Kinsey Millhone was born at age 32 from the pen of Sue Grafton in 1985's "A is for Alibi", the first of Grafton's Alphabet series of mysteries. Kinsey lived in Santa Teresa, where she was an introverted, dogged, and highly intuitive private detective. Santa Teresa is actually Santa Barbara, where Grafton lived for many years.
2. Sam Spade
Answer: Dashiell Hammett
Sam Spade was created by Dashiell Hammett. Although he appeared in just one novel, "The Maltese Falcon", and a handful of short stories, his influence was long-lived. Hammett lived in San Francisco when he wrote many of his mysteries. He worked occasionally for the Pinkerton National Detective Agency.
3. V.I. Warshawski
Answer: Sara Paretsky
V.I. Warshawski was created by Iowa-born Sara Paretsky, though both women made their home in Chicago, where V.I. solved crimes as a private detective. The daughter of a policeman, V.I. was a corporate lawyer before hanging her own shingle as a detective. Though fiercely self-sufficient, V.I.'s support system included her landlord, her doctor friend Lottie, and a number of policemen and women.
4. Philip Marlowe
Answer: Raymond Chandler
Raymond Chandler indicated in interviews that his Philip Marlowe was influenced by Sam Spade, as both detectives are stern, tough, and prone to sarcasm and alcoholism. Marlowe was based in Los Angeles and worked for the district attorney's office before starting his own detective agency.
5. Kay Scarpetta
Answer: Patricia Cornwell
Patricia Cornwell's Dr. Kay Scarpetta was not technically a detective; she was a medical examiner with a law degree, or, as one of her colleagues called her, a "doctor-lawyer-Indian-chief." She grew up and began her career in Florida, then took over as the Chief Medical Examiner of the Commonwealth of Virginia, which was where her story first started with 1990's "Postmortem".
6. Frank and Joe Hardy
Answer: Franklin W. Dixon
"The Hardy Boys" were teenage brothers living in the fictional town of Bayport, sons of a private detective who was retired from the New York Police Department. Though they were conceived by publisher Edward Stratemeyer, the author of Hardy Boys mysteries is formally Franklin W. Dixon, a pseudonym used by a series of ghostwriters.
7. Nero Wolfe
Answer: Rex Stout
Rex Stout wrote over 70 stories about his sedentary, brilliant, mysterious detective Nero Wolfe. The stories are narrated by his assistant, Archie Goodwin, an echo from Arthur Conan Doyle's strategy of having John Watson narrated many of the Holmes stories. In addition to Archie, Wolfe had help in the form of his butler and chef, Fritz Brenner.
8. Temperance Brennan
Answer: Kathy Reichs
Kathy Reichs created forensic anthropologist Temperance Brennan in 1997's "Déjà Dead". Reichs herself is a forensic anthropologist and often Reichs's life is echoed in Brennan's. For example, Reichs indicated that she tested all the science used in "Déjà Dead" herself in order to describe it accurately. In addition, Brennan become a best-seller author herself.
9. Cordelia Gray
Answer: P. D. James
P.D. James's London-based Cordelia Gray inherited a private detective agency when her boss committed suicide and left her the business. She first appeared in "An Unsuitable Job for a Woman" in 1972. James worked hospital administration for many years and it was the setting for many of her works. She also created Adam Dalgliesh, a detective for Scotland Yard.
10. Jane Marple
Answer: Agatha Christie
Much has been written about Agatha Christie's beloved amateur sleuth, Miss Marple of St. Mary Mead, a fictional village in England. Miss Marple was a genteel woman with keen intelligence and fearlessness when it came to solving mysteries. She appeared in twelve of Christie's novels and several short story collections.
This quiz was reviewed by FunTrivia editor looney_tunes before going online.
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