Q 01/05

Which 1841 story is considered the first modern detective story?

A) The Murders in the Rue Morgue

B) The Tell-Tale Heart

C) The Fall of the House of Usher

D) The Cask of Amontillado

Answer · why

A) The Murders in the Rue Morgue

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.

Q 02/05

What is the name of the Parisian amateur detective in 'The Purloined Letter', an ancestor of Sherlock Holmes?

A) Jules Maigret

B) Arsène Lupin

C) C. Auguste Dupin

D) Rouletabille

Answer · why

C) C. Auguste Dupin

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

Q 03/05

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

A) The Woman in White

B) The Sign of the Four

C) Bleak House

D) The Moonstone

Answer · why

D) The Moonstone

The Moonstone's hero, Franklin Blake, turns out to have taken the diamond himself, unknowingly, after a doctor secretly dosed him with laudanum.

Q 04/05

In which 1887 novel did Sherlock Holmes first appear?

A) The Sign of the Four

B) A Study in Scarlet

C) The Hound of the Baskervilles

D) The Valley of Fear

Answer · why

B) A Study in Scarlet

A Study in Scarlet appeared in Beeton's Christmas Annual in 1887, and Conan Doyle had sold all rights to it for just £25.

Q 05/05

Which Sherlock Holmes short story introduces Irene Adler, the woman who outwits the detective?

A) The Red-Headed League

B) A Scandal in Bohemia

C) The Speckled Band

D) The Five Orange Pips

Answer · why

B) A Scandal in Bohemia

A Scandal in Bohemia ends with Adler outwitting Holmes and fleeing with the King of Bohemia's photograph; ever after, Holmes calls her simply 'the wom...