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Mastermind Quiz Questions

The Birdcage books of Victor Canning
Broadcast 13 November 2009

Q: Which of the Birdcage novels by Victor Canning was awarded the Silver Dagger of the Crime Writers’ Association and was later adapted for the 1976 Hitchcock film Family Plot? Answer 1
Q: With what Portuguese word meaning ‘witch’ or ‘sorceress’ does the housekeeper describe Sarah Branton in Birdcage? Answer 2
Q: Maurice Crillon takes a portrait of his father as part of his pay-off from the Starrs. Which artist painted it? Answer 3
Q: Which member of the Birdcage establishment is sometimes described as being a “pirate of a man”, missing only a wooden leg and an eye-patch? Answer 4
Q: What alias does Duncan Sparrow use when he phones the police to ask about a reward for finding Charlie the chimp? Answer 5
Q: In Firecrest, what is the name of the estate in North Devon used for a variety of purposes by the Department, ‘...all of them ones in which publicity is the least welcome element’? Answer 6
Q: Which of the Birdcage books was the last novel completed by the author before his death in 1986? Answer 7
Q: What was the profession of Blanche Tyler’s spirit-guide Henry? Answer 8
Q: In which outbuilding did Punch Seyton hide the film projector just before he died? Answer 9
Q: What is the name of the ambitious detective constable from Barnstaple, who first appears in The Mask of Memory and becomes a member of the Department? Answer 10
Q: By what method had the lawyer Arnold Geddy unwittingly murdered the spy Francina Pavi in Positano? Answer 11
Q: What is the name of the veteran Birdcage assassin who is said to be “a highly knowledgeable collector of grasses, reeds and rushes”? Answer 12
Q: In The Doomsday Carrier, the escaped chimp is said to have been infected with three forms of plague: pneumonic, septicaemic, and which other? Answer 13
Q: What is the name of the gardening business George starts up in The Rainbird Pattern? Answer 14
Q: Whose voice is the first to be heard when the tape from the watch recorder is played in The Mask of Memory? Answer 15
Q: What species of bird caused the tinkling sound that was accidentally heard by one of the kidnapped MPs in Edward Shoebridge’s cellar? Answer 16
Q: In which city is Maurice Crillon working as an art forger when he receives news that the woman whom he has always thought to be his mother has died? Answer 17
Q: What shape is the stone that Maxie leaves on Margaret’s pillow the first time he stays at Lopcommon? Answer 18
Q: In Vanishing Point what gift, that he later leaves behind for an ex-fiancée’s nephew, enables Maurice to evade the Mafia? Answer 19
Q: Which clause number does Richard Seyton look to invoke in order to break the lease agreement the Felbeck Foundation has to stay in his ancestral home? Answer 20
Q: What is the title of the novel that Maxie Dougall sees in Margaret Tucker’s car at the start of The Mask of Memory? Answer 21
Q: In Birds of A Feather, the narrative switches between the main players and which birds of prey that are coveted by Sir Anthony Swale? Answer 22
Q: What does John Grimster tell Lily Stevens to go to the window and do as soon as she wakes up after being hypnotised by him for the first time? Answer 23