Something in the Title Trivia

1. "Le couteau sur la nuque" ("The Knife in the Neck): A rather unpleasant aristocrat is found murdered, and the method is precisely what it says in the title. Which Poirot novel is it?

From Quiz Back-Translated French Agatha Christie Titles

Answer: Lord Edgeware Dies (a.k.a. "Thirteen At Dinner")

First published in 1933, this Poirot novel features a simple but ingenious plot twist and a memorable villain. Christie scholars have described Hastings as at his dumbest in this book. There is also a film version starring Sir Peter Ustinov as Poirot, Faye Dunaway as Jane Wilkinson, and David Suchet (who would later play Poirot to perfection in the TV series of the same name) as the chief of police.

From Quiz Back-Translated Portuguese Christie Titles

Answer: "Sad Cypress"

Cleverly plotted and featuring a rather daring alibi (where Christie once again benefited from her comprehensive knowledge about drugs and poison), "Sad Cypress" tells the story of Eleanor Carlisle, who is accused of murdering Mary Gerrard, her wealthy aunt's protégée. Agatha Christie later regretted that she used Poirot in this story. Thousands of fans beg to differ.

From Quiz Back-Translated Spanish Agatha Christie Titles

Answer: "By the Pricking of My Thumbs"

The Spanish title is rather fitting, considering that it is the pretty painting in Tommy Beresford's aunt Ada's room that starts it all. Tuppence is convinced that she has seen the house in the painting before, and while Tommy is away on a conference, she embarks on a mission to find it. She promptly gets caught up in a mystery and almost gets herself killed.

From Quiz More Back-Translated German Christie Titles

Answer: "The Adventure of 'The Western Star'"

The German title refers to the reason why the movie star seeks out Poirot: the "Western Star", a precious diamond that she was given by her husband, was supposedly stolen from the statue of a deity. The eyes of that deity were represented by two diamonds.

From Quiz Back-Translated German Agatha Christie Book Titles

Answer: "Dead Man's Folly"

The trauma from the clue is, of course, the fact that Mrs. Oliver is staging a murder hunt game, and the intended victim actually ends up dead at the end of the day. She is also very disappointed that the participants are not able to untangle her complicated clues. I put in the apple reference for you to rule out "Hallowe'en Party", where a girl is drowned in an apple-bobbing tub. Mrs. Oliver then famously declares that she'll never eat apples again - an indeed traumatic utterance, since Ariadne Oliver is known for her addiction to that fruit.

From Quiz Christie Alternate Titles

Answer: Why Didn't They Ask Evans?

'Why Didn't they Ask Evans' was also published as the 'Boomerang Clue', probably for the reason that to unravel the mystery, the hero and heroine have to come back to the original scene of the murder.

From Quiz But Where Did She Get Those Wonderful Titles?

Answer: Shakespeare's 'Julius Caesar'

A character in the novel does take the pseudonym 'Enoch Arden' from the Tennyson poem (which provides significant clues as to why the murder was committed), but the title nonetheless is from 'Julius Caesar'. Attempting to persuade his co-conspirators to take advantage of the heat of battle, Brutus exclaims that, 'There is a tide in the affairs of men, Which, taken at the flood, leads on to fortune; Omitted, all the voyage of their life Is bound in shallows and in miseries. On such a full sea are we now afloat, And we must take the current when it serves, Or lose our ventures.' The title is extraordinarily apt: unlike Brutus and Cassius, an unscrupulous murderer takes full advantage of the Blitz in London, turning the events to his benefit.

From Quiz Alternative Titles

Answer: They Do It With Mirrors

Some other books featuring Miss Marple are 'The Murder At The Vicarage', 'A Murder Is Announced', and 'Sleeping Murder'.

From Quiz Agatha Christie Titles

Answer: Affair at Styles

From 1920 - this novel introduces Hercule Poirot.

From Quiz Agatha Christie Titles

Answer: Nile

From Quiz Who Dunnit - A Quiz Murder Mystery

Answer: 4.50 from Paddington

"Last Bus to Woodstock" is an Inspector Morse mystery by Colin Dexter. Graham Greene wrote "Stamboul Train". "Stagecoach" is a 1939 John Wayne Western film. "4.50 from Paddington" features Mrs McGillicuddy, who sees a murder from a train window and is unable to convince the authorities of her story until of course Miss Marple appears on the scene!

From Quiz Back-Translated French Agatha Christie Titles

Answer: Sad Cypress

I am aware that I have used this book in almost every Christie title quiz I've made, but it is one of only a handful of books that really has a different title in each language and is not simply translated literally. (It is called "Morphine" in Germany, by the way.) "Sad Cypress" was first published in 1940. Agatha Christie later regretted that she used Poirot in this book.

From Quiz Back-Translated Spanish Agatha Christie Titles

Answer: "Hallowe'en Party"

Poor Ariadne Oliver declares that she'll never eat an apple again after seeing twelve-year-old Joyce drowned in the apple-bobbing tub. "Hallowe'en Party" has a strange, dreamy atmosphere and is a rather sinister story about an undiscovered murder, a forged testament, and a beautiful garden.

From Quiz More Back-Translated German Christie Titles

Answer: "The Blood-Stained Pavement"

This is one of the "Thirteen Problems" from the short story collection of the same name. Joyce Lemprière, the artist and Raymond West's love interest, is the one to tell this particular story. The vital clue mentioned in the question is of course the fact that you would not notice blood on a red bathing suit, but if you hung that bathing suit out to dry, the blood would drip on the pavement... where an artist would automatically paint it in her picture of the street.

From Quiz Back-Translated German Agatha Christie Book Titles

Answer: "Hickory Dickory Dock" (a.k.a. "Hickory Dickory Death")

This novel starts with the most unimaginable incident ever: Miss Felicity Lemon, Poirot's efficient secretary, makes three spelling mistakes! Poirot is even more shocked to learn that Miss Lemon is so distracted because she worries about her sister. It would never have occurred to him that she had something as ordinary and human as a sister. Miss Lemon's sister, Mrs. Hubbard, is head of a student home in London where, recently, an odd assortment of things has started to disappear. Poirot, who cannot tolerate spelling mistakes in his letters, decides that the matter needs his help so that Miss Lemon will return to her previous, super-efficient self.

From Quiz Christie Alternate Titles

Answer: The Sittaford Mystery

'The Sittaford Mystery' features a murder at the town of Hazelmoor.

From Quiz But Where Did She Get Those Wonderful Titles?

Answer: A poem by James Elroy Flecker

In this Tommy and Tuppence story, a sixty year-old murder is brought to light. Sections quoted in Christie's flyleaf from Flecker's 'The Gates of Damascus' run: 'Four great gates has the city of Damascus... Postern of Fate, the Desert Gate, Disaster's Cavern, Fort of Fear... Pass not beneath, O Caravan, or pass not singing. Have you heard That silence where the birds are dead, yet something pipeth like a bird?' Born in 1884, Flecker lived a brief twenty-eight years. Deeply depressed by the war brewing in Europe, he declared that 'The poet's business is not to save the soul of man, but to make it worth saving.'

From Quiz Alternative Titles

Answer: Poirot Loses A Client

In 'Dumb Witness', Emily starts to suspect after an accident that her family is trying to kill her. She writes a letter to Poirot with her suspicions, but by the time Poirot gets the letter she is already dead.

From Quiz Agatha Christie Titles

Answer: Links

From 1923 - with Hercule Poirot and Captain Hastings.

From Quiz More Agatha Christie Titles

Answer: Thumbs

'By the pricking of my thumbs, something wicked this way comes' Macbeth

From Quiz Agatha Christie Titles

Answer: Crack'd

From Quiz Who Dunnit - A Quiz Murder Mystery

Answer: N or M?

"Who killed Cock Robin?" is an English nursery rhyme. "Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?" is a play by Edward Albee. Anthony Trollope wrote "Can You Forgive Her?" in 1864 as the first in his Palliser series. "N or M?" features Tommy and Tuppence Beresford. It is an espionage thriller in which the couple are middle aged and written off as being too old to be of use in the war effort. Not true, of course!

From Quiz Back-Translated French Agatha Christie Titles

Answer: Sleeping Murder

"Sleeping Murder" was withheld from publication until after Agatha Christie's death in 1976. While it is generally assumed that it was written during the Blitz, the research of John Curran has shown that it must have been written later than that: rough idea sketches referring to "Helen" and "Cover Her Face" appear on a page headed "1947" in Agatha Christie's notebooks, and recognizable elements of the storyline are developed in the same notebook.

From Quiz Back-Translated Portuguese Christie Titles

Answer: "Peril At End House"

The reference to "diabolic" or "infernal" in the Portuguese title is actually rather fitting, considering that the young lady in question is commonly known as "Nick" (as in "Little Nick", the granddaughter of "Old Nick", the devil). Hastings also makes several comments about the strange atmosphere at End House.

From Quiz Back-Translated Spanish Agatha Christie Titles

Answer: "Hercule Poirot's Christmas"

"A Christmas Tragedy" is a short story featuring Miss Marple; "The Adventure of the Christmas Pudding" is a not-so-short short story featuring Hercule Poirot. "Hercule Poirot's Christmas" deals with the murder of Simeon Lee, an old adventurer and family tyrant, whose numerous children (legitimate or not) all have a motive for killing him.

From Quiz More Back-Translated German Christie Titles

Answer: "Motive vs. Opportunity"

The spiritualist in the title is Mrs. Eurydice Spragg, who is trying to con an elderly man into leaving his fortune to her and her husband. But she is indeed outwitted... and only Miss Marple spots the similarities to a mischievous little boy from St. Mary Mead and thus discovers how a blank page ended up in the testament envelope at the solicitor's office.

From Quiz Christie Alternate Titles

Answer: Murder on the Orient Express

'Murder on the Orient Express' is also known as 'Murder on the Calais Coach', as the Orient Express had a coach known as the Calais coach. This is one of the most famous mysteries solved by Hercule Poirot.

From Quiz But Where Did She Get Those Wonderful Titles?

Answer: The Book of Revelation (The Revelation to John)

'Mrs Dane Calthrop's voice, deep and sonorous, spoke behind me: "Revelation, Chapter Six, Verse Eight. And I looked and beheld a pale horse: and his name that sat on him was Death, and Hell followed with him..."' The pale horse, of course, is pestilence; the murders in the book are committed with thallium salts, a particularly vicious poison which mimics the symptoms of several diseases of which the victims are supposed to have died before the pattern is perceived. The symptoms vary and cause of death is attributed to such diverse diseases as pneumonia, paratyphoid, gastroenteritis, alcoholic neuritis, epilepsy and polio - until Inspector Lejeune discovers that in every case the victim's hair fell out.

From Quiz Agatha Christie - Title Anagrams

Answer: Elephants Can Remember

Poirot solves this mystery. Ariadne Oliver, the mystery writer, is also in this book.

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