Nostalgia City Mysteries

Mark S. Bacon

Category Archives: noir novels

10:42 am - January 24, 2024 -

Mark Bacon’s Kollege of Noir Knowledge

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Noir II – Advanced Investigation MB-302  Cain Building  T-Th 9 a.m.

Answers for Quiz #2

Here are the answers to the second quiz of this course. Okay, these last two questions were tough, but this is the advanced noir class. Remember your instructor has your best interests at heart.

For your next assignment, write a 300-page noir novel and include the line, “I don’t have to show you any sticking badges” or “Release the Kraken.”

Q 1. Who are the top selling mystery writers today?

Short answer: James Patterson and John Grisham.

Longer answer Extra credit: Finding out who were/are the best selling mystery writers via an internet search is a challenge. Nearly every response to a query about best sellers returned lists of “best” authors—in many persons’ opinions—not top selling mystery writers.  I resorted to Wikipedia’s list of best selling authors, regardless of genre, and picked out the mystery/crime writers.

Agatha Christie, no matter how many billion of her books have been sold, is the undisputed champ. More books by Christie have been sold than anyone in history except Shakespeare. The French detective writer Georges Simenon is certain to be number two, beyond that it’s guesswork. What follows is the Wikipedia listing with the range of books likely sold.

Agatha Christie  2-4 billion

Georges Simenon, author of the French Inspector Maigret series, 500-700 million

Earl Stanley Gardener 100 – 325 million

James Patterson  150-275 million (the magazine Mental Floss says Patterson has sold 300 million books.)

John Grisham  100-250 million

Carter Brown 100-120 million

Mickey Spillane 100-200 million

Q 2.  Where did mystery writer Sue Grafton get the name for her fictional community?

Answer  Grafton’s make-believe community, Santa Teresa, bears the same name as the town that Ross Macdonalds’ detective, Lew Archer, haunts.  She used the name as a salute to Macdonald.

Q 3. Where is the town?

Answer  The town is generally thought to be patterned after Santa Barbara, Calif.

Question 4.   Who wrote, “The butler did it”? Continue Reading →

Categories: Mystery quiz, Noir, noir novels Tags: , , ,
6:00 am - November 13, 2023 -

Mark Bacon’s Kollege of Mystery Knowledge* Questions with Answers

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Noir II – Advanced Investigation MB-302  Cain Building  T-Th 9 a.m.

Answers for Quiz #1

Here are the answers for your first quiz. I hope you did well. Please don’t turn in your papers until you have completed the second quiz—to be administered soon.

Remember the Kollege of Mystery Knowledge operates on the honor system, proving there is honor among thieves.  

Q 1 Name the actors who have played Philip Marlowe in film. 

A. If you named Humphrey Bogart, Robert Mitchum, Dick Powell, Robert Montgomery and James Garner give yourself full credit. That’s far from a complete list, but it’s all a devout Raymond Chandler fan needs to know.

Dick Powell, one of the lesser-known Marlowes in film.

Wikipedia says 18 actors have portrayed Marlowe, including Philip Carey who was the detective in a short-lived 1959 TV series.  IMDB lists 17 Marlowes. It says the first Marlowe of the silver screen was James Kirkwood in the1934 not-really-a-classic Hired Wife. Neat trick because Chandler’s first published Marlowe novel was in 1939.  Maybe Kirkwood was a different Philip Marlowe.

Check out the lists of other Marlowes here:
https://www.imdb.com/list/ls066052539/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Philip_Marlowe

Extra credit on this question if you also said Elliot Gould once played a version of Marlowe.

Q 2 Who wrote the first modern mystery story? Clue: it was published 182 years ago.

A. Modern murder mysteries got started in 1841 with the publication of a murder mystery in Graham’s Magazine in Philadelphia. The Murders in the Rue Morgue was written by Edgar Allen Poe.  Like some mysteries that would follow, the story is narrated by the detective’s sidekick. The mystery introduces Paris Detective Monsieur C. Auguste Dupin who used his “analytical power” to solve a series of gruesome murders in Paris.

Q 3 Where did the idea for the TV show Columbo come from? Continue Reading →

Categories: Humphrey Bogart, New mystery book, noir novels, Raymond Chandler Tags: , , , , , ,
9:27 am - October 30, 2023 -

Mark S. Bacon’s College of Mystery Knowledge*

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Noir II – Advanced Investigation MB-302  Cain Building  T-Th 9 a.m.

Students,

Welcome to Investigation 302. Here we’ll be studying the works of the masters, such as Hammett, Chandler, Gardner and others.  I know it’s unconventional to begin with a quiz, but even though you’re all mystery majors, and this is an upper division course, I need to discover your understanding of the subject before we can advance.

Answers to these questions will appear in the next installment of this course. Please complete your answers before you read the next online installment here.  And remember, we’re on the honor system at Bacon’s College so you may grade yourself.

Quiz #1

  1. Name the actors who have played Philip Marlowe in movies.
  1. Who wrote the first modern mystery story? Clue: it was published 182 years ago.
  1. Where did the idea for the TV show Columbo come from?
  1. True or false: The movie based on the book, The Maltese Falcon, starred Bette Davis, Bebe Daniels and Warren William.
  1. What was the name of Ross Macdonald’s PI, and how did he come up with the name?
  1. Who was the author of more than 20 noir novels and wrote the short story Rear Window that became a James Steward movie?

 

 *Apologies to the late Kay Kyser

 

 

Categories: Dashiell Hammett, film noir, mystery writers, Mystery writers quiz, New mystery book, noir novels, Raymond Chandler, Trivia quiz Tags: , , , , , ,