49 Fun Facts About Mystery

Which 1841 story by the author of 'The Raven' is considered the first modern detective story?

The Murders in the Rue Morgue, published in 1841, is the 'tale of ratiocination' in which the killer turns out to be an escaped orangutan.

What is the name of Poe's Parisian amateur detective, the ancestor of Sherlock Holmes?

C. Auguste Dupin appears in only three stories, beginning in 1841, and like Holmes later seems able to read his companion's mind.

What is Wilkie Collins's 1868 novel about a stolen Indian diamond, an early template for the detective novel?

The Moonstone, serialised in Dickens's magazine All the Year Round in 1868, follows the theft of a diamond looted from India and Sergeant Cuff's investigation.

In which 1887 novel did Sherlock Holmes first appear?

A Study in Scarlet appeared in Beeton's Christmas Annual in 1887; fame came with the Strand Magazine stories from 1891, starting with 'A Scandal in Bohemia'.

How many Sherlock Holmes short stories did Arthur Conan Doyle write, alongside the four novels?

Conan Doyle wrote 56 Sherlock Holmes short stories, gathered in five collections beginning with The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes in 1892; most are narrated by Dr Watson.

The Hound of the Baskervilles is set largely on which English moor?

The Hound of the Baskervilles is set on Dartmoor in Devon, around Baskerville Hall and the Grimpen Mire; it was the first Holmes story published after 'The Final Problem'.

How many detective novels did Agatha Christie write?

Agatha Christie wrote 66 detective novels, beginning with The Mysterious Affair at Styles in 1920, plus 14 short-story collections.

Hercule Poirot, Christie's Belgian detective, credits his success to what?

Poirot's 'little grey cells', his phrase for the brain's powers of order and method, recur through 33 novels and more than 50 stories from 1920 to Curtain in 1975.

In which fictional English village does Miss Marple live?

Miss Marple lives in St Mary Mead, the village whose gossip and small crimes she reads as parallels to murder; her first novel was The Murder at the Vicarage in 1930.

Which Christie novel, set on an island off Devon, is the world's best-selling mystery novel?

And Then There Were None has sold about 100 million copies; ten guests lured to an island off Devon die one by one in the pattern of a nursery rhyme.

Under what title was Poirot's snowbound-train novel first published in the US in 1934?

Murder in the Calais Coach was the 1934 US title of Murder on the Orient Express; the train is stuck in a snowdrift in what is now Croatia.

Which Agatha Christie play holds the record for the longest run of any play in the world?

The Mousetrap opened in the West End in November 1952 and passed its 25,000th performance in 2012; audiences are asked not to reveal the twist.

Who was the original Detective Sergeant Trotter when Christie's record-breaking play opened in 1952?

Richard Attenborough was the first Sergeant Trotter, opposite his wife Sheila Sim as Mollie Ralston; more than 400 actors had played the eight roles by 2012.

Who played Poirot in all 70 episodes of ITV's Agatha Christie's Poirot from 1989 to 2013?

David Suchet played Poirot in every episode from 1989 to 2013; by the finale, Curtain, all 33 Poirot novels had been adapted.

Who wrote the Lord Peter Wimsey novels and the initiation oath of the Detection Club?

Dorothy L. Sayers created Lord Peter Wimsey in Whose Body? (1923) and introduced Harriet Vane in Strong Poison (1930); Harriet refuses Wimsey's proposals until Gaudy Night (1935).

Who was the first president of the Detection Club, founded in 1930?

G. K. Chesterton, creator of Father Brown, served as the Detection Club's first president from its founding in 1930 until his death in 1936.

Christie, Sayers, Margery Allingham and Ngaio Marsh are collectively known as what?

The Queens of Crime is the label for the quartet of British women who dominated the Golden Age of detective fiction in the 1920s and 1930s, each creating a series sleuth.

The priest-detective Father Brown was loosely based on whom?

Monsignor John O'Connor helped bring about Chesterton's conversion to Catholicism in 1922; Mark Williams has played the character on BBC TV since 2013.

Which pulp magazine first published Hammett's Sam Spade and Chandler's early stories?

Black Mask serialised The Maltese Falcon from September 1929 and printed Chandler's first story, 'Blackmailers Don't Shoot', in December 1933.

Raymond Chandler's Philip Marlowe first appeared under that name in which 1939 novel?

The Big Sleep, whose title is a euphemism for death, introduced Marlowe in 1939; Chandler turned to crime writing at 44 after losing his oil-company job.

Dashiell Hammett created Sam Spade and which married sleuthing couple from The Thin Man?

Nick and Nora Charles, a retired detective and his wealthy wife, solve the case in The Thin Man (1934), Hammett's last novel.

Nancy Drew books are published under which collective pseudonym?

Carolyn Keene is the Stratemeyer Syndicate house name; Mildred Wirt Benson ghostwrote most early titles after Nancy Drew's 1930 debut, and the original series ran to 175 novels.

The Hardy Boys, Frank and Joe, debuted in what year?

The Hardy Boys debuted in 1927 with The Tower Treasure; ghostwriter Leslie McFarlane wrote many early books as 'Franklin W. Dixon', and the first 38 were heavily revised from 1959.

Boy detective Leroy Brown is better known by what nickname?

Leroy 'Encyclopedia' Brown earned the nickname for his head full of facts; Donald J. Sobol's series began in 1963 and ran to 29 books.

Erle Stanley Gardner's lawyer-detective Perry Mason appears in how many novels?

Gardner published 82 Perry Mason novels between 1933 and 1973; Raymond Burr played the lawyer on CBS from 1957 to 1966.

What does Rex Stout's armchair detective Nero Wolfe tend in his New York brownstone?

Nero Wolfe tends some 10,000 orchids in his rooftop greenhouse, keeping fixed hours there twice a day; Archie Goodwin does the legwork and narrates.

Ellery Queen was both a detective and the pseudonym of which two cousins?

Ellery Queen was the joint pseudonym of cousins Frederic Dannay and Manfred Lee, who began with The Roman Hat Mystery in 1929 and founded Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine in 1941.

Georges Simenon's Paris police detective Jules Maigret appears in how many novels?

Simenon wrote 75 Maigret novels, from Pietr the Latvian (1931) to Maigret and Monsieur Charles (1972), plus 28 short stories.

John Dickson Carr, master of the locked-room mystery, created which two English detectives?

An American who lived for years in England, he also wrote as Carter Dickson.

What is the name of Sherlock Holmes's landlady at 221B Baker Street?

Mrs Hudson is the long-suffering landlady of 221B Baker Street, enduring Holmes's indoor pistol practice and chemical experiments while bringing up breakfasts and clients.

What are whodunits with offstage sex and violence and an amateur sleuth in a small community called?

Cozies keep sex and violence offstage and follow an amateur sleuth in a small community, in deliberate contrast to hardboiled fiction; Miss Marple is the model.

The Mystery Writers of America's annual awards are named after which author?

The Edgars, named for Edgar Allan Poe, honour fiction, non-fiction, TV, film and theatre from the previous year; the first were presented in 1946.

Cluedo, known as Clue in North America, was devised in 1943 by whom?

Anthony E. Pratt, a Birmingham musician, devised Cluedo during the Second World War; Waddingtons first manufactured it in 1949, and players must name the murderer, room and weapon.

Which battered French car does Lieutenant Columbo drive?

Columbo drives a battered 1959 Peugeot 403 convertible; with the raincoat, the cigar and the unseen wife, it's part of the act before 'Just one more thing'.

How many Primetime Emmys did Peter Falk win for playing Columbo?

Peter Falk won four Emmys for Columbo, in 1972, 1975, 1976 and 1990, plus a Golden Globe in 1973.

What is the name of the van in Scooby-Doo?

The Mystery Machine is the gang's flower-painted van; Joe Ruby and Ken Spears created the show for Hanna-Barbera in 1969, and the culprit is usually a very human one.

Colin Dexter's Inspector Morse is famous for his Jaguar Mark 2, his opera, and which puzzle habit?

John Thaw played him for 33 episodes; Shaun Evans played the young Endeavour in the prequel series.

Ian Rankin's Inspector Rebus novels are set mostly in which city?

Rebus drinks at the Oxford Bar and works Edinburgh's streets from St Leonard's police station; the series began with Knots and Crosses in 1987 and anchors 'tartan noir'.

Henning Mankell's detective Kurt Wallander works in which Swedish town?

Wallander works for the Ystad police in Skåne, southern Sweden; he was played by Rolf Lassgård, Krister Henriksson, Adam Pålsson and, in English, Kenneth Branagh.

The Da Vinci Code opens with a murder in which museum?

The Da Vinci Code opens with curator Jacques Saunière murdered in the Louvre's Grand Gallery; Robert Langdon had debuted three years earlier in Angels & Demons.

What is the literal English translation of the original Swedish title of The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo?

The Swedish original, Män som hatar kvinnor, translates literally as Men Who Hate Women; Stieg Larsson's novel was published posthumously in 2005 and reached English readers in 2008.

Richard Osman's The Thursday Murder Club is set in what kind of place?

Coopers Chase, the Kent retirement village where Elizabeth, Ron, Joyce and Ibrahim meet on Thursdays, is where they investigate a property developer's murder.

Sue Grafton's 'alphabet' novels, from A Is for Alibi, feature which private investigator?

Kinsey Millhone, a twice-divorced former cop, works out of the fictional Santa Teresa, California; Grafton died in 2017 with the series at Y.

Alexander McCall Smith's No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency is set in which country?

Mma Precious Ramotswe opens her agency in Gaborone, the capital of Botswana, with the proceeds of her late father's cattle.

Only Murders in the Building is set in which Manhattan apartment building?

The Arconia is the Upper West Side building where neighbours Steve Martin, Martin Short and Selena Gomez turn each murder into a true-crime podcast; the show premiered on Hulu in 2021.

Broadchurch, the ITV drama with David Tennant and Olivia Colman, is set on the coast of which county?

Broadchurch is a fictional Dorset town, filmed largely at West Bay near Bridport; Chris Chibnall wrote all 24 episodes, and series one turns on the death of 11-year-old Danny Latimer.

'The Three Apples', an early murder-mystery tale, appears in which story collection?

In One Thousand and One Nights, the vizier Ja'far is ordered to find a woman's killer within three days; the case is cracked only when the murderer confesses.

Which English Catholic priest codified a 'Decalogue' of rules for detective fiction in 1929?

Ronald Knox's 1929 'Decalogue' banned supernatural agencies, more than one secret passage and clues hidden from the reader; the interwar years are the Golden Age of detective fiction.

Émile Gaboriau, whose Monsieur Lecoq (1868) was a master of disguise, pioneered detective fiction where?

Émile Gaboriau, working in France, introduced Monsieur Lecoq, a Sûreté detective, in L'Affaire Lerouge (1866); Lecoq was among the first fictional sleuths to examine a crime scene minutely for clues.