The Kings of Crime Trivia Quiz

Answer: Hercule Poirot

Hercule Poirot is Agatha Christie's private detective. He was born in Belgium on an unspecified date. He was a member of the Belgian Police Force before relocating to England in "The Mysterious Affair at Styles" because of World War I. It is there he settles in London before starting his private detective services.

Answer: Hercule Poirot

Hercule Poirot never married and he never had any strong love interest. It is implied he may have had feelings for the seldom-seen Vera Rosakoff. He also occasionally mentions a young lady from his youth but Poirot never seems to have been in serious love with anyone.

Answer: Hercule Poirot

Poirot solved the infamous murder of Ratchett in "Murder on the Orient Express" but he also solved the less known murder of Ruth Kettering in "The Mystery of the Blue Train". He also solved murder aboard trains in a few short stories as well as an airplane in "Death on the Clouds" and a boat on "Death on the Nile".

Answer: Roderick Alleyn

Roderick Alleyn is Ngaio Marsh's gentleman sleuth who works for Scotland Yard. At the beginning of the series a Detective Chief-Inspector before his eventual promotion to Chief Superintendent. He also did intelligence work in New Zealand during World War II and in other places at various points during his career.

Answer: Roderick Alleyn

Alleyn married Agatha Troy, a painter, whom he met in "Artists in Crime" aboard a ship in Fiji. Troy's art featured heavily in a few of mysteries and she became his confidant. Troy and Alleyn initially disliked each other as they got off on the wrong foot after a misunderstanding. Troy also disliked Alleyn's police work, finding it and the death penalty uncivilized, and was surprised to learn he had the same qualms as she did. Alleyn and Troy had one son, Ricky.

Answer: Roderick Alleyn

Alleyn solved the murder of Miss Campanula in "Overture to Death" after she was shot to death with a pistol in a piano that activated when she stepped on the pedal. The murders Alleyn solved tended to be more bizarre and unusual than those solved by his fellow Kings of Crime.

In addition to the piano gun, Alleyn solved murders in which victims had fallen in to a pool of boiling mud, stuffed in a wool baler and crushed by a falling champagne bottle.

Answer: Lord Peter Wimsey

Lord Peter Wimsey is Dorothy L. Sayers's gentleman sleuth. An amateur, Lord Peter often assists his friend and brother-in-law Charles Parker, a Scotland Yard detective in his work. Lord Peter's favorite car is the Daimler which he (or his manservant Bunter) drives around on his exploits. It is mentioned in several novels that Lord Peter owns many Daimler but the 1927 is his favorite.

Answer: Lord Peter Wimsey

Lord Peter married Harriet Vane, whom he saved from the gallows in "Strong Poison". While Harriet was grateful to Peter for saving her, she did not love him and constantly rejected his marriage proposals. It was not until several books later that she agree to him in "Busman's Honeymoon". Harriet's career as a mystery writer was seen as unacceptable by some members of his family.

However, Peter and his mother did not mind.

Answer: Lord Peter Wimsey

Lord Peter solved the murder of the unknown corpse in a bathtub in his very first novel appearance: "Whose Body?". Sayers wrote "Whose Body?" when she was a struggling author with little money and unhappy with her life.

Answer: Albert Campion

Albert Campion is an amateur sleuth created by Margery Allingham as a parody of Lord Peter Wimsey. Albert Campion is not his real name but a pseudonym (which was common for literary detectives of the time with Ellery Queen and Philo Vance also being pseudonyms). Campion's real name is Rudolph, although he later claims he changed it.

His real last name begins with a K and he may or may not be a member of the British Royal Family.

Answer: Albert Campion

Albert Campion married Amanda Fitton whom he first met in "Sweet Danger". Amanda, at that time, was only 17 and enjoyed fiddling around with radios and other technology. By the time of World War II, Amanda was very active in the design and building of airplanes. She worked for Alan Dell, who was Campion's brother-in-law. Campion and Amanda had one son, Rupert.

Answer: Albert Campion

Campion exposed a counterfeiting operation to weaken the British economy in "Traitor's Purse". In that novel, Campion suffered from amnesia and remembered very little about his life, including his loved ones. He was also on the lam after assaulting a police officer, an event he did not remember.