This lawyer-turned-author whose debut novel was published earlier this year made an appearance on Jeopardy! last Friday. (Caution: spoilers below.)
If you thought of the answer—sorry, the question—“Who is Ram Murali?,” you might have the goods to compete on the quiz show, too.
Murali’s Death in the Air was published in June by Harper. In a starred review, a critic for Kirkus called the novel “a fascinating genre mashup for the discerning—and reflective—mystery reader.”
On Jeopardy!, Murali was up against the returning champion, publicist Ashley Chan, and political scientist Carla Winston, TV Insider reports. All three failed to come up with the correct response to the clue “An 1806 duel involving this future president resulted in the death of Charles Dickinson.” (That would be Andrew Jackson.)
The contestants battled it out in categories including “You Don’t Know Him From Adam,” “What Are You Wearing, Literary Character?,” and “Airlines Past & Present,” Sportskeeda reports.
The final Jeopardy! clue was a literary one: “Following his unexpected death in 2001, he was referred to as ‘the Monty Python of science fiction.’” Murali and Chan were both stumped and couldn’t come up with the correct response: Douglas Adams, author of the cult classic The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy. Chan won the game regardless.
Michael Schaub is a contributing writer.
