Four Seasons of Murder and Crime Quiz

Answer: Spring

What happened before:

"It was 2 p.m. on the afternoon of May 7, 1915. The Lusitania had been struck by two torpedoes in succession and was sinking rapidly, while the boats were being launched with all possible speed."

I did read that there was just one torpedo, but otherwise this 1922 espionage/crime/adventure story starts with a real event: the sinking of the passenger ship "Lusitania" by a German U-boat. A girl passenger named Jane Finn was asked to transport secret papers -and disappeared with the papers. After the Great War, it is up to Tuppence and Tommy to find the girl, find the papers and unmask a master criminal. Facing murder, kidnapping and romance, a happy end happened.


The book was first released in 1922.

Answer: Spring

What happened before:

"Miss Arundell died on May 1 st. Though her illness was short her death did not occasion much surprise in the little country town of Market Basing, where she had lived since she was a girl of sixteen."

Two of the last things that Miss Arundell did: write a testament and a letter. This letter was to Hercule Poirot. As a result, the dumb canine witness Bob was cleared and the real villain was stopped. And if you ask me about the testament- I don't want to spoil your fun of finding out by reading.

We learned about that dog in 1937.

Answer: Spring

A visit from Mrs. Katherine Cloade... and what happened next:

"It was in late Spring, 1946, that Hercule Poirot received a visit... It was exactly five days later that he saw a small paragraph in an evening paper - it referred to the death of a man called Enoch Arden -at Warmsley Vale, a small old-world village about three miles from the popular Warmsley Heath Golf Course."

This mystery is set in the time after World War II. The Cloade family suffered from the shock of losing a rich family member who had also left a very young widow with an insolent brother. And not a penny of money for the insolvent family.

Strangely enough, it is not the widow, but a stranger who died under an assumed name in a hotel room. It is up to Hercule Poirot to find out the identity of the victim and the way he died. At last, he helped true love ways, too.

There were enough war widows still around when the book was released in 1948. Mostly not rich ones.

Answer: Summer

It is set in World War I. Hastings stayed with friends at the manor house "Styles".

"I had arrived at Styles on the 5th of July. I come now to the events of the 16th and 17th of that month. For the convenience of the reader I will recapitulate the incidents of those days in as exact a manner as possible. They were elicited subsequently at the trial by a process of long and tedious cross-examinations."

The 18th will be the date of the murder of Emily Inglethorp; she died in the night from strychnine. At Hastings' suggestion, a nearby Belgian refugee named Hercule Poirot is asked for help. One clue will be the fire lit in the chimney on a warm day. This might have helped you to remember the season.

"The Mysterious Affair at Styles" was Agatha Christie's first released novel.
She wrote it in 1916, it was published in 1920.

Answer: Summer

From the diary of Dr James Sheppard:

"Mrs. Ferrars died on the night of the 16th-17th September-a Thursday. I was sent for at eight o'clock on the morning of Friday the 17th. There was nothing to be done. She had been dead some hours."

Mrs. Ferrars committed suicide. But she was willing to confess her own misdeed- and who milked her dry because of knowing about this. Something that person dreaded that much, that Roger Akroyd was murdered. Thankfully, Hercule Poirot was in the same village, dabbling in cultivating vegetable marrows. But he abandoned the marrows in search of the murderer.

Mrs. Christie let Poirot do some garden work in 1926.

Answer: Summer

Some lecture of M. Hercule Poirot:

"You are at Leathercombe Bay, why? Parbleu! it is August-one goes to the seaside in August-one is on one's holiday. It is quite natural, you see, for you to be here and for Mr Lane to be here and for Major Barry to be here and for Mrs Redfern and her husband to be here. Because it is the custom in England to go to the seaside in August."

Who did kill beautiful Arlena on the beach? Her husband? Her young stepdaughter? A jealous wife of another man? A condemning priest...or someone else? Poirot had to interrupt his vacation to find the solution.

This book was ready to read on the beach in 1941. If the beach was nowhere close to the Battle of Britain, and the weather was fine.

Answer: Autumn/Fall

Conversation between Inspector Kemp and Colonel Race:

"Race said: "I wonder if that's what we are meant to think?"
"Grieving husband kills himself on anniversary of wife's death? Not that it was the anniversary - but near enough."
"It was All Souls' Day," said Race."

Suicide by poisoned champagne in a fashionable restaurant? That was certainly going in style. Beautiful Rosemary Barton was said to suffer from depression after flu while her widower George, one year later, felt the loss of her too much. Ex-Army Colonel Race was not convinced. George had talked to him before his demise. With the help of Scotland Yard, and even more energetic help by one of the suspects, the truth was found out.

The book was first for sale in 1945.

Answer: Autumn/Fall

From the "Chipping Cleghorn Gazette":

"A murder is announced and will take place on Friday, 29 October, at Little Paddocks, at 6.30 pm."

When this announcement appeared in the "Chipping Cleghorn Gazette" , the honorable inhabitants of Chipping Cleghorn flocked in the comfortable heated sitting room. The light went out, a door flung open, a beam of light wandered through the room. A shot was fired. Dead lay the body of a young Swiss man. Was he the real victim- or perhaps the owner of the house, Miss L. Blacklock? Thankfully Miss Marple stayed in the hotel were Scherz worked. And what a surprise: she also knew the vicars' wife! This helped to find the responsible person.

The book was released in 1950. A major help was the Vicars' cat by pointing out a major clue.

Answer: Autumn/Fall

Conversation between Poirot and super inspector Spence:

"There is, that is clear, no time to be lost. Already the scent is cold. Mrs McGinty was killed -when?

"Last November, 22nd."

One evening, after a visit to an exquisite restaurant in town, Poirot received a visitor. Super inspector Spence asked for help to investigate the murder of Mrs McGinty. The problem: a suspect -James Bentley- had already been arrested by Spence himself and was awaiting his execution. But Spence had his doubts, which led him to Poirot. So Poirot went to Broadhinny and found more than one person had a skeleton in the closet. Being a charwoman, Mrs McGinty had been used to find hidden dirt. Was this the real reason for her killing?

In 1952, we learned about the sufferings of Poirot living as a paying guest in a small village. He taught his hostess how to make an omelet in the end.

Answer: Winter

Prelude of a murder:

"Up here, in the tiny village of Sittaford, at all times remote from the world, and now almost completely cut off, the rigors of winter were a very real problem

Major Burnaby, however, was a hardy soul. He snorted twice, grunted once, and marched resolutely out into the snow."

Major Burnaby went like some other neighbours to visit the Willets, mother and daughter, who rented a house in the small place of Sittaford, on the edge of Dartmoor. The owner and friend of Burnaby, captain Joseph Trevelyan, moved to another house in another town. The company at the Willets amused themselves with table turning. To their surprise, a spirit informed them about the murder of Trevelyan. Burnaby went out of the house and arrived two hours later at Trevelyan's dwellings. He was murdered. A financially broke nephew was arrested. But his fiancée, Emily Trefusis, with the help of a hopeful reporter named Charles Enderby, worked hard to clear him. She did.

The book was first on the market in 1931. With these masses of snow mentioned, it was most certainly winter.

Answer: Winter

Pierre Michel to Hercule Poirot, in the Orient Express:

"But yes, Monsieur. Monsieur has not noticed? The train has stopped. We have run into a snowdrift. Heaven knows how long we shall be here. I remember once being snowed up for seven days."

What bad news for Hercule Poirot from the conductor! Stuck in a train in what was then Yugoslavia. The good news: it was a luxury train. But there was more to follow the next morning: the man in the next cabin was murdered. But there was more bad news for whoever used the knife: Poirot had time to ask a whole group of suspicious fellow passengers. At the end, he gave two choices about how the whole murder happened.

The solution to this well-known murder was released in 1934.

Answer: Winter

The start of an eventful journey:

"Mrs. McGillicuddy panted along the platform in the wake of the porter carrying her suitcase. Mrs. McGillicuddy was short and stout, the porter was tall and free-striding. In addition, Mrs. McGillicuddy was burdened with a large quantity of parcels; the result of a day's Christmas shopping."

She must have thought the hardest part of the journey was over. She erred. While looking in the windows of a parallel train, she saw how a woman was strangled. Nobody believed her. Nobody? The friend she was visiting did believe her. After all, Jane Marple was an expert. Thankfully, she could recruit help in the form of an energetic young woman named Lucy Eylesbarrow. She helped her find the victim and examine some suspects. After a few more murders, the murderer was arrested.

1957 passengers had the first chance to miss their real train because they were too engrossed in Jane Marple's murder hunt.

The solution to this well-known murder was released in 1934.