Enter a Murderer Trivia Quiz

Answer: The Rat and the Beaver

Nigel Bathgate invites his friend Inspector Roderick Alleyn for a night out at the Unicorn where a production of "The Rat and the Beaver" is underway. Nigel's friend Felix Gardener plays the lead role of "The Rat" while Arthur Surbonadier plays "The Beaver". During the dramatic climax of the play, Gardener shoots Surbonadier but the drama becomes real when the prop gun fires a bullet and kills "The Beaver".

Answer: In a desk

During the climax of the play, the pistol is loaded in front of the audience. Prior to the show, the stage manager places the blanks in the desk which is part of the stage scenery. However, someone switched them with real bullets, presumably before the show began when the lights went out backstage.

Answer: Gloves

Susan Max, a veteran actress with a supporting role in the play, spends a lot of time knitting as part of her character. Max is an expert knitter so she really does knit while on stage. A grey woolen pair of gloves disappear from her workbag and later turn up with a white substance on them. The white stuff is part of the stage makeup and was also found on some of the blank bullets.

Answer: A journalist

Edward Wakeford is a journalist who does not work with Nigel but Nigel is familiar with him. Years before the events in the book, Wakeford allegedly wrote a libelous story about Jacob Saint, Arthur's uncle and owner of the Unicorn, alleging Saint is involved in a variety of nefarious activities. Wakeford won the libel trial and denied ever writing the article in the first place.

The article in question was mailed to Wakeford's paper with his signature and the paper accepted and ran the story. Since the return address was in Oxford, it is assumed that Arthur wrote it and then blackmailed his uncle over the contents.

Answer: A piece of paper with signatures

Alleyn discovers a piece of paper with the journalist Ed Wakeford's signature scribbled many times as if the writer was practicing forging his signature. However, the fake article was written many years prior, so it seemed unusual that Arthur would have kept that paper all this time and stored it in such an easily accessible spot.

Moreover, Arthur had moved since the article was published which meant that he would have made a conscious decision to keep the signatures when he cleaned out his old place.

Answer: Drug smuggling

Alleyn arrested Jacob Saint for operating a lucrative drug smuggling ring for which he had been blackmailed. Saint immediately has a heart attack upon hearing this news but survives. Up until this point, Saint was considered the main suspect in his nephew's murder and Alleyn is very keen to keep the true reason for Saint's arrest a secret from the public.

Answer: Someone stepped on his foot

Felix told Alleyn that when the lights went out, someone stepped on his foot while that person was apparently running backstage. He later amended the story to say someone crashed into him. Later on, Alleyn has everyone reenact their movements during this time and no one stepped on Felix' foot or bumped into him as he claimed.

Answer: Shoulder

Arthur and Felix both wanted the attention of Stephanie Vaughn and she had feelings for both of them. However, she decided to select Felix which angered Arthur. He vowed to destroy both Stephanie's and Felix' reputation and, in his anger, accidentally bruised her shoulder. Stephanie tells Alleyn she suspects, because of this incident, Arthur replaced the blanks himself so Felix would get blamed.

This way, Felix would go to jail or simply have his reputation ruined. Either way, it would put a wrench in their intentions to marry.

Answer: Props

Props is the nickname of the props manager at the Unicorn. Alleyn suspects from the start that Props at least has an idea who the murderer is, if not outright knows. However, he refuses to indicate whom he suspects. When Jacob Saint is arrested for unrelated crimes, Props falls into a panic. Alleyn speculates Props was willing to shield the murderer but not if an innocent person was arrested for the crime (as Props did not know why Saint was arrested).

The police lose the trail on Props and Alleyn finds him hanging from the rafters of the theater. Although it looks like a suicide, the scene has been dusted and cleaned up indicating murder.

Answer: Felix Gardener

While the theory that Arthur committed suicide by switching the bullets himself and incriminated his rival Felix is discussed, Alleyn determines that it was Felix all along. Felix and Arthur were rivals for the heart of Stephanie Vaughn but Arthur also knew Felix was the one who wrote the article about Jacob Saint, was potentially blackmailing Saint and may have also been involved in a drug smuggling ring.

Felix snuck backstage, replaced the blanks with real bullets and then, in according to the script, shot Arthur in a scheme that looked like Felix was being set up by the real culprit.