Quiz about Memorable Lines Memorable Mysteries from Agatha C
Quiz about Memorable Lines Memorable Mysteries from Agatha C

Memorable Lines, Memorable Mysteries from Agatha C Quiz


Christie fans will need no hints to guess the names of these well-known mysteries from the lines provided. For the uninitiated, a few gentle hints are provided....

A multiple-choice quiz by Ruma. Estimated time: 6 mins.
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Author
Ruma
Time
6 mins
Type
Multiple Choice
Quiz #
83,472
Updated
Dec 03 21
# Qns
10
Difficulty
Average
Avg Score
8 / 10
Plays
2314
Awards
Top 35% Quiz
Last 3 plays: bermalt (10/10), Guest 174 (7/10), fris1 (10/10).
This quiz has 2 formats: you can play it as a or as shown below.
Scroll down to the bottom for the answer key.
1. There was one very important person (in his own estimation at least) staying at the Jolly Roger. Hercule Poirot, resplendent in a white duck suit, with a Panama hat tilted over his eyes, his moustaches magnificently furled, lay back in a deck chair and surveyed the bathing beach. A series of terraces led down to it from the hotel....Of the bathers, some were in the sea, some were lying stretched out in the sun.....On the terrace above, the non-bathers sat and commented on the weather, on the scene in front of them.....On Poirot's left a ceaseless flow of conversation poured in a gentle monotone from the lips of Mrs Gardner while at the same time her needles clacked as she knitted vigorously.
(The beautiful Arlena Marshall is the centre of attention, and not always in the best way. So when she ends up dead,strangled in a lonely cove by the beach, Poirot must sift through numerous alibis and motives to reach the truth)
Hint

They came to Baghdad
A Caribbean Mystery
Evil Under the Sun
Cat Among the Pigeons

2. Marina's response was this time not so automatic. Her eyes, which had wavered over Heather Badcock's shoulder, now seemed to be fixed on the wall midway up the stairs. She was staring and there was something so ghastly in her expression that Mrs. Bantry took a step forward. Was the woman going to faint? But before she could reach Marina's side, the latter had recovered herself. Her eyes, vague and unfocussed, returned to Heather and the charm of manner was turned on once more, albeit a shade mechanically. "What a nice story. Now, what will you have to drink? Jason! A cocktail?"
(Soon after, Heather is handed a cocktail meant for Marina, and within minutes, is dead...)
Hint

The Mirror Crack'd (from side to side)
Murder with Mirrors
By the Pricking of my Thumbs
Sparkling Cyanide

3. Poirot took the cocktail from her hand."To your good health, Mademoiselle...to your continued good health."
The girl was no fool. The significance of his tone was not lost on her.
"Is anything the matter?"....He held out his hand with the bullet on the palm of it. She picked it up with a puzzled frown..."Do you mean some criminal idiot was shooting bullets in a hotel garden?...Well, I'm damned, I do seem to lead a charmed life. That's number four....I'm not a beautiful young heiress whose death releases millions. I wish somebody was trying to kill me.....that would be a thrill..."
(If the lovely Nick was not being targeted for her riches, then why the numerous attempts on her life?)
Hint

The ABC Murders
Peril at End House
At Bertram's Hotel
Easy to Kill

4. "But you are very good at murders," said Mrs Bantry "She has been strangled, you see. What I feel is that if one has got to have a murder actually happening in one's house, one might as well enjoy it...That's why I want you to come and help me find out who did it...Arthur's being rather difficult. He seems to think I shouldn't enjoy myself about it at all. Of course I do know it's very sad, but then I don't know the girl... and when you've seen her you'll understand what I mean when I say she doesn't look real at all."

(An unknown girl, flashily dressed, found dead in the very respectable Colonel Bantry's house? Impossible! Miss Marple soon gets to the bottom of this one.)
Hint

Mrs McGinty's Dead
Dumb Witness
The Body in the Library
The Moving Finger

5. "Just now we had a somewhat disturbing experience. An apparantly disembodied voice spoke to us all by name, uttering certain precise accusations against us......Ulick Norman Owen! In Miss Brent's letter- Una Nancy Owen- each time, that is to say, U.N Owen. Or by a slight stretch of fancy UNKNOWN!"

(One of Christie's most famous books)
Hint

And Then There were None
Ordeal by Innocence
Partners In Crime
A Caribbean Mystery

6. "She's written her note to her husband - but at that moment he comes in, reads it and goes haywire. He crumples up the note, slings it into the waste-basket and goes for her. She's terrified, rushes into the hall...he catches up with her, throttles her...she goes limp and he drops her. And then....quotes those words from The Duchess of Malfi just as the child upstairs has reached the bannisters and is peering down."

(But is it as simple as all that? Miss Marple solves an 18-year old riddle)
Hint

Hickory Dickory Dock
Murder at the Vicarage
Dumb Witness
Sleeping Murder

7. "For a moment I could hardly take in the meaning of the scene before me.
Colonel Protheroe was lying sprawled across my writing table in a horrible unnatural position. There was a pool of some dark fluid on the desk by his head, and it was slowly dripping onto the floor with a horrible drip,drip,drip.
I pulled myself together and went across to him. His skin was cold to the touch. The hand that I raised fell back lifeless. The man was dead- shot through the head."
Hint

Murder at the Vicarage
Death Comes as the End
Three Act Tragedy
The Body in the Library

8. Hercule Poirot did not sleep well. He awoke with a start in the small hours, roused by a loud groan from nearby. At the same moment the ping of a bell sounded sharply.
Someone said,"It was nothing, a mistake..." Then Hercule Poirot heard no more and after a while dozed off uneasily....

(This murder is unsolveable,...except by the great Poirot.So many varied characters, so many motives, so many alibis....and a man who deserved to die...)
Hint

Murder on the Orient Express
At Bertram's Hotel
The Mystery of the Blue Train
The Murder of Roger Ackroyd

9. "I tell you I don't know what I'm afraid of! And that's what worries me. I felt all along that there was something wrong. In the atmosphere- in the house. I'm sensitive to atmosphere...but I don't know if it's these dreadful young jailbirds-or if it's nearer home. There's Lewis just living for his ideas and not noticing anything else, and Carrie Louise, bless her, never seeing or hearing or thinking anything else except what's a lovely thought....There is such a thing as evil... and I want you, Jane, to go down there right away and find out exactly what's the matter."

So that's how Jane Marple came to visit Carrie Louise and Stonygates, residence to two hundred juvenile delinquents...
Hint

Cat Among the Pigeons
Murder with Mirrors
Crooked House
By the Pricking of my Thumbs

10. Dear Aunt Jane,I've got the information you wanted. There are only two trains that can possibly apply- the 4.33 and the 5 o'clock...In all this do I smell some village scandal of a fruity character? Did you, returning from a shopping spree in town observe in a passing train the Mayor's wife being embraced by the Sanitary Inspector...?"

(Not the Mayor's wife and the Sanitary Inspector, but a cold-blooded murder in a passing train is what is seen by Miss Marple's friend, Mrs McGillicuddy.)
Hint

4.50 from Paddington
Third Girl
A Pocketfull of Rye
Taken at the Flood


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Quiz Answer Key and Fun Facts
1. There was one very important person (in his own estimation at least) staying at the Jolly Roger. Hercule Poirot, resplendent in a white duck suit, with a Panama hat tilted over his eyes, his moustaches magnificently furled, lay back in a deck chair and surveyed the bathing beach. A series of terraces led down to it from the hotel....Of the bathers, some were in the sea, some were lying stretched out in the sun.....On the terrace above, the non-bathers sat and commented on the weather, on the scene in front of them.....On Poirot's left a ceaseless flow of conversation poured in a gentle monotone from the lips of Mrs Gardner while at the same time her needles clacked as she knitted vigorously. (The beautiful Arlena Marshall is the centre of attention, and not always in the best way. So when she ends up dead,strangled in a lonely cove by the beach, Poirot must sift through numerous alibis and motives to reach the truth)

Answer: Evil Under the Sun

Poirot tracks down the ruthless killer of the glamourous Arlena Marshall by taking apart a seemingly unbreakable alibi. The "body" of Arlena which was first discovered wasn't a dead body at all, or even Arlena's! One of Poirot's best mysteries in a lovely setting...
2. Marina's response was this time not so automatic. Her eyes, which had wavered over Heather Badcock's shoulder, now seemed to be fixed on the wall midway up the stairs. She was staring and there was something so ghastly in her expression that Mrs. Bantry took a step forward. Was the woman going to faint? But before she could reach Marina's side, the latter had recovered herself. Her eyes, vague and unfocussed, returned to Heather and the charm of manner was turned on once more, albeit a shade mechanically. "What a nice story. Now, what will you have to drink? Jason! A cocktail?" (Soon after, Heather is handed a cocktail meant for Marina, and within minutes, is dead...)

Answer: The Mirror Crack'd (from side to side)

The cocktail of course, was not meant for Marina, so aptly cast here as the Lady of Shalott...Once the inimitable Miss Marple figured that out, and the reason for Marina Gregg's glassy stare, the rest was easy to work out....Made into a movie with a huge star cast led by Elizabeth Taylor.
3. Poirot took the cocktail from her hand."To your good health, Mademoiselle...to your continued good health." The girl was no fool. The significance of his tone was not lost on her. "Is anything the matter?"....He held out his hand with the bullet on the palm of it. She picked it up with a puzzled frown..."Do you mean some criminal idiot was shooting bullets in a hotel garden?...Well, I'm damned, I do seem to lead a charmed life. That's number four....I'm not a beautiful young heiress whose death releases millions. I wish somebody was trying to kill me.....that would be a thrill..." (If the lovely Nick was not being targeted for her riches, then why the numerous attempts on her life?)

Answer: Peril at End House

As the fiancee of the well-known aviator Michael Seton, she would inherit plenty...but things aren't what they seem, and there are wheels within wheels, and murders to come before the mystery is unravelled by M. Poirot.
4. "But you are very good at murders," said Mrs Bantry "She has been strangled, you see. What I feel is that if one has got to have a murder actually happening in one's house, one might as well enjoy it...That's why I want you to come and help me find out who did it...Arthur's being rather difficult. He seems to think I shouldn't enjoy myself about it at all. Of course I do know it's very sad, but then I don't know the girl... and when you've seen her you'll understand what I mean when I say she doesn't look real at all." (An unknown girl, flashily dressed, found dead in the very respectable Colonel Bantry's house? Impossible! Miss Marple soon gets to the bottom of this one.)

Answer: The Body in the Library

Ruby Keene dead, a missing Girl Guide, and Miss Marple can actually TELL that there will be another murder! And all this from her simple observations of human nature....
5. "Just now we had a somewhat disturbing experience. An apparantly disembodied voice spoke to us all by name, uttering certain precise accusations against us......Ulick Norman Owen! In Miss Brent's letter- Una Nancy Owen- each time, that is to say, U.N Owen. Or by a slight stretch of fancy UNKNOWN!" (One of Christie's most famous books)

Answer: And Then There were None

A murder mystery without any murderer, wherein all the suspects are killed off one by one on a deserted island! A classic whodunnit, which, although not featuring either Poirot or Miss Marple, or any of her other sleuths, is widely regarded as one of her best works.
6. "She's written her note to her husband - but at that moment he comes in, reads it and goes haywire. He crumples up the note, slings it into the waste-basket and goes for her. She's terrified, rushes into the hall...he catches up with her, throttles her...she goes limp and he drops her. And then....quotes those words from The Duchess of Malfi just as the child upstairs has reached the bannisters and is peering down." (But is it as simple as all that? Miss Marple solves an 18-year old riddle)

Answer: Sleeping Murder

Gwenda Reed comes back to England and finds herself a lovely home in a little village. But she is disturbed by eerie memories...memories of a murder which took place when she was a child.
7. "For a moment I could hardly take in the meaning of the scene before me. Colonel Protheroe was lying sprawled across my writing table in a horrible unnatural position. There was a pool of some dark fluid on the desk by his head, and it was slowly dripping onto the floor with a horrible drip,drip,drip. I pulled myself together and went across to him. His skin was cold to the touch. The hand that I raised fell back lifeless. The man was dead- shot through the head."

Answer: Murder at the Vicarage

In this book, Miss Marple makes her first ever appearence at a tea party given by the Vicar's wife, and is referred to as "the worst cat in the village" and exceedingly "dangerous"!!Of course, she solves the murder described here.
8. Hercule Poirot did not sleep well. He awoke with a start in the small hours, roused by a loud groan from nearby. At the same moment the ping of a bell sounded sharply. Someone said,"It was nothing, a mistake..." Then Hercule Poirot heard no more and after a while dozed off uneasily.... (This murder is unsolveable,...except by the great Poirot.So many varied characters, so many motives, so many alibis....and a man who deserved to die...)

Answer: Murder on the Orient Express

The forces of Nature were against the murderer... first, there occured a snowstorm which caused the train to get stuck in a snowdrift, and worse, the train's passengers included one very famous detective, whose "little grey cells" ultimately unscrambled this most unbelievably ingenious of mysteries...
9. "I tell you I don't know what I'm afraid of! And that's what worries me. I felt all along that there was something wrong. In the atmosphere- in the house. I'm sensitive to atmosphere...but I don't know if it's these dreadful young jailbirds-or if it's nearer home. There's Lewis just living for his ideas and not noticing anything else, and Carrie Louise, bless her, never seeing or hearing or thinking anything else except what's a lovely thought....There is such a thing as evil... and I want you, Jane, to go down there right away and find out exactly what's the matter." So that's how Jane Marple came to visit Carrie Louise and Stonygates, residence to two hundred juvenile delinquents...

Answer: Murder with Mirrors

Carrie Louise, a sweet gentle soul, married thrice. The third time her home was converted to a centre for juvenile delinquents, and if that wasn't dangerous enough, her family could well contain more than one murderer.....Miss Marple is sent to the rescue, but will she be in time...?
10. Dear Aunt Jane,I've got the information you wanted. There are only two trains that can possibly apply- the 4.33 and the 5 o'clock...In all this do I smell some village scandal of a fruity character? Did you, returning from a shopping spree in town observe in a passing train the Mayor's wife being embraced by the Sanitary Inspector...?" (Not the Mayor's wife and the Sanitary Inspector, but a cold-blooded murder in a passing train is what is seen by Miss Marple's friend, Mrs McGillicuddy.)

Answer: 4.50 from Paddington

A mystery Miss Marple solves through remote control. She sends a young lady called Lucy in her stead to snoop around the Crackenthorpe house, which quite clearly was where the murderer was based...and then she had to figure out just what her friend, Mrs McGillicuddy saw!
Source: Author Ruma

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