A Christie for Christmas Trivia Quiz

Answer: Nemesis

Throughout her writing career, Agatha Christie produced, on average, only one novel per year. Publishing companies are well aware that the best time of the year for book sales is pre-Christmas so her publishers usually released her books towards the end of the year, typically in late October or November.

"Nemesis" is the last Miss Marple mystery that Agatha Christie ever wrote, even though "Sleeping Murder" was the last one published. As one would expect from the title, the theme is retribution and Miss Marple is Nemesis personified.

Answer: Hercule Poirot's Christmas

"Hercule Poirot's Christmas" was first released in December 1938. In stark contrast to the usual Christmas motif of "peace on earth and goodwill towards men", this story is one of the goriest she wrote, involving the brutal murder of a cruel and malicious old man, who was found lying in a huge pool of blood with his throat cut.

"Hercule Poirot's Christmas" was also published under the alternative titles of "Murder for Christmas" and "A Holiday for Murder".

Answer: a stolen ruby

The "Adventure of the Christmas Pudding" first appeared in "Sketch" magazine in 1923. It has been published in a number of short story collections, as has an original and shorter version of the story, entitled "Christmas Adventure". It has also been published under the title, "The Theft of the Royal Ruby".

When one of the thieves who stole the royal ruby heard that the great detective, Hercule Poirot, would be joining the house party for Christmas, they hid the ruby in the first place they could think of - the Christmas pudding that was earmarked to be eaten on New Year's Day. Due to an accident, this pudding was served on Christmas Day instead, throwing the thieves' plans into disarray.

Answer: Miss Jane Marple

Mrs McGillicuddy travelled to London to do her Christmas shopping and planned to break her journey on the way home to visit her friend, Miss Jane Marple, for a few days. Whilst on the 4.50 p.m. train from Paddington, she witnessed a man strangling a woman on another train travelling parallel to hers.

"4.50 from Paddington" is the original British title of this novel. In America, it was published under the title of "What Mrs McGillicuddy Saw!" as the American publishers felt that the British train reference may be too obscure for U.S. readers.

Answer: Halloween Party

At a Hallowe'en party, a 13-year-old girl, Joyce Reynolds, is found drowned in a bucket of water in the library, not long after boasting that she witnessed a murder. When Poirot investigates, the general consensus of opinion is that the girl was an attention-seeking liar. However, her death suggested that she had unsettled a murderer who thought they had got away with it.

Answer: Bethlehem

"Star Over Bethlehem" contained six short stories and five poems and was published under the name of Agatha Christie Mallowan. (She only wrote two books using the name Mallowan - the other being "Come, Tell Me How You Live"). One of the more intriguing stories in the collection is the titular "Star Over Bethlehem", in which Mary is given a vision of her son's fate and is offered a chance to change the outcome.

Answer: Miss Jane Marple

Felicity Lemon, Mrs Dane Calthrop and Mr Satterthwaite are recurring Agatha Christie characters but none are members of the Tuesday Night Club. In these stories, each character relates a tale about a true crime that they have knowledge of and invites the club members to solve the mystery. Invariably it is Miss Marple who is able to do so, using her knowledge of human nature based on many years of observation of village life in St Mary Mead.

Miss Marple's story occurred at Christmas-time when she was staying in a "hydro" (spa/resort). She met a couple there and knew without doubt that the husband planned to murder the wife. Although she tried, she was unable to prevent the wife's murder but she was able to destroy the husband's alibi and expose how he "dunnit".

This book is also published under the title, "The Tuesday Club Murders".

Answer: And Then There Were None

Agatha Christie's original title was "Ten Little Niggers" and was based on an old English nursery rhyme of the same name. In 1939 this title was not considered controversial in England. It was subsequently changed to "Ten Little Indians", "Ten Little Soldiers" and, finally, "And Then There Were None" as changing social mores deemed the earlier titles offensive.

This novel is described as a "locked room mystery". There are ten people stranded on an island, with no possibility of anyone else having access, and all ten of them are apparently murdered.

The novel was one of Agatha Christie's favourites because, as she stated in her autobiography, "It was so difficult to do that the idea had fascinated me. Ten people had to die without it becoming ridiculous or the murderer being obvious...I do think in some ways that it is a better piece of craftsmanship than anything else I have written".

Answer: Death on the Nile

In 1934, a short story called "Death on the Nile" appeared in the collection "Parker Pyne Investigates". Three years later, a full length novel with the same title was published but the plot was completely different and featured Hercule Poirot instead of Parker Pyne. The novel should have been called "Deaths on the Nile" because the body count at the end of the story was five - four murders and a suicide.

"A Caribbean Mystery" is a Miss Marple novel which takes place on an island resort in the Caribbean. "The Regatta Mystery" and "Problem at Pollensa Bay" are both short stories featuring Parker Pyne.

Answer: The ABC Murders

"The ABC Murders" was published in January 1936 and, as the title implies, the murders occurred in an alphabetical pattern. Alice Ascher was the first victim, followed by Betty Barnard, then Carmichael Clarke. (I think Poirot must have appreciated the orderliness or "symmetry" of this).

The BBC Christmas special was not a big hit with Christie fans who were mostly unimpressed with Sarah Phelps' adaptation of the story. There were many significant differences between the original novel's plot and that of the TV series, including the omission of Captain Hastings, Japp being killed off via a heart attack at the beginning of the story, and a completely fabricated background history for Poirot which has no basis in Christie's writings. Poirot was portrayed by John Malkovich, who predicted he would not be popular, stating that "People may hate it...there may have been some worries that we weren't saluting the character". He wasn't wrong.