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Mystery and Suspense

CATEGORY 1: PLACES

  1. Who lives on the following locations, or what is their significance?

    1. Bywater Street

    2. A brownstone house at 922 W. 35th Street

    3. Suite 12-C of the Alexandria Hotel

    4. 74 Culver Street

    5. The Stanley Hotel in Estes Park, Colorado

    6. Reichenbach Falls

  2. You are in a room with correspondence fixed to the wall by a penknife, a "VR" written in bullet marks on the wall, and a sock with tobacco at the fireplace. Where are you?

CATEGORY 2: BOOKS-- CLASSICS

  1. The gothic mysteries of A.M. Barnard recently reappeared in bookstores. Their author is better known as whom?

  2. What do the following people have in common: Henry Wade, Clemence Dane, Dorothy Sayers, John Rhode, Agatha Christie, Edgar Jeepson, G.K. Chesterton, G.D.H. and M. Cole, Anthony Berkeley, and Canon Victor L. Whitechurch?

  3. Other than Agatha Christie's play "The Mousetrap," where in literature does a play by that name appear?

  4. How do all the people die in the book "Ten Little Indians"? (In order, please.)

  5. What color is the hated eye, in Poe's "The Telltale Heart"?

  6. A defense lawyer meets Mrs. Mogson in a room on the third floor of 16 Shaw's Rents, Stepnoy, and she gives him information essential to his case. What book does this come from?

  7. What is unusual about the chapter titles of Dorothy Sayers' novel, "The Umpleasantness at the Bellona Club"?

  8. What assassination attempt does Dr. No report to James Bond, and how did he survive?

  9. What is the name of Lord Peter Wimsey's nephew?

  10. Name five of Agatha Christie's detectives. (Characters who work as teams count as one.)

  11. Give us the code names and corresponding identities of the five people whom Control suspected could be the "mole," in "Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy."

  12. What are the army ranks of Lord Peter Wimsey and his valet, Bunter?

  13. What is the only Sherlock Holmes adventure narrated by Holmes himself?

  14. How did the Jackal disguise himself and his gun to sneak past the guards, for his attempted assassination of Charles DeGaulle, in Forsythe's novel "The Day of the Jackal"?

  15. List four Sherlock Holmes adventures in which Holmes never comes to the correct conclusion, or inadvertantly causes his client's death.

BOOKS CONTINUED-- MODERN

  1. Who are Nero Wolfe's three prime operatives?

  2. Josephine Tey's novel "The Daughter of Time" deals with what famous historical murder?

  3. What detective is Solar Pons based on?

  4. Who usually solves the mysteries at the Black Widower mystery-dining club?

  5. What does Henry Faber, "The Needle," discover that threatens Britain?

SUBSECTION: CHILDREN'S BOOKS

  1. In the Hardy Boys' "The Secret Agent on Flight 101," UGLI, the most powerful espionage ring in the world, is pitted against SKOOL, a supranatural counter-espionage ring. What do UGLI and SKOOL stand for?

  2. What is distinctive about David "Lucky" Starr, and other members of the intergalactic organization he works for?

  3. Who is Danger Mouse's ever-kindly superior?

  4. How did Encyclopedia Brown know that Bugs Meany was lying in the following cases:

    1. The Case of the Electric Clock

    2. The Case of the Bird Watcher

    3. The Case of the Bugs Meany, Detective

  5. Who is the "Watson" of the mouse detective "Basil of Baker Street" series?

  6. From the series "Alfred Hitchcock and the Three Investigators," in "The Mystery of the Stuttering Parrot," what was each bird, and what did it say?

CATEGORY 3-- TV/RADIO

  1. Please tell us who did the voice of the (radio series) Shadow.

  2. In the radio show, who is the "Tracer of Lost Persons"?

  3. What late-50s TV private eye hung around at a jazz club called Mother's?

  4. What is the actual name of the team on "Mission: Impossible"?

  5. What radio suspense program opened with the sound of a creaking door?

  6. What English TV secret agent had as his theme song "Secret Agent Man"?

  7. Tell us the name of the detective featured in the PBS mystery series based on Dick Francis' novels. How is he maimed, and how did the injury occur?

  8. Who does John Steed of "The Avengers" report to?

  9. From the short-lived TV series "The Prisoner," what usually happens when #6 tries to escape the Village?

  10. Who was the real-life Prohibition G-Man whose exploits are seen in "The Untouchables"?

CATEGORY 4: MOVIES

  1. What is the name of the assistant to the Chief Inspector of Police, in the "Pink Panther" movies?

  2. Name all of the "Thin Man" movies.

  3. The story of "The Maltese Falcon" was once filmed under another title. What was it?

  4. In the long series of old Ellery Queen movies, Charley Grapewin played Inspector Queen, the detective's father. But we all know him from a smaller role in a famous musical. What is the role and the musical?

  5. What was distinctive about all the actors who portrayed Charlie Chan?

  6. In the movie "The Scarlet Pimpernel," Sir Percy Blakeney makes up a little poem about the Scarlet Pimpernel. How did it go?

  7. What is the technical blunder in the dock scene, in "The Maltese Falcon"? (Version starring Humphrey Bogart.)

  8. How was Dr. No crippled, and how did it occur?

  9. In the movie "Bladerunner," what does Harrison Ford find in a hotel room that sets him on the trail of the remaining androids?

  10. Who are the detectives spoofed in "Murder By Death"?

  11. Who are the culprits, in the three different endings of the movie "Clue"?

SUBCATEGORY: HITCHCOCK

  1. In "Rear Window," what does Jimmy Stewart write in his note to Raymond Burr?

  2. Why did Hitchcock name the movie "North By Northwest" that?

  3. Where does Guy Haines live?

  4. Describe Hitchcock's cameo appearances in the following movies:

    1. Rear Window

    2. Vertigo

    3. Lifeboat

    4. Strangers on a Train

    5. The Man Who Knew Too Much

    6. To Catch A Thief

    7. Psycho

    8. The Birds

    9. North By Northwest

    10. Shadow of a Doubt

  5. What artist created the dream sequences for "Spellbound"?

  6. How much money has Janet Leigh stolen when she checks into the Bates Motel?

CATEGORY 5: THIS 'N THAT

  1. What is the source of the term "red herring"?

  2. What service does Nick Velvet render?

  3. What happens to Eduard Roschmann at the end of the book "The Odessa File"? What about the end of the movie?

  4. What fictional English criminal is assisted and chronicled by journalist Bunny Manders?

  5. Where did Ellery Queen go to college?

  6. What is the symbol and motto of the Pinkerton Detective Agency?

  7. Who is the arch-enemy of Dudley Do-Right, and what is the name of Dudley's horse?

  8. What is distinctive about the titles in the Anthony Maitland series?

  9. Who is the Devil Doctor?

  10. What was Josephine Tey's real name, and under what other pseudonym does she write?

  11. The first tenured female professor at Harvard is found dead in the men's bathroom in the Faculty Club. Name the novel and author.

  12. What does Ngaio mean?

  13. On what street does "Sherlock Hemlock, the World's Greatest Detective" live?

CATEGORY 6: YOU ARE ENTERING..... THE MORE TV ZONE

  1. What was the title of the book left on Earth by the Kanamits, and what kind of book was it?

  2. Who played ALL the Kanamits?

  3. What happened to the King-9?

  4. How may one imprison the devil?

  5. What was unusual about the unusual camera?

  6. You're at 35,000 feet atop an overcast sky, and roughly 55 minutes from Idlewild Airport. What flight are you on?

  7. Describe the fifth dimension, beyond that which is known to man.

  8. In "Will The Real Martian Please Stand Up?", what do Martians look like?

  9. In "Mister Dingle the Strong," what do Martians look like?

  10. And what do Venusians look like?

  11. Why was the mighty Casey such a good pitcher?

THE NON SEQUITUR CATEGORY: QUESTIONS AND RIDDLES


The following are questions, riddles, or prophecies that are important to various books, myths, etc. For each one, give the work it comes from, author if appropriate, and the answer or correct interpretation.

  1. What is six times nine?

  2. Who is the Star-bearer, and what will he loose that is bound?

  3. What's dangerous and sits in a tree?

  4. Who killed Cock Robin?

  5. What's brown and sounds like a bell?

  6. What is the airspeed of an unladen swallow?

  7. Who was Thanet Ross, and why did he play a harp with no strings?

  8. Gone away, gone ahead.
    Echoes roll unanswered.
    Empty, open, dusty, dead,
    Why have all the Weyrfolk fled?

  9. Alive without breath,
    As cold as death,
    Never thirsty, ever drinking,
    All in mail never clinking.

  10. Challenge: "Have you seen the Preacher?"
    Response: "I have seen a sandworm."
    Challenge: "What about that sandworm?"
    Response: "It gives us the air that we breathe."
    Challenge: "Then why do we destroy its land?"
    Response: ???

  11. Who's on third?

  12. What is the difference between the Archbishop of Canterbury and Jack Point?

PROPHECIES


Identify work and author; explain how the prophecy was fulfilled.

  1. When the Dark comes rising, six shall turn it back:
    Three from the circle, three from the track.
    Wood, bronze, iron, water, fire, stone--
    Five shall return and one go alone.

  2. None by One, son by Two.

  3. "Yet another hope we received from Damelon Giantfriend, High Lord and Heartthew's son. At the heart of his omening was this word: our exile would end when our seed regained its potency, and the decline of our offspring was reversed."

Tell us the stories of these prophecies.

  1. ...concerning Zeus and Chronus.

  2. .....concerning Oedipus.

  3. .....concerning the length of Achilles' life.

  4. ....concerning Agamemnon and Iphigenia.

  5. .....concerning Sleeping Beauty.