If a reader did not know that Ellery Queen is normally associated with the mystery genre, which sentence would first indicate that "Object Lesson, Part 1" is a mystery?
Answer
A
Ellery hurried down West 92nd Street toward the main entrance of Henry Hudson High School stealing guilty glances at his watch.
B
It had seemed to Ellery that this placed a rather hefty burden on his oratorical powers.
C
Beyond establishing that the crimes were the work of the same boys, who were probably students at Henry Hudson High School, the police had got nowhere.
D
Miss Carpenter, walking home from a movie late the previous Monday night, had seen three boys dive out of a smashed bakery window and vanish into an alley.
Explanation
The first clear indication is the reference to “the crimes” and the police investigating them. That language establishes a crime-focused plot, a defining feature of a mystery. Choice D mentions a smashed bakery window, but without calling it a crime or describing the police investigation, it is less direct.
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