Murder by Poison 2 Trivia Quiz

Answer: Esa (Death Comes as the End)

This is the only novel that Agatha Christie did not set in the 20th century. The story is set in Egypt 2000 BCE. Old Esa is the matriarch of the family. She may have been almost blind but she didn't miss much. She was killed when she tried to flush out which member of the family was the murderer.

I always thought that this incident suggested a minor plot hole. If Esa was poisoned by massaging ointment, surely the slave who did the massaging would also have died, as both would have absorbed the poison, but there is no mention of this in the book. The death of another slave, the herd boy, was noted, so logically one would have expected the death of Esa's personal servant to have also been mentioned.

Answer: Amy Gibbs (Murder is Easy)

Amy Gibbs, Honoria Waynflete's maid, went to bed early with a nasty cough. During the night, she swallowed red hat paint thinking it was cough syrup and died of oxalic acid poisoning. It was believed that she confused the two bottles. However, she did not make a mistake - someone deliberately moved them. Her death was ruled a suicide because her bedroom door was locked from the inside.

In the US, this novel was published as "Easy to Kill".

Answer: Dr John Humbleby (Murder is Easy)

Dr Humbleby died of septicaemia. It was generally thought that he must have done something like scratching his hand on a rusty nail and then neglecting to look after it. In fact, his wound was deliberately infected with discharge from a cat's ear and then re-infected whenever it was dressed.

In the US, this novel was published as "Easy to Kill".

Answer: Marina Gregg (The Mirror Crack'd from Side to Side)

Both Marina Gregg and Heather Badcock died of an overdose of a drug called Calmo. It was a transquiliser taken by Marina and other members of her household. A medicinal dose was harmless but an overdose was potentially fatal. Whether Marina's death was caused by suicide or whether she was deliberately given the fatal dose is unclear.

Agatha Christie utilised a wide variety of genuine poisons in her novels and short stories but Calmo ("hyethyldexylbarboquindelorytate or...some such name") was the only fictional one.

Answer: Ellie Goodman Rogers (Endless Night)

When Ellie failed to return from a morning horse ride, the woods were searched and her body was found. The local police determined that her death was an accident and that, due to an underlying heart condition, she had died of shock after taking a fall from her horse.

However, it was no accident. Ellie's allergy pills had been tampered with and contained a slow-acting cyanide, resulting in her death during the ride. Ellie's friend, Claudia Hardcastle, also died of cyanide poisoning when she took Ellie's allergy capsules.

Answer: Mary Gerrard (Sad Cypress)

Mary Gerrard died of morphine poisoning after eating lunch prepared by Elinor Carlisle. Elinor was arrested and accused of murder. The prosecution claimed she had poisoned the fish-paste sandwiches. There was certainly a considerable amount of circumstantial evidence against her but, in fact, not only was Elinor innocent, but the poison was in the tea, not the sandwiches.

Answer: Paul Deroulard (The Chocolate Box)

One evening, Hastings asked Poirot whether he had ever had a failure. Poirot related a case where a Frenchman, Paul Deroulard, was murdered by chocolates poisoned with Trinitrin (nitroglycerin), a medication used in the treatment of heart disease. Poirot was asked to investigate.

The official verdict was death by natural causes, however, Poirot realised it was murder by poisoned chocolates. He got the "how" right, but not the "who". He only learned of his error when the killer confessed all to him.

Answer: Amelia Barrowby (How Does Your Garden Grow?)

Hercule Poirot was obsessed with order and method. He was displeased when he saw that the garden bed at Rosebank was incompletely edged with oyster shells, "spoiling the symmetry of the otherwise charming garden". It also helped him to realise that oysters were the method by which bitter-tasting strychnine had been administered to Amelia Barrowby.

Answer: Amyas Crale (Five Little Pigs)

In this novel, artist and serial philanderer Amyas Crale is murdered as a result of drinking beer poisoned with coniine, the neurotoxic extract of hemlock. His wife Caroline was convicted of his murder but she maintained her innocence, claiming that she did not kill her husband although she admitted she was guilty of stealing the poison. Caroline died within a year of her imprisonment and it was sixteen years before Poirot cleared her name.

In the US, this novel is published as "Murder in Retrospect". Agatha Christie also adapted it as a play called "Go Back for Murder".

Answer: Miss Gilchrist (After the Funeral)

Miss Gilchrist, a middle-aged spinster, almost died of arsenic poisoning after eating a little of a piece of wedding cake she received in the mail. Inspector Morton found the remainder of the cake under her pillow, and speculated that, in keeping with an old superstition, she did this so that she might dream of her future husband. If she had eaten the entire slice, the dose would have been fatal. Instead she was ill because she only ate a little bit.

In the US, this novel was published as "Funerals are Fatal". The film "Murder at the Gallop (1963) was loosely based on this book.