Calamity Town Trivia Quiz

Answer: Ellery Smith

Ellery uses the surname Smith throughout the entire novel, only telling Patricia his real name because she recognized him from a lecture he gave. Ellery apparently signed legal documents and testified under oath under the name Ellery Smith, which would be illegal. Ellery does reveal himself as Ellery Queen at the end of the novel when asked his real name while under oath, even though he swore in as Ellery Smith.

Answer: Jim comes back to Wrightsville

The Wrights had a hard time selling or renting Calamity House because of its reputation. They did have one purchaser who died immediately after signing the paperwork. Ellery found the house perfect for his intended solitude. However, he was asked/forced to vacate when Jim Haight returned to Wrightsville to marry Nora.

The Wrights asked Ellery to move in with them and their youngest daughter Pat, instead.

Answer: Halloween

The letters were found in a toxicology book. Ellery and Pat snoop around and read the letters, which leads them to believe Jim will poison Nora. Jim and Nora had been fighting about money and Jim's gambling and drinking. In a drunken stupor, Jim was even heard saying that he would murder his wife.

Nora found the letters on Halloween, which, as Pat and Ellery note at the end of the novel, is the first of a series of events that occur on holidays. Nora's first bought of illness occurs on Thanksgiving and then again on Christmas. Jim's sister Rosemary dies on New Year's. Jim is arrested for the murder on Valentine's Day. Nora gives birth and dies on Easter. Ellery tells Pat and her future husband Carter Bradford the solution to the case on Mother's Day.

Answer: She is immensely disliked by the women

The women in town hate Rosemary because of her outlandish lifestyle. For instance, she dominated the men's attention at the fatal New Year's party and drank way too much. The Wrights saw her as a nuisance because she stayed with Jim and Nora for months and never left. It was also believed that Rosemary was the cause of some of the tension between Jim and Nora.

Answer: Because he watched Jim the whole the evening

After seeing the incriminating letters and watching Nora go through two illnesses on the dates the letters said, Ellery watched Jim closely on New Year's Eve because the letters said Jim's wife would die on New Year's Day. Ellery did not take his eyes off Jim all evening, especially when he was making the cocktails. He did not see Jim poison the drinks.

Police Chief Dakin and Carter Bradford, the district attorney and a close friend of Pat's, still believed Jim was guilty because he handed that specific cocktail to Nora, who then passed it to Rosemary when Rosemary demanded it.

Answer: Nora blurts it out

Dakin and Carter Bradford already suspected Jim of being the poisoner because he had the best opportunity and was the only person with a motive to kill Nora. Nora misinterprets this and, in front of everyone, accuses Ellery of having told the police about the letters.

The police find the letters in Nora's hat box during a search for them after that incident. Nora's outburst worries Ellery and Pat, who Nora knew both knew about the letters, because technically they were withholding evidence and may have been considered an accessory before the fact.

Answer: They shun the Wrights

The people of Wrightsville almost immediately begin to shun the Wrights socially. Children threw rocks at Jim and he even was once ambushed by a mob of people and did nothing to defend himself. Pat's best friend stopped calling her. The only townspeople who remained loyal to the Wrights were Dr. Willoughby and Judge Martin. Clarice, Judge Martin's wife, claims she was on their side but could not risk being seen with Hermione.

Gossip played a large part in Wrightsville as the townspeople began speculating about the murder and why Nora and the other Wrights would stand behind Jim when he was accused of trying to murder his wife. It was difficult to locate unbiased jurors for the trial, and many people wondered if Carter Bradford, the prosecutor, would be able to represent the people since he was friendly with the Wrights prior to the murder.

Answer: He risked incriminating himself

Since Jim's chances of being found not guilty seemed incredibly low, the Wrights figured the best they could do was put some doubt in the jurors's minds. Ellery vowed to help the Wrights and when he was summoned by the prosecution, he knew he had no choice but to incriminate himself. Ellery testified that he watched Jim all night at the New Year's party and that he did not poison the cocktails. Ellery also mentioned how the Wrights' oldest daughter Lola arrived at the kitchen back door to deliver Jim some money. Ellery confirmed that no one entered the kitchen during the brief moments Jim was away with Lola and thus no one else could have poisoned the cocktails.

Ellery was then asked if anyone else could have poisoned the cocktails. Ellery shocked the courtroom when he said yes, despite having just testified no one else entered the kitchen. Ellery said that he himself could have poisoned the cocktails when Jim was away. Ellery then silently wonders what his father, Inspector Queen of New York, would think he if he had been present. Ellery's fears of incriminating himself were unfounded as Carter Bradford quickly pointed out that Ellery could have poisoned the cocktail but could not have made sure Nora would be the person handed the poisoned drink.

The defense also tried to suggest that Frank Lloyd, the newspaper editor who had a fling with Nora before she met Jim, would have a motive for killing Nora. That argument fell apart for the same reason the one against Ellery did.

Answer: Mistrial

Pat saw that Jim would be found guilty. She asked Jim's lawyer, Judge Martin, to call her up to the stand. Pat "let it slip" that she had been out on a date with one of the jurors. That juror had to be removed and the judge declared a mistrial. Pat knew she would not be in any legal trouble for intentionally trying to influence a juror, because Carter Bradford would never press charges against her.

The mistrial allowed the defense and the Wrights more time to cast doubt on Jim's guilt.

Answer: Nora

Everyone neglected the fact that Nora could have poisoned her own cocktail before giving it to Rosemary. Since Ellery knew Jim did not poison the cocktail only Nora could have, since only she and Rosemary touched the glass and multiple people saw Nora hand Rosemary the glass. They all saw that Rosemary did not poison it before she drank it.

Ellery says he would have figured it out earlier but was distracted by the letters. When Pat mentioned the letters were found in a book that had been in a box nailed up for months, Ellery knew the letters weren't about Nora. The box in question was full of Jim's stuff that had been packed up and sent to Wrightsville from his old home. Because the box was sealed up for weeks when Nora and Jim were on their honeymoon, Jim could not have written them about Nora.

Ellery determines that Jim must have written the letters about some other wife. The letters were addressed to his sister but did not state either the wife or sister by name directly. Ellery had previously suspected that Rosemary was not really Jim's sister but evidence at the time suggested he was wrong.

The only possible woman who could have been this original wife Jim intended to kill was Rosemary, which turns out to be the case after all. Rosemary was a shrewd woman who started blackmailing Jim over his bigamous marriage to Nora. This is why Jim needed money, not to pay off gambling debts. Since Rosemary was Jim's wife and not sister, this led to the question of who his sister really was. She turns out to be Roberta Roberts, a columnist from Chicago who is the only reporter who believes Jim is innocent.

Nora discovered Jim and Rosemary were actually married during an argument between the two. Angry with both of them, Nora decides to kill Rosemary and frame Jim for the crime by using Jim's unused plan to kill Rosemary. Nora poisoned herself slightly on Thanksgiving and Christmas to keep up with the letters. She was pleased to discover that Pat and Ellery knew about the letters as they could incriminate Jim. Nora waited until Jim handed her a cocktail, took a sip, poisoned the rest and then passed it to Rosemary.

She framed Jim by intentionally blurting out the existence of the letters in front of the police. Another clue that proved Nora's guilt to Ellery was the fact that Nora had kept the letters rather than burning them like most women would have done in her situation. Once Ellery realized the intended victim was Rosemary, it became clear the killer was Nora as only Nora could be sure that Rosemary would drink the poisoned cocktail.