I Love a Good Mystery Trivia Quiz

Answer: Insomnia

It is estimated that around about a third of people will experience some form of insomnia at some point in their lives. Sadly less than five percent of these will seek treatment. The key here is that insomnia is not a disease, it is a symptom of something else. That something else needs to be identified and rectified. What exacerbates the situation is that insomniacs are likely to get frustrated and worry about the fact that they cannot get to sleep and this, in turn, reduces their ability to do so. Accordingly it can turn into a never-ending cycle.

There are steps that can be taken to improve the quality of one's sleep such as avoiding naps during the day, not drinking caffeine products or exercising before bedtimes etc. Those who suffer from long term insomnia should seek the aid of a professional in the field.

Answer: Therianthropes

Therianthropy, sometimes called zoanthropy, is the mythical ability to shape-shift. The most well known stories today are those of humans turning into werewolves. Alternate terms have been created to label the shift into specific animals, for example, lycanthropy relates to the above named werewolves (or wolves) and ailuranthropy is the ability to change into a cat. In the storyline above I have used the term "skin-walker" which is a term that arose in Native American and First Nation legends, alluding to humans who had the ability to shape-shift into any form of animal they desired.

(Additional notes) The storyline identifies the deceased woman as a Proteusian. This race is fictitious but is a nod to Proteus, an early sea-god in Greek mythology, who was notable amongst the gods as a shape-shifter.

Answer: Ink

According to the American Academy of Dermatology there are five different types of tattoos;
Traumatic, created as a result of an injury and cannot be removed. It is sometimes called a natural tattoo.
Amateur or Professional, which can be completed using traditional methods or modern tattoo machines. The reasons for obtaining one of these are too varied to be able to include here.
Identification, the best example here would be the forcible tattooing of Jewish prisoners of war by the Germans during World War II.
Cosmetic, an example here is to install permanent make-up.
Medical, which can provide valuable medical data such as blood types and allergies.

Answer: Sovereign

The name "sovereign" was revived as part of Britain's "Great Recoinage of 1816" which was an attempt by the government to re-stabilise the British currency which had became strained because of the country's involvement in the Napoleonic Wars (1803 - 1815) and the prior French Revolutionary War (1792 - 1802). Prior to this the last English gold sovereign had been minted in 1604.

The minting of the new sovereigns commenced in 1817 and ceased in 1917. The sovereign was revived briefly in 1925 though this ceased almost immediately and was not minted again until 1957; it continues to be minted today.

The Royal Mint struck both the sovereign and the ten shilling (half) sovereign for general circulation but also created a special series of a two pound (double) and a five pound (quintuple) sovereign.

Answer: Riddles

The earliest recorded riddles are Babylonian though the answers to the text were not preserved leaving scholars to only guess at their solution. For example, "who becomes pregnant without conceiving, who becomes fat without eating", with the best solution likely "a raincloud". Defining a riddle has, itself, become a riddle with scholars constantly debating what it is exactly. There is a consensus that there are two main types of riddles in the enigma (enigmas) and the conundrum (conundra) with the former being delivered allegorically and requiring the solver to employ ingenuity and thinking "outside the square" to arrive at a solution and the latter requiring some form of pun, either in its delivery or its solution to have effect.

(Additional notes) The setting for this storyline is Earth at some unknown point in the future. Human form aliens co-exist with Earth humans in this environment. The races of some of my characters have been designed to relate to word play games. Mentioned above are a "Crypto", which is short for the fictitious "Cryptogene" to identify an alien who will always speak the truth but in a way that it can be described as "in other words". The "Enigs" are "Engimatics", both truth speakers but, as described, one will only answer a question with a riddle(s) and the other will reveal truths but indirectly. He may even provide answers to questions that were not asked. I will deal with "Cyrene" in the II for question 8.

Answer: Embellishment

An embellishment is a decoration or, as our suspect above put forth, an ornament that has the effect of changing the appearance of something. The embellishment need not be physical in appearance, for example, an additional note in music can embellish a melody.

This embellishment could even be fictitious. The best example of this is a case of Chinese whispers where a story is retold several times in such a way that its interpretation at the end is nothing like it was originally intended. With this in mind it is also possible that an embellishment is... a lie.

Answer: Governor

A governor is a ruler or a person given the responsibility to administer a state, a body or an organisation. It could be a Chief Magistrate appointed to look after a province or, as in Great Britain, a Crown representative in a colony. It is a position invested with both responsibility and trust. Alternate names that you may have heard include administrator, overseer, comptroller and controller, functionary, chief, supervisor and mandarin.

Answer: Adonis

In Greek mythology, when Adonis was conceived his mother was turned into a myrrh tree from which Adonis would emerge nine months later. Aphrodite found him, fell in love with him and provided him with her protection. She would later entrust him to Persephone who would also fall in love in with him. A tug of war developed which Zeus resolved when he decreed that Adonis would spend four months of each year with each of the goddesses and the remaining four months with whomever he chose. Adonis chose Aphrodite. Adonis ended up being gored by a wild boar and died in Aphrodite's arms. Aphrodite sprinkled his blood with nectar and created the anemone. The flower bears the name of the wind which spreads its petals so readily. It is also a short lived plant to reflect the early death of Adonis.

(Additional notes) Revel is a Cyrene (a fictitious race) who lures men and destroys them with the use of lies. She cannot help but lie even if the truth would save her. As a wordplay not everything she says should be seen as an antonym, instead she simply should not be believed. The name Cyrene evolved from (a) the beautiful Sirens of Greek myth who lured sailors onto the rocks with their music and their voices and (b) also from Greek myth, Cyrene, the daughter of Hypseus, who was called a lion killer.

Answer: Legend

The heel is at the end of a leg, accordingly leg-end or legend. A legend is an unverifiable story usually based on some historic event. A good example is the story of King Arthur and his Knights of the Round Table. Were they real? Did they exist?

Answer: Regal

The direct method to solve this mystery is to solely use the clue in question ten. All the suspects to this point have used some form of wordplay which is a lead in to indicate that this final one would also be wordplay. The introduction informs that the last question is a cryptic. With that in mind you are asked to "initially" look at your answers i.e. take the first letter. "Without getting confused" means to keep them in the order that they're in - which is: ITISREGAL. With spacing, three words appear - IT IS REGAL.

The indirect method would be difficult but there were enough items there to be able to come up with an educated guess. Regal means majestic or fit for a monarch. We identify the word with kings and queens. Looking at Renal Popsy's riddles; you're looking for twelve inches - school "rulers" were generally made out to this length. Elvis - the "king" of rock and roll. The lion rises in the east - the lion is accepted as a "king" of beasts and the reference to the "east" is a nod toward Regal's Oriental appearance and a trustee was described above as a ruler.
Next is Reval Revival. She said she was with Regal all night - remember she lies, which means she wasn't. She also indicated that she wouldn't be with Blaze and his voyeur brother Renal. She lies and she was. This leaves Regal as the one (most likely) without an alibi. There's another little bit of wordplay in Reval's dialogue when she talks of Scrabble and how Regal treated his "X" meaning "ex" (meaning the victim). Somehow Reval knows that Regal is guilty however, this quiz does not allow the time or space to speculate further on this.
Blaze Remal talks about Tom Gordon as if he never existed. A gunslinger from the past who is well and truly dead - part of the skeleton crew/full dark, no stars. Then he raises the question as to whether or not he really existed - wind in the keyhole. Regal confirms this by calling him an "ornament", an embellishment, a lie.
Rex Regal was madly in love with Christine Lisey. The indications of madness and paranoia were conveyed with the barking in his dialogue and the need to repeat his words. He called Christine his queen, making him a king. He called her his Aphrodite. Reval called him a sweet anemone, a flower made from the blood of Adonis. Adonis and Aphrodite were lovers. Regal also confesses to the murder in his own roundabout way. He says that he placed the tiara on her head. A tiara is a crown i.e. he "crowned" her and "crowned" is an informal term meaning "to hit someone on the head".

In summary Regal was madly in love with Christine Lisey. He spotted the tattoo on her arm indicating that she loved someone else, someone who didn't exist. When Regal could not find this person upon whom to exact his revenge he decided if he couldn't have Christine no one would.

As an added touch there were 35 references to book and short story titles written by Stephen "King" incorporated into the storyline.