In Dashiell Hammett's novel featuring Sam Spade, what is the supposed origin story of the titular black bird statuette? — Options: A gift from the Sultan of Brunei to Queen Victoria, A tribute from the Knights Hospitaller to Charles V of Spain, Loot taken by Sir Francis Drake from a Spanish galleon, A reliquary stolen from the Vatican during the Sack of Rome

Raymond Chandler famously laid out his theory of detective fiction in which 1944 essay published in The Atlantic Monthly? — Options: The Simple Art of Murder, The Long Goodbye, Trouble Is My Business, Red Wind

Hercule Poirot is famously the only fictional character ever to receive what particular honour from The New York Times? — Options: Inclusion on the bestseller list under his own byline, A full front-page obituary, A Pulitzer Prize special citation, A dedicated weekly advice column

P.D. James's detective Adam Dalgliesh has an unusual sideline that informs his sensibility throughout the novels. What is it? — Options: He is a published poet, He restores antique clocks, He paints watercolours of English churches, He breeds racing pigeons

Ian Rankin's Inspector John Rebus is named with a literary pun in mind. What does the word 'rebus' originally denote? — Options: A heraldic motto carved over a doorway, A medieval ballad with a refrain, A puzzle representing words by pictures and letters, A Latin term for a confession heard at deathbed

In which Swedish town does Henning Mankell set the Kurt Wallander novels? — Options: Ystad, Malmö, Lund, Helsingborg

Which Swedish city, where Henning Mankell's Inspector Wallander is based, gives the novels their distinctive setting?

Detective Fiction Beyond Holmes