A Criminal Mastermind?

[Anson (Bob) Roberts]

From the website of John H. Watson, MD:  (http://www.johnhwatsonmd.com/)

In 2004, there was a celebrity edition of Mastermind.

Stephen Fry was faced with 14 questions in the available time on his chosen specialist subject – Arthur Conan Doyle’s Sherlock Holmes.

Here are the 14 questions. How well would you have done?

1. In which publication did the first Holmes story “A Study in Scarlet” first appear in 1887?
2. In “The Hound of the Baskervilles”, by what name did Jack Stapleton head a school in Yorkshire and establish a reputation in entomology?
3. What name did Holmes adopt in his guise as an Irish-American spy?
4. Mycroft Holmes was a founding member of which club of the most unsociable and unclubable men in town?
5. Irene Adler, always known as “the woman” by Holmes, was the prima donna of which opera company when she met the King of Bohemia?
6. In “A Study in Scarlet”, what 5-letter word is scrawled in blood on the wall in a dark corner of the room?
7. In “The Valley of Fear”, what was the local name for the members of Lodge 341 of the Ancient Order of Freemen in the Vermissa Valley?
8. In “The Disappearance of Lady Frances Carfax”, with which London banking firm did Lady Frances have her account?
9. On which theorem did Professor Moriarty write a treatise that won him the mathematical chair at a small English university?
10. When relating his very first case, “Gloria Scott”, whom does Holmes describe as “the only friend I made during the two years that I was at college”?
11. In “The Solitary Cyclist”, what was the nickname of “the greatest brute and bully in South Africa” who conspired with Bob Carruthers to get Violet Smith’s fortune?
12. In “The Adventure of the Speckled Band”, how did Dr Roylott get the poisonous snake into the room of his step-daughters, killing Julia?
13. In which story did Holmes make his celebrated reference to “the curious incident of the dog in the night-time” – the curious incident being that the dog didn’t bark?
14. What did the red-headed London pawnbroker Jabez Wilson have to copy out when he was duped by John Clay into accepting a position with the spurious “Red-Headed League”?

Stephen managed to get eight right.

I assume that many of YOU will do better. And not use Google or any other database ....

Please don't post your answers. That would ruin the fun for tohers. I'll post the complete set after a few days.

[Lefevre of Montpellier]

Ooh, la, la .. #'s 5, 8 and 11 got the best of me.

[Anson (Bob) Roberts]

A good score! Well played.

[Lefevre of Montpellier]

It did not come easily, Monsieur Bob, my left temporal lobe is aching, mon dieu!
Don't dare ask about my neocortex, c'est fini.
I must go back and get my rest.
a bientot
Lefevre

[Douglas Johnstone]

Lefevre and I agree on something at last. 5, 8 & 11 defeated me too!

[Anson (Bob) Roberts]

Well, does anyone other than the good doctor care to give these a try?

Any reports of success?

[John H Watson]

Presumably also Holmes and Watson are barred from entering?

Seriously though, I ought to know all the answers but I struggled with 2, 5 and 8.

[Anson (Bob) Roberts]

Yes, both protagonists, as well as the literary agent, are barred. :>)

Numbers 2, 5 and 8 are the toughies ....

[John H Watson]

Thank you for acknowledging my writings. I will not post the answers there for some time to come to give the members here a chance to try their luck.

[Anson (Bob) Roberts]

I was glad to chance upon your site while doing some research.

Highly recommended!