Quiz on detectives

Truth diggers

1 The main shops were Mrs Jamieson, the hairdresser; Mr Thomas’s basket-weavers; The Blue Boar Pub; Mr Footit, the butcher; Mr Jim Armstrong’s dairy; Mr Berks, the baker; and Mr Baker’s grocery shop. Colonel Bantry’s Gossington Hall and the Vicarage, made in fine Victorian style, were the most prominent houses. Which fictional village, the scene of many stories, is being described?

2 While on fictional locations, which set of children’s detective stories is set in the fictional village of Peterswood, and features the redoubtable PC Goon as one of the primary antagonists.

3 Sujata Massey’s The Widows of Malabar Hill was the first of a series of detective novels featuring detective Perveen Mistry in 1920s’ Bombay. In the stories, which real life person — the first female graduate from Bombay University and the first female Indian advocate — is the inspiration for Mistry wanting to become a lawyer?

4 Television detectives. Laura Holt opened a detective agency but soon found that potential clients refused to hire women. So she created a fictional male superior and then found a former con man to play the role. What was the name of the fictional detective she invented?

5 Who created the detective Cordelia Gray, a young woman who runs the Pryde detective agency, inherited from her boss Bernie Pryde who took his own life?

6 Detective Jimmy ‘Popeye’ Doyle is a fictional character in a well known 1970s’ film and its sequel. The character is based on a real life New York detective, Eddie Egan, who also plays a small role in the film. Name the film.

7 If Sherlock Holmes has John Watson, and Hercule Poirot is assisted by Hastings, which detective is often accompanied by Sergeant Havers?

8 On the same lines, which well-known fictional detective is assisted by ‘The Faithful Four’, a group consisting of his four loyal police colleagues — Lucas, Janvier, Lapointe and Torrence?

9 Agatha Christie was married to an archaeologist and set a number of her stories in Egypt, but which historical detective based in Egypt was created by Elizabeth Peters, a pseudonym adopted by Egyptologist Barbara Mertz?

10 The Baker Street Irregulars is perhaps the most famous literary society devoted to the study of Sherlock Holmes and was started by Christopher Morley in the 1930s. According to convention, what name has to be taken by the head of the Baker Street Irregulars?

Answers

1 St Mary Mead, where Agatha Christie’s Jane Marple resides.

2The Five Find-Outers by Enid Blyton.

3 Cornelia Sorabji.

4 Remington Steele.

5 PD James. Other than the Adam Dalgliesh books, James also wrote two Cordelia Grey novels.

6The French Connection .

7 Inspector Lynley, in the stories of Elizabeth George.

8 Inspector Jules Maigret, in the stories of Georges Simenon.

9 Amelia Peabody.

10 ‘Wiggins’ — the head of Irregulars in the Arthur Conan Doyle stories.

Joy Bhattacharjya

Joy Bhattacharjya is a quizmaster;

Twitter: @joybhattacharj

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