A Mystery Quiz: Did You Know?

Books

By OTTO PENZLER
April 16, 2008

Two cousins, Manfred B. Lee and Frederic Dannay, created one of America's most famous and successful characters, Ellery Queen, and had the brilliant marketing scheme of using the same name for their pseudonym. In addition to books about the amateur sleuth, they also wrote a number of very successful stand-alone crime novels.

Did you know that, in 1939, they hit upon an idea that they were certain was the best and most original plot they had yet invented? They stopped work on the book when they began to read a magazine serial appearance of a novel that, it turned out, was exactly the same as their idea. The book was Agatha Christie's "And Then There Were None."

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Ben Hecht was for many years one of Hollywood's most famous screenwriters, noted for such heartrending tearjerkers as "Miracle in the Rain," "Wuthering Heights," "A Star is Born," and "Portrait of Jennie," and riotous comedies, including the Marx brothers' "Monkey Business," "His Girl Friday," and "Guys and Dolls." He was nominated for six Academy Awards, winning twice. Did you know that he wrote the first American gangster movie, "Underworld," which was released in 1927, introducing one of Hollywood's most popular and long-running motion picture genres?

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Kingsley Amis, the noted British novelist, critic, and satirist, as well as the father of Martin Amis, equally famous and controversial for his political and social views, was one of the leading figures in the "angry young men" literary movement in Great Britain in the 1960s, and the author of such critically acclaimed and successful novels as "Lucky Jim," "Take a Girl Like You," and "The Green Man." Did you know that Amis was also a dedicated James Bond aficionado? He was the author of two irreverent studies of 007's fictional career: "The Book of Bond, or Every Man His Own 007," under the pseudonym Lt. Col. William "Bill" Tanner, and "The James Bond Dossier," as well as an excellent pastiche, "Colonel Sun," written under the pseudonym Robert Markham.

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The guillotine was adopted as the official method of execution in France in 1791. Previously, only royalty had been beheaded, with an axe or a sword as the instrument of death, commonly requiring two, three, or more attempts to finally sever the head. Commoners were hanged, a process often taking several minutes. The guillotine was seen to be an egalitarian device that killed everyone in the same manner. Since the aim of execution was to, well, execute rather than torture, it was also seen as a swift, final, painless, and humane process. Did you know, however, that in 1905, a Parisian physician named Beaurieux carried out a horrific experiment when the murderer Henri Languille had his head sliced off? Beaurieux lifted the head of the murderer up by his hair and called out his name, and Languille's eyes snapped open. The experiment was repeated twice more before the head finally "died."

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No spy series ever ran longer on television than "The Avengers (1961–69), though "Mission: Impossible" had more episodes. Although both Honor Blackman and Linda Thorson had successful runs as the female sidekick to John Steed, played by Patrick Macnee, it was Diana Rigg who stayed in viewers' memories as the fearless karate expert and secret agent Emma Peel. Did you know that the producers, while searching for a new female lead, frequently repeated the mantra that they wanted some one with Man Appeal, which was soon shortened to M Appeal — hence the name Emma Peel?

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Few authors of science-based fiction have enjoyed the success of Michael Crichton, notably with such books as "The Andromeda Strain," "Congo," "The Terminal Man," "Sphere," and "Jurassic Park," all of which have been filmed. Did you know that he also won an Edgar for Best First Mystery for "A Case of Need," written under the Jeffrey Hudson pseudonym? Unbeknownst to the Mystery Writers of America, he had al ready written three mysteries as John Lange.

Mr. Penzler is the proprietor of the Mysterious Bookshop in Manhattan and the series editor of the annual Best American Mystery Stories. He can be reached at ottopenzler@mysteriousbookshop com.