Peril at End House (1932) Trivia Quiz

Answer: Hercule Poirot

When the story commences, Hercule Poirot and Arthur Hastings are on vacation on the Cornish coast. Poirot receives a letter from the British Home Secretary seeking his assistance in an urgent matter but Poirot refuses to take the case, much to Hastings' surprise, stating "I have retired -- I am finished". However, before the day is out, he is involved in yet another case.

Answer: Nick Buckley

Magdala, known as Nick, Buckley is the owner of End House, which she inherited from her grandfather. Nick told Poirot and Hastings that she was nick-named after her grandfather. "My grandfather was popularly supposed to have sold his soul to the devil. Everyone round here called him Old Nick.

He was a wicked old man -- but great fun. I adored him. I went everywhere with him and so they called us Old Nick and Young Nick".

Answer: Captain Arthur Hastings

Poirot told Hastings, "You have an extraordinary effect on me, Hastings. You have so strongly the flair in the wrong direction that I am almost tempted to go by it! You are that wholly admirable type of man, honest, credulous, honourable, who is invariably taken in by any scoundrel".

Not surprisingly, Hastings is somewhat offended by the suggestion that he is a "credulous fool". However, it is something that Hastings said which put Poirot on the track to solving the case.

Answer: Maggie Buckley

After hearing about Nick's narrow escapes from death -- three times in three days -- Poirot suggests that Nick invite her cousin Maggie to stay with her so that Nick will not be alone. However, this backfires when Maggie is murdered while wearing Nick's distinctive vivid red Chinese shawl.

Answer: Mildred (Milly) Croft

Milly and Bert Croft are Australians who lease the lodge at End House. Milly is confined to a wheelchair after an accident. Poirot is suspicious of the Crofts as he thought they might be exaggerating their Australian heritage and that they were "just a shade too typical".

His suspicions deepened when he discovered that the Crofts had urged Nick to make a will before she underwent a minor surgical procedure.

Answer: Charles Vyse

Charles Vyse told Poirot that Nick was utterly devoted to End House and that absolutely nothing would induce her to sell it. Nick told Poirot that she was fond of End House but would sell it if she received "such a ridiculously good offer that it would be perfectly foolish not to". Poirot wondered which of them is lying.

Answer: Frederica (Freddie) Rice

Hastings described Freddie as a "weary Madonna". Nick told Poirot and Hastings that Freddie had had a rotten life, married to a "beast" of a man who drank and did drugs. Freddie was unable to divorce her husband as she did not know where he was.

Answer: George Challenger

George Challenger is a Commander in the British Royal Navy. Nick told Poirot and Hastings that, in addition to his lack of financial resources, she "would get terribly bored with George...After all, he's forty if he's a day".

Hastings thinks George is all right and assures Poirot that George is "a real pukka sahib". Poirot tells Hastings that he has doubts about George simply because Hastings has "so strongly the flair in the wrong direction".

Answer: Jim Lazarus

Jim Lazarus offered to buy a portrait of Nick Buckley's grandfather. He offered Nick more than twice what it was worth but she refused to sell it. This apparent error in professional judgement piqued Hercule Poirot's curiosity.

Answer: Ellen Wilson

Ellen remained in the house during the fireworks, despite being urged by Nick to go out and see them. Ellen told Poirot that she decided to stay in the house because she "felt in her bones something was going to happen".