Agatha Christie: Pick the Odd One Out 2 Quiz

Answer: The ABC Murders

In "Hercule Poirot's Christmas" (1938), Simeon Lee is found with his throat slashed inside his bedroom. Similarly, in "Murder in Mesopotamia" (1936), Louise Leidner is killed in her bedroom by a blow to the head. In both cases all doors and windows were secured from the inside so that it was seemingly impossible for anyone to have entered or exited the rooms. "Death in the Clouds" (1935, also known as "Death in the Air") involved the murder of Madame Giselle in an aircraft cabin in mid-flight. Not exactly a locked room but close enough, since no-one could enter or leave the aircraft.

"The ABC Murders" (1936), on the other hand, occur all over England. Hercule Poirot travels from Andover in Hampshire, to Bexhill-on-Sea in East Sussex, and then to Churston in Devon, and Doncaster in South Yorkshire. The murders are committed in accessible or public locations - such as a tobacco shop, the beach, a large private estate and a cinema.

Answer: Charles Hayward

Agatha Christie utilises a number of "one-off" characters as amateur detectives who investigate a murder or murders for the majority of the story, but in the end, someone else usually solves the crime(s). Such is the case with Charles Hayward in "Crooked House" (1949). Formerly a diplomat during the war, Charles is now a private detective. His fiancee, Sophia, asks him to investigate the death of her grandfather, Aristide Leonides. However, the person who actually solves the crime is Sophia's aunt, who discovers the truth when she finds a secret notebook.

The incorrect answer options are not "one-off" characters. Colonel Race, an ex-Army intelligence agent, appears in four novels and is referenced in one other. Tommy Beresford and his wife Tuppence are private investigators who appear in five novels and 16 short stories. Superintendent Battle is a Scotland Yard detective who is referenced in one novel and features in five others.

Answer: Tommy and Tuppence Beresford

Hercule Poirot and Miss Marple were not young when they debuted in 1920 and 1927 respectively. They, along with Captain Hastings, Ariadne Oliver and other regular characters, appear somewhat ageless as they progress through her works over fifty years from 1920 to 1976.

Agatha Christie felt this was a mistake. In her autobiography she stated, "Miss Marple was born at the age of sixty-five to seventy -- which, as with
Poirot, proved most unfortunate, because she was going to have to last a long
time in my life. If I had had any second sight, I would have provided myself with a precocious schoolboy as my first detective; then he could have grown old with me". She also stated, "Now I saw what a terrible mistake I had made in starting with Hercule Poirot so old -- I ought to have abandoned him after the first three or four books, and begun again with someone much younger".

Tommy and Tuppence Beresford were the only recurring characters that aged in real time. When they first appeared in "The Secret Adversary" (1922), they wee in their early twenties, likely around 22 years of age ("their united ages would certainly not have totalled forty-five"). By the time their last novel, "Postern of Fate" (1973) was written, they were said to be retired, with grandchildren, and suffering from rheumatism. Reference is made to their first case taking place "years and years and years ago". "Postern of Fate" was the last novel Christie wrote before she died in January 1976.

Answer: The Pale Horse

Like Agatha Christie, Ariadne Oliver is a successful writer of detective stories. In a magazine article ("John Bull", 1956), Agatha Christie was quoted as saying, "I never take my stories from real life, but the character of Ariadne Oliver does have a strong dash of myself". Ariadne Oliver's character expresses a lot of Agatha Christie's own opinions.

"The Pale Horse" (1961) is unique in that it is the only novel which features Ariadne Oliver alone, without Hercule Poirot. The plot centres on Mrs Oliver's investigation of an organisation that operates out of an old inn called "The Pale Horse" and arranges people's deaths for profit. There are nine murders altogether, eight of which occur before the story begins. The deaths are all accomplished by thallium poisoning.

Answer: Come, Tell Me How You Live

"Come, Tell Me How You Live" is the only non-fiction book written by Agatha Christie, apart from her autobiography. It was published in both the UK and the US in 1946 under the name Agatha Christie Mallowan. It is an account of her travels and experiences in the Middle East when she accompanied her husband, Max Mallowan, on his archeological digs in the 1930s.

"Unfinished Portrait" (1934), "Absent in the Spring" (1944), and "The Burden" (1956) are all novels written under her pen-name Mary Westmacott, a pseudonym she created by combining her middle name, Mary, with Westmacott, the surname of some of distant relatives.

Answer: The Murder of Roger Ackroyd

Agatha Christie wrote 33 Hercule Poirot novels but Captain Arthur Hastings appears in only eight of them. His absences are explained by having him move to manage a cattle ranch in Argentina. Notably, Hastings appears in both the first and last Hercule Poirot novels, "The Mysterious Affair at Styles" (1920) and "Curtain" (1875) respectively, as well as "The ABC Murders" (1936).

Hastings fulfills a role as a "Watson" or assistant to Poirot. In the novel, "The Murder of Roger Ackroyd" (1926), it is Dr James Sheppard who assists Poirot instead of Hastings.

Answer: The Mirror Crack'd from Side to Side

"The Mirror Crack'd from Side to Side" is a line from Alfred, Lord Tennyson's famous poem "The Lady of Shalott", written in 1832. The main character in this novel is Marina Gregg, a famous actress, who is likened to the Lady of Shalott.

Marina and her husband purchase Gossington Hall from Colonel Arthur and Dolly Bantry. Marina allows a fundraising fete to be held there, during which Heather Badcock, a local villager, is poisoned. Dolly Bantry tells Miss Marple that just before Heather died, Marina Gregg looked frozen, "as though she had seen something awful...like the Lady of Shalott whose doom had come upon her".

Of the incorrect answer options, "By the Picking of My Thumbs" comes from Shakespeare's "Macbeth", "Sad Cypress" is from "Twelfth Night" and "The Mousetrap" is from "Hamlet".

Answer: The Moving Finger

Just as Watson narrated most of Sherlock Holmes' cases, so did Captain Arthur Hastings relate some of Hercule Poirot's cases. Hastings narrated eight novels and approximately 26 short stories.

Of the four answer choices, the odd one out is "The Moving Finger" (1942) which is narrated by Jerry Burton. Burton is a pilot who moves to the seemingly quiet and benign English village of Lymstock to recuperate from injuries sustained during the war. However, he soon discovers that the village is far from peaceful. He becomes involved in the investigation of poison pen letters which have been sent to a number of people in the village, including himself and his sister, as well as an apparent suicide, a murder and the attempted murder of a girl with whom he has fallen in love.

"The Moving Finger" is actually a Miss Marple novel, not a Hercule Poirot one. However, Miss Marple does not make her appearance until towards the end of the novel.

Answer: The Murder of Roger Ackroyd

In an article published in "Reader's Digest" (June 1977), Agatha Christie is quoted as saying, "I don't like messy deaths. I don't like violence...I know nothing about pistols and revolvers, which is why I usually kill my characters off with a blunt instrument -- or better still, poisons." Despite her aversion to firearms, they are used to kill Lucius Protheroe, Dr John Christow and Rudi Scherz in "The Murder at the Vicarage" (1930), "The Hollow" (1946) and "A Murder is Announced" (1950) respectively.

In "The Murder of Roger Ackroyd" (1926), the titular character was stabbed to death with his own Tunisian dagger, a gift from his friend Hector Blunt. (Could one argue he was killed with a Blunt instrument?)

Answer: One Two Buckle My Shoe

Agatha Christie often sent her sleuths on vacation only to have their relaxation interrupted by murder. For example, this occurred when Miss Jane Marple holidayed in St Honore ("A Caribbean Mystery") and London ("At Bertram's Hotel"). Hercule Poirot's holidays were disrupted in Egypt, Jordan and Cornwall in "Death on the Nile", "Appointment With Death", and "Peril at End House" respectively.

"One, Two, Buckle My Shoe" (1940) is the exception. It takes place in London when Poirot visits his dentist, which is quite an ordeal for him - and definitely not a holiday!