Murder for Christmas Trivia Quiz

Answer: Not enough blood

Christie dedicated this novel to her brother-in-law. In her dedication, she writes: "My dear James, you have always been the most faithful and kindly of my readers, and I was therefore seriously perturbed when I received from you a word of criticism.
You complained that my murders were getting too refined- anaemic, in fact! You yearned for a "good violent murder with lots of blood." A murder where there was no doubt about its being murder! So this is your special story- written for you. I hope it may please.
Your affectionate sister-in-law, Agatha"

Answer: They are both impersonating other people

Stephen Farr arrives at Gorston Hall claiming to be the son of Ebenezer Farr, Simeon Lee's deceased partner. In fact, his name is Stephen Grant, and he is Lee's illegitimate son. Pilar Estravados in reality is Conchita Lopez; the real Pilar Estravados was Simeon Lee's granddaughter by his daughter Jennifer, who had married a Spanish artist.

She was killed by a bomb while traveling in a car with Miss Lopez; when the latter received a Christmas invitation from Simeon Lee, she decided to impersonate the dead woman in the hopes of ingratiating herself to the old man and getting some money out of him.

Answer: 6

In addition to his four legitimate sons, Alfred, George, David, and Harry, there is Stephen Grant, alias Stephen Farr, and Superintendent Sugden. Although neither of these men bears Lee's name, they are his illegitimate offspring. The way the clues are dropped in this novel is particularly ingenious: most readers catch on that Stephen Farr and Harry Lee bear a striking resemblance to each other, are frequently mistaken for each other by other characters, and share some of the old man's mannerisms (such as stroking the jaw and laughing with the head thrown back).

While we are congratulating ourselves on our powers of observation, the author is dropping more subtle hints that Sugden, whom we tend to discount because he is the investigating officer (forgetting one very famous instance in Christie of the detective as murderer; I won't say which!), shares these same mannerisms and is occasionally also mistaken for either Stephen Farr or Harry Lee.

Answer: They are uncut

Lee refuses to have the diamonds cut, vowing that they will never be used to adorn some woman's throat. He keeps the diamonds, incredibly, in his bedroom safe. They are stolen by the murderer to suggest that Lee was killed when he surprised someone in the act of theft, and were placed in one of Lydia Lee's miniature gardens, where Poirot found them.

Answer: Hilda Lee (David's wife)

Hilda is the rather maternal wife of the over-sensitive David Lee, who had idolized his mother and deeply resented his father's treatment of her. Hilda had been urging David to forgive his father, and was both stunned and outraged by the old man's outburst.

She approached him after the others had left and took him to task for his malicious behavior. When Lee expressed unrepentant satisfaction at his behavior, Hilda told him that she was afraid, not of him, but for him. As it turns out, her fears were justified.

Answer: "Like killing a pig" (Harry Lee)

The supposed dying scream of the murdered man was, in fact, a deflating balloon called a "dying pig" (these were sold at fairs and bazaars) which gave forth an inhuman wail while deflating. It was rigged by the murderer to deflate at the same time that the piled-up furniture came tumbling down, giving a false impression of a terrible struggle followed by a scream.

Although Hilda Lee came close when she said that the scream sounded "inhuman like a beast", it was Harry Lee, according to Poirot, who came nearest to the truth. Pilar Estravados picked up the remains of the balloon after the murder, however the observant Superintendent Sugden noticed this and demanded it from her.

Answer: Three Act Tragedy (Murder in Three Acts)

"Three Act Tragedy" (a.k.a. "Murder in Three Acts") involved nicotine poisoning. Colonel Johnson had considered murder by poison "un-English", "unsportsmanlike", and "a device of foreigners"; Poirot ribs him about this, since murder by poison (particularly arsenic) has become as English as afternoon tea.

Answer: False

Actually, it is the rather naive Johnson who tells Poirot that it will be unlikely to have a murder committed during the season of good cheer. Poirot points out, however, that the irritability which accompanies excessive merry-making, combined with the strain of having to appear merry and get along with people with whom one does not get along actually makes the soil quite ripe for violent crime.

It is Johnson who is astonished at receiving word of Simeon Lee's violent murder.

Answer: Pilar Estravados

Pilar is telling Sugden that her late grandfather, as a young man, must have been very handsome, and innocently adds "like you." This causes Sugden to turn brick-red; we think out of embarrassment, but actually out of fear. This casual observation, along with her later observation that the piece of rubber she had picked up in the murder room must have been a broken balloon, nearly get her killed. One flaw of this novel is the preposterous way the murderer tries to do away with her- by balancing a cannon-ball on top of her bedroom door? Don't try that one at home!

Answer: David Lee

David's alibi, in fact, was that he was heard by Tressilian, the butler, playing the "Dead March" (which was, to say the least, an eccentric choice of music for Christmas Eve) at the time the struggle and the scream upstairs were heard.

Answer: Lydia Lee

Lydia comes to regret having made this observation, which has a decidedly unfortunate (for her) provenance: the words of Lady Macbeth! However, her use of this quote shows perception; all of the blood was not, in fact, Simeon Lee's.

Answer: Her parents were both blue-eyed

While Poirot is studying photographs of the young Simeon Lee, Stephen and Pilar discover photographs of Juan and Jennifer Estravados. Poirot observes that both of them had blue eyes (Juan's mother was Irish). He asks Pilar for her passport; she pretends to drop it from her open window and, while retrieving it, smudges the photo.

However, Poirot has observed that she has brown eyes, highly unlikely if both her parents were blue-eyed.

Answer: That no one had come out of the room after the murder

Hilda had gone to Simeon Lee's room to announce that she and David were leaving, and why they were leaving. She had tried the door handle and found it locked; then she heard the noise and scream from inside the room, after which people came rushing up to the door, but she had seen no one emerge after hearing the noises.

She had lied about this to the inspectors, since they could only have concluded that it was she who had committed the murder, but she had been seen (but not recognized) by Pilar. It was not until Sugden accused Pilar of lying about having seen a woman in order to cover for Stephen Farr that Hilda Lee confessed.

Answer: Alfred Lee and Hilda Lee

Poirot feels that the slavishly loyal Alfred might conceivably have snapped, triggering a violent outburst and possibly a murder. Apart from Alfred, he feels that Hilda Lee is the sort of woman who, for what she feels to be noble reasons, might conceivably take the law into her own hands; he compares her such Biblical female characters as Judith and Jael (both of whom killed a man out of noble and/or patriotic motives).

He feels that George and his wife would not take the risk of committing a murder, that Lydia (Alfred's wife) has "too much irony in her nature", that Harry, for all his bluster, is essentially a weakling, and that David is too sensitive to have committed such a bloody crime.

Answer: A false moustache

Poirot is given quite a turn when, after an interview with George and Magdalene Lee, Sugden throws back his head and laughs- in the same way that Simeon Lee used to do (and in the same way that Harry Lee and Stephen Farr/Grant do on several occasions).

He looks, as Colonel Johnson observes, as if he has seen a ghost (which, in a manner of speaking, he has). He buys the false mustache at a novelty shop; when he puts it on a portrait of Simeon Lee as a young man, he sees the face of Superintendent Sugden staring back at him.