Agatha Christie's Plot Devices Quiz

Answer: "The Murder at the Vicarage", "Lord Edgware Dies (a.k.a. Thirteen At Dinner)", "The Hollow"

In "Murder at the Vicarage", the murderers each confess but seem to be cleared later. In "Lord Edgware Dies", the murderer announces herself at the door and kills the victim exactly the way she said she would, but has arranged alibis to make it look as if she was framed.

In "The Hollow", Poirot actually sees the murderer standing above the victim with the gun, but the other witnesses all conspire to protect the murderer. Variations are "The Mysterious Affair at Styles", where the murderer wants to appear guilty and be accused in court only to be exonerated once double jeopardy has attached (so that he could never be accused of that crime again even if he was proven guilty), and "Ordeal of Innocence", where the presumed murderer dies in jail, but the subsequently revealed alibi serves to re-open the case and it turns out the accused was, after all, pulling the strings behind the murder.

Answer: the conspiring murderers pretend to hate each other

In "Death on the Nile", the conspiring parties stage an extensive cat-and-mouse game in order to ultimately obtain rock-steady alibis. In "The Mysterious Affair at Styles", the conspiring cousins pretend to hate each other; one even keeps accusing the other of the murder. In "Endless Night", the two conspirators similarly feign dislike to hide the fact that they are lovers.

Answer: "The Murder of Roger Ackroyd" and "Endless Night"

In "The Murder of Roger Ackroyd", the reader encounters Dr. James Sheppard, a narrator who never lies but omits everything that might point at his guilt. Poirot, who reads Sheppard's manuscript, even remarks that Sheppard - unlike Hastings - includes so little about his own thoughts and feelings during the case.

In "Endless Night", Mike Rogers follows roughly the same principle although his narration is not as impersonal as Sheppard's. Both novels are especially interesting if you re-read them, looking for clues in the narration itself.

Answer: the time when the murder appears to have happened turns out to be staged

In "Evil Under the Sun", the murderer seems to discover the body together with someone else after having been seen around all morning, but in fact only "discovers" his accomplice pretending to be the victim; the real murder occurs after that. In "The Sittaford Mystery", the murderer (during a session of table-turning) pinpoints the murder to the time the fake message of death arrives.

In "Murder on the Orient Express", the victim's watch is shattered to imply a certain time of murder; in addition, numerous events in the victim's compartment are staged while the victim is, in fact, only sound asleep.

Answer: "Murder on the Orient Express" and "The Hollow"

In "Murder on the Orient Express", all passengers are involved in planning and encompassing the death of the victim. In "The Hollow", the victim begs the witnesses to cover up the murderer's identity and confuse the investigator - which they do, and do it thoroughly.

Answer: the murderer or their partner impersonates someone else

Identity change and impostors are commonly featured in Agatha Christie's works. These three novels, however, contain three pretty unbelievable disguises:
In "Murder in Mesopotamia" the murderer is the victim's first husband but manages to pass off as someone else despite getting very close to her. In "Third Girl", a girl does not notice that her own flatmate is none other but a family member she knows well. In "Why Didn't They Ask Evans?", the murderer manages to disguise as someone else, although both - the impostor and the man he impersonates - are well known to the people being fooled.

Answer: "Lord Edgware Dies" (a.k.a. "Thirteen At Dinner"), "Peril at End House" and "The ABC Murders"

In "Lord Edgware Dies", the murderer involves Poirot under the pretense of obtaining a divorce for her from the victim, thus "proving" that she didn't have a motive when the actual murder occurred.
In "Peril at End House", Poirot is led to believe that the murderer is in danger, so he insists that a relative should come to visit - a suggestion that the murderer had been aiming at all the time.
In "The ABC Murders", the murderer sends Poirot letters announcing his murders to obscure the fact that only one of those murders is really important by making it part of a series.

Answer: True

In "Ordeal by Innocence", the man convicted of the murder turns out to be innocent, but only insofar as he did not deal the fatal blow. He still was the brains behind everything.

In "Curtain", Poirot goes on the mission of catching a man he compares to Shakespeare's Iago - someone who never raises his hand against anyone else but talks others into doing so.

Answer: stage murder attempts on their own lives

In "Crooked House", the staged unsuccessful murder attempt occurs during investigation in order to avoid suspicion while in the other three, the murderers make it look as if they had been the intended targets of the murders that actually happened.

Answer: a chance remark by Hastings enables Poirot to solve the case

In "Styles", it is Hastings's remark about straightening the nippes on the mantlepiece that ultimately helps to recover an important document.
In "Peril at End House", it is his musing over different ways to abbreviate the name Margaret that does the trick.

I hope you enjoyed this. Thanks for playing!