Agatha Christie: Pick the Odd One Out 3 Quiz

Answer: The Thirteen Problems

In Agatha Christie's lifetime, she wrote several short story collections devoted to Hercule Poirot but only one devoted exclusively to Miss Jane Marple. That anthology was "The Thirteen Problems" (1932), published as "The Tuesday Club Murders" (1933) in the U.S.

After Agatha Christie's death, however, publisher Harper Collins gathered together every short story featuring Poirot and Miss Marple and published them as complete collections - "Hercule Poirot: The Complete Short Stories" (1999) and "Miss Marple: The Complete Short Stories" (2008).

"The Adventure of the Christmas Pudding and a Selection of Entrées" (1960) is the only anthology that features both sleuths - it contains five Poirot stories and one Marple story. However, there are no stories in which the two sleuths cross paths.

Answer: Black Coffee

In 1928, "The Murder of Roger Ackroyd" was the first of Agatha Christie's novels to be made into a play, retitled "Alibi", by Michael Morton. The following year, Agatha Christie decided to write her own play, "Black Coffee", because she was not happy with Morton's "Alibi", according to her grandson, Mathew Prichard. "Black Coffee" was an original play and not based on any of her novels or short stories.

Interestingly, the incorrect answers were adaptations of three Hercule Poirot novels. In each case, she removed Hercule Poirot as a character as she felt the plays would work better without his dominant personality. She also did this with the play "Go Back for Murder" (also known as "Five Little Pigs").

Answer: The Murder on the Links

Agatha Christie was born and grew up in Torquay, Devon and set a number of her stories in that county. Some of those stories include "The Sittaford Mystery" (1931), "Peril at End House" (1932), "Three Act Tragedy" (1935), "And Then There Were None" (1941), "Evil Under the Sun" (1941), and "Sleeping Murder" (1976).

In 1938, Agatha Christie purchased an estate in Devon on the River Dart, called Greenway House, which was the direct inspiration for her novella "Hercule Poirot and the Greenshore Folly" (written in 1954 but not published until 2014), which she later expanded to a full-length novel, "Dead Man's Folly" (1956). It also served as the basis for the homes featured in "Five Little Pigs" (1942) and "Ordeal by Innocence" (1958). For most of her life, she divided her time between London and Devon.

"Murder on the Links" was set in northern France, in the fictional coastal resort town of Merlinville-sur-Mer. In this novel, Hercule Poirot travels to France to assist a man who wrote to him asking for help. On arrival, he found the man had been murdered and buried on a nearby golf course.

Answer: Hercule Poirot and the Greenshore Folly

During the Second World War, some American publishers produced abridged versions of authors' works. This was partly due to war-time shortages of paper and the metals needed to set up the type, and partly due to the desire to produce smaller, thinner, and lighter books that would fit into soldiers' pockets. "Murder is Easy" (1939), "Sad Cypress" (1940), "The Moving Finger" (1942), and "Five Little Pigs" (1942) are some examples of novels that were condensed during war-time.

The novella "Hercule Poirot and the Greenshore Folly", however, was written after the war, in 1954, but was not published in print until 2014 in the U.K. and 2020 in the U.S.

Answer: The Murder at the Vicarage

American publishers had a tendency to re-title Agatha Christie novels for a variety of reasons but mainly because they felt her titles did not adequately reflect the subject matter. They wanted titles that were a bit more obvious and considered that titles which included words like "murder" and "death" would be more tempting to potential readers. Hence "Three Act Tragedy" (1935) became "Murder in Three Acts" and "Sparkling Cyanide" became "Remembered Death" (1945).

With respect to the incorrect answers, the original British titles for "Thirteen at Dinner" (1933), "Poirot Loses a Client" (1937) and "What Mrs McGillicuddy Saw" (1957) were "Lord Edgware Dies", "Dumb Witness" and "4.50 from Paddington" respectively.

"The Murder at the Vicarage" (1930) is the title used by both U.K. and U.S. publishers for the very first Miss Marple novel.

Answer: The Pale Horse

Agatha Christie had an extensive knowledge of poisons, having been a hospital dispenser during World War 1. She used over 30 different poisons in her novels and short stories, with arsenic being her favourite. Arsenic is a white, odourless, and tasteless powder. It produces symptoms that make the victim's illness look like gastritis or food poisoning, hence it was a favourite choice of poisoners.

In "4.50 from Paddington" (also published as "What Mrs McGillicuddy Saw", 1957), members of the Crackenthorpe family were taken ill after dinner, having been poisoned with arsenic in the cocktail jug. In "Murder is Easy" (also known as "Easy to Kill", 1939), Lydia Horton was poisoned with arsenic in her tea. Arsenic and aconitine were both utilised in the plot of the novel "They Do It with Mirrors" (alternative title, "Murder with Mirrors", 1952).

However, "The Pale Horse" (1961) is famous for the choice of thallium. Thallium is a highly toxic rare metal. Like arsenic, it is odourless and tasteless. However, it differs in that its symptoms are unusual and noticeable, the most obvious being widespread hair loss. There have been a number of documented cases where thallium poisoning was detected because someone had read "The Pale Horse" and recognised the symptoms. In one case, it led to the apprehension of a serial killer - Graham Young, known as the "Teacup Poisoner", a British serial killer who poisoned several of his co-workers.

Answer: By the Pricking of My Thumbs

The title of "By the Pricking of My Thumbs" (1968) comes from Shakespeare's "Macbeth" (Act 4, Scene 1) - "By the pricking of my thumbs / Something wicked this way comes". This novel is a Tommy and Tuppence Beresford story. The title reflects Tuppence's intuition and apprehension that something is very wrong when she visits her aunt in a nursing home.

The first line of Alfred, Lord Tennyson's poem "Maud" provides the title of "The Hollow" (1946) - "I hate the dreadful hollow behind the little wood...". In this story, "The Hollow" is the name of the country estate where the murder of Dr John Christow takes place.

Alfred, Lord Tennyson also provided the inspiration for the title, "The Mirror Crack'd from Side to Side" (1962), which was taken from his poem "The Lady of Shalott". "The mirror crack'd from side to side / 'The curse is come upon me' cried / The Lady of Shalott". In this story, the actress Marina Gregg is likened to the tragic Lady of Shalott.

The title of "Endless Night" (1967) was borrowed from William Blake's poem "Auguries of Innocence" - "Some are born to sweet delight / Some are born to endless night". These lines refer to the fundamental difference between the two main characters, Ellie and Michael.

Answer: The Mysterious Affair at Styles

The vast majority of Agatha Christie's novels were written in the third person. "The Mysterious Affair at Styles", Agatha Christie's first novel, is written in the first person. It is narrated by Captain Arthur Hastings and it was the novel that introduced Hercule Poirot to the world. Hastings would go on to narrate a further seven novels and 26 short stories concerning the little Belgian detective.

Other novels which feature a first-person narrator include "The Murder of Roger Ackroyd" (1926) narrated by Dr. James Sheppard, "Murder in Mesopotamia" (1936) narrated by Nurse Amy Leatheran, "The Moving Finger" (1942) narrated by Jerry Burton, "Crooked House" (1949) narrated by Charles Hayward, "The Pale Horse" (1961) narrated by Mark Easterbook, and "Endless Night" (1967) narrated by Michael Rogers.

Answer: Death Comes as the End

"The Sittaford Mystery" (1931) is set in Sittaford House, an isolated private residence, with heavy snowdrifts trapping the characters indoors, cutting off telephone lines and blocking all the roads. Similarly, in "Three Blind Mice" (1947), a blizzard traps the owners and their guests in Monkswell Manor, a remote country guest house. In "Murder on the Orient Express" (1934), heavy snowfall blocks the tracks and traps the train in Yugoslavia.

As one would expect, there is no snow mentioned in "Death Comes as the End"(1944), since it is set in ancient Egypt, a country which is known for its hot, arid desert climate. Surprisingly, however, it does snow in Egypt but it is extremely rare. Specifically, it snows in areas of high altitude, such as the Sinai Mountains.

Answer: The Body in the Library

Ariadne Oliver is a successful mystery novelist who appears in two short stories and seven novels and is a character who Agatha Christie acknowledged has "a strong dash of myself". According to the stories, Oliver is the author of "The Dying Goldfish", "Death of a Debutante", "The Lotus Murder", "The Death in the Drain Pipe", "The Affair of the Second Goldfish", "The Clue of the Candle Wax", "The Cat It Was Who Died", "The Woman in the Wood", "With Vinegar and Brown Paper", and "The Body in the Library". Ariadne Oliver mentioned writing "The Body in the Library" in the novel "Cards on the Table" (1936). Six years later (1942), Agatha Christie recycled the title and used it for her own book.