Q 01/05

Which 1841 story by the author of 'The Raven' 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

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

Q 02/05

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

A) Jules Maigret

B) Arsène Lupin

C) C. Auguste Dupin

D) Rouletabille

Answer · why

C) C. Auguste Dupin

He appears in only three stories 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

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

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

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

Q 05/05

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

A) 24

B) 56

C) 40

D) 48

Answer · why

B) 56

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