexter's original novels, although the final episode follows the plot of the last "Morse" novel and also ends with his death. Reluctant to bring to the end such a successful series and character, ITV followed it up with a prequel series named "Endeavour", about the young Morse, and a sequel, "Lewis", following the subsequent career of Sergeant (now Inspector) Lewis.

Answer: Robert David Wingfield

Robert David Wingfield (1928-2007) wrote six novels about the grumpy, slovenly detective William "Jack" Frost, who plied his trade in the fictional town of Denton, somewhere in the south of England. The first of these, "Frost at Christmas", was written in the early 1970s but not published until 1984. Five more novels followed, the last of which was "A Killing Frost", published the year after Wingfield's death.

In 1992 three feature-length episodes based on the books were broadcast on UK television under the title of "A Touch of Frost" (the name of the second novel), starring David Jason as Frost. These were sufficiently popular to spawn a series of adaptations, most of which were original stories quite separate from Wingfield's original novels. The last of the 42 episodes was broadcast in 2010, although they have been frequently repeated.

Answer: Edmund Crispin

The Oxford don Gervase Fen is the creation of Edmund Crispin (1921-78), and features in nine novels and two short story collections. Fen fits well into the classic "English" detective tradition, being an amateur sleuth who solves mysteries that baffle the professionals. Many are set in and around Oxford (Fen is a Professor of English at the fictional St Christopher's College), or in the world of music.

"Edmund Crispin" was in fact the pseudonym of Bruce Montgomery, who was equally accomplished as a composer of orchestral, church and film music. He composed the scores for the popular 1950s "Doctor In The House" films, as well as the first six of the "Carry On" series.