Lord Edgware Dies (1933) Trivia Quiz

Answer: Lord Edgware

Lord Edgware's full name and title is George Alfred St Vincent Marsh, 4th Baron Edgware. He is the first murder victim in this novel -- stabbed at the base of the skull with a corn knife. When we first meet Lord Edgware, Hastings describes him in a negative way as a tall man of about fifty, with dark hair streaked with grey, a thin face, and a sneering mouth who looks bad-tempered and bitter. His manner was stiff and formal and Hastings thought "his eyes had a queer secretive look about them. There was something...distinctly odd about those eyes".

It appears that Lord Edgware is not a very likeable character because, as the story progresses, we do not meet a single person who laments his death.

Answer: Carlotta Adams

Carlotta is the second murder victim in this novel. She dies from an overdose of veronal. Veronal is a barbiturate which was created in 1902 and was popular from about 1903 to the 1950s as a medication for insomnia. At first, it is not clear whether Carlotta's overdose was an accident or suicide. Poirot deduces that it was murder to prevent Carlotta revealing the identity of Lord Edgware's murderer, to whom she had been an unwitting accomplice.

Answer: Jane Wilkinson

Jane Wilkinson asks Poirot to speak to her husband, alleging that he has steadfastly refused to consent to a divorce. However, when Poirot meets with Lord Edgware, he claims that, although he initially refused, his wife knew perfectly well that he had changed his mind and was willing to grant her a divorce.

When Poirot enquires about the reason for his change of heart, Lord Edgware states "That, really, is my own business M. Poirot. I cannot enter into the subject. Shall we say that gradually I had perceived the advantages of severing what - you will forgive my plain speaking - I considered a degrading association. My second marriage was a mistake."

Answer: Hercule Poirot

According to Hastings, Hercule Poirot was never mentioned publicly in connection with the case of the murder of Lord Edgware: "This, I may say, was entirely in accordance with his own wishes. He did not choose to appear in it. The credit went elsewhere - and that is how he wished it to be. Moreover, from Poirot's own peculiar private point of view, the case was one of his failures. He always swears that it was the chance remark of a stranger in the street that put him on the right track".

In his denouement, Poirot credits both Hastings and the stranger with providing the inspiration to solve the murders: "I am going to show you every step of the way - I am going to reveal how I was hoodwinked, how I displayed the gross imbecility, how it needed the conversation of my friend Hastings and a chance remark by a total stranger to put me on the right track".

Answer: The Duke of Merton

The public perception was that the Duke of Merton was "a young man of monkish tendencies, a violent Anglo-Catholic...reported to be completely under the thumb of his mother, the redoubtable dowager duchess. His life was austere in the extreme. He collected Chinese porcelain and was reputed to be of aesthetic tastes". Although he was supposed to be uninterested in women, he fell in love with Jane Wilkinson and planned to marry her despite his mother's objections.

Hastings describes the Duke as "hardly prepossessing in appearance, being thin and weakly (with) nondescript thin hair going bald at the temples, a small bitter mouth and vague dreamy eyes...he looked far more like a weedy young haberdasher than like a duke". Whereas Jane describes him as "so good-looking...like a dreamy kind of monk". Love is blind, or perhaps his title and wealth enhanced his appearance.

Answer: Donald Ross

Like Lord Edgware, Donald Ross was stabbed at the base of the skull with a knife. He was killed before he could reveal what he knew to Poirot. Ross commented to Poirot that he was the first to leave the table, referring to an old superstition that the first person to arise from a table of 13 will have bad luck or die within a year.

"Lord Edgware Dies" is the original British title of this novel. The American title is "Thirteen at Dinner".

Answer: Captain Ronald Marsh

Captain Ronald Marsh is Lord Edgware's nephew and the heir to the title. Ronald was under financial stress because his uncle had cut off his allowance. Ronald believed that Jane, his aunt by marriage, had murdered his uncle and told Poirot and Hastings that "In the space of one short night, I am converted from the creditor's despair to the tradesman's hope. Yesterday ruin stared me in the face, today all is affluence. God bless Aunt Jane".

Answer: Geraldine (Dina) Marsh

Geraldine Marsh is Lord Edgware's daughter by his first marriage. Jane Wilkinson is her step-mother by her father's second marriage. Geraldine tells Poirot that she hated her father and was not sorry he was dead. The housekeeper, Miss Carroll, tells Poirot that Lord Edgware terrorised his daughter and that he derived pleasure from doing so.

She was of the opinion that his treatment of his daughter was a way of seeking revenge on his first wife, who ran away from him.

Answer: Bryan Martin

Bryan Martin and Jane Wilkinson were in love until Jane Wilkinson set her sights on the Duke of Merton. According to Ellis, Jane's maid, the actor was deeply in love with Jane and took the rejection very badly. Poirot accuses Bryan of trying to poison his mind against Jane out of spite, a charge which Bryan later admits to.

Answer: Captain Arthur Hastings

In this novel, Poirot tells Hastings that he (Hastings) has "an insight into the criminal mind, which I myself lack. You show me what the criminal wishes me to believe. It is a great gift." Hastings thinks to himself that his "real use to Poirot was to provide him with a companion to whom he could boast". Despite that, there is an obvious affection between the two friends.

Hastings and Poirot were featured in Agatha Christie's very first novel, "The Mysterious Affair at Styles". Captain Hastings appears in only eight of the 33 Hercule Poirot novels, but narrates most of the Poirot short stories. He is the narrator of this novel.