FREE! Click here to Join FunTrivia. Thousands of games, quizzes, and lots more!
Quiz about Female Mystery Heroes
Quiz about Female Mystery Heroes

Female Mystery Heroes Trivia Quiz


Female detectives have been a staple of mystery novels since the dawn of the genre. Can you spot the female literary detectives hidden amongst the imposters.
This is a renovated/adopted version of an old quiz by author Jaye

A collection quiz by Joepetz. Estimated time: 3 mins.
  1. Home
  2. »
  3. Quizzes
  4. »
  5. Literature Trivia
  6. »
  7. Mystery & Detective Fiction
  8. »
  9. Fictional Detectives

Author
Joepetz
Time
3 mins
Type
Quiz #
12,829
Updated
Mar 07 25
# Qns
15
Difficulty
Average
Avg Score
10 / 15
Plays
555
Last 3 plays: FrappMaster (15/15), Jennifer5 (14/15), PurpleComet (8/15).
Select the 15 women who are literary detectives while ignoring the ones who are not.
There are 15 correct entries. Get 3 incorrect and the game ends.
Hildegarde Withers Flavia Albia Sarah Keate Agatha Raisin Cherry Ames Kat Colorado Elizabeth March Amelia Peabody Elizabeth Lavenza Eliza Durbeyfield Joanna Eberhart Beverly Gray Constance Reid Jane Marple Jean Finch Demelza Carne Kinsey Millhone Maud Silver Lucy Pym Catherine Earnshaw Mina Murray Nancy Drew Vicki Barr Hilda Adams Kate Keller

Left click to select the correct answers.
Right click if using a keyboard to cross out things you know are incorrect to help you narrow things down.

Most Recent Scores
Jan 31 2026 : FrappMaster: 15/15
Jan 30 2026 : Jennifer5: 14/15
Jan 28 2026 : PurpleComet: 8/15
Jan 27 2026 : Guest 68: 15/15
Jan 23 2026 : rustic_les: 10/15
Jan 14 2026 : Guest 80: 10/15
Jan 13 2026 : Guest 104: 15/15
Jan 13 2026 : Guest 90: 2/15
Jan 12 2026 : RebeccaQ: 8/15

Quiz Answer Key and Fun Facts
Answer:

Over the course of literary history, there have been many great female literary detectives. From elderly spinsters like Agatha Christie's Jane Marple and Patricia Wentworth's Maud Silver to young career women like Helen Wells's nurse Cherry Ames and Carolyn Keene's young sleuth Nancy Drew, female literary detectives come in all shapes and sizes.

Nurses were popular careers for some of these women. In addition to Cherry Ames, Mary Roberts Rinehart's Hilda Adams was also a nurse. Mignon G. Eberhart's Sarah Keate was also a nurse. Helen Wells also created Vicki Barr, a flight attendant.

Some are private investigators. Flavia Albia is an ancient Roman woman whose father, Didius Falco, is also a detective creation of Lindsey Davis. Kat Colorado is another private eye created by Karen Kijewski. Sue Grafton's private eye Kinsey Millhone appeared in 25 of Grafton's "Alphabet Series".

Many are geared toward younger women and children such as Nancy Drew, Cherry Ames and Beverly Gray, created by Clair Blank, whose adventures are depicted from school, college and beyond.

Some were very unusual, like Amelia Peabody, created by Elizabeth Peters, who had a passion for crime solving and Egyptology. Josephine Tey's Lucy Pym was a psychologist who assisted the police. Agatha Raisin was a public relations agent turned detective created by MC Beaton. Stuart Palmer's Hildegarde Withers was a school teacher.

All of the incorrect answers are characters from non-mystery classic novels.
Source: Author Joepetz

This quiz was reviewed by FunTrivia editor looney_tunes before going online.
Any errors found in FunTrivia content are routinely corrected through our feedback system.
2/2/2026, Copyright 2026 FunTrivia, Inc. - Report an Error / Contact Us