Me Agatha, You Jane Trivia Quiz

Answer: Jane Marple

We first meet Miss Marple in a short story published in a magazine in December 1927 and not in her first novel, "The Murder at the Vicarage", which was published almost three years later. Over the years 1927 to 1931, Miss Marple appeared in a number of magazine short stories which, in 1933, were assembled to form the basis of the novel, "The Thirteen Problems" (also known as "The Tuesday Club Murders" in the U.S.).

Miss Marple maintains that people are the same all over, whether they live in a small village or a big city. This enables her to find similarities ("village parallels") between the people she knows from her village and the people involved in the crimes she encounters. She maintains that "you simply cannot afford to believe everything that people tell you" and she has "the uncanny knack of always being right".

Answer: Jane Valence

Jane Valence is a minor character in "Cat Among the Pigeons" (1959). She is a student at Meadowbank School who has trouble with her ears. On the night the games mistress was murdered, Jane woke up with a bad earache. While Miss Johnson, the matron, was attending to Jane, she noticed that there was a light in the sports pavilion. As she and Miss Chadwick proceeded to the pavilion to investigate, they heard a shot and subsequently discovered the body of Miss Springer.

The chemistry reference pertains to the concept of valency - an atom's valence indicates how many chemical bonds it can make with other atoms, which in turn suggests this Jane is Jane Valence.

Answer: Jane Mason

Jane Mason was a major character in the short story "The Plymouth Express" which appeared in the anthologies "The Under Dog and Other Stories" (1951) and "Poirot's Early Cases" (1974).

"The Plymouth Express" was first published in the U.K. in 1923 in the magazine "The Sketch". It was later published in the U.S. in "The Blue Book Magazine" in 1924. A few years later, in 1928, Agatha Christie expanded it into the full-length novel "The Mystery of the Blue Train" (1928).

The guild reference pertains to the surname Mason as, during the Middle Ages, masons belonged to guilds that controlled their industry.

Answer: Jane Olivera

Jane Olivera is the great-niece of Alistair Blunt by virtue of his marriage to the American heiress, Rebecca Arnholt, in "One, Two, Buckle My Shoe" (1940). Jane describes Alistair as her "great-uncle-in-law". She stands to inherit a substantial income upon Alistair's demise, although he had arranged that she cannot touch the principal. Jane is in love with Howard Raikes, a passionate left-wing political activist who openly disagrees with Alistair Blunt regarding British economic policies. He becomes a suspect in the attempted murder of Alistair Blunt.

The reference to the dark colour of her skin suggests olive skin, a typical feature of people from Spanish or Portuguese (Iberian) descent, which in turn suggests the surname Olivera.

Answer: Jane Cleveland

The short story "Jane in Search of a Job" is included in the collections "The Listerdale Mystery" (1934) and "The Golden Ball and Other Stories" (1971). Jane Cleveland answers a newspaper advertisement seeking a girl answering her physical description with the ability to speak French. Jane is subsequently hired to impersonate a Grand Duchess and stand in for her at some social functions. She is instructed to take rooms at the Blitz Hotel as Miss Montressor of New York.

This Jane's last name is somewhat fitting, as Cleveland is the name of 28 towns, cities or counties in America - the most famous being Cleveland, Ohio.

Answer: Jane Wilkinson

We meet Jane Wilkinson in "Lord Edgware Dies" (1933). She wants to divorce her husband, Lord Edgware, and marry the Duke of Merton whom she describes as good-looking "like a dreamy kind of monk". Jane herself is described as golden-haired, beautiful and talented. Her colleague Bryan Martin describes her as "high-handed". Hastings thinks she lacks subtlety but Poirot feels she is shrewd.

The reference to crossed swords suggests the name Wilkinson, as in the brand Wilkinson Sword, a company well-known for making shaving products and razor blades. Their logo is crossed swords.

Answer: Jane Grey

Jane is a major character in "Death in the Clouds" (1935), also known as "Death in the Air" in the U.S. Jane wins the Irish sweepstakes and uses the money to finance a luxury holiday in France. On the way back to England, a French moneylender, Madame Giselle, is murdered on board and Jane automatically becomes one of a limited pool of suspects. She was never high on the list, however, since she has no apparent motive, virtually no opportunity, and was unlikely to be able to access the toxin used in the murder. Poirot enlists her help in his investigation and passes her off as his "secretary" during his enquiries.

Lady Jane Grey was queen of England for just nine days in 1553.

Answer: Jane Finn

In "The Secret Adversary" (1922), Tommy and Tuppence are engaged to locate the missing Jane Finn, a young American woman who was entrusted with secret papers as the ship "Lusitania" sank - papers which could bring down the British government.

After the success of her first book, "The Mysterious Affair at Styles" (1920), Agatha Christie pondered her second book. In her autobiography, she wrote: "...what should it be about? The question was solved for me one day when I was having tea in an A.B.C. Two people were talking at a table nearby, discussing somebody called Jane Fish. It struck me as a most entertaining name. I went away with the name in my mind. Jane Fish. That, I thought, would make a good beginning to a story - a name overheard at a tea shop - an unusual name, so that whoever heard it remembered it. A name like Jane Fish - or perhaps Jane Finn would be even better. I settled for Jane Finn - and started writing straight away. I called it "The Joyful Venture" first - then "The Young Adventurers" - and finally it became "The Secret Adversary".

The fishy reference suggests Finn is this Jane's last name.

Answer: Jane Helier

Jane Helier is a character who appears in two Miss Marple short story collections. She attends a dinner party at the Bantry's in "The Thirteen Problems" (1932), also known as "The Tuesday Club Murders" in the U.S., where she exasperates the other guests by telling a story, "The Affair at the Bungalow", to which there is no definite resolution. She appears again in "Strange Jest", from "Three Blind Mice and Other Stories" (1950), where she refers two of her friends to Miss Marple to help find a hidden inheritance.

The Jersey Lily reference is because St Helier is the capital of Jersey and the famous Jersey Lily (Lillie Langtry) was also an actress.

Answer: Jane Plenderleith

In "Murder in the Mews" (1937), Jane Plenderleith and Barbara Allen are flat-mates at 14 Bardsley Garden Mews. Jane is devastated to find her friend Barbara's body when she returns home from visiting friends in the country. Was it murder or suicide? Japp and Poirot investigate and, although Jane's alibi is confirmed, Japp declares she is "too cocky by half".