How well do you know mystery classics?

Ever since its birth in 1841, Mystery has been one the genres most popular with readers worldwide, and even more so today. Just look around you on your next train or plane travel and you'll find yourself surrounded by people reading the latest from Ian Rankin, James Patterson, Mary Higgins Clark or Patricia Cornwell - maybe you'll even be one of those! But Mystery, as said above, has a long history, having been around for one century and slightly more than a half. As any other genres, it has its classics, some widely recognized, some rather neglected.

How well do you know the classics of mystery fiction? Do names like Ellery Queen or Dorothy B. Hughes ring a bell or just leave you scratching your head? Evaluate your knowledge - and, maybe, find some great reading ideas! - with this quizz.

Created by: Xavier Lechard of At the Villa Rose
(your link here more info)
  1. Edgar Allan Poe's C. Auguste Dupin appears in only three stories. Which one is not part of the cycle?
  2. What book did British historian Julian Symons regard as the first full-length detective novel?
  3. Which of the following Agatha Christie recurring characters never appeared in a novel?
  4. The mystery duet known as Ellery Queen comprised Frederic Dannay and...
  5. Who wrote the short story "Lacrimae Raerum"?
  6. What pseudonym did Willard Huntington Wright hide behind to write detective stories?
  7. What is Dr. Thorndyke's middle name?
  8. What was the title of Rex Stout's first book?
  9. This French writer (1832-73) is credited with writing one of the first full-length detective novels, and his master sleuth Monsieur Lecoq was a decisive influence on the creation of Sherlock Holmes. What's his name?
  10. What American writer and critic penned the Lupin pastiche "Arsène Lupin versus Colonel Linnaus"?
  11. Dorothy L. Sayers' unfinished novel "Thrones, Dominations" was completed by:
  12. What detective was nicknamed "The Man of the Forty Faces"?
  13. Who created Prince Zaleski, "the farthest out of all detectives" according to William DeAndrea?
  14. Novelist and academic J. I. M. Stewart is better-known to mystery readers as:
  15. Which of the following John Dickson Carr novels does NOT involve an impossible crime?
  16. Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's "The Adventure of the Mazarin Stone" is told by:
  17. Fergus Hume wrote "The Mystery of..."
  18. What female author did Anthony Boucher describe as "one of the few authentic witches of modern times"?
  19. Which of the following titles is not part of the Peter & Iris Duluth series?
  20. What famous private detective does "The Moving Target" introduce to the world?
  21. La Jolla, California, was home to:
  22. Who was the first president of the Detection Club?
  23. Which of the following stories is not part of Melville Davisson Post's Uncle Abner cycle?
  24. Anthony Berkeley's short-story "The Avenging Chance" was later expanded into a novel, with a different title. What was it?
  25. After "The Murder of Roger Ackroyd" Agatha Christie never used the narrator-as-murderer trick again.
  26. Which of the following novels did Patricia Highsmith NOT write?
  27. Which of these books earned Eric Ambler the Edgar Allan Poe Award for Best Novel?

Remember to rate this quiz on the next page!
Rating helps us to know which quizzes are good and which are bad.

Related Quizzes:

What is GotoQuiz? A better kind of quiz site: no pop-ups, no registration requirements, just high-quality quizzes that you can create and share on your social network. Have a look around and see what we're about.

Quiz topic: How well do I know mystery classics?