Last week Brad, (writer of Ah Sweet Mystery Blog), and I both came up with two online events to help readers and bloggers connect during this difficult time. His idea is the wonderful interactive murder mystery: Murder at Dungarees, and I am really looking forward to the first instalment. For my own idea I decided to stick to what I knew best – quiz writing! (Cue audience shock, surprise and amazement).
Naturally the quiz was to be on classic crime. What else?
I put the call out and six bloggers were brave enough to sign up, for the two quiz teams:
Team 1 – And Then There Were None (Right)
Player 1 – Aidan (Blog: Mysteries Ahoy!)
Player 2 – Bev (Blog: My Reader’s Block)
Player 3 – Steve (Blog: In Search of the Classic Mystery)
Team 2 – The Three Cough’ins
Player 1 – Brad (Blog: Ah Sweet Mystery Blog)
Player 2 – JJ (Blog: The Invisible Event)
Player 3 – Moira (Blog: Clothes in Books)
For ease of simplicity we stuck to using email for the quiz and over the last 2-3 days I have been sending and receiving emails at a rapid rate of knots. Here is how the quiz was setup:
- Each team was emailed a different category topic. The team then had to decide which team member was going to answer the questions for that category.
- Once the team member was chosen, they were emailed the 10 questions. They had an hour to answer them and each correctly answered question gained them 2 points.
- When I received the answers, I checked through for any incorrect ones. I then sent the other two players in the team those questions. If they got any of them correct, they were awarded 1 point for each answer.
- After that the total points were added up and the team could move on to the next category. But the member who had previously been chosen, could not be chosen again. There were three categories for each team in total and the maximum number of points they could score over all three rounds was 60.
- Each team worked their way through this process simultaneously.
BELOW I HAVE INCLUDED ALL THE QUESTIONS EACH TEAM RECEIVED FROM THEIR THREE CATEGORIES. WHY NOT HAVE A GO AT HOME? PICK ONE TEAM’S QUESTIONS OR IF YOU ARE FEELING BRAVE HAVE A GO AT BOTH!
THE ANSWERS ARE ALSO INCLUDED IN THE SPACES BETWEEN THE QUESTIONS, THOUGH WRITTEN IN WHITE. SO, IF YOU WANT TO CHECK YOUR ANSWERS YOU NEED TO HIGHLIGHT THE AREA WITH YOUR MOUSE.
AS I SAID TO THE TEAMS BEFORE THEY STARTED – GOOD LUCK!
Team 1 – And There Were None (Right)
Category 1 – The Roaring Twenties
- Which of these 1920s detective novels, listed below, does not take place in London?
a) The Studio Crime by Ianthe Jerrold b) The Missing Partners by Henry Wade c) The Poisoned Chocolates Case d) Whose Body?
Answer: B as this title takes in and around Liverpool.
- Christie’s The Big Four was originally a series of linked short stories which appeared in the Sketch magazine in 1924. They appeared under a subheading, but what was the subheading called?
Answer: The Man Who Was No. 4
- Who was the creator of the short story collection Malcolm Sage, Detective (1921)?
Answer: Herbert Jenkins
- Philip Macdonald published his first detective novel in 1924, but what was it called?
Answer: The Rasp
- Which crime in 1924, inspired Patrick Hamilton’s 1929 play?
Answer: Leopold and Loeb kidnapped and murdered Bobby Franks in this year. Hamilton wrote the Rope based on it and Hitchcock then adapted it for film some years later.
- In which 1920s detective novel does Tony Gillingham appear?
Answer: The Red House Mystery
- The 1920s saw the debut of many mystery novelists, but what was the name of Josephine Tey’s first Inspector Grant novel?
Answer: The Man in the Queue
- Which title was not published in 1929?
a) The Piccadilly Murder b) The Mystery of the Butcher’s Shop c) The Unpleasantness at the Bellona Club d) Fool Errant
Answer: C
- Name two mystery novels from the 1920s which significantly involved golf.
Answer: Options include – Murder on the Links, The Viaduct Murder and The Factory on the Cliff.
- Put these 1920s published mystery novels in order of their distance from the UK. Start with the novel which is the closest to the UK. When in the correct order the letters in closed brackets will give you the initial letters of another mystery novel title from the 1920s. (1 point is gained for getting the order correct. The second point is gained for the title).
a) Master of the Day of Judgement by Leo Perutz (T)
b) The Dain Curse by Dashiell Hammett (H)
c) The House of Cain by Arthur Upfield (M)
d) The Benson Murder Case by S S Van Dine (R)
Answer: ADBC and the hidden title was The Roman Hat Mystery. However, I only realised once I got the answers in for this round that the title could also have been The Red House Mystery. So either option is fine.
Category 2 – Motives
- Name two Christie titles in which the murderer killed someone so their bigamous status would not be revealed.
Answers: Three Act Tragedy, Dead Man’s Folly and One, Two, Buckle My Shoe are the ones that sprung to mind for me but there are more than likely to be more.
- In which novel does someone kill several people to promote her husband’s chances of becoming the Chancellor of the Exchequer?
Answer: An English Murder by Cyril Hare
- What motive did the malefactor in Gaudy Night, have for their increasingly destructive actions? (Be specific!)
Answer: The malefactor was taking revenge on the college as one of their faculty members ruined her husband’s career by point out their plagiarism. The man then committed suicide.
- Match each motive for murder to the Agatha Christie novel it appears in.
| The victim had recognised someone in an old photograph. | The Murder or Roger Ackroyd |
| To obtain an inheritance, which was not theirs to collect. | Hercule Poirot’s Christmas |
| To prevent their blackmail activities from being revealed. | Peril at End House |
| Revenge for the mistreatment of the killer’s mother. | Mrs McGinty’s Dead |
Answers:
The Victim had recognised someone in an old photograph – Mrs McGinty’s Dead
To obtain an inheritance, which was not theirs to collect – Peril at End House
To prevent their blackmail activities from being revealed – The Murder of Roger Ackroyd
Revenge for the mistreatment of the killer’s mother – Hercule Poirot Christmas
- Name two mystery novels, (published prior to 1960), in which the fear that someone is going to publish their scandalous tell-all memoir, is a motive for murder.
Answers: Scales of Justice by Ngaio Marsh and Very Cold in May by William P McGivern are but two examples.
- Name two mystery novels, (published prior to 1960), which feature a lost Shakespeare play/manuscript as a motive for murder.
Answers: Two examples are Love Lies Bleeding by Crispin and Michael Innes’ The Long Farewell.
- Which motive below did Agatha Christie not include in her work?
a) To assuage a sense of grief and guilt over an abortion.
b) To prevent their ward from marrying, and thus leaving the family home.
c) So the killer could rebuild their tea shop.
d) To take revenge on the person who ran over their dog.
e) To hold onto some crossword competition winnings that they weren’t entitled to but were in their name.
f) To prevent the victim from using their position to persecute the Catholic church.
Answer: D which came from a Julian Symon’s novel. The rest all appear in Christie’s novels or short stories. The Christie stories that the other options came from are as follows:
A – By the Pricking of My Thumbs
B – Nemesis, but it also crops up in the short story ‘The Herb of Death’
C – After the Funeral
E – The Sittaford Mystery
F – ‘The Chocolate Box’
- Name two mysteries in which there is a tontine will as the murder motive.
Answers: The Sweepstake Murders by J J Connington, Death Points the Finger by William Levinrew, Dead March for Penelope Blow by George Bellairs and 4:50 from Paddington by Christie are all possible examples.
- Name two mystery novels, (published prior to 1960), which feature the death of a child being the motive for murder.
Answers: The Beast Must Die by Nicholas Blake and Murder on the Orient Express by Christie are but two of the many examples that exist.
- Christie wrote the novel Appointment with Death and used it as a basis for her play of the same name, produced in 1945. But what difference is there between the novel and the play when it comes to the motive for the central death?
Answer: In the play Mrs Boynton is not murdered but commits suicide in such a way to implicate her various family members, so they would live under the cloud of suspicion for the rest of their lives. Nice woman!
Category 3 – Country House Murder Mysteries
- Name two country house mystery novels, (published prior to 1960), which include the theft or disappearance of a piece of jewellery.
Answers: The Billiard Room Mystery by Brian Flynn and Who Killed Charmian Karslake? By Annie Haynes are two examples.
- Name two country house mystery novels, (published prior to 1960), which include a dead body in the study.
Answers: Well take your pick! The Layton Court Mystery, The Rasp, The Unfinished Clue…
- Give the title and author of the story in which a group of murderers set up a Homicide Consultancy School at a country house.
Answers: Murder Every Monday by Pamela Branch
- Match each character to the country house mystery they feature in.
| Betty Kane | A Man Lay Dead |
| Angela North | Watson’s Choice |
| Hiram P Fish | The Franchise Affair |
| Sir Bohun Chantrey | The Secret at Chimneys |
Answers:
Betty Kane – The Franchise Affair
Angela North – A Man Lay Dead
Hiram P Fish – The Secret at Chimneys
Sir Bohun Chantrey – Watson’s Choice
- Name two country house mystery novels, (published prior to 1960), which feature someone who has been murdered by poisoning.
Answers: Death at Dayton’s Folly by Virginia Rath, Behold Here’s Poison by Heyer, The Mystery at Stowe by Vernon Loder, An English Murder, Murder Included by Joanna Cannan… etc.
- Name two mystery novels, (published prior to 1970), in which the butler is the murderer.
Answers: The Complete Steel by Catherine Aird and Who Killed Charmian Karslake? By Haynes.
- Which title from the list below was not published in 1947?
a) Suddenly at His Residence b) Dancing with Death by Joan Coggins c) Another Little Christmas Murder d) Envious Casca
Answer: D
- Name four snow-bound country house murder mysteries, (published prior to 1960). (You need to give two titles to gain one point. A further two titles will give you the second point.)
Answers: Another Little Christmas Murder, An English Murder (A helpful title this one), Death at Dayton’s Folly, Dancing Death by Christopher Bush and The Santa Klaus Murder by Mavis Doriel Hay. But of course there are many more options as the answers for this round revealed.
- What is the alternative title for the country house mystery, The Man Who Was Not There?
Answer: The Man Who Loved Lions by Ethel Lina White
- Name two country house murder mystery novels, (published prior to 1960), which feature a fancy-dress ball.
Answer: Death in Fancy Dress by Gilbert and Dancing Death by Christopher Bush were the two titles which sprung to mind.
Team 2 – The Three Cough’ins
Category 1 – The Dirty Thirties (Don’t panic the questions aren’t that salacious!)
- Name two mystery novels published in the 1930s which are set at a circus.
Answers: Death of Anton by Alan Melville and Case with Four Clowns by Leo Bruce.
- Which of these 1930s mystery novel, listed below, does not take place in London?
a) The Judas Window b) The Pursued c) Comes a Stranger d) Flowers for the Judge
Answer: C, which is a novel by E R Punshon.
- Who was the creator of the Richardson’s First Case (1933)?
Answer: Sir Basil Thompson
- In which 1930s detective novel does Euphemia Pongleton appear?
Answer: Murder Underground by Mavis Doriel Hay
- Put these 1930s published mystery novels in order of their distance from the UK. Start with the novel which is the closest to the UK. When in the correct order the letters in closed brackets will give you the initial letters of another mystery novel title from the 1930s. (1 point is gained for getting the order correct. The second point is gained for the title).
a) The Murdered Banker by Augusto De Angelis (H)
b) The Cat Screams by Todd Downing (M)
c) Casino For Sale by Caryl Brahms and S J Simon (T)
d) The Elephant Never Forgets by Ethel Lina White (B)
Answer: CABD and the hidden title was The Hog’s Back Mystery.
- Name two mystery novels from the 1930s which take place in the world of advertising.
Answers: Murder Must Advertise by Sayers, Plain Murder by C S Forester and Murder Isn’t Easy by Richard Hull are some examples of texts you could have chosen.
- Which title was not published in 1939?
a) The Problem of the Wire Cage b) Send for Paul Temple c) The Case With No Conclusion d) The Smiler with the Knife
Answer: B
- E. C. R. Lorac published her first mystery novel in the 1930s, but what was it called?
Answer: The Murder on the Burrows (1931)
- Which murder committed in 1931 did Dorothy L Sayers go on to analyse in The Anatomy of Murder (1937) (a non-fiction Detection Club collaboration)?
Answer: The murder is the Julia Wallace case in which her husband was tried but acquitted of the deed.
- Philip Macdonald published The Choice in 1931, but what other title is the story known by?
Answer: The Polferry Riddle
Category 2 – Murder Methods
- Name two mystery novels, (published prior to 1960), in which a killer successfully uses an animal to eliminate their victim.
Answers: Antidote to Venom, The Hound of the Baskervilles and Terror Lurks in the Darkness by Dolores Hitchens for example.
- What same method is used to kill three people in Freeman Wills Crofts’ Inspector French and the Starvel Tragedy?
Answer: Arson/House fire
- Which Agatha Christie novel, due to its inclusion of a particular murder method, saved the life of a 19th month old infant from Qatar?
Answer: The Pale Horse
- What “perfect” method for disposing of a body and other pieces of evidence, in Arthur Upfield’s The Sands of Windee, was used in the real-life Murchison Murders?
Answer: Upfield discussed the workings of this novel with friends and came up with the idea of mixing human and kangaroo ashes together, as the latter would conceal the former. One of these friends then used it in a real-life murder and was only caught out due to the discovery of a molar which matched dental records. Upfield had to give evidence at the trial.
- Provide the title and author of a mystery novel which involves a victim being beheaded and crucified.
Answer: The Egyptian Cross Mystery by Ellery Queen
- Name two detective novels, (published prior to 1960), in which someone is murdered using snake venom.
Answers: Antidote to Venom and Christie’s Death in the Clouds (the thorn is covered in it).
- Match each substance to the Agatha Christie novel it is used in to poison someone.
| Prussic Acid | A Pocket Full of Rye |
| Taxine | Appointment with Death |
| Digitoxin | Three Act Tragedy |
| Nicotine | The Mirror Crack’d From Side to Side |
Answers:
Prussic Acid – The Mirror Crack’d From Side to Side
Taxine – A Pocket Full of Rye
Digitoxin – Appointment with Death
Nicotine – Three Act Tragedy
- Name two detective novels, (prior to 1960), in which the killer takes on the victim’s identity, as part of their murder plot.
Answers: After the Funeral by Christie and The Widow’s Cruise by Nicholas Blake are but two examples.
- Which of these murder methods did Agatha Christie not use in her work?
a) Using the high-pitched voice of a singer on a radio programme to break a glass capsule filled with poisonous gas.
b) Hatpin
c) Poisoned Oysters
d) Arrow shot to the back of the head
e) Causing the victim to suffer such a bad shock/fright that they die
f) Convincing the victim they have leprosy so they commit suicide.
Answer: D technically.
As I explained to Brad I was being a bit of a smart alec, using Christie’s short stories for this question. So I thought that I was safe with D as one she hadn’t used, as this example came from a John Bude title. However, Brad pointed out that in Towards Zero there is mention of a murder where a boy kills his victim with an arrow. So I looked at the original text and it says that it hit the victim’s ‘vital part.’ I make the case that this is the heart rather than the back of the head, which my question specifies. Think I just get away with my answer…
For your own interest here are the examples for the other options.
A – ‘The Face of Helen’ in The Mysterious Mr Quin
B – ‘The Sunningdale Mystery’ in Partners in Crime
C – ‘How Does Your Garden Grow?’ in Poirot’s Early Cases
E – ‘Wireless’ in The Hound of Death
F – ‘The Adventure of the Egyptian Tomb’ in Poirot Investigates
- Provide the title and author of a novel in which a victim is killed by being compressed between bales of wool.
Answer: Died in the Wool by Ngaio Marsh
Category 3 – Holidays
- Name two novels in which Ellery Queen goes on holiday.
Answers: The Siamese Twin Mystery and The Spanish Cape Mystery are two examples.
- Which of these locations is not one Christie sent one of her series sleuths on holiday to?
a) Elba
b) Delphi
c) St Honoré
d) Ebermouth
e) Rhodes
Answer: A
- Name two mystery novels, (published prior to 1960), which are set on New Year’s Day or New Year’s Eve.
Answers: Three Sister Flew Home by Mary Fitt, The Right Murder by Craig Rice and Dancing with Death by Joan Coggins are just some of the options you could have had.
- Where is Sir Henry Merrivale on holiday, in Behind the Crimson Blind?
Answer: Tangier
- Match each island to the correct mystery novel it features in.
| Hombres Muertos | Beat Not the Bones |
| San Rocco | Speak No Evil |
| New Guinea | The Twenty Third Man |
| Jamaica | Twenty-Five Sanitary Inspectors |
Answers:
Hombres Muertos – The Twenty Third Man
San Rocco – Twenty-Five Sanitary Inspectors
New Guinea – Beat Not the Bones
Jamaica – Speak No Evil
- Name two mystery novels, (published prior to 1960), which feature a sleuth(s) on an Italian-set holiday.
Answers: The two I came up with are Tour De Force by Brand and Death Men Don’t Ski by Patricia Moyes
- Name two countries that Delano Ames’ Jane and Dagobert go on holiday to.
Answers: You could have had America, France, Austria or Spain. These characters went to Spain a lot including the Pyrenees, Tabarca, and Barcelona.
- Name two mystery novels, (published prior to 1960), which are set in and around Easter.
Answers: Murder Rents a Room by Sara Elizabeth Mason, The Rising of the Moon by Gladys Mitchell and Murder in Bermuda by Willoughby Sharp are three possibilities.
- Name four mystery novels, (published prior to 1960), which are set on cruises. (You need to give two titles to gain one point. A further two titles will give you the second point.)
Answers: Death on the Nile, The Widow’s Cruise, The Pleasure Cruise Mystery by Robin Forsythe, Voyage into Violence by the Lockridges, Charlie Chan Carries on by Biggers and Too Much Water by Bruce Hamilton are just some examples, as there are plenty of such books out there.
- Name two Christmas holiday set novels, written by Gladys Mitchell, in which she goes to stay with relations.
Answers: Groaning Spinney and Dead Men’s Morris
Phew! Well done for reaching this far. Although the important question is: How did the teams do? Was it an impossible quiz, or was it a doddle? Well… I think it was somewhere in the middle, though one participant, (who shall remain anonymous), renamed the quiz as follows:
Don’t-worry-I’ll-go-easy-on-you-my-arse quiz
I’m sure they enjoyed it really… deep down… somewhere…
Anyways the scores on the doors were as follows:
| Team 1 | Team 2 | |
| Round 1 | 12 | 14 |
| Round 2 | 13 | 13 |
| Round 3 | 14 | 12 |
As you can no doubt tell from the beautiful symmetry in the scores that the result is:
A DRAW!
However, since I did moot the idea of a prize for the winning team, we decided to have one more round, aptly named:
THE DECIDER!
This time all team members could participate and as usual there was 60 minutes on the clock. The round was Agatha Christie themed and divided into 10 groups. Each group had either 1, 2 or 3 images. The image(s) in each group allude to a specific Christie novel and the objects in the images are all ones mentioned in the text. The teams had to decide which Christie novel each group belonged to and each answer is worth 2 points. Again the answers are written in white font below each answer.
So if you have recovered from the previous rounds have a go yourself and see how many you can answer!
Group 1
Answer: A Murder is Announced – the image is of a piece of frayed flex/electrical wiring, which as we all know was what the killer did in this title to fuse the lights. It is a clue Miss Marple alights on when the local vicar’s cat spills some water.
Group 2
Answer: The Big Four – Bloodied footprints are found at the scene of the second crime, which was committed by a man who pretended to be a butcher and who left a leg of frozen lamb.
Group 3
Answer: The Mystery of the Blue Train – a cigarette case engraved with K was found at the scene of the murder incriminating Derek Kettering.
Group 4
Answer: Curtain – Poirot leaves Hastings a copy of this play as a clue.
Group 5
Answer: The ABC Murders – The red herring suspect, who is made to seem like the serial killer, is a travelling salesman in ladies stockings.
Group 6
Answer: Taken at the Flood – David Hunter disguises himself as a woman wearing an orange headscarf when he tries to create a false time of death for Arden, by making it seem like he was alive later than they were. Rowly once he realised Arden had died, by hitting the fireplace fender, he smashes Arden’s face in with the fireplace tongs and leaves David’s lighter at the scene to incriminate him.
Group 7
Answer: Murder at the Vicarage – The killers place the gun inside the potted plant in the vicar’s study. This image is actually the one used in the Hickson adaptation.
Group 8
Answer: Cat Among the Pigeons – The jewels are hidden inside the tennis racket and the PE teacher bites the dust when she is stabbed with the javelin.
Group 9
Answer: Death in the Clouds – The killer disguises himself as an air flight attendant using his dentist white coat and it is he who places the extra coffee spoon by the murder victim.
Group 10
Answer: The Man in the Brown Suit – Diamonds are hidden inside a camera film canister. The example shown is of the era.
So how did you do? And more importantly how did the teams do?
*Drum roll*
The winner of The Tuesday Night Bloggers Macabre Quiz is…………….
I know! I was flabbergasted when I totted up the scores. But each team scored 12 points.
Now before you panic that this quiz is going to become a never ending one, as the poor teams do round after round until one team wins, that is not going to be the case. As you can see in the picture below, my dear blogging chums were somewhat worn out.
They had given up lots of time to take part and had been running their little grey cells ragged, so it only seemed fair to let the result be a draw. It seemed like it was meant to be, and one participant even said they felt closer to the others. A draw seemed like the altruistic thing to do and to be honest probably the most sensible thing to do. I was beginning to fear that I might become the first person to be murdered for writing too hard a quiz! Visions of a Murder on the Orient Express type plot were flooding my mind and given that one quiz question gave information on how to dispose of a body, I thought it best to play safe.
So thank you very much Aidan, Bev, Brad, JJ, Moira and Steve for taking part. You’ve been great sports. Although there was no one winning team, when I am out of self-isolation, I’ll be sending you all a little something, to reward you for all your hard work and effort.
Don’t worry guys, I won’t make this an annual event!
Readers please let me know how you did. Did you beat our blogging teams?