66 Novels · 14 Story Collections · Two Billion Copies Sold How Well Do You Know Agatha Christie? “The little grey cells, mon ami — they are everything.”
🕵PoirotLittle Grey Cells
🧶Miss MarpleThe Village Knows
🚆Orient ExpressTwelve Suspects
⚗PoisonHer Weapon of Choice
📖The Canon1920–1976
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01
Christie’s first published novel appeared in 1920 and introduced the world to Hercule Poirot. What was it called?
AThe Mysterious Affair at Styles BThe Secret Adversary CThe Murder at the Vicarage DMurder on the Orient Express
✓ Correct! The Mysterious Affair at Styles — written on a wartime dare from her sister, and rejected by six publishers before it saw print.
✗ Not quite! It’s The Mysterious Affair at Styles. The Murder at the Vicarage came a decade later — and gave us Miss Marple.
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02
Poirot bristles every time someone assumes he is French. Which country is the retired police detective actually from?
AFrance BSwitzerland CBelgium DLuxembourg
✓ Correct! Poirot is Belgian — a refugee of the First World War, which is exactly how he lands in England in Styles.
✗ Not quite! He is Belgian, and he will correct you at length if you suggest otherwise.
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03
Miss Jane Marple solves murders by comparing them to the petty scandals of her own tiny English village. Name it.
AKingsmarkham BSt. Mary Mead CStyles St. Mary DMidsomer Norton
✓ Correct! St. Mary Mead — where, as Marple insists, human nature is much the same as it is anywhere else, only closer to hand.
✗ Not quite! It’s St. Mary Mead. Styles St. Mary is Poirot’s village, and Kingsmarkham belongs to Ruth Rendell.
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04
The Murder of Roger Ackroyd (1926) scandalised readers and nearly got Christie thrown out of the Detection Club. What was the twist?
AThere was no murder at all BPoirot himself was the killer CThe victim faked his own death DThe narrator was the murderer
✓ Correct! Dr. Sheppard tells the whole story — and the whole story is a confession, hidden in what he leaves out. The narrator did it.
✗ Not quite! The narrator, Dr. Sheppard, is the murderer — critics called it cheating; it’s now considered one of the greatest twists ever written.
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05
In December 1926, Christie herself disappeared for 11 days, triggering a national manhunt. How did it end?
AShe was found at a Harrogate hotel, checked in under a false name BShe was discovered aboard a train to Istanbul CShe returned home on her own and never left DShe was located at her mother’s house in Torquay
✓ Correct! She was recognised at a hotel in Harrogate, registered under an assumed surname. Christie never explained the episode — not once, not ever.
✗ Not quite! Her car was found abandoned, and 11 days later she turned up at a Harrogate hotel under a false name. She never publicly explained why.
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06
Which Christie novel is her best-selling book — and the best-selling crime novel of all time, at over 100 million copies?
ADeath on the Nile BAnd Then There Were None CMurder on the Orient Express DThe A.B.C. Murders
✓ Correct! And Then There Were None — ten strangers on an island, no detective at all, and Christie’s own pick for the hardest book she ever wrote.
✗ Not quite! It’s And Then There Were None, the best-selling mystery novel ever published.
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07
Her play The Mousetrap opened in London in 1952. What distinction does it hold?
AThe first play ever broadcast live on the BBC BThe most-adapted play in film history CThe longest-running stage production in the world DThe only play Christie wrote under a pen name
✓ Correct! It has run in the West End since 1952 — the longest-running stage production anywhere, and audiences are still asked to keep the ending secret.
✗ Not quite! The Mousetrap is the longest-running stage production in the world — over 70 years and counting.
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08
Christie wrote Poirot’s last case during the Blitz and locked it in a bank vault for 30 years. When Curtain was finally published in 1975, what followed?
AIt was banned in Britain for a year BChristie publicly disowned the ending CHer publisher refused to print the last chapter DThe New York Times ran a front-page obituary for Poirot
✓ Correct! In August 1975 The New York Times gave Hercule Poirot a front-page obituary — the only fictional character ever to receive one.
✗ Not quite! The New York Times put Poirot’s obituary on its front page — an honour no other fictional character has ever been given.
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The Drawing Room · Everyone Is Assembled Your Detective Rank
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Order and method, mon ami — or merely a lucky guess? The grey cells will know the difference.
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