Death on the Nile (1937) Trivia Quiz

Answer: Linnet Doyle

Linnet was engaged to Lord Charles Windlesham but had reservations about marrying him. At Jackie's request, Linnet gave Jackie's fiance, Simon, a job. She was immediately attracted to Simon when they met and had no qualms about marrying him, despite knowing how passionately Jackie loved Simon.

Answer: Jacqueline de Bellefort

Poirot first saw Jackie in a restaurant before crossing paths with her again on the S.S. Karnak. His immediate impression was that "she cares too much" for her companion, Simon. Jackie followed Simon and Linnet to Egypt and stalked them throughout their honeymoon, being as annoying to them as possible.

Answer: Simon Doyle

At Jackie's request, Linnet gave Simon a job as a land agent for her estate. Jackie told Linnet that Simon was one of the Devonshire Doyles and described him as "...poor--got no money. He's what you call "county" all right--but very impoverished county--a younger son and all that". Simon subsequently abandoned Jackie and married Linnet for her money.

Answer: Louise Bourget

Louise discovered the dead body of her mistress, Linnet Doyle, and was subsequently murdered when she attempted to blackmail the killer. Hercule Poirot did not trust Louise, and agreed with Colonel Race that she knew more than she was admitting. Poirot speculated that she may not have been involved in Linnet's murder but she could have been involved in the theft of Linnet's missing pearls, which Simon Doyle alleged were worth 40 or 50 thousand pounds.

Answer: Andrew Pennington

Linnet wrote to her "Uncle" Andrew, advising him of her marriage to Simon. Andrew Pennington claimed to have left America before the letter arrived and that his appearance in Egypt was a complete coincidence. But if so, why was he carrying business papers for Linnet to sign and why did he urge Linnet to sign them without reading them?

Answer: Salome Otterbourne

Salome's daughter Rosalie said of her mother: "There is no God but Sex and Salome Otterbourne is its Prophet". Poor Rosalie is embarrassed by her mother's sexually explicit novels and is also very unhappy at having to cope with Salome's secret bouts of drinking. Rosalie told Poirot that Salome began to drink because "her books didn't sell any more. People are tired of all that cheap sex stuff".

Answer: Marie Van Schuyler

Marie van Schuyler is a rather unlikeable character, described as having "an expression of reptilian contempt for the majority of mankind". She is attended by a nurse, Miss Bowers, and her cousin, Cornelia Robson, whom she ordered about and verbally bullied. Miss Bowers returned a string of pearls to Poirot and Colonel Race and explained that Miss van Schuyler is a kleptomaniac: "She can't help it, you know, but she does--er--take things. Especially jewellery. That's really why I'm always with her--it's not for her health at all--it's this little idiosyncrasy".

Answer: Dr Carl Bessner

Dr Bessner has a large clinic in Czechoslovakia and a reputation as a "fashionable" doctor. He tended to Simon Doyle's leg after the bone was broken by a bullet wound. He also examined Linnet Doyle's dead body and provided an estimated time of death. Dr Bessner proposed marriage to Cornelia Robson and she accepted, much to the chagrin of Mr Ferguson, who could not understand why Cornelia preferred "a disgusting old man" who has "a stomach" over himself.

Answer: Tim Allerton

Tim is allegedly a writer but no-one has seen his work; "it was understood among his friends that inquiries as to literary output were not encouraged". Tim's mother was not happy about Tim's closeness with his second cousin, Joanna Southwood - with good reason, as it turned out.

Answer: Hercule Poirot

Tim Allerton is not happy about his mother's friendship with Hercule Poirot. He dismissed Poirot as an "old mountebank" who is "all talk and moustaches". Linnet asked for Poirot's help in dealing with Jackie's "persecution" of her, but Poirot explained, "I am on holiday, and when I am on holiday I do not take cases".

But when Linnet is murdered on the boat, Poirot cannot ignore the circumstances in which he finds himself.