Killer Advice Trivia Quiz

Answer: Charlotte Blacklock from "A Murder is Announced"

Prior to "A Murder is Announced", Letitia Blacklock died and her sister, former invalid Charlotte, had taken her identity in order to claim a large inheritance. She shared this information with her dear friend Bunny. However, when a Swiss man named Rudi Scherz, who knew both Blacklock sisters when they spent World War II in Switzerland, arrived, Charlotte killed him because he knew she was not Letitia. Bunny was unaware that her friend killed Scherz, but kept inadvertently incriminating her by mentioning innocuous things like there being a different lamp in the room the murder occurred in.

The lamps had to be switched because Miss Blacklock had frayed the cord and spilled water on it to blow the fuse so the room would be dark.

Answer: Rowena Drake from "Hallowe'en Party"

Prior to the events in "Hallowe'en Party", Rowena Drake conspired with Andrew Garfield to inherit a large sum of money from Drake's late husband's aunt, Mrs. Llewellyn-Smythe. The actual heiress was Olga Seminoff, an au pair girl. Rowena Drake and her accomplice produced a poorly forged will (hiding the real one) benefiting Olga so that it would be declared invalid and Mrs. Drake would inherit. The conspirators then killed Olga and threw her in a well. That is the murder Joyce Reynolds claimed to have seen at the Halloween party, so Rowena Drake drowned Joyce in the bobbing for apples tub. But, Rowena Drake was wet from doing so and created a lame excuse about dropping water on her from a vase of flowers, an event that was witnessed by Miss Emlyn, but there was no sense to her watering flowers during the party.

However, it was not Joyce who saw the murder, but her friend Miranda, who was sick and did not attend the party. Miranda later told Poirot that she saw Rowena Drake carry Olga's body with Garfield.

Answer: Lawrence Redding from "Murder at the Vicarage"

Redding conspired with Anne Protheroe to kill her husband so they could marry. Anne paraded around town in a tight outfit and no purse so everyone would see she could not be concealing a gun, which she later secured from Redding. After Anne shot her husband in the vicarage, she left and made sure she was seen.

Then, Lawrence went out into the forest to set off the firecracker to make it sound as if Protheroe was killed after Anne left. Miss Marple saw Redding carry the rock and he pretended it was for her, a crucial error since he should have known that rock would not have matched Miss Marple's garden.

Answer: Jackie de Bellefort from "Death on the Nile"

Simon and Jackie were a couple prior to his meeting Linnet. Then the novel cuts suddenly and Simon and Linnet were now married and honeymooning in Egypt. Jackie had taken to stalking them. One night, a slightly inebriated Jackie apparently shot Simon in the leg, incapacitating him. However, what really happened was that Jackie purposely missed Simon, who faked being shot. Jackie was then escorted away, leaving Simon alone; he then ran across the boat to shot Linnet, ran back, shot himself and threw the gun overboard. Because Simon was "injured" and Jackie under constant supervision, they both had alibis for Linnet's murder.

Linnet's maid, Louise, however, saw Simon running away from Linnet's cabin when he was supposed to be unable to walk and discovered what happened. Jackie later killed Louise to silence her.

Answer: Mark Gaskell from "The Body in the Library"

Mark Gaskell teamed up with his secret wife Josie Turner to kill Josie's cousin Ruby because Mark's father-in-law from his first marriage wanted to bequeath his entire estate to Ruby. Josie and Mark had lured a girl guide named Pamela, killed her, dressed her in Ruby's clothes and left her in Basil Blake's house to incriminate him. That body would be later identified by Josie as Ruby's so both she and Mark would have an alibi for her time of death. After killing the girl guide but before dumping her body, Josie killed Ruby, dressed her in Pamela's clothes and burned her body so it could not be identified.

They were caught by Miss Marple because of nail clippings found belonging to Ruby. Ruby, being a dancer who dressed well, always clipped her nails but the body found in the Bantrys' library (moved there by Basil Blake) were bitten. Also the girl in the library died a virgin, which Ruby was not. Thus, Miss Marple realized Josie had purposely misidentified the body as she would have had to know that was not her cousin. Upon further research, Miss Marple discovered that Mark and Josie had been secretly married and needed his father-in-law's money and planned to kill him as well.

Answer: Miss Gilchrist from "After the Funeral"

In "After the Funeral", Miss Gilchrist devises a plan to kill her companion, Cora Lansquenet, for a painting Cora did not know was valuable. When Cora's brother Richard dies, Miss Gilchrist drugs Cora and impersonates her at Richard's funeral, where she states that she believes Richard was murdered.

The ploy was necessary in order to give the appearance that Cora's murder was related to Richard's (who died naturally) since Miss Gilchrist would not have anymotive to kill Richard, and would be the only person to have one for killing Cora.

However, Miss Gilchrist practiced imitating Cora in a mirror and thus turned her head the wrong way when impersonating her at the funeral. This led Helen Abernathie to suspect something was off about Cora. Later, Miss Gilchrist visited Enderby Hall as herself and mentioned that a green malachite table looked better with wax flowers in it.

However, those flowers were at the funeral but were moved during the middle of the story by the time Miss Gilchrist arrived. Thus, she could only have known about the flowers if she had been there prior to that day.

Answer: Mr. Symmington from "The Moving Finger"

Mr. Symmington wanted to kill his wife so he could marry his children's governess, Elise Holland. He came up with the idea of writing false poison pen letters accusing the citizens of Lymstock of various misdeeds. However, being a busy man, he had no time for gossip and this led Miss Marple to suspect him in the first place. Miss Marple believed that a woman would have known the actual gossip in town and would not have had to make it up.

She correctly assumed that none of the letters were accurate, and thus Mrs. Symmington would never have committed suicide from receiving one.

Therefore, the only logical suspect was her husband. He was further incriminated by not sending a letter to Elsie Holland. Megan, Mr. Symmington's stepdaughter, pretended to blackmail him as a plot to expose him.

Answer: Major Burnaby from "Murder at the Hazelmoor" (UK title "The Sittaford Mystery")

Captain Trevelyan had a habit of entering sports contests via a newspaper and using the names and addresses of his neighbors because he lived at Sittaford House, which he believed was too luxurious a house to be selected as a winner. Before his murder, Trevelyan had won a contest for 5,000 pounds (about 475,000 U.S. dollars in 2015) under Burnaby's name. Burnaby needed the money, so he plotted to kill Trevelyan. During a game of table turning and during a blizzard, Burnaby manipulated the board so it said that Trevelyan was murdered. Burnaby then claimed to have walked for hours to where his friend was staying in town to check on him.

In reality, Burnaby skied there, arrived quickly, killed Trevelyan and then pretended to find the body hours later.

However, he had to dispose of his ski boots, which were a different size from Trevelyan's. He hid them among his friend's boots, but the size differences were discovered, which meant someone who was not Trevelyan had skied recently.

Answer: Superintendent Sugden from "Hercule Poirot's Christmas"

Superintendent Sugden was one of (presumably) many illegitimate sons of Simeon Lee. Sugden wanted revenge, another familial trait, on his father because Simeon had abandoned his mother many years prior. Sugden likely would have gotten away with it, since he was the investigating detective in Lee's murder, had it not been for Poirot who noticed that Sugden had similar habits to Simeon Lee and his other sons. One of these habits was stroking the jawline back and forth, and another was the throwing back of the head and laughing loudly. Poirot also noticed that a portrait of Simeon Lee looked identical to Sugden when a false mustache was placed on it.

Answer: Jane Wilkinson from "Lord Edgware Dies"

Jane Wilkinson wanted to marry the Duke of Merton, who was a strict Catholic and would never marry a divorced woman, so she had to be a widow. She hired Carlotta Adams, a famed impressionist, to play her at a party. The real Jane was, however, murdering her husband. Jane later poisoned Carlotta so she couldn't tell anyone it was really her at the party.

However, Carlotta as Jane spoke openly with Donald Ross about Helen of Troy and Paris. At a different party, the real Jane doesn't understand the mythological Paris, thinking Donald is talking about Paris, France.

This leads him to believe that Jane was not at the first party. Donald never gets to tell Poirot this, but the Belgian detective figures it out any way.