The beginning of every year is extraordinarily busy for me because that’s when I gear up at school to present the big musical! (This year we produced Nice Work If You Can Get It, with music by George Gershwin, and it went very well, thank you.) Consequently, I have had neither the time nor the inclination toward reading, and my blogging has suffered for it.

Over at Cross Examining Crime, Kate puts together these fun quizzes for mystery fans, (here’s her latest one), and she has inspired me to try a quiz of my own. It’s a stall, I admit, as I gear up to write about John Dickson Carr for the Tuesday Club Bloggers in March, as well as some other impossible crime authors in honor of my pal JJ at The Invisible Event (if I can ever . . . EVER finish The Hollow Man.) Oh, and did I tell you that I’m holding auditions on Tuesday for Christie’s And Then There Were None? (Kvetch, kvetch!)

I may finally accomplish something over the weekend. Many Americans like me get an extra day off to celebrate President’s Day, and it occurred to me that, hard as we all work and as deserving as we are of a holiday, why not create a quiz about mysteries set in the working world? And so you will see below you fifteen places of business, all of which provide a setting for murder (and/or a cast of characters whom one watches at work). The ones without a formal name are purposely listed that way because a formal name would give the game away. (Hint, hint!) Your job is to match the business to the title of the novel in which that business appears. Another hint: even if you haven’t read the novel, sometimes the title can help give the game away. As a teacher, I must remind you that sometimes the best looking answer turns out to be the correct one!

Post your solution in the comments section below. The first person to post a completely correct set wins the prize! What is that prize, you ask? You get to put ME to work. Select a classic mystery novel that I have NOT read and assign it to me. I will read and review it and dedicate that review to you under the title _____ Made Me Do It! So go ahead! Win this thing, and make my TBR pile even higher!

No cheating! And since I fear I have few followers, those who do follow me can feel free to share this quiz with others (because so much of our work in the States centers around competition, doesn’t it?). It was actually hard to put together, given my limited knowledge of various authors and the fact that it seems that the domicile, not the office, is the preferred setting for murder most foul. In other words, I had to work for it!

Answers next Friday!

PLACES OF BUSINESS

1. Pyms’s Publicity, Ltd.
2. A department store
3. Tell Yarimjah
4. The Vulcan Theatre
5. Heron’s Park Emergency Hospital
6. The King’s Pyland Stable
7. Presteignton Hydro Spa
8. The Quenborough Town Council
9. The Cavendish Secretarial Bureau
10. The New York City Aquarium
11. A rodeo
12. Christophe et Cie couturier
13. A sheep farm
14. The Meadowbank School
15. A detective agency

NAME OF BOOK

1. The Clocks (Christie)
2. A Family Affair (Stout)
3. The Penguin Pool Murder (Palmer)
4. Died in the Wool (Marsh)
5. The French Powder Mystery (Queen)
6. Knock, Murderer, Knock (Rutland)
7. Murder in Mesopotamia (Christie)
8. Murder Must Advertise (Sayers)
9. Death in High Heels (Brand)
10. They Dying Alderman (Wade)
11. “Silver Blaze” (Doyle)
12. Cat Among the Pigeons (Christie)
13. The American Gun Mystery (Queen)
14. Green for Danger (Brand)
15. Opening Night (Marsh)