A Classic Mystery Quiz


by Agatha, Anthony & Macavity Winner Carolyn G. Hart

1. Who is the founding genius of the mystery?
  • Edgar Allan Poe
  • Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
  • Agatha Christie
2. What famous mystery author's memory and works are honored by the Baker Street societies?
  • Dashiell Hammett
  • Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
  • Josephine Tey
3. Name the two most famous authors of the Golden Age of the Mystery.
  • Dorothy L Sayers, Georgette Heyer
  • Agatha Christie, Dashiell Hammett
  • Agatha Christie, Dorothy L Sayers
4. Which Agatha Christie mystery caused an uproar over whether the author had played fair with the reader?
  • Murder on the Orient Express
  • The Murder of Roger Ackroyd
  • Nemesis
5. What famous mystery writer, whose first book appeared in 1908, was at one time the highest paid writer in America?
  • Phyllis Whitney
  • Agatha Christie
  • Mary Roberts Rinehart
6. Which famous mystery writer disappeared for more than a week in December of 1926, resulting in enormous publicity and prompting suspicion she had been done away with by her war hero husband?
  • Agatha Christie
  • Craig Rice
  • Georgette Heyer
7. Name two authors who wrote books in which the butler did it.
  • Mary Roberts Rinehart and Georgette Heyer
  • Agatha Christie and Georgette Heyer
  • Mary Roberts Rinehart and Agatha Christie
8. Who was The Thin Man?
  • The secret identity of the killer in an Agatha Christie classic
  • A murder victim in Dashiell Hammett's novel of the same name
  • Nick Charles
9. Where does Miss Marple live?
  • The village of Merry Meet
  • Stratford on Avon
  • St. Mary Mead
10. The murder methods in Premedicated Murder, Death's Bright Dart, and Paying the Piper are highly unsual. Name the authors.
  • Douglas Clark, V.C. Clinton-Baddeley, Sharyn McCrumb
  • Douglas Clark, V.C. Clinton-Baddeley, Josephine Tey
  • Douglas Clark, Mary Roberts Rinehart, Sharyn McCrumb
11. Name two famous mystery authors who each wrote a mystery in which no one was murdered.
  • Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, Mary Roberts Rinehart
  • Dorothy L Sayers, Agatha Christie
  • Dorothy L Sayers, Josephine Tey
12. Who are the Australian sisters who wrote mysteries which contained the word 'Black' in all but one of their titles?
  • Constance and Gwenyth Little
  • Amundia and Elisa Sydney
  • Mary and Margaret Wise
13. What author once broke a contract with BBC because it used her name without the middle initial?
  • Dorothy L Sayers
  • Carolyn G Hart
  • Robert B Parker
14. Who was Phoebe Atwood Taylor's famous Cape Cod sleuth?
  • Acey Mayo
  • Asey Mayo
  • A. C. Mayo
15. What Craig Rice mystery featured mystery writer Marian Carstairs and her three children?
  • Home Sweet Homicide
  • Premedicated Murder
  • Death in the Family
16. Who created Leonidas Witherall, the erudite sleuth who looked like Shakespeare?
  • Charlotte MacLeod writing as Alisa Craig
  • Phoebe Atwood Taylor writing as Alice Tilton
  • Agatha Christie writing as Mortimer Llewellyn
17. What tart-tongued Victorian archeologist leads readers on hilarious romps through musty Pyramids and the British Museum?
  • Barbara Michaels' Amelia Peabody
  • Joan Hess' Claire Malloy
  • Elizabeth Peters' Amelia Peabody
18. What remarkable sleuth pursues his vocation at the Abbey Church of Saint Peter and Saint Paul in Shrewsbury?
  • Ellis Peters' Brother Cadfael
  • Father Dowling
  • None -- the real church of Saint Peter and Saint Paul cannot legally be used in a fictional setting
19. Who wrote Where are the Children?
  • Mary Higgins Clark
  • Craig Rice
  • Georgette Heyer
20. Who has Nancy Pickard described as the most endearing pair of new sleuths since Tommy and Tuppence?
  • Claire and Peter in Joan Hess' Farberville series
  • Winnie and Cooper Stock in Anderson Ellis' novels
  • Annie Laurance and Max Darling in Carolyn G Hart's Death on Demand series

Score =

Correct answers:

YOUR SCORE REVEALS:
1-20% - You read Spillane
***21-40% - You haven't been paying attention
41-60% - You're on the right track
61-80% - You've got a Christie in your briefcase
81-100% - You are brilliant and charming, a perfect companion on a desert island -- if you bring the books.

***Don't despair. Agatha, Anthony & Macavity Winner Carolyn G Hart's Death on Demand series can vault you to the top of the class. The sleuthing duo of Annie Laurance and Max Darling operates out of Annie's mystery bookstore and each book in the series is crammed with mystery intelligence.