armchairreviewer

Tuesday Night Bloggers: History and Mystery Quiz

the-tuesday-night-bloggers-history-and-mysteryThis month the Tuesday Night Bloggers are looking at History and Mystery and already from week one the variety of posts is immense, with posts ranging from the ancient Greeks to the medieval period and beyond. Bev at My Readers’ Block is collecting posts this month so check out her blog to read hers and others’ posts for this week. Here is a link to the posts from last week. This week I decided to embrace the vastness of historical mystery fiction with a quiz, looking at historical mystery novels from the Romans to modern times. Each round has a slightly different focus and if you want to submit your answers for any or all the rounds put them in the comments section below. I’ll put the answers up later in the week.

Round 1 – Match the real life historical figures to the mystery novels they appear in.

history-and-mystery-1history-and-mystery-2Round 2 – Match the investigators to their creators.
history-and-mystery-3

Round 3 – Put these fictional sleuths in chronological order, based on the time periods their novels are set in.

  1. Robert Van Gulik’s Judge Dee
  2. Ellis Peter’s Brother Cadfael
  3. C. J. Sansom’s Matthew Shardlake
  4. Susanna Gregory’s Thomas Chaloner
  5. Paul Doherty’s Brother Athelstan
  6. Jose Carlos Somoza’s Heracles Pontor
  7. Matthew Pearl’s Dante Club members
  8. I J Parker’s Sugawara Akitada
  9. Michael Chabon’s Meyer Landsman
  10. Philip Kerr’s Bernie Gunther
  11. Carrie Bebris’s Elizabeth Bennet
  12. John Maddox Roberts’s Decius Caecillus Metellus the Younger

Round 4 – Miscellaneous Questions

  1. Which writer used their stage name for their penname and their amateur sleuth?
  2. Which novel by James Ellroy was partially inspired by his mother’s murder?
  3. What links all of the following stories:
    1. Celebrated Cases of Judge Dee trans. by Robert Van Gulik (1949 English), ‘The Mystery of Marie Roget’ by Edgar Allen Poe (1842), The Wench is Dead by Collin Dexter (1989) and Margaret Atwood’s Alias Grace (1996).
    2. Guy Townsend’s To Prove a Villain (1985), Paul Doherty’s The Fate of Princes (1990) and The Plymouth Cloak (1994) by Kate Sedley.
    3. Special Assignments (1999) by Boris Akunin, the film A Study in Terror (1965) and Alex Scarrow’s The Candle Man (2012).
  4. Which of these novels is the odd one out: Martha Grimes’ The Dirty Duck (1984), M. J. Trow’s Dark Entry (2011), Charles Nicholl’s The Reckoning (1992) and The Slicing Edge of Death (1993) by Judith Cook
  5. Which real life mystery writer appears in George Baxt’s The Betty Davis Murder Case (1994)?

 

8 comments

  2. I skipped round 1. Since I haven’t read any of these novels which means I would make a bloody mess of it, and I don’t even know who Gracie Allen is.

    Round 2 seems a tiny bit easier:
    A. K2 – C. Hans Olav Lahlum
    B. Wilkie Collins – B. Lillian de La Torre
    C. Erast Fandorin – D. Boris Akunin
    D. Samuel Johnson – A. John Dickson Carr
    E. Amelia Peabody – G. Elizabeth Peters
    F. Sergeant Cribb – E. Peter Lovesey
    G. Marcus Didius Falco – F. Lindsey Davis

    Round 3
    From oldest to most recent:

    1. Jose Carlos Somoza’s Heracles Pontor
    2. John Maddox Roberts’s Decius Caecillus Metellus the Younger
    3. I J Parker’s Sugawara Akitada
    4. Paul Doherty’s Brother Athelstan
    5. Ellis Peter’s Brother Cadfael
    6. C. J. Sansom’s Matthew Shardlake
    7. Susanna Gregory’s Thomas Chaloner
    8. Robert Van Gulik’s Judge Dee
    9. Carrie Bebris’s Elizabeth Bennet
    10. Matthew Pearl’s Dante Club members
    11. Philip Kerr’s Bernie Gunther
    12. Michael Chabon’s Meyer Landsman

    Round 4

    1. I’m sure this is going to be someone very well-known, but so far I’ve absolutely no idea
    2. That would be „The Black Dahlia“ I think
    3.
    A. All these cases are based on real life crimes (well at least the first two are)
    B. Richard III. is the connection
    C. Well, two of these are about Jack The Ripper, but as far as I can remember The West End Horror was about something different.
    4. Again, not familiar with any of these books
    5. That’s Agatha Mallowan aka. Agatha Christie

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply

  3. Round 1
    Real life figure Novel
    A B
    B E
    C F
    D A
    E D
    F C

    Round 2
    Sleuth Creator
    A C
    B A
    C D
    D B
    E G
    F E
    G F

    Round 3
    Sleuths in chronological order (earliest first):
    6,12,1,8,2,5,3,4,11,7,10,9

    Round 4
    !. Ellery Queen
    2. The Black Dahlia
    3. A. based on real life murders
    B. based on Richard III
    C. based on Jack The Ripper
    4. The odd one is M.J.Trow’s Dark Entry. Here Christopher Marlowe appears as a detective, while the other 3 discuss the murder of Christopher Marlowe.
    5. Agatha Mallowan aka. Agatha Christie

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply

Leave a comment

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.