Agatha Christie: Pick the Odd One Out Quiz

Answer: Parker Pyne

Hercule Poirot, Jane Marple and Tuppence Beresford (along with her husband, Tommy) are her most famous sleuths. Parker Pyne is not a detective in the traditional sense. He calls himself a "detective of the heart". Before retirement, he worked for the government compiling statistics. After retirement, he opened a private practice to solve personal problems and to help people find happiness. His newspaper advertisement asks "Are you happy? If not, consult Mr. Parker Pyne, 17 Richmond Street."

Answer: Miss Lucy Eylesbarrow

In "The Murder at the Vicarage" (1930), the vicar comments that, "In St Mary Mead everyone knows your most intimate affairs. There is no detective in England equal to a spinster lady of uncertain age with plenty of time on her hands". Miss Marple's network of "old cats" in the village provides her with enough gossip to solve mysteries with seemingly trivial bits of information and by recognising "parallel" behaviours in other people.

Miss Lucy Eylesbarrow is the odd one out. She is a young woman who does not live in St Mary Mead. She became acquainted with Miss Marple when Miss Marple's nephew, Raymond West, hired her to care for his aunt while she was recovering from an illness. We meet Lucy in the novel "4.50 from Paddington" when Miss Marple hires her to find a body on the Crackenthorpe estate.

Answer: 4.50 from Paddington

Dolly Bantry is Miss Marple's close friend who appears in three novels and several short stories, and is mentioned (but does not appear in) three additional stories.

Dolly appears in "The Body in the Library" (1942), "The Mirror Crack'd from Side to Side" (1962) and "Sleeping Murder" (1976), as well as several of the stories in "The Thirteen Problems" (1932), an anthology of short stories, published as "The Tuesday Club Murders" (1933) in the U.S. She is also mentioned, but does not appear in, three more novels, "The Murder at the Vicarage" (1930), "A Murder is Announced" (1950), and "4:50 From Paddington" (1957).

Dolly acts as a "Watson"; she frequently assists Miss Marple in her investigations and acts as an information gatherer. In "4.50 from Paddington", Lucy Eylesbarrow performs this function instead.

Answer: Dr Haydock

Agatha Christie's works abound with doctors - some are murderers, some are suspects, some are victims and others mentioned only in passing. Doctors Humbleby, Armstrong and Christow were notable victims, being murdered in "Murder is Easy" (1939, also published as "Easy to Kill"), "And Then There Were None" (1939) and "The Hollow" (1946) respectively.

Dr Haydock was Miss Marple's attending physician. He appears in both the first and last Miss Marple novels - "The Murder at the Vicarage" (1930) and "Sleeping Murder" (1976). Although he does not appear in every Miss Marple story, he is frequently referred to.

Dr Haydock (we never learn his first name) is the local general practitioner and also functions as the local police surgeon. He is quite aware that Miss Marple does not take any notice of his advice if it does not suit her.

Answer: Samuel Ratchett

Agatha Christie maintained that the primary motive for murder is money. She has Poirot voice this belief in "Death on the Nile" (1937).

Poirot: "Motives for murder are sometimes very trivial, Madame."
Mrs Allerton: "What are the most usual motives, Monsieur Poirot?"
Poirot: "Most frequent - money. That is to say, gain in its various ramifications. Then there is revenge - and love, and fear, and pure hate, and beneficence...".

Of her 66 murder mystery novels, the motive for murder in 55 of them is money. Other major motives in her work included jealousy, revenge, fear of exposure, and love. The death of Samuel Ratchett in "Murder on the Orient Express" (1934) is prompted by revenge and was inspired by the 1932 kidnapping of aviator Charles Lindbergh's baby son, as well Agatha Christie's own travel experiences aboard the real-life Orient Express.

Answer: Linnet Ridgeway

Linnet Doyle (nee Ridgeway) was a wealthy American heiress, described in the novel "Death on the Nile" (1937) as a "poor little rich girl" and "a girl who had everything, an immense fortune inherited from an American grandfather, beauty and the man she loved". Linnet was not eligible for the title of Lady in her own right since the American government is precluded from the granting of titles of nobility by their Constitution (Article I, Section 9). However, if Linnet had married a British lord (instead of the obscure and impoverished Simon Doyle), she would be entitled to be called Lady as a courtesy title.

Lady Eileen ("Bundle") Brent is the eldest daughter of Lord Caterham. She appears in two novels, "The Secret of Chimneys" (1925) and "The Seven Dials Mystery" (1929). Lady Frances ("Frankie") Derwent, the daughter of Lord Marchington, appears in "Why Didn't They Ask Evans?" (1934). Lady Lucy Angkatell is the elderly wife of Sir Henry Angkatell in "The Hollow" (1946).

Answer: Joyce Reynolds

Drowning as a method of murder was seldom utilised by Agatha Christie. The most well-known example is likely to be that of Joyce Reynolds in "Hallowe'en Party" (1969). Joyce is a 13-year old girl who attends a Hallowe'en party and boasts to the guests that she once witnessed a murder. Later that evening, she is found drowned in a bucket of water used for an apple-bobbing contest. Although she was known to be a liar (and she was lying in this instance), she unsettled a murderer who thought they had got away with their crime. On the spur of the moment, the murderer decided Joyce needed to be eliminated, just in case.

Agatha Christie's most common method of murder was poisoning, a topic she felt comfortable with given her war-time experience as a hospital dispenser. Emily Inglethorpe was poisoned with strychnine in her first novel, "The Mysterious Affair at Styles" (1920). Ella Zielinsky inhaled prussic acid, a form of cyanide, in "The Mirror Crack'd from Side to Side" (1962) and Amyas Crale drank beer containing coniine, a derivative of hemlock.

Answer: The Pale Horse

Agatha Christie frequently obtained her titles and plot devices from nursery rhymes, the Bible, Shakespeare and famous literary works. "One Two Buckle My Shoe" (1940) is from the nursery rhyme of the same title, "Crooked House" (1949) is from "There was a Crooked Man" and "A Pocket Full of Rye" (1953) is from "Sing a Song of Sixpence".

"The Pale Horse" (1961) comes from the New Testament's book of Revelation 6:8 - "And I looked, and behold a pale horse: and his name that sat on him was Death, and Hell followed with him" (KJV). The plot involves an organisation that operates out of an old inn called "The Pale Horse" and arranges people's deaths for profit by means of thallium poisoning.

Answer: The Murder at the Vicarage

Agatha Christie's novels were predominantly set in the exact era in which she wrote them. "The Murder at the Vicarage" is such a novel. The exact date in which the story is set is not revealed in the text but, by logical deduction, the story likely occurs in the 1920s since the novel was published in 1930, it mentions that the war (WW1) is over, some of the characters use expressions popular in the 1920s (such as "S.A." for sex appeal) and social mores typical of that era are mentioned (such as "no nice girl would ... be secretary to an unmarried man").

In contrast, the three incorrect answer options all involve murders that have occurred at least a decade prior. "Five Little Pigs" and "Sleeping Murder" both involve the posthumous clearing of the names of innocent persons convicted of the crimes. In "Five Little Pigs" (1942) Poirot solves the 16-year-old murder of Amyas Crale and clears the name of his wife, Caroline Crale. In "Sleeping Murder" (1976) Miss Marple solves the 18-year-old murder of Gwenda Reed's stepmother and clears Gwenda's father's name as a result.

Hercule Poirot and Ariadne Oliver solve a cold case involving the Ravenscrofts that is 10-14 years old - the precise time-frame is unknown because they are relying on the imperfect memories of other people (the "elephants" who remember the case).

Answer: Death Comes as the End

Agatha Christie's novels are typically contemporary, corresponding to the decade in which she wrote them. Although she never mentions specific years, the approximate dates can be deduced from comments in the books about fashions, social trends, and world events, such as World Wars 1 and 2. "Lord Edgware Dies" (1933) likely takes place in the early 1930s, "Ordeal by Innocence" (1958) in the mid-1950s and "Endless Night" (1967) in the 1960s.

The only novel that was not set in the 20th century is "Death Comes as the End" (1944) which takes place in Ancient Egypt 2000 BCE. Agatha Christie was urged to write her only historical novel by her close friend and eminent Egyptologist, Stephen Glanville. She based her description of the characters, the family structure and their domestic quarrels on real letters written by an Egyptian mortuary priest 4,000 years ago. In her autobiography, Agatha Christie admitted that she regretted succumbing to pressure by Glanville to change her original ending to the story.