Christie Quintets 3 Trivia Quiz

Answer: After the Funeral

"After the Funeral" (published 1953) was the original English title of this novel. When released in America, it was renamed "Funerals are Fatal". In 1963, a film version entitled "Murder at the Gallop" featured Miss Marple, portrayed by Margaret Rutherford, instead of Hercule Poirot, who was the sleuth in the original story.

The novel was also re-published under the title of "Murder at the Gallop" to cash in on the film release.

Answer: Murder in Mesopotamia

Agatha Christie's husband, Sir Max Mallowan, was a well-known British archaeologist. Agatha accompanied her husband on several digs in the Middle East and used the knowledge she gained as a result in a number of her works, including "Murder in Mesopotamia".

Many of the cast of characters in this novel were inspired by the people she met on these expeditions. The character of David Emmott was based on Sir Max Mallowan.

Answer: Sad Cypress

Mary Gerrard was poisoned by the administration of morphine hydrochloride. When Elinor Carisle was accused of Mary's murder, the body of Elinor's aunt, Laura Welman, was exhumed. She too was found to have morphine hydrochloride in her system. The evidence began to stack up against Elinor when Nurse Jessie Hopkins testified that she was missing a tube of morphine hydrochloride from her case, to which Elinor had access.

Although innocent, Elinor Carlisle had the "holy trinity" of criminal law - means, motive and opportunity.

Answer: Appointment with Death

Mrs Boynton, matriarch of the Boynton family, was murdered by an injection of digitoxin. The family were the obvious suspects as Mrs Boynton was sadistic and subjected her family to mental and emotional abuse. However, Poirot correctly deduced that the murder was committed by an outsider. Colonel Carbury was only able to detain the suspects for 24 hours. Poirot assured him that he could solve the crime within that time, and he did!

Answer: Hallowe'en Party

This novel features two of Agatha Christie's sleuths - Hercule Poirot and Ariadne Oliver. Ariadne enlisted Poirot's help after a child was murdered at a Hallowe'en party subsequent to boasting that she had witnessed a murder in the past. Nobody believed her at the time because she was known to be a liar, but her murder demonstrated that, whether she was telling the truth or lying, she had unsettled a murderer.

Answer: The Mirror Crack'd from Side to Side

Agatha Christie dedicated "The Mirror Crack'd from Side to Side" to Margaret Rutherford, "in admiration".

The novel's title comes from a poem by Alfred, Lord Tennyson, "The Lady of Shalott".

"Out flew the web and floated wide;
The mirror crack'd from side to side;
'The curse is come upon me,' cried
The Lady of Shalott."

Dolly Bantry compared Marina Gregg to the Lady of Shalott, telling Miss Marple that at the fete, Marina had a "kind of frozen" look on her face which reminded Dolly of the Lady of Shalott whose "doom" had come upon her.

At the end of the novel, when Miss Marple looked upon Marina Gregg's body, she quoted the last lines of the poem:

"He said: 'She has a lovely face;
God in His mercy lend her grace,
The Lady of Shalott.'"

Answer: Peril at End House

Agatha Christie dedicated "Peril at End house" to her friend and fellow author, Eden Philpotts. However, she dismissed the book in her autobiography by stating, "'Peril at End House' was another of my books that left so little impression on my mind that I cannot even remember writing it".

Nevertheless, it was well received when it was published in 1932, with the solution considered "ingenious" and "cunning" by reviewers. The review in the "Times Literary Supplement (London 1932)" declared "Everything is perfectly fair, and it is possible to guess the solution of the puzzle fairly early in the book, though it is certainly not easy...the plot is arranged with almost mathematical neatness, and that is all that one wants".

Answer: The Body in the Library

In "Cards on the Table" (1936), Hercule Poirot was asked if Ariadne Oliver was the author of "The Body in the Library", to which he answered, "That identical one". Six years later (1942), Agatha Christie wrote her novel, "The Body in the Library". She subsequently told an interviewer that she thought the opening chapter of "The Body in the Library" was the best first chapter she had ever written.

During World War 2, Agatha Christie was working in a hospital pharmacy and writing in her spare time. She explained in her autobiography that she decided to write two books at once, so that she could alternate between them when writer's block occurred. So "The Body in the Library" was written in tandem with "N or M?"

Answer: A Pocket Full of Rye

This novel is based on a series of murders which fit the nursery rhyme, "Sing a Song of Sixpence". The rhyme lends it name to the novel. The first to be murdered was Rex Fortescue ("the king was in his counting house, counting out his money") who was found with rye in his jacket pocket ("sing a song of sixpence, a pocket full of rye"). Rex is Latin for king.

His wife Adele's murder soon followed ("the queen was in the parlour, eating bread and honey"). Gladys Martin, the house parlourmaid, was found strangled to death with a clothes peg on her nose ("the maid was in the garden, hanging out the clothes, when down came a blackbird and pecked off her nose").

The murderer ensured that the circumstances surrounding the deaths followed the lyrics of the nursery rhyme.

Answer: Ordeal by Innocence

In her autobiography, Agatha Christie stated that this novel was one of her favourite works: "Of my detective books, I think the two that satisfy me best are "Crooked House" and "Ordeal by Innocence". Interestingly both of those novels do not feature one of her regularly recurring detectives, such as Hercule Poirot or Miss Marple.

In "Ordeal by Innocence", the sleuth who solved the crime was Arthur Calgary, a geophysicist. He left England unaware of Rachel Argyle's murder and that he was Jacko Argyle's alibi. When he returned to England, he found out that he was indirectly responsible for a miscarriage of justice and was distressed that his news brought further turmoil to the family instead of relief that Jacko was innocent.

When Agatha Christie wrote this book, she wanted to highlight the fact that the murder victim is not always the only victim - the innocent can also be harmed. Christie originally titled it "The Innocent" but changed the title upon the suggestion of her literary agent, Edmund Cork.