50 Fun Facts About Mystery

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

Poe called it a 'tale of ratiocination'; the killer turns out to be an orangutan.

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

He appears in only three stories 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?

It was serialised in Dickens's magazine All the Year Round; Collins is sometimes called the grandfather of English detective fiction.

In which 1887 novel did Sherlock Holmes first appear?

Fame came four years later with the Strand Magazine short stories, starting with 'A Scandal in Bohemia'.

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

All but one are set between 1880 and 1914, and most are narrated by Dr. John H. Watson.

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

It marked Holmes's first appearance after his 'death' in 'The Final Problem', and its success brought him back for good.

How many detective novels did Agatha Christie write?

Plus 14 short-story collections, and her estate has trademarked the nickname 'Queen of Crime'.

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

He appears in 33 novels, two plays and 51 short stories, from The Mysterious Affair at Styles in 1920 to Curtain in 1975.

In which fictional English village does Miss Marple live?

She debuted in a 1927 magazine story and 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?

Ten guests accused of past crimes die one by one according to a rhyme; Christie called it her hardest book to write.

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

The train is stuck in a snowdrift in what is now Croatia, and Poirot's trip home from the Middle East is interrupted.

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

It opened in the West End in 1952 and passed its 30,000th performance in March 2025; audiences are asked not to reveal the twist.

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

His wife Sheila Sim was the first 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?

By the finale, Curtain, every major Christie work featuring the detective had been adapted.

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

She introduced Harriet Vane in Strong Poison (1930); Harriet resists Wimsey's proposals until Gaudy Night, six books later.

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

Chesterton's own sleuth was Father Brown, the priest-detective of 53 short stories.

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

They defined the Golden Age of Detective Fiction, mostly the 1920s and 1930s.

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?

The Maltese Falcon was serialised there from September 1929; Chandler's 'Blackmailers Don't Shoot' appeared in 1933.

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

Its title is a euphemism for death; Chandler only 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?

His 1929 novel Red Harvest made Time's list of the 100 best English-language novels.

Nancy Drew books are published under which collective pseudonym?

Edward Stratemeyer created her in 1930 as the female counterpart to the Hardy Boys; the original series ran to 175 novels.

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

Ghostwriter Leslie McFarlane wrote many of the early books as 'Franklin W. Dixon'; the first 38 were heavily revised from 1959.

Boy detective Leroy Brown is better known by what nickname?

Donald J. Sobol wrote the first of the 29 books in two weeks in 1963.

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

Every one involves a client charged with murder; Raymond Burr played him on CBS from 1957 to 1966.

Rex Stout's armchair detective Nero Wolfe rarely leaves his New York brownstone. What does he tend there?

Archie Goodwin does the legwork and narrates; Wolfe was born in Montenegro and eats gourmet meals cooked by Fritz Brenner.

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

Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine has been published continuously since 1941.

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

Plus 28 short stories between 1930 and 1972, translated into more than 50 languages.

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.

In a 'locked-room' mystery, what makes the crime seem impossible?

The classic case is a corpse in a windowless room locked from the inside, with all the clues laid before the reader.

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

The term was in use by the 1960s and stands in deliberate contrast to hardboiled fiction.

The Mystery Writers of America's annual awards are named after which 19th-century author?

The Edgars honour fiction, non-fiction, TV, film and theatre from the previous year.

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

Waddingtons first manufactured it in 1949; players must name the murderer, the room and the weapon.

Which battered French car does Lieutenant Columbo drive?

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?

In 1972, 1975, 1976 and 1990, plus a Golden Globe in 1973.

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

Joe Ruby and Ken Spears created the show for Hanna-Barbera in 1969; the gang usually unmasks a very human culprit.

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?

They're the cornerstone of 'tartan noir'; the first, Knots and Crosses (1987), was voted the eighth-best Scottish novel ever in 2016.

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

He has been played by Rolf Lassgård, Krister Henriksson, Adam Pålsson and, in English, Kenneth Branagh.

Gillian Flynn's Gone Girl (2012) turns on whether Nick Dunne is responsible for what?

Critics praised its unreliable narration; David Fincher's film followed in 2014.

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

Symbologist 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?

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?

Elizabeth, Ron, Joyce and Ibrahim investigate a property developer's murder at Cooper's Chase in Kent.

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

They're set in 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 with her inheritance from her father.

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

Steve Martin, Martin Short and Selena Gomez turn each case into a podcast; the show was renewed for a sixth season in 2025.

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

Chris Chibnall wrote all 24 episodes, and series one turns on the death of 11-year-old Danny Latimer.

'The Three Apples', the oldest known detective story, is told by Scheherazade in which collection?

Unlike Holmes or Poirot, its investigator Ja'far has no wish to solve the case, which is cracked only when the murderer confesses.

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

One of his rules was to avoid supernatural elements; the interwar years are known as the Golden Age of Detective Fiction.

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

His writing is also credited with the first example of a detective minutely examining a crime scene for clues.