Mystery Question

Patricia Bradley Mystery Question 60 Comments

This past weekend my Byhalia Christian Writers group put on a writing conference just outside of Memphis and we had 130 attendees! That is amazing for our little group of about fifteen writers. Brandilyn Collins was our keynote speaker, and she was FANTASTIC! And on Friday Hallee Bridgeman gave a workshop on Indie Publishing that was so informative.

So writers, mark your calendars for the 3rd weekend in March 2019, when we’ll do it all over again.

Now on to this week’s Mystery Question:

It’s 1929 and a war veteran had dropped his wife off at a local square dance. He waited in the car while she danced the night away because of a war wound that had left him deaf and he couldn’t hear the music. During the dance, the wife took her husband a cup of coffee and a tray of cookies, accidentally bumping into another woman on the way out the door.
A few minutes later, howling screams brought everyone out to the parking lot where the husband writhed on the ground. Between convulsions, he gasped the coffee was bitter. Before help could arrive the husband was dead. Speculation among some was the man committed suicide, but the medical examiner ruled natural causes. Eventually, the wife was arrested. Four of the following five statements are true. One is false. Which one is it?
  1. Another autopsy was performed and traces of strychnine were found in the dead man’s stomach.
  2. Just before the trial, a bottle of strychnine was found beneath a board at the schoolhouse where the dance was held. It had been bought by a Joe Williams who was later identified as the dead man. His plan to commit suicide and frame his wife for his murder almost worked.
  3. The pretrial hearing drew so much interest, it was held in an open-air dance pavilion to accommodate the people.
  4. The ex-wife of the dead man testified he’d often threatened suicide and even once had spoken of throwing himself into the machinery at the sawmill where he worked.
  5. When the wife learned a famous forensic scientist had been hired by the prosecution, she pled guilty, avoiding the death penalty.

And the answer is…#2. Again quite a few of you got it correct!

[tweet_dis_img inject=”How much jail time did the woman get for stopping to help the ducks cross the road?”][/tweet_dis_img]And now for this week’s Mystery Question: A woman stopped in the middle of the road and without turning on her hazard signals, jumped out and tried to catch the meandering ducks. A truck swerved to avoid hitting her parked car and behind the truck were two motorcycles with a couple and their sixteen-year-old son. The husband and son were killed. The driver who stopped to catch the ducks was charged with two counts of criminal negligence and two counts of dangerous driving causing death. If convicted she could be sentenced to life in prison. Which of the following is NOT true:
  1. She was found guilty and sentenced to 90 days in jail and 3 years probation.
  2. She was found guilty and sentenced to a year in jail and two years probation.
  3. She was found guilty and her sentence included 240 hours of community service.
  4. She was found guilty and was banned from driving for 10 years.

Okay, Super Sleuths, which is the answer I made up? Join the conversation and I’ll enter you in a drawing for a $10 gift card. And I’m adding a book from my library so that will make two winners!

[tweet_box design=”default” float=”none”]Leave a comment and be entered in a drawing for $10 gift card or #bookgiveaway![/tweet_box]

Discover more from Patricia Bradley

Subscribe to get the latest posts sent to your email.

Comments 60

    1. Post
      Author
    1. Post
      Author
    1. Post
      Author
    1. Post
      Author
    1. Post
      Author
    1. Post
      Author
    1. Post
      Author
    1. Post
      Author
    1. Post
      Author
    1. Post
      Author
  1. Sandra Orchard

    Congratulations on a successful conference! As for the question, it has to be #1 or 2, because they’re the only ones that are mutually exclusive, right? I’m going to say #2 is the what that isn’t true. The whole scenario is just way too sad.

    1. Post
      Author
    1. Post
      Author
    1. Post
      Author
    1. Post
      Author
      Patricia Bradley

      Jackie, it was a great trip, even though I didn’t go far–just to Collierville about an hour and fifteen minutes away. Did you notice I used time rather than miles? Why do we think that way? lol Brandilyn Collins was just awesome. Came away with 5 of her books that I will eventually give away on my blog. And that’s another one for the #2 column. Thanks for stopping by.

    1. Post
      Author
    1. Post
      Author
    1. Post
      Author
    1. Post
      Author
    1. Post
      Author
    1. Post
      Author
  2. Trixi

    I want to say #4 this week, though really I have no idea….lol!! I gave up guessing right a long time ago 😉 No wonder you write suspense Patricia because you make these questions into great guessing games!

    1. Post
      Author
    1. Post
      Author
    1. Post
      Author
    1. Post
      Author
    1. Post
      Author
  3. Michelle

    Congrats on your successful conference. I’m curious … you said that Brandilyn was your keynote speaker and that she was fantastic … what did she speak about? What made her ‘speech’ fantastic? I have been working on speaking gigs, so this is really interesting to me. Anything you can share? (I love her books too!)

    My answer is #3.

    1. Post
      Author
      Patricia Bradley

      Hi Michelle! Brandilyn was so transparent. She told about how long it took and used her daughter’s birth and age to bring us along. She started her writing journey right after her daughter was born and she thought she would sell her BRILLIANT novel before her 2nd birthday. She talked about learning the craft and her journey of getting an agent and then having to pull the manuscript after starting a new, intense walk with God. It was a ms that a publishing house had made an offer on but because it was general market with intense heat, she just couldn’t let it go out with her name on it. She sprinkled in humor. And she ended the morning keynote on a hook that made sure everyone came back for the 2nd session. Hope that helps. And thanks for stopping by!

    1. Post
      Author
      Patricia Bradley

      Thanks, Jerusha! It was a-mazing how many people came. We were written up in Writers Digest and I think that’s one reason we had a bump in attendees. Thanks for stopping by!

    1. Post
      Author
    1. Post
      Author
  4. Rosalyn

    Because #1 & #2 can’t both be correct, I’m going to go with #2 as being the false one.
    I would have loved to hear Brandilyn Collins speak! I love her books! 🙂 Sounds like your conference was a wonderful time!! 🙂 I still dream of writing a novel, but that’s all the further I’ve gotten along that path yet…who knows?! 😉 Have a wonderful Friday!

    1. Post
      Author
      Patricia Bradley

      Brandilyn was awesome! And she had her books really discounted for us. She is truly wysiwyg! (What you see is what you get. 😉 ) And I hope you get to live your dream, Rosalyn! I’m living mine even if it did come late in life.

Leave a Reply

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.