Poirot Catches Some Smaller Fry Quiz

Answer: Espionage

Bauerstein had the strange habit of wandering around at night, and with a name hinting to German ancestors when Britain was at war with Germany this was highly suspicious. He got away with it, though.

Christie's first novel was released in 1920 in the US, 1921 in the UK. The start of a long lasting career.

Wilhelm von Brincken was a famous spy; he even made it into the movies.

Answer: Theft

"Do not steal"

Poor Flora! A difficult mom, a parsimonious uncle- and therefore she was very short of money. So she yielded to temptation and took some of her uncle's money. Alas, it was the evening uncle Roger was murdered.

"The Murder of Roger Ackroyd" was released in 1926 and made it to No. 49 of "Le Monde's 100 Books of the Century".

Answer: Forgery

The amicable couple knew how to fake a will. Too bad that the testator - Magdala "Nick" Buckley - survived all the perils. Even worse, she faked her own death and the busy pair was found out.

Released in 1932 the book also dealt with the selling and taking of cocaine. Quite a fashion at this time.

Konrad Kujau forged the Hitler diaries, big news of the year 1983.

Answer: Forgery

Father Lavigny was supposed to be a specialist in epigraphy, but he was a fake one. Together with an associate important finds like a gold cup were replaced with well-made copies. He and his partner in crime were caught in Beyrouth.

In 1936 - the year the book was released - Agatha Christie was already married for some years to archaeologist Max Mallowan and could use her newly won knowledge about working on a dig to the advantage of the story.

Answer: Theft

Bob the dog wanted Charles to fetch a ball out of a drawer. He wanted to play. Charles found some money in another drawer - and yielded to temptation.

Being a dumb witness, Bob didn't tell what he watched.

American readers might know this 1937 book as "Poirot Loses a Client".

The dog wasn't the murderer, by the way.

A. J. Raffles was invented by E. W. Hornung in the 1890s. Maybe an inspiration for crooked Charles?

Answer: Smuggling

Horace had a sailing boat and was quite knowledgeable about coves and caves on the coast. He didn't do the drug smuggling alone, but we are not told the names of his accomplices.

What bad luck for him that beautiful and foolish Arlena was strangled in direct neighbourhood of a cache concealed by him. Jack Rattenbury was a famous Devonshire smuggler and died in 1844.

"Evil Under the Sun" dates from 1941. The sun shone above evil in Devon. In the 1982 movie with Peter Ustinov as Poirot the action had moved to some place in the Adriatic sea.

Answer: No

Most blackmailers in the Agatha Christie oeuvre end up as corpses.
Marlene, a local teenager, made the mistake to demand hush money from the wrong people. And so Hercule Poirot had to find out why she died on a murder hunt at a fete.

"Dead Man's Folly" was released in 1956. In "Agatha Christie's Poirot" it was the last episode ever to be filmed - but not aired as the last. One location where they did the filming in 2013 was Greenway Estate in Devon, which once belonged to Agatha Christie.

Answer: Espionage

Too bad for Miss Pebmarsh that the strange occurrence of a murdered man dumped at her place led to her unmasking as an Eastern spy. She used Braille to encode messages. What else?

1963 - the year "The Clocks" was published - was the time of the cold war. Kim Philby was one of the most famous defectors. No wonder, that a bit of spying was introduced in the story.

Answer: Forgery

Painter David Baker was a good-looking young man. Norma Restarick loved David. David loved money. He got involved with some very undesirable people and raised his income with some well-made faked paintings. When he tried to add some blackmailing as a source of income, he came in close contact with a sharp knife. Norma found someone better. A happy end for the "Third Girl".

Released in 1966 Agatha Christie tried to add some swinging London in this mystery story. Groovy.

Forger Elmyr de Hory (1906-1976) is said to have sold over 1,000 of his works to art galleries.

Answer: Murder on the Orient Express

Hercule Poirot rarely approved of murder. But the victim on the Orient Express was a hardened criminal, responsible for the death of little Daisy Armstrong and the suffering of all close to her.

So he made an exception.

One of Christie's best known, released in 1934.
She herself loved to travel by train, and the Orient express was a comfortable choice.