The French Powder Mystery Trivia Quiz

Answer: Bed

On a Tuesday afternoon at French's Department Store, a model gives a demonstration of a display of modern furniture. She shows a pullout bed but when she presses the button to make the bed unfold, Mrs. Winifred French's dead body falls out. Mrs. French is the wife of the president of the store and has been shot twice.

Answer: Bernice Carmody, her daughter

Prior to the discovery of the body, Hortense Underhill, the French's housekeeper, phones Mr. French to inform him that neither his wife nor stepdaughter Bernice returned home the night before. After Mrs. French's body is found, Bernice is still missing.

There is some evidence she was in the private apartment above the store the night before, such as her shoes being in the closet. No one has seen her since the day before when the housekeeper saw her leave the house alone.

Answer: Lipstick

As most of the characters are aware, Bernice Carmody was a cocaine addict. She hid her stash in her toiletries, including some at the false bottom of her lipstick tube. This lipstick is found in Mrs. French's purse, but does not match the shade she was wearing and has Bernice's initials engraved in it.

Answer: Fingerprint powder

Ellery's interest in books caused him to examine a pair of expensive bookends in Mr. French's apartment. He notices the green felt on the bottoms are two different colors. One is a vibrant, bright green while the other is faded. Westley Weaver tells Ellery the bookends were a gift to Mr. French from a member of the board of directors and are brand new. Upon closer examination, Ellery finds a white powder in the glue seam of the bookend with the dull felt.

He determines it to be fingerprint powder and speculates the murderer must have gotten blood on the bookend, replaced the felt and then dusted the bookend for fingerprints to remove any.

Answer: Six

Each of the four members of the French family has a key to the apartment. Mr. French's secretary, Westley Weaver, also has a key since he prepares things in the apartment each morning before Mr. French arrives. The sixth key is the master key held by the security department. Several store detectives verified the master key had not been moved or stolen.

Four of the keys are accounted for: Mr. French's, the master key, Weaver's and French's daughter Marion's. Bernice's key, which she previously lost, is found soon after at the back of her closet. Mrs. French's, however, is still missing. Ellery reasons the killer probably didn't have his or her own key and stole Mrs. French's in order to enter and exit the apartment with ease since the door locks automatically.

Answer: Book

Springer, the manager of the book department, is responsible for the setting code each week. He writes the address and date in the back of a book and places it on the shelf for the accomplice to pick up. Each book is identified by the first two letters of the author's last name. For instance, on a Tuesday, the book's author's last name begins with the letters TU.

Answer: The ring had cleared out

Westley confesses to the Queens that he grew suspicious of Springer, the head of the book department, one night. He witnessed Springer scribbling into a book and placing it on the shelf. When he looked, Wes saw an address and date. Ellery solves the cryptic code and determines the address is the site of the drug ring's next distribution center.

The Queens, Wes and store security head William Crouther tag along with the police and raid the newest address. However, they discover the ring has cleared out completely before the date of distribution. Someone tipped them off that their code had been revealed.

Answer: Bernice Carmody

Ellery makes it known immediately that he believes Bernice is dead and did not kill her mother. There is a significant amount of evidence suggesting Bernice was in the apartment the night before, including a started game of Russian bank Bernice played with her mother and a number of pieces of Bernice's clothing.

However, Ellery believes she is being framed because the card game could easily have been cleared away. Moreover, none of the watchmen on duty saw Bernice enter or leave the department store.

Answer: Not known about French's upcoming merger

As in many novels, Ellery devises a list of characteristics that the murderer must possess. Among the characteristics is being associated with French's. The murderer must have known certain things about the store's operations such as the window display being opened at noon. An outsider was not likely to possess such knowledge.

Chauvinistically, Ellery declares the killer must be a man because, in his opinion, a woman would not possess the ability to carefully craft such a complicated murder. Moreover, the murderer attempted to frame Bernice by planting her clothes in the apartment but handled her shoes in a careless way. Ellery reasons that a woman would never leave her shoes haphazardly stored away.

The characteristic that eliminates most suspects is that the killer must not have been in Mr. French's private apartment in the five weeks prior. Westley Weaver made copies of the suspicious books that contained the drug smuggling code and hid those copies in plain sight on Mr. French's bookshelf. He did this for five weeks but the killer, a member of the drug ring, would have recognized them instantly. Because the book code continued in use during those five weeks but ceased after the murder, Ellery reasons the killer did not know those books were on the shelf until the night of the murder.

The merger between French's and Whitney is mentioned a few times but does not play any role in the identity of the murderer.

Answer: William Crouther

At the very end of the novel (in fact, the very last words of the book) Ellery names William Crouther, the head of security for French's Department Store, as Mrs. French's killer. He also states that Bernice is also dead. Crouther was member of the drug-smuggling operation and, while he was a high-ranking member, he was not at the top of the organization.

He was given orders to kill Bernice and her mother because Mrs. French had discovered that Bernice was a drug addict and that Bernice spilled the beans about exactly where she was getting the drugs from.