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Guess That Murder Victim

Mr_Graves 12 Oct 10 at 4:57 a.m. GMT

I thought there needed to be some recognition for those who gave their lives to being murdered in the Agatha Christie novels. So in this game, you must try to guess which character is being described, and also HOW THEY WERE MURDERED. Here is an example...

"I am a foolish and rather credulous maid, and I do not save any of my money, rather spending it on things like nylons and theater tickets. I used to work for Miss Jane Marple, but was taken into the employ of the Fortescue family. What is my name and how was I killed?"

The answer to this would be : "Gladys Martin, who was strangled with a pair of stockings in 'A Pocket Full of Rye' ". You don't have to say which book the character was murdered in. 

So here's a starter: "I am a dislikable and trouble-making boy, who always seems to be making people cross. It's only for a laugh, though! I recently got into a bit of trouble with a certain Lord... What is my name and how was I murdered?"

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901 replies

Reverse order

Nofret 20 May 12 at 4:52 a.m. GMT

Well done, Mr G, it is Mrs Benson, poisoned by the person she suspected of theft.

Your turn.

Mr_Graves 19 May 12 at 5:36 a.m. GMT

This reply contains spoiler information. Show reply

Mrs Benson, "Cards on the Table"? A victim of Miss Meredith's in the book, and bizarrely of Rhoda Dawes' in the 2006 adaptation. Such a shame, I felt, to such a nice character!

Nofret 19 May 12 at 5:27 a.m. GMT

Not Emily Inglethorpe, though everyone is correct in the fact that the character is an elderly female. In the TV adaptation, however, she was murdered by a different person from in the book.

Mr_Graves 18 May 12 at 7:54 p.m. GMT

Emily Inglethorpe, Christie's first victim, poisoned in "The Mysterious Affair at Styles"?

Nofret 18 May 12 at 11:30 a.m. GMT

Not Miss Barrowby.

Mr_Graves 18 May 12 at 5:56 a.m. GMT

Miss Amelia Barrowby, "How Does Your Garden Grow"?

Nofret 18 May 12 at 4:58 a.m. GMT

Not Bunny, Emily Arundel or Mrs Pengelly, and this person doesn't appear in a short story.

NightRayDuck 17 May 12 at 8:04 p.m. GMT

Mrs. Pengelley in that Poirot short story? I forget the title. She was poisoned, I think.

Bunch_Marple 17 May 12 at 3:23 p.m. GMT

Emily Arandel?

Tommy_A_Jones 17 May 12 at 2:02 p.m. GMT

Bunny

Nofret 16 May 12 at 3:56 p.m. GMT

It could be, Bunch, though I don't think she was aware of anyone getting one over on her.

Bunch_Marple 16 May 12 at 10:08 a.m. GMT

Elinor Carlisle's aunt in Sad Cypress?

Nofret 16 May 12 at 6:53 a.m. GMT

Thank you, Duck, and welcome, mstj. Try this one -

Just because I'm no longer in the first flush of youth, and suffer a little, er, indisposition, it doesn't mean that there's anything wrong with my mental facilities! A certain person is taking advantage of me!

NightRayDuck 15 May 12 at 5:06 p.m. GMT

Nofret is correct with Philip Durrant stabbed in the back of the head in Ordeal by Innocence. Well done, Nofret, your turn.

hello mstj, good to see you! :D

mstj 15 May 12 at 9:37 a.m. GMT

Poisoned?  Either that or Nofret's suggestion.  I don't remember Ordeal By Innocence very well.

Nofret 15 May 12 at 4:39 a.m. GMT

Stabbed in the back of the head?

NightRayDuck 15 May 12 at 12:50 a.m. GMT

The victim is Philip Durrant. Cause of death / murder method, please?

Tommy_A_Jones 14 May 12 at 10:57 a.m. GMT

Stephen Restarick

Nofret 13 May 12 at 11:55 a.m. GMT

I think it may be Philip Durrant from Ordeal by Innocence.

Mr_Graves 13 May 12 at 7:24 a.m. GMT

Possibly Miss Murgatroyd, "A Murder is Announced"?

NightRayDuck 12 May 12 at 6:25 p.m. GMT

Thank you.

Well! It was nice and refreshing when I played detective to find the killer amongst ourselves! All right, she was right, it was a dangerous game, and indeed it got me killed. But I was so bored! And she was nagging at me so. I just couldn't pass up such a great chance for excitement!

similar to the previous puzzle, this is the victim speaking (complaining?) after death.

Tommy_A_Jones 12 May 12 at 12:54 p.m. GMT

Correct Ray, Your Turn

NightRayDuck 12 May 12 at 6:05 a.m. GMT

I am guessing Christian Gulbrandsen who was shot in They Do It With Mirrors.

Nofret 12 May 12 at 3:57 a.m. GMT

Mr Morley the dentist? He had a very busy day, as he'd had to take on extra patients. Shot at close quarters.

Tommy_A_Jones 11 May 12 at 12:31 p.m. GMT

No but you are on the right track.

NightRayDuck 11 May 12 at 2:02 a.m. GMT

Colonel Protheroe, who was shot by firearms, in Murder in the Vicarage?

Tommy_A_Jones 10 May 12 at 12:24 p.m. GMT

No

Nofret 09 May 12 at 5:14 a.m. GMT

Henry Carmichael in They Came to Baghdad?

Tommy_A_Jones 08 May 12 at 10:51 a.m. GMT

Yes Bunch_Marple and It isn't Amyass

Bunch_Marple 08 May 12 at 10:10 a.m. GMT

Were you hopeing to meet someone, so you didn't rush away?

NightRayDuck 07 May 12 at 5:46 p.m. GMT

I think maybe Amyas Crale, who was poisoned while he stayed painting rather than getting up to visit his friend's house, in Five Little Pigs. I am not sure though, as I don't know if he considered that day an impossibly tight schedule.

Tommy_A_Jones 07 May 12 at 2:09 p.m. GMT

It is a Man.

Tommy_A_Jones 30 Apr 12 at 10:28 a.m. GMT

No

Nofret 30 Apr 12 at 5:55 a.m. GMT

M. Renauld from Murder on the Links was on a tight schedule and had to quickly get rid of Dulcie Duveen. He was stabbed shortly after.

Tommy_A_Jones 27 Apr 12 at 2:20 p.m. GMT

No

Nofret 27 Apr 12 at 4:40 a.m. GMT

Gladys Martin, rushed off her feet with her domestic duties? Strangled.

Tommy_A_Jones 26 Apr 12 at 1:11 p.m. GMT

Thankyou Nofret and Ray

I had an impossibly tight schedule and couldn't safford to hang about, but I did and look where it got me DEAD!

as you can see I am taking the stance that the Person is somehow talking from beyond the Grave

Nofret 26 Apr 12 at 4:17 a.m. GMT

Well done, both of you. Of course I'm assuming that when he saw his friend's son dressed as a woman Sessle would have thought it was a joke, but as homophobia was the norm in the 20's/30's he could have thought it was disgusting. I tend to the former explanation, otherwise he wouldn't have gone off with the "woman"

So, over to Tommy!

NightRayDuck 25 Apr 12 at 8:09 p.m. GMT

The murderer stabbed Sessle with a hat pin.

Tommy should get the next turn. I had completely forgotten the possibly-a-joke part of Sessle's murder.

Oh, and Bunch_Marple, pls take a look at the "Guess the Story" ? I think we're still on your puzzle. Thank you.

Tommy_A_Jones 25 Apr 12 at 10:49 a.m. GMT

The Murderer changed their Clothes from a Man to a woman and back again, Was The Victim strangled by Tights?

Nofret 25 Apr 12 at 7:57 a.m. GMT

Oh dear, Tommy, very wrong! Anyone else have any ideas - and what was so unusual about the murderer?

Tommy_A_Jones 24 Apr 12 at 2:30 p.m. GMT

I don't play Golf so the only Golf Clubs I can think of are a Mashie Niblick or a 9 Iron, A Mashie Niblick sounds to farcical (But I am sure they aren't) so I will say a 9 Iron

Nofret 24 Apr 12 at 2:25 p.m. GMT

Well done, but what was the unusual weapon that killed him?

Tommy_A_Jones 24 Apr 12 at 10:59 a.m. GMT

Sessle in The Sunningdale Mystery

Nofret 24 Apr 12 at 10:21 a.m. GMT

Not Heather Badcock, nor Paul Renauld, though, Bunch, you're right about death on the golf course.

Bunch_Marple 24 Apr 12 at 8:22 a.m. GMT

Paul Renauld, murdered on the links whilst trying to start a new life and screw his blackmailer over?

Tommy_A_Jones 23 Apr 12 at 11:16 a.m. GMT

Heather Badcock

Nofret 23 Apr 12 at 4:02 a.m. GMT

No, Tommy, right off course

Tommy_A_Jones 22 Apr 12 at 12:44 p.m. GMT

I mean Ella Zielinsky

Tommy_A_Jones 22 Apr 12 at 11:05 a.m. GMT

The Woman who tries a spot of Blackmail in The Mirror Crack'd

Nofret 22 Apr 12 at 4:29 a.m. GMT

Right game, Tommy, but wrong victim and wrong book!

Tommy_A_Jones 21 Apr 12 at 11:34 a.m. GMT

Carstairs who was found Dieing by Bobby Jones and The Doctor.

Nofret 21 Apr 12 at 4:37 a.m. GMT

No, it's not from 4.50 from Paddington, although you're right about the murder being solved by someone other than the police.

Don't forget what game you are playing..........

Tommy_A_Jones 20 Apr 12 at 10:51 a.m. GMT

I am not sure what Question you are referring to so I will suggest The Woman Killed in 4.50 From Paddington, Elspeth McGillicuddy might have said this in 4.50 From Paddington about seeing the Murder in the other Train, in both this book and A Murder is Announced someone other than the Poloce or sleuth had a go at solveing the Murder, in the case of A Murder is Announced Miss Hinchcliffe and in the case of 4.50 From Paddington Lucy Eyelesbarrow.  

Nofret 20 Apr 12 at 7:44 a.m. GMT

Not Miss Hinchcliffe nor Dora Bunner. It wasn't Richard Haydon, although this person was stabbed.

Actually, Tommy, your last question contains a good clue.......

NightRayDuck 19 Apr 12 at 6:20 p.m. GMT

I thought maybe Richard Haydon who was stabbed in the events Dr. Pender recounted to the Tuesday Night Club, the story titled "The Idol House of Astarte". on re-reading the story, however, I found that Richard Haydon felt quite uneasy about the possibly joke, that is to say, Richard Haydon didn't employ his sense of humor at that time, so I don't suppose he's the right answer, either..

Tommy_A_Jones 19 Apr 12 at 2:15 p.m. GMT

Sorry I forgot what Game I was Playing, Is it Dora Bunner?

Tommy_A_Jones 19 Apr 12 at 10:53 a.m. GMT

What about Miss Hinchcliffe?

Nofret 19 Apr 12 at 4:25 a.m. GMT

Not Carlotta Adams. No-one from Belgium appeared in this story.

NightRayDuck 18 Apr 12 at 6:13 a.m. GMT

I thought maybe Carlotta Adams who died of sleeping medicine (veronal?) in Lord Edgeware Dies, but I don't think she thought much about jokes, and I can't think of a possibly "how disgusting!" moment in Carlotta's involvement in the case, either. so I suppose that's not the right answer..

Nofret 18 Apr 12 at 4:14 a.m. GMT

It's not Miss Murgatroyd, Tommy, but you're thiinking along the right lines as to why this person might well have been disgusted with what they saw.

M is E - obviously Miss Springer from Cat Amongst the Pigeons. Next time wait your turn until you have guessed the current puzzle.

murder_is_easy123 17 Apr 12 at 2:07 p.m. GMT

Here's one:

"I am a sadistic young woman in my late 30s, I work as a teacher, and I love bullying people"

Who am I and how was I murdered??

Tommy_A_Jones 17 Apr 12 at 10:59 a.m. GMT

Miss Murgatroyed A Murder Is Announced

Nofret 17 Apr 12 at 7:15 a.m. GMT

Good thinking, Duck, but not Arlena, don't think she had much of a sense of humour!

Regarding the last clue, in the era that this story was set, people were not as "politically correct" as today.

NightRayDuck 15 Apr 12 at 7:41 p.m. GMT

Arlena Marshall, strangled by bare hands, in Evil Under the Sun? Poirot imagines that she might have been told that it was a joke in process, when it was really the alibi-building that was in process.

Nofret 15 Apr 12 at 5:13 a.m. GMT

No-one from Seven Dials, and not Gladys Sanders.

Of course, in the same situation, another person might have thought *Good God, how disgusting!"

NightRayDuck 14 Apr 12 at 10:53 p.m. GMT

the newly married Gladys Sanders, conked on the head, in "A Christmas Tragedy", which Miss Marple regrets she hadn't been able to prevent?

Tommy_A_Jones 14 Apr 12 at 10:41 a.m. GMT

The 2nd Victim in The Seven Dials I think his name was Ronnie Deveraux

Nofret 14 Apr 12 at 8:07 a.m. GMT

Not Michael Gorman, this person wasn't working at the time.

Tommy_A_Jones 13 Apr 12 at 12:23 p.m. GMT

Gorman in At Bertram's Hotel

Nofret 12 Apr 12 at 5:53 a.m. GMT

Thank you, Duck.

Well, I was just enjoying some well-deserved relaxation and exercise, when suddenly - good Lord, what a laugh! So I went along with it, but it wasn't a joke at all.

NightRayDuck 11 Apr 12 at 2:18 a.m. GMT

Yes, this victim is Davis from The Adventure of the Clapham Cook. cause of death was not mentioned in the story. Congrats Nofret, your turn.

Nofret 10 Apr 12 at 10:36 a.m. GMT

Is it Davis, from The Adventure of the Clapham Cook, the bank clerk suspected of absconding with the takings? Not sure how he was killed, but his body was hidden in a trunk.

NightRayDuck 10 Apr 12 at 4:38 a.m. GMT

not either of the Setons. both the uncle and the nephew died of various accident / unexpected medical misadventure, didn't they? this victim is definitely murdered by a murderer.

GKCfan 10 Apr 12 at 3:31 a.m. GMT

Matthew Seton from Peril at End House?

NightRayDuck 10 Apr 12 at 2:01 a.m. GMT

hello...? this victim is afraid of being forgotten after being all over the newspapers.. thank you.

NightRayDuck 05 Apr 12 at 7:07 p.m. GMT

next victim:

"I was a conscientious young man; I was in no way outstanding, but I hadn't committed any particular error or misdeed, either. Now suddenly I've vanished and I am all over the newspapers! I hope somebody finds me." 

Nofret - I did pick up the clue, but I had forgotten the names of both of the young women, so I couldn't figure out how to explain the murder part without getting everybody muddled. I am sorry. 

Nofret 05 Apr 12 at 5:26 a.m. GMT

Well done, Duck, Annette Ravel it is, even though no-one spotted the vital clue, that she died, then was murdered (by Feliicite)

Your turn.

NightRayDuck 05 Apr 12 at 3:25 a.m. GMT

hm.. the pretty, clever, vain girl who became a well-known singer, or was it dancer, before dying from tuberculosis, reminisced by the man in the short story "The Fourth Man" ?

Nofret 01 Apr 12 at 11:48 a.m. GMT

No, neither of those affluent people. This person started off on the very lowest rung of the ladder.

NightRayDuck 01 Apr 12 at 1:53 a.m. GMT

that nasty-looking kidnapper fellow who asked a certain famous sleuth for protection, but still finally got stabbed to death, a case of Murder on the Orient Express ?

Mr_Graves 31 Mar 12 at 9:53 p.m. GMT

An obvious guess, but Linnet Ridgeway perhaps?

Nofret 31 Mar 12 at 6:30 a.m. GMT

Thank you, Duck. I must just add that I have very happy memories of playing the part of Alix on stage - my Gerald Martin was very dishy, too!

I worked so hard to get where I was, I had everything I wanted, then death came. God, I didn't want to die! Then finally I was murdered! 

NightRayDuck 30 Mar 12 at 5:38 p.m. GMT

Nofret, would you like to go ahead and post the next quiz?

NightRayDuck 13 Mar 12 at 2:19 a.m. GMT

here also. Stephen has gone missing. yikes..

NightRayDuck 16 Feb 12 at 9:40 p.m. GMT

Gerald Martin cause of death: being very worried about possible toxic content of his cup of coffee.

Nofret 04 Feb 12 at 11:33 a.m. GMT

Gerald Martin from Philomel Cottage?

StephenNorton 04 Feb 12 at 8:45 a.m. GMT

No its not the problem at sea or the mystery of the crime in cabine 66

hint: the one responsible for my death had a dream about seeing me dying while she was glade of my death.

NightRayDuck 01 Feb 12 at 7:32 p.m. GMT

the story is also known as "The Mystery of the Crime in Cabin 66", I think.

NightRayDuck 29 Jan 12 at 10:13 p.m. GMT

Clapperton in "Problem at Sea"? died of sudden surprise during a puppet show.

StephenNorton 29 Jan 12 at 3:36 p.m. GMT

No its not Mrs Pritchard^^ Well I give you another hint, the person that died of fear was a man

Nofret 29 Jan 12 at 6:21 a.m. GMT

Mrs Pritchard from The Blue Geranium? Poisoned by inhaling cyanide.

StephenNorton 28 Jan 12 at 9:25 p.m. GMT

No its not mrs harter, but it is from someone from a short story^^

Nofret 28 Jan 12 at 5:41 a.m. GMT

Old Mrs Harter in Wireless?

StephenNorton 27 Jan 12 at 3:53 a.m. GMT

You are on the right track Ray, but it is not Lady Carmichael

NightRayDuck 26 Jan 12 at 9:47 p.m. GMT

the current Lady Carmichael, that is, the step-mother of the current Sir Arthur Carmichael, in "The Curious Case of Sir Arthur Carmichael"? Lady Carmichael died of severe fright and anxiety.

StephenNorton 26 Jan 12 at 4:41 p.m. GMT

I understand what you mean, ATTWN is very interesting and I have read it many times ^^ I specialy love the way Christie managed to creat this dense and scary atmosphere.

Well it isnt rev. Babbington but i give you another hint:

"I was so terrified. The fear possesed me and killed me from the inside"

Nofret 26 Jan 12 at 4:27 p.m. GMT

My favourite has to be And Then There Were None. No matter how many times I re-read it, I still get the shivers! A birlliant piece of plotting and misdirection.

Anyway, is it the Rev. Babbington from Three Act Tragedy?

StephenNorton 25 Jan 12 at 4:35 p.m. GMT

Eventhough I liked this Novel very much with my fav. Investigator and one of my fav chapters (the diary entry of the 14. feb) and one of the most interessting plan of murder, I have to say that it is not his Story^^ BTW which is your fav. story?

Nofret 25 Jan 12 at 4:13 p.m. GMT

Ooh, this reminds me of the end of Towards Zero, when Audrey is talking to Battle, and she wonders whether her lover's death was also due to Lady Tressillian's murderer.

StephenNorton 25 Jan 12 at 12:01 p.m. GMT

Thank you Nofret, well I have a difficult one. The problem is that it was a victim, but not in a legal terminological sense of the word. this is actualy the first part of the hint but the real one is yet to come:

"I died but I am not sure was it murder or not? I guess I  will never know"

Nofret 25 Jan 12 at 5:11 a.m. GMT

Yes, Treplag, and Phil Mitchell has just been charged with Stella's murder as he was alleged to have said "Jump orf that roof or I'll push yer!"

But I digress. Well done, Stephen, it was Mrs Chandler, drowned by her insane husband when he suspected that Hugo wasn't his child.

Your turn.

treplag 24 Jan 12 at 11:01 p.m. GMT

This is a follow-up to the discussion between StephenNorton and myself about legal versus moral responsibility in regard to coerced suicide.  It occurred to me that there are two situations where a person who was the proximate cause of another's suicide could be prosecuted for his or her involvement in it.  In both cases the responsible party willfully denies the victim his or her free will.  The first example was actually used in an episode of "Columbo".  In it, a psychiatrist (played by George Hamilton) hypnotizes his lover, who is also his patient, whom he wants to put out of the way, and uses post-hypnotic suggestion to cause her to jump from the balcony of her apartment house to her death.  The second case is where someone drugs somebody else, and takes advantage of that person's separation from reality to make him/her do something that he/she wouldn't have done otherwise, such as commit suicide.

StephenNorton 24 Jan 12 at 5:31 p.m. GMT

is it perhaps Mrs Chandler from the short story The Cretan Bull died of a "boating accident"?

Nofret 24 Jan 12 at 4:45 p.m. GMT

Not Mrs. Rhodes, and Miss Marple had nothing to do with this case.

StephenNorton 24 Jan 12 at 6:17 a.m. GMT

is it mrs Rhodes from Miss marple tells a story

Nofret 24 Jan 12 at 6:05 a.m. GMT

It's not Sylvia Keene or Sylvia Carslake or Helen Halliday, but Duck is on the right track in that all the killers were mentally disturbed.

StephenNorton 24 Jan 12 at 4:05 a.m. GMT

yes youre right, I remembered it only vaguely but before I was going to sleep I remembered the details ^^ So I think now of Sylvia Keene from the herb of death who was poisned

NightRayDuck 23 Jan 12 at 11:10 p.m. GMT

I thought Sylvia is still alive at the end of the story..

Well, I forgot any details about Satipy, but I'd like to advance the theory that all the killers were insane or mentally disturbed. I'll guess the victim is Helen Halliday, who was strangled by hands, in Sleeping Murder.

StephenNorton 23 Jan 12 at 7:58 p.m. GMT

is it perhaps Sylvia Carslake from In a glass darkly?

StephenNorton 23 Jan 12 at 7:12 p.m. GMT

They were all afraid and died by a so called "accident" they are all women and theire killers have been men and I think they were all married.

Nofret 23 Jan 12 at 7:08 p.m. GMT

Ellie, Satipy, Mabelle, and me. All our killers had something in common.

StephenNorton 23 Jan 12 at 9:38 a.m. GMT

is it perhaps Mabelle from the short story The Bird with the Broken Wing

Nofret 23 Jan 12 at 6:45 a.m. GMT

Not Mrs Sanders, but this character is from a short story.

StephenNorton 22 Jan 12 at 4:12 p.m. GMT

was it perhaps Mrs Sanders from the christmas tradgedy?

Nofret 22 Jan 12 at 6:02 a.m. GMT

Very well reasoned, Duck, but unfortunately it's not Rudi, this victim is female.

NightRayDuck 22 Jan 12 at 2:54 a.m. GMT

Might be Rudi Scherz who was shot by handgun in A Murder Is Announced? He's suspected of filching small sums of money, but as he always got some money to replace the loss, he's not been investigated or prosecuted.

Similarity with Ellie could be that they were both young, they were both not English subjects, and killers in both cases wanted to obtain a large inheritance.

Nofret 21 Jan 12 at 6 a.m. GMT

Poor Ellie! I sympathise with her as our killers were sadly similar.

StephenNorton 20 Jan 12 at 1:09 p.m. GMT

is it perhaps Fenella Guteman (Ellie) from the novel Endless night which died by an "accident"

Nofret 20 Jan 12 at 10:54 a.m. GMT

I'm not Satipy, though I have something in common with her. I was not marooned on an island, and I am not a murderer.

GKCfan 19 Jan 12 at 7:45 p.m. GMT

One of the victims from And Then There Were None?

StephenNorton 19 Jan 12 at 4:30 p.m. GMT

Is it perhaps Satipy which was pushed of the cliff

Nofret 19 Jan 12 at 5:18 a.m. GMT

Thank you, Duck. Of course, Christie rarely allowed the guilty party to get off Scot-free, and Claire suffers for her crime by the loss of her sanity. Anyway, try this one -

I had a choice, I made the wrong decision, and I suffered for it. I committed a sin, but did I deserve to die in terror?

NightRayDuck 17 Jan 12 at 8:17 p.m. GMT

Nofret is correct! The "victim" is Vivien Lee in "The Edge". Congrats Nofret, your turn!

treplag and Stephen - it's been really interesting to read your discussion about legal and moral responsibilities. Personally, I think laws about legal responsibility and laws about investigation vary by region and by era, besides the scenario is fictional, so it'd be difficult to be strictly accurate legally when putting the story in a puzzle.

SPOILER about the story "The Edge", in case you haven't read it.

The interesting thing about the story is that the bully, Clare, claims responsibility as the murderer, which puzzles the eye-witnesses who have only seen Vivien running on the hill and falling over the cliff; the eye-witnesses consider that Vivien must have died of simply an accident. I am thinking that if there had been any witness who heard Clare and Vivien talking, or saw Vivien's face just before she started to run, then a murder investigation might be pursued. I wouldn't know the proper verdict, but Vivien and Clare's neighbors might push the local police for a murder investigation, is what I mean.

StephenNorton 17 Jan 12 at 2:24 p.m. GMT

Dear Treplag

I first want to thank you for the compliment, but I have to admit that I have looked up some of the legal terminology, for I have actually a course in criminal Law at the university. On the other hand, I have to say, I must reread my books on the subject, for I am not quite sure how we discused the same subject during one of the lectures. if I find the passage somewhere ilet you know^^ But I have to say, ifancy this idea of murder, for it is soo ingenious, and almost unproofabale and reminds me much of the techinque presented in Curtain, which I realy liked (after the third time reading it, I wasnt quite fond of it when I first read it, but after reading Othello I kind of appreciated this character X). But I am babbeling too much^^ may I ask you which are your fav. Christie and why, for you may post it to my profile, I hope i have enabled the coment section there^^

treplag 17 Jan 12 at 1:51 p.m. GMT

Dear Mr. Norton - I quite agree with you. I have already said that, in my opinion, the responsible persons in the situations you describe are morally responsible for the victim's death. I merely pointed out that they are not responsible legally. By the way, I am impressed with your fluency in English - I know that it is not your native language.

Nofret 17 Jan 12 at 5:12 a.m. GMT

Vivien Lee from the short story The Edge. Claire Halliwell discovers her adultery and bullies her into jumping off a cliff.

StephenNorton 17 Jan 12 at 4:19 a.m. GMT

well then it is Major Porter from taken at the flood

to treplag: that might be, but neverthe less, driving someone to suicide is the same as deliberate murder, for the murderer was causaly linked to the death of this person. for all you need to have a deliberated crime, are a dead person, a mean (in this case driving someone to suicide) the will to kill the other person and the knowledge that the person will die due to my actions. therefore you can put a suicide as a murder. ^^

NightRayDuck 16 Jan 12 at 9:10 p.m. GMT

Hello treplag and Stephen! Please do not worry about asking some probing questions; sometimes it's quite necessary when someone sets a puzzle with a trick. And in the discussion between the two of you, you have raised some very important points that our other regulars don't seem to have considered yet. So here are the details:

The "victim" committed suicide; the person who might be morally responsible, we'll provisionally call the "murderer".

The victim took all the actions necessary to cause his/her own death, with clear knowledge that that was the intended result of the actions.

The murderer did not so much manipulate as rather bully the victim to commit suicide, as in "oh, ha! no I don't think you'd really take your own life to protect the ones you love", and in pointing out a fast, easy way to commit suicide, which the victim presently proceeded to act upon. So, treplag is right in saying that someone cannot die by their own hand and by someone else's hand at the same time, but this particular murderer provided the victim with a feasible suicide method, analogous to providing a weapon to someone who has declared intention to commit a violent crime.

p.s.: Stephen, it's usually not necessary to quote the other fellow's reply in these quiz threads. The quoted replies take up rather a lot of space.

p.p.s: Hi Laura! Sorry this "victim" is not Mrs. Ferrars or anyone else in "Murder of Roger Ackroyd". Also, in case you missed it, the original clue and the first guesses are now on the 2nd page of this thread.

treplag 16 Jan 12 at 9:04 p.m. GMT

Mr. Norton - There are laws against incitement to violence, but to my knowledge none exist regarding incitement to suicide.

LauraPoirot 16 Jan 12 at 7:33 p.m. GMT

Well I just read the last couple of posts and maybe my guess has already been taken but maybe it was mrs ferrars in murder of roger Ackroyed?

StephenNorton 16 Jan 12 at 2:25 p.m. GMT

treplag

Dear Mr. Norton - Thank you for your comments. I readily concede that it is possible for someone to manipulate, or in some other way coerce, someone else to commit suicide (a blackmail victim, for example), but the fact remains that the individual did commit suicide and was not murdered. The other person in question is undoubtedly morally responsible for the death, but they are not legally responsible for it. (In the blackmail example, they are legally responsible for the blackmail, but not for the murder.)

treplag

Dear Mr. Norton - Thank you for your comments. I readily concede that it is possible for someone to manipulate, or in some other way coerce, someone else to commit suicide (a blackmail victim, for example), but the fact remains that the individual did commit suicide and was not murdered. The other person in question is undoubtedly morally responsible for the death, but they are not legally responsible for it. (In the blackmail example, they are legally responsible for the blackmail, but not for the murder.)

well I have to contradict yourself, for there exists a section by the law concerning incitement

treplag 16 Jan 12 at 2:16 p.m. GMT

Dear Mr. Norton - Thank you for your comments. I readily concede that it is possible for someone to manipulate, or in some other way coerce, someone else to commit suicide (a blackmail victim, for example), but the fact remains that the individual did commit suicide and was not murdered. The other person in question is undoubtedly morally responsible for the death, but they are not legally responsible for it. (In the blackmail example, they are legally responsible for the blackmail, but not for the murder.)

StephenNorton 16 Jan 12 at 1:59 p.m. GMT

treplag

NightRayDuck - You are obviously a very bright fellow, and I don't mean to insult your intelligence, but I don't see how you can get around the fact that "murder" and "suicide" are mutually exclusive terms. It is impossible to die by one's own hand and by someone else's hand at the same time; unless you mean that the person only appeared to commit suicide, but in that case he or she was really murdered.

Dear treplag I am sorry to bother you, but I think there is a way in which you can argue that suicide is the same as murder. for an instance if you read the famous play of Othello, we see, that he commited suicide, but he wouldnt have, if he wasnt tricked by Jago first. For jago manipulated and twisted the mind of Othello so the later murdered his wife. which was the cause for him to kill himself, therfore the plan Jago created in order to kill othello at last succeded by the mean of Othello killing himself.

treplag 16 Jan 12 at 1:32 p.m. GMT

NightRayDuck - You are obviously a very bright fellow, and I don't mean to insult your intelligence, but I don't see how you can get around the fact that "murder" and "suicide" are mutually exclusive terms. It is impossible to die by one's own hand and by someone else's hand at the same time; unless you mean that the person only appeared to commit suicide, but in that case he or she was really murdered.

StephenNorton 16 Jan 12 at 4:33 a.m. GMT

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now i have an idea it is perhaps Edith de Haviland  from the crooked house, whom killed herself and josephine by driving over a cliff

NightRayDuck 16 Jan 12 at 2:07 a.m. GMT

Neither Lady Westholme nor Caroline Crale. But the type of harassment and threats received by this deceased person is similar to those received by Lady Westholme, very malicious and not-for-profit threats against the person.

Feel free to ask for clarification on a specific point in the clues, such as when GKCfan asked whether this deceased person died of suicide.

Hint 5: I would invite you to consider: The deceased person died of suicide, so where are the qualifications for being the subject of the "murder victim" puzzle? Are features such as "murderer", "motive", or "murder method" present in circumstances surrounding this suicide?

StephenNorton 15 Jan 12 at 9:04 p.m. GMT

if it is not her, then is it perhaps caroline crale from the five little pigs?

StephenNorton 15 Jan 12 at 7:38 p.m. GMT

NightRayDuck

Sorry, not Barbara Allen or Vera Claythorne, either.

Remember, this deceased person was being harassed and threatened for some past mistakes. By "protect loved ones from further threats and harassment", this deceased person meant that the person who knew about the mistakes would go on and threaten and harass the loved ones, unless the deceased person took some steps to prevent it (steps turned out to be suicide).

Also, the person who knew about the mistakes and started threatening.. never made demands for money or other forms of payment. If it had been a simple "gimme money so I won't reveal your secret" case, I would have used the words "blackmail" and "blackmailer", much easier than "person who knew about mistakes and made threats~~"

Hope that helps.

Is it perhaps Lady Westholm from An appointment with death?

NightRayDuck 15 Jan 12 at 7:19 p.m. GMT

Sorry, not Barbara Allen or Vera Claythorne, either.

Remember, this deceased person was being harassed and threatened for some past mistakes. By "protect loved ones from further threats and harassment", this deceased person meant that the person who knew about the mistakes would go on and threaten and harass the loved ones, unless the deceased person took some steps to prevent it (steps turned out to be suicide).

Also, the person who knew about the mistakes and started threatening.. never made demands for money or other forms of payment. If it had been a simple "gimme money so I won't reveal your secret" case, I would have used the words "blackmail" and "blackmailer", much easier than "person who knew about mistakes and made threats~~"

Hope that helps.

StephenNorton 15 Jan 12 at 9:28 a.m. GMT

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Is it perhaps Vera Claythorne from the novel And then there were none. She commited sucide by hanging herself.

Nofret 15 Jan 12 at 5:07 a.m. GMT

Barbara Allen in Murder in the Mews?

NightRayDuck 15 Jan 12 at 1:21 a.m. GMT

Not Lady Bess, either. Let's have a recap of information revealed so far..

Original clue is statement from the deceased person listed here as murder victim: "What - no, I was not murdered. Somebody threatened me and harassed me. I had made mistakes, and now I took steps to protect my loved ones from further threats and harassment. That was all."

Steps taken by the "victim": This person ended up committing suicide.

Mistakes that this "victim" had made in the past: Could result in a law suit. I am not absolutely certain of legal terminology in England, but I mean law suit as in being sued by another person for damages or other resolution, not a trial by judge and/or jury after prosecution by the public prosecutor.

Hint 3: It is safe to assume that this victim was being harassed and threatened by someone who knew about the mistakes committed by this victim.

GKCfan 14 Jan 12 at 7:02 a.m. GMT

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I was thinking of Lady Bess Sedgwick's car crash in At Bertram's Hotel, but that doesn't quite fit...

NightRayDuck 14 Jan 12 at 6:33 a.m. GMT

No, this victim is not Miss de Haviland. This victim had committed transgressions or indiscretions which could result in a law suit.

cameronjhw 13 Jan 12 at 10:09 p.m. GMT

Is it Edith de Haviland who took her own life in a car accident along with the killer in Crooked House

NightRayDuck 13 Jan 12 at 6:50 p.m. GMT

Yes, GKCfan, the deceased person that I've listed in this puzzle as the "victim" committed suicide.

No, this victim is not M. Renauld or anyone in Murder on the Links. I still haven't got around to even flipping through that book.. o.O

Nofret 13 Jan 12 at 5:44 a.m. GMT

Monsieur Renauld in Murder on the Links would fit the mistakes and consequent harrassment.

GKCfan 13 Jan 12 at 3:33 a.m. GMT

Question... did the "victim" commit suicide?

NightRayDuck 12 Jan 12 at 6:43 p.m. GMT

This victim is not Helen, and not anyone in Dumb Witness, but GKCfan's guess is closer in the "steps taken" by the deceased person.

I think Helen would know that she was murdered. Moreover, many people said that she had simply run away from her husband, so she might think it important to make it clear that she was indeed murdered.

GKCfan 12 Jan 12 at 6:30 p.m. GMT

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The killer in Dumb Witness?

Nofret 12 Jan 12 at 8:57 a.m. GMT

Helen in Sleeping Murder? She was planning to move away from her tormentor with her husband and the child.

NightRayDuck 11 Jan 12 at 12:06 a.m. GMT

Ah. Thank you, Nofret, for the information on the unfortunate Mr. Farquar.

Next murder victim would like it to be known that:

"What - no, I was not murdered. Somebody threatened me and harassed me. I had made mistakes, and now I took steps to protect my loved ones from further threats and harassment. That was all."

Nofret 10 Jan 12 at 10:16 a.m. GMT

Back at last from Xmas Down Under! Yes, of course, you're right, Duck, his name was Farquar, and he was run over!

Your turn.

NightRayDuck 16 Dec 11 at 7:44 p.m. GMT

and problem with foreign lingo is the pronounciation of the hotel name.

NightRayDuck 16 Dec 11 at 7:40 p.m. GMT

the British Intelligence agent who died saying "N or M" ? I am afraid I still don't know his name or cause of death.

Christie's shortest title for a story, maybe.

Mr_Graves 14 Dec 11 at 6:26 p.m. GMT

Is it the man from "The Big Four", who came stumbling into Poirot's apartment? What was his name... Mayerling I think he called himself. He writes down the number four on a piece of paper.

Nofret 14 Dec 11 at 2:09 p.m. GMT

No, but this man did leave a cryptic message behind.

Tommy_A_Jones 14 Dec 11 at 1:26 p.m. GMT

The Man Bobby Kones finds dead at the start of Why Didn't They Ask Evans

Nofret 14 Dec 11 at 5:16 a.m. GMT

Come on, folks, I'm off to the Land Down Under tomorrow, and don't want to keep you on tenterhooks over Xmas!

Think Agatha's shortest.........

Nofret 13 Dec 11 at 6:23 p.m. GMT

Not Gerry Wade, though they do share some similarities.

Tommy_A_Jones 13 Dec 11 at 11:19 a.m. GMT

Gerry Wade The Seven Dials Mystery

Nofret 13 Dec 11 at 8:50 a.m. GMT

Not Alex Restarick, Tommy.

It's this person's dying words that sets the train of events in motion.

Tommy_A_Jones 12 Dec 11 at 1:44 p.m. GMT

Carrie Louise's Stepson in They Do It With Mirrors

Nofret 12 Dec 11 at 1:37 p.m. GMT

Not Major Palgrave, this person was a professional rather than an amateur investigator.

Tommy_A_Jones 12 Dec 11 at 11:22 a.m. GMT

The Major in Caribbean Mystery

Nofret 11 Dec 11 at 5:17 a.m. GMT

Not Bob Rawlinson (although there were a lot of foreigners in the book). Which you cannot say about Death Comes as the End - there were no characters that would have been seen as foreigners, as they were all Egyptian!

Clue - there is at least one recurring character in this book.

Tommy_A_Jones 10 Dec 11 at 2:41 p.m. GMT

Is the Book Death Comes As The End

InspectorGrant 10 Dec 11 at 10:36 a.m. GMT

Bob Rawlinson in Cat Among the Pigeons?

Nofret 10 Dec 11 at 9:24 a.m. GMT

Not They Came to Baghdad, though there were also several foreigners in this book.

Tommy_A_Jones 09 Dec 11 at 2:51 p.m. GMT

I think his name was Henry Carmichael

Tommy_A_Jones 09 Dec 11 at 11:40 a.m. GMT

The man who died in Victoria Jones's Bedroom in They Came To Baghdad

Nofret 09 Dec 11 at 5:39 a.m. GMT

Well, except that she was going to Scotland Yard, not to tell a specific person.

NightRayDuck 09 Dec 11 at 1:04 a.m. GMT

other than foreign lingo, I rather fancy Miss Fullerton in "Murder Is Easy" would fit the description. cause of death: being run down by a car. 

Nofret 06 Dec 11 at 6:47 a.m. GMT

No, no Belgians in this book!

Tommy_A_Jones 05 Dec 11 at 11 a.m. GMT

Does the Victim appear in a Book featuring Poirot?

Nofret 05 Dec 11 at 6:05 a.m. GMT

Thank you, Duck. I'd never have guessed it, only I'd just been re-reading Partners in Crime on my Kindle (bought a CD with about 50 Christies on it, about £5, what a bargain!) Anyway -

At last! I really think I'm on to something! Must let him know, this has to be stopped! Oh, this damn foreign lingo!

NightRayDuck 04 Dec 11 at 7:21 p.m. GMT

Exactly right, Nofret! The victim is Dennis Radclyffe, whom Tommy suspected without ever having met him. Poor Capt. Radclyffe!

Your turn. :)

Nofret 04 Dec 11 at 9:22 a.m. GMT

You may be right, Duck, the small servant boy who was poisoned in DCASE may have been a black Nubian.

Is you victim Dennis Radclyffe from The House of Lirking Death, poisoned with Ricin?

NightRayDuck 03 Dec 11 at 7:49 p.m. GMT

next victim:

"So my cousin went and asked a detective to look into these malicious incidents around here? What a pity, the detective came too late, and we're both dead."

well, Nofret, I don't know all of the Christie victims, so I can't say for sure. was there no black victim in Death Comes as the End?

but anyway, yes, Victoria Johnson is a bit different. she's one of very few (or the only one) native employees to ever try blackmail and then get killed. most other native-employee characters were nearly completely uninvolved in the crime. even in Murder in Mesopotamia, and in Appointment with Death, there was no narration (only a mention) of interviewing the native employees for witness statements.

Nofret 03 Dec 11 at 9:09 a.m. GMT

Well done, Duck, it is of course Victoria Johnson. She suspected Greg Dyson at first, then she blackmailed the true killer.

I can't think of another Christie victim who was black, can you?

Anyway, your turn now.

NightRayDuck 03 Dec 11 at 1:07 a.m. GMT

just thought of this.. Victoria Johnson, hotel employee stabbed to death in A Caribbean Mystery? but I couldn't think of Victoria's blackmailing attempts having a "got wrong the first time".

Nofret 02 Dec 11 at 10:57 a.m. GMT

Another clue - this person's partner wanted nothing to do with her plans.

Nofret 25 Nov 11 at 12:12 p.m. GMT

Not Olga Seminoff,  but the difference in this person is to do with her nationality.

Mr_Graves 24 Nov 11 at 6:16 p.m. GMT

I can't remember whether or not Olga Seminoff from "Hallowe'en Party" turned blackmailer in the end... Anyway, she was killed off somehow, plus she was foreign, and a woman. 

Nofret 24 Nov 11 at 8:03 a.m. GMT

Not Angele Blanche, nor Cassetti. It isn't a child, but this person is a blackmailer.

Tommy_A_Jones 23 Nov 11 at 1:29 p.m. GMT

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Richetti/Cassetti, he was the only one Murdered by all the other suspects.

NightRayDuck 22 Nov 11 at 9:17 p.m. GMT

why is this murder victim unlike any other? is this one of the blackmailing teenagers / young children that got put out of the way?

Tommy_A_Jones 22 Nov 11 at 2:52 p.m. GMT

I mean of Course Angele Blanche

Tommy_A_Jones 22 Nov 11 at 2:09 p.m. GMT

The French Teacher who was Murdered in Cat Among The Pigeons

Nofret 22 Nov 11 at 11:35 a.m. GMT

Not Louise, but this person had a lot in common with her.

Tommy_A_Jones 21 Nov 11 at 11:27 a.m. GMT

Louise Bourget from Death On The Nile

Nofret 21 Nov 11 at 6:30 a.m. GMT

Not her, GKCfan, but it is a woman.

GKCfan 20 Nov 11 at 5:17 p.m. GMT

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Mlle. Blanche, sandbagged in Cat Among the Pigeons?

Nofret 20 Nov 11 at 4:27 p.m. GMT

No, but they both made the mistake of trying to cash in on what they'd found out........

Tommy_A_Jones 20 Nov 11 at 11:23 a.m. GMT

Jason Rudd's Assistant in The Mirror Cack'd

Nofret 20 Nov 11 at 6:55 a.m. GMT

Come on, folks, this is an easy one. The person in question is unlike any other Christie murder victim............

Nofret 12 Nov 11 at 9:16 a.m. GMT

It could be Queen Varaga, but it isn't, although this person isn't English either.

NightRayDuck 11 Nov 11 at 9:50 p.m. GMT

it makes me think of the lady formerly known as Queen Varaga of Herzoslovakia, eventually shot by a handgun, in The Secret of Chimney. but I am pretty certain that's not the answer..

Nofret 04 Nov 11 at 5:39 p.m. GMT

Thank you, Miss E.

Someone's been very clever, but not as clever as me! OK, I got it wrong the first time, but I've worked it out, and it should mean big changes for me. Though it looks like I'll have to go it alone..........

Miss_Eylesbarrow 03 Nov 11 at 6:22 p.m. GMT

Go Nofret!  You are right again!

Nofret 03 Nov 11 at 6:32 a.m. GMT

Is it Margery from The Bloodstained Pavement?

Miss_Eylesbarrow 02 Nov 11 at 6:24 p.m. GMT

Thanks Nofret :-) I thought I'd married the perfect man, so caring and nice. We loved to go on holiday, little did I realize this would be my last...

Nofret 02 Nov 11 at 5:31 a.m. GMT

WEll done, Miss E! Drouet thought that posing as a waiter would be a doddle, but he was sacked (and then murdered)

Your turn.

Miss_Eylesbarrow 01 Nov 11 at 6:37 p.m. GMT

I think I can supply the name NightRayDuck...Are you Drouet, the policeman who tries doubling as a waiter and is later killed?

Good luck with Elephants BTW....

NightRayDuck 28 Oct 11 at 6:09 p.m. GMT

Thank you, Tommy.

About this puzzle, I think the victims in the story included a police inspector, and a waiter? I can't think of which one of them had two jobs to do, though.

Tommy_A_Jones 28 Oct 11 at 2:12 p.m. GMT

Good Luck Ray, I read it years ago.

NightRayDuck 27 Oct 11 at 9:16 p.m. GMT

Nope. I am emptying the part of my mind that handles details from Christie stories that I have read, in preparation for reading Elephants Can Remember for the first time. Wish me luck~~ 

Nofret 27 Oct 11 at 6:32 a.m. GMT

Correct - can you come up with a name?

NightRayDuck 26 Oct 11 at 5:51 p.m. GMT

I lost track completely of the police officers and victims in "The Erymanthean Boar", but I think this victim might be from that story..

Nofret 24 Oct 11 at 3:38 p.m. GMT

I am not from Italy, but I met my untimely end in a nearby country.

InspectorGrant 24 Oct 11 at 8:49 a.m. GMT

Luigi Valdarno from The Adventure of the Cheap Flat?

Nofret 24 Oct 11 at 6:22 a.m. GMT

Not Nadina, Cameron.

Oh, why did that little man not turn up earlier?

cameronjhw 23 Oct 11 at 6:52 p.m. GMT

Was it the dancer Nadina who was strangled by "the Colonel" in his home in The Man in the Brown Suit

Nofret 23 Oct 11 at 8:15 a.m. GMT

No, I am not Russian, and the person I underestimated was a villain.

NightRayDuck 22 Oct 11 at 7:39 p.m. GMT

umm... aaah... eck, I forget the name and even the alias... and I don't know if this counts as murder exactly... but I am going to guess, the Soviet Russian spy in "Blind Man's Buff"? seriously underestimated Tommy Beresford, and got electrocuted by booby traps at his own place.

Nofret 21 Oct 11 at 4:03 p.m. GMT

Not Mr Wu Ling.

I was doing two jobs at once, and failed miserably at the more menial one.

InspectorGrant 21 Oct 11 at 11:33 a.m. GMT

Mr. Wu Ling from the story The Lost Mine?

Nofret 21 Oct 11 at 6:04 a.m. GMT

Good thinking, Duck, but it's not the Canadian victim from The Clocks.

Miss E, the victim appears in a short story.

NightRayDuck 20 Oct 11 at 10:33 p.m. GMT

I wonder, if the "job" is somewhat of a family / old=time friendship interest, not purely a work-for-pay transaction, then this might be the Canadian gentleman who got stabbed to death in The Clocks.

Miss_Eylesbarrow 20 Oct 11 at 6:16 p.m. GMT

Is this unfortunate victim from a short story, Nofret?

Nofret 20 Oct 11 at 4:33 p.m. GMT

Are you calling me a criminal? I am insulted!

InspectorGrant 20 Oct 11 at 8:26 a.m. GMT

Count Foscatini, the blackmailer from The Adventure of the Italian Nobleman ?

Nofret 20 Oct 11 at 6:57 a.m. GMT

You're correct that the person is foreign, but it's not either of the Renaulds.

InspectorGrant 19 Oct 11 at 5:27 p.m. GMT

M. Paul Renauld from Murder on the Links?  (just a guess because he is foreign like Rudi).

Nofret 19 Oct 11 at 4:16 p.m. GMT

Good guess, but not Rudi, though you could say I have something in common with him.

InspectorGrant 19 Oct 11 at 12:02 p.m. GMT

Rudi Scherz from A Murder is Announced?

Nofret 19 Oct 11 at 5:11 a.m. GMT

No, it isn't a woman.

Miss_Eylesbarrow 18 Oct 11 at 7:32 p.m. GMT

Is this a woman speaking, Nofret?

Nofret 18 Oct 11 at 7:31 p.m. GMT

It's not Jessie Davies, Tommy.

Tommy_A_Jones 18 Oct 11 at 11:22 a.m. GMT

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I sit the woman in Pale Horse who goes round delivering to people who end up Dead?

Nofret 18 Oct 11 at 10:07 a.m. GMT

Thank you, Duck.

Oh, the humiliation! I had thought that would be the easy part of the job, but I was wrong. And on top of that, it seemd I had seriously underestimated a certain person.

NightRayDuck 18 Oct 11 at 4 a.m. GMT

Nofret has got the correct story, correct victim, and correct cause of death! Over to you, Nofret.

Nofret 17 Oct 11 at 5:38 p.m. GMT

Gilda Glen - bashed over the head with a policeman's truncheon!

Tommy_A_Jones 17 Oct 11 at 11:20 a.m. GMT

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Linnett Ridgeway Shot by Simon Doyle who became her Husband after he finished with Jaqueline Debellefort

NightRayDuck 17 Oct 11 at 7:34 a.m. GMT

The murder method / cause of death also, if you please. :-)

Nofret 17 Oct 11 at 5:01 a.m. GMT

Is it Gilda Glen from the Tommy and Tuppence story The Man in the Mist?

NightRayDuck 16 Oct 11 at 2:33 a.m. GMT

Good guess, Tommy, but not Arlena Marshall. In gratitude to your response, this victim would like to add:

"Seriously, when I had a problem and by chance met someone who might help me solve it, I asked for a discussion at once! That's not really the action of a dim-witted beauty, I think."

Tommy_A_Jones 15 Oct 11 at 11:37 a.m. GMT

Arlena Marshall

NightRayDuck 14 Oct 11 at 7:07 p.m. GMT

thank you, Nofret!

next victim:

"I am famous and beautiful, and I have been at the top of my profession for decades. People often say that I am quite dim. My intelligence is normal; it's just that I came from humble origins and, in my job, the world never saw me when I had to use my brains."

Nofret 14 Oct 11 at 12:43 p.m. GMT

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Well done, Duck, it is Barbara Franklin from Curtain. Killed by poison courtesy of Arthur Hastings!

Your turn.

NightRayDuck 13 Oct 11 at 5:35 p.m. GMT

some married woman in Curtain? I heard somewhere on here that she wanted to poison her husband, but somehow or other the cups were transposed and she drank the poisoned cup.

Nofret 13 Oct 11 at 6:18 a.m. GMT

Not Arlena Marshall, Tommy. Duck, not Rosemary Barton, and this lady is actively planning her husband's demise!

NightRayDuck 12 Oct 11 at 6:15 p.m. GMT

if divorcing also counts as "dispose of the husband", then it might be Rosemary Barton, poisoned with cyanide in Sparkling Cyanide? except I don't know that she'd even think it possible for her husband to have eyes for someone else. o.O

Tommy_A_Jones 12 Oct 11 at 1:37 p.m. GMT

Oh yes, silly me, Arlena Marshall

Nofret 12 Oct 11 at 5:23 a.m. GMT

Well - Lady Edgeware wasn't so much murdered as executed!

Clue - the "murderer" was an extremely unlikely person!

Tommy_A_Jones 11 Oct 11 at 11:33 a.m. GMT

Lady Edgware

Nofret 11 Oct 11 at 7:27 a.m. GMT

Sorry, folks, I've had problems logging in for a few days. Unfortunately none of the guesses has been correct so far.

A clue - this lady is planning to dispose of her husband.........

NightRayDuck 10 Oct 11 at 7:52 p.m. GMT

oh! how about "Lucky" Mrs. Dyson, who got drowned in a little pool or was it a creek (I am sorry, I keep forgetting that detail) in A Caribbean Mystery? at that time, both Mr. Dyson and Mrs. Dyson were rather sort of looking around at other, um, attractive persons.

InspectorGrant 10 Oct 11 at 3:32 p.m. GMT

How about a clue, Nofret?  Is this victim from a novel or a short story?

NightRayDuck 09 Oct 11 at 1:55 a.m. GMT

odd guess because I haven't read that book in a looooong time..

Bess Sedgewick in At Bertram's Hotel? shot in the head with handgun? all these, I admit, are only hearsay from my unreliable Christie-reference book.

Tommy_A_Jones 08 Oct 11 at 11:42 a.m. GMT

Colonel Protheroe?

Nofret 07 Oct 11 at 4:36 p.m. GMT

Good guess, but not Adele (I suppose Rex's love interest could have been his glamorous blonde secretary!) But it is a woman speaking.

GKCfan 07 Oct 11 at 7:03 a.m. GMT

My mistake– I was thinking of the "Guess that Character" game!  

Adele Fortescue in A Pocket Full of Rye?

Nofret 07 Oct 11 at 5:35 a.m. GMT

Not Neville Strange nor Lady Horbury - for one reason neither of these was a murder victim!

GKCfan 06 Oct 11 at 8:53 p.m. GMT

Lady Horbury in Death in the Clouds?

InspectorGrant 06 Oct 11 at 5:32 p.m. GMT

Neville Strange's shenanigans in 'Towards Zero'?

Nofret 06 Oct 11 at 3:37 p.m. GMT

Not Helen, Kelvin Halliday definitely didn't have his "bit on the side"!

PS - don't forget to put How They Were Killed!

Tommy_A_Jones 06 Oct 11 at 2:21 p.m. GMT

Helen Halliday

Nofret 05 Oct 11 at 4:19 p.m. GMT

Not Linnet - surely she had her hooks into her man and was determined to hang onto him!

Tommy_A_Jones 05 Oct 11 at 1:10 p.m. GMT

Linnette Ridgeway

Nofret 05 Oct 11 at 8:53 a.m. GMT

Thank you, GKCfan!

I think we both now realise that our marriage was a mistake, we have nothing in common. Also, it seems that we've both found new romantic interests - people say that mine has given me a new zest for life. But I think I can see a way to resolve a certain problem.........

GKCfan 04 Oct 11 at 5:02 p.m. GMT

Norfret is right!  It's Rudi!  Congratulations!

Nofret 04 Oct 11 at 8:33 a.m. GMT

Rudi Scherz - holding the torch he could see a lot more than his "victims" in the darkened room.

Mr_Graves 04 Oct 11 at 5:57 a.m. GMT

My first thought was Ms Sainsbury Seale from "One, Two, Buckle my Shoe"... Not sure if she fits in with all the clues, though.

GKCfan 04 Oct 11 at 5:38 a.m. GMT

"I wanted money!  What's wrong with that?  Unfortunately, I died because my memory for faces was far too good.  If only I'd allowed myself to be muddled a little bit, or if I'd refrained from re-introducing myself, I'd still be alive.  Why couldn't I see see that?  Ironically, I saw a lot more than everybody else when I got murdered..."

Mr_Graves 03 Oct 11 at 8:06 p.m. GMT

Too easy for you, GKCfan? it was indeed Donald Ross, who met his untimely end after telling Captain Hastings he had some troubling information to give him... A pity he wasn't more open really. So it is now your turn!

InspectorGrant 03 Oct 11 at 3:33 p.m. GMT

Parker, the butler in 'The Murder of Roger Ackroyd' ?

Tommy_A_Jones 03 Oct 11 at 1:30 p.m. GMT

Mr Shaitana from Cards On The Table

Nofret 03 Oct 11 at 8:17 a.m. GMT

Mr Treves in Towards Zero?

GKCfan 02 Oct 11 at 8:13 p.m. GMT

Donald Ross in  Lord Edgeware Dies?

Mr_Graves 02 Oct 11 at 6:49 p.m. GMT

Not Heather Badcock, Dora Bunner, or Louise Bourget. For one thing, they are all women! 

Tommy_A_Jones 02 Oct 11 at 11:21 a.m. GMT

The Maid in Death On The Nile

Nofret 02 Oct 11 at 9:17 a.m. GMT

Poor Dora Bunner, whose ramblings made her a real threat to the killer?

NightRayDuck 02 Oct 11 at 2:04 a.m. GMT

whatshername who was very inconsiderate and snuck to a public event while contagious with Rubella virus, and decades later still brags about this? killed by poison in alcoholic drink, in "The Mirror Crack'd".

Mr_Graves 02 Oct 11 at 1:54 a.m. GMT

I'm plotting to have a monopoly on the guessing games on the Agatha Christie website! I wonder how many I can do... Anyhow, here's my clue.

Perhaps I should not have said anything... But then, I didn't know I would be killed!

Tommy_A_Jones 01 Oct 11 at 11:41 a.m. GMT

Mr_Graves you have got two of my Puzzles well done it is Salome Otterbourne.

Your Turn.

Mr_Graves 30 Sep 11 at 7:52 p.m. GMT

I'm going to guess Salome Otterbourne, who was shot while about to reveal the murderer in "Death on the Nile". Otterbourne is a village in Hampshire, England, and she was portrayed by both Angela Lansbury and Frances de la Tour.

Tommy_A_Jones 30 Sep 11 at 3:09 p.m. GMT

Both Actrsses who have played her on Screen were born in Britain

Tommy_A_Jones 28 Sep 11 at 3:07 p.m. GMT

This person's first and last name begins with letters from the 2nd part of the Alphabet

Tommy_A_Jones 24 Sep 11 at 1:27 p.m. GMT

Hint: This persons name is a Place and sorry for people not from Britain because the place is in England.

Tommy_A_Jones 24 Sep 11 at 11:58 a.m. GMT

Both Ray and Nofret are wrong I am afraid, I can't see that Col Protheroe is the type of person to help people. 

NightRayDuck 23 Sep 11 at 11:50 p.m. GMT

Col. Protheroe, who was shot in "Murder at the Vicarage"? He is so very interested in trying to be helpful, that many recipients of advice feel that he's only bullying them around.

Nofret 23 Sep 11 at 4:38 p.m. GMT

Mabelle Sainsbury Seale? Found with her head bashed in.

Tommy_A_Jones 23 Sep 11 at 3:10 p.m. GMT

No.

InspectorGrant 23 Sep 11 at 2:26 p.m. GMT

Dora Bunner, A Murder is Announced.?

Tommy_A_Jones 23 Sep 11 at 1:48 p.m. GMT

50-70

NightRayDuck 22 Sep 11 at 4:14 p.m. GMT

May I ask the approximate age range of this murder victim? Say, was this victim under 20 yrs old? or between 20 and 50 yrs old? or over 50 yrs of age? Thank you.

Tommy_A_Jones 22 Sep 11 at 1:13 p.m. GMT

No sorry not t right Nofret and Inspector. 

InspectorGrant 22 Sep 11 at 12:29 p.m. GMT

Celia Austin from Hickory Dickory Dock, given a lethal dose of morphine tartrate.

Nofret 21 Sep 11 at 4:26 p.m. GMT

Miss Vansittart from Cat Among the Pigeons, hit over the head?

Tommy_A_Jones 21 Sep 11 at 2:16 p.m. GMT

No Nofret

Nofret 20 Sep 11 at 3:46 p.m. GMT

Miss Murgatroyd in A Murder is Announced? Strangled with a clothes-line.

Tommy_A_Jones 20 Sep 11 at 11:28 a.m. GMT

I was only Trying to be helpful, I really don't think I deserved to Die

mimi25 19 Sep 11 at 8:41 p.m. GMT

You are right Tommy. It's your turn now.

Tommy_A_Jones 19 Sep 11 at 1:56 p.m. GMT

Heather Badcock The Mirror Crack'd

GKCfan 18 Sep 11 at 10:48 p.m. GMT

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Rupert Bliebner from "The Egyptian Tomb," who shot himself because he had been told he had leprosy?

mimi25 18 Sep 11 at 7:29 p.m. GMT

Ok, let's go :

I was murdered because of a disease. As a matter of fact I usually act without thinking.

mimi25 18 Sep 11 at 6:19 p.m. GMT

Thank you Nofret. This is one of my prefered stories with an odd motive.

I think about another "murdered".

Nofret 18 Sep 11 at 12:53 p.m. GMT

Got it in one, Mimi! Alice Ascher, who was struck from behind. Your turn now.

Tommy_A_Jones 18 Sep 11 at 11:19 a.m. GMT

Mrs McGinty from Mrs McGinty's Dead

mimi25 18 Sep 11 at 7:19 a.m. GMT

It think it could be Alice Ascher struck in the head, first victim in "The A.B.C. Murders". Her niece is very sad.

Nofret 18 Sep 11 at 5:09 a.m. GMT

Yes, Mr G, I thought Frances de la Tour was marvellous as Salome Otterbourne too. When she thought she would be swept over board and be "nibbled by carp and haddock" - hilarious!

Anyway, try this one:

I really don't know how I died - I was just going about my daily routine as usual. The police have arrested the obvious suspect, but despite all he's done I can't believe that of him. But there's one person who grieves for me.

Mr_Graves 18 Sep 11 at 1:23 a.m. GMT

Nofret, you were right! It is the French maid Louise who was not thought of as very nice. I loved in the 2004 of "Death on the Nile" how Frances de la Tour couldn't say her surname! "Louise... Budget? Is that it?" Hilarious. And the three things that the first two victims had in common with her were that they were all women, all featured in a Poirot novel, and were not English. So well done Nofret, it is now your turn!

Tommy_A_Jones 17 Sep 11 at 11:30 a.m. GMT

Is it the French Teacher murdered in Cat Among The Pigeons

Nofret 17 Sep 11 at 5:20 a.m. GMT

I think we're looking for a blackmailer here. Is it Louise Bourget from Death on the Nile, stabbed by the murderer she was blackmailing?

GKCfan 17 Sep 11 at 4:48 a.m. GMT

Are the three similarities: 1) Both women, 2) Both have daughters, 3) Both are involved in criminal enterprises?

Mr_Graves 16 Sep 11 at 8:23 p.m. GMT

So far, none of the guesses have been correct. However, this victim is able to give you a few more clues...

"I have to say, I haven't heard of any of the people you've mentioned. But those first two... I have about three things in common with them. That should point you in the right direction!"

Nofret 16 Sep 11 at 6:40 a.m. GMT

Could be my namesake from Death Comes as the End?

NightRayDuck 16 Sep 11 at 3:36 a.m. GMT

greasy fellow who calls himself Enoch Arden, and insinuates the possibility that he's Rosalind's first husband, in Taken at the Flood? got hit, and then had fatal collision with inanimate objects in the room.

Tommy_A_Jones 15 Sep 11 at 2:07 p.m. GMT

Mrs Nic from Hickory Dickory Dock

Mr_Graves 15 Sep 11 at 7:40 a.m. GMT

Not her, whoever she is! I would be quite interested to read "Death in the Clouds" though...

Nofret 15 Sep 11 at 5:47 a.m. GMT

Madame Giselle from Death in the Clouds?

Mr_Graves 14 Sep 11 at 10:03 p.m. GMT

Influenza literally meaning influence! Clever word-play there. Yes, I had wondered about such a verdict- very thin indeed. Anywho, must now think up a victim...

"Well I daresay I deserved to go, from what other people have said about me. Still, I only did what was natural for somebody in my position. Got to make a living somehow!"

NightRayDuck 14 Sep 11 at 6:59 p.m. GMT

Mr. Graves got it right! Your turn, Mr. Graves.

The 'flu thing is used in the verdict to Rosemary's death, and also used at the beginning of the story "The Case of the Caretaker", where Miss Marple is recovering from the flu, bored to the point of being depressed.

I've been wondering... "Suicide while under influence of the 'flu" was considered a good explanation for suicide? Sounds pretty weird..

Tommy_A_Jones 14 Sep 11 at 12:20 p.m. GMT

Thomasina Tuckerton from Pale Horse

Mr_Graves 13 Sep 11 at 2:18 a.m. GMT

Er.. Oh! Oh, I think it's Rosemary Barton from "Sparkling Cyanide"! But I can't be sure, and yet I remember seeing the whole 'flu thing somewhere, and it was definitely in that book. Anyway, that's my answer... 

NightRayDuck 13 Sep 11 at 1:57 a.m. GMT

"Um... what? But I am young and pretty and happy and... They think my recent bit of 'flu explains my death as definitely a case of suicide??" 

Mr_Battle_Brent 11 Sep 11 at 6:35 a.m. GMT

Correct,NightRayDuck. Your turn.

NightRayDuck 10 Sep 11 at 8:39 a.m. GMT

Philip Durrant, stabbed in lower back of his head, in Ordeal by Innocence? he's been paralyzed and stuck in various chairs and finally a murder mystery for him to cogitate while sitting all alone in his room.

Mr_Battle_Brent 10 Sep 11 at 6:18 a.m. GMT

No. He or she wasn't the first (main?) victim in the book.

cameronjhw 09 Sep 11 at 7:18 p.m. GMT

Is it the domineering and grossly overweight Mrs. Boynton who died of a lethal injection of digatalis in Appointment with Death

Mr_Battle_Brent 09 Sep 11 at 5:23 p.m. GMT

No. But Simeon Lee and that Victim has something very important in common.

Nofret 09 Sep 11 at 4:37 p.m. GMT

Simeon Lee form HP's Christmas?

Tommy_A_Jones 09 Sep 11 at 1:34 p.m. GMT

Roger Ackroyd from The Murder of Roger Ackroyd

Mr_Battle_Brent 08 Sep 11 at 4:01 p.m. GMT

Thank you. Bundle and Battle are my favourite Christie characters,and Gary Flores isn't actually my real name,I just like the name Gary. Flores is random .Okay,I'm not in the mood for setting puzzles(ever),and I think this is easy:

''Being trapped like this was very hard for me.My life finally started to get interesting,but I didn't know whom I was messing with and it backfired in my face!''

Tommy_A_Jones 08 Sep 11 at 1:31 p.m. GMT

Yes Well done, Sorry about my Ask Jeeves Hint, Dennis Price played both Jeeves and Dr Armstrong. I think Dr Armstrong would have said that as he helped The Murderer.

I like your name Mr Battle_Brent, your Turn. 

Mr_Battle_Brent 08 Sep 11 at 1:27 p.m. GMT

Dr. Edward George Armstrong pushed off the cliff

Tommy_A_Jones 08 Sep 11 at 12:05 p.m. GMT

No but this man was Pushed

Nofret 08 Sep 11 at 9:39 a.m. GMT

L B Carton, pushed onto the live rail in the tube, from The Man in the Brown suit?

Tommy_A_Jones 07 Sep 11 at 11:16 a.m. GMT

No sorry, mimi is still nearest, I know this might be tenuous but If you want to know Ask Jeeves.

Nofret 07 Sep 11 at 9:02 a.m. GMT

Ronnie Devereux from The Seven Dials Mystery?

Tommy_A_Jones 06 Sep 11 at 2:52 p.m. GMT

If you want a Hint just ask for one but I will tell you this, The Murderer is a Character in a Novel

Tommy_A_Jones 06 Sep 11 at 1:33 p.m. GMT

Sorry all wrong, the Victim was not bashed over the Head

NightRayDuck 06 Sep 11 at 12:57 a.m. GMT

This reply contains spoiler information. Show reply

old Miss whathername, Crabtree I think, killed in the short story "Sing a Song of Sixpence"? head bashed in. murderer was an impulsive criminal and a stranger to her. but she's rather charitable and let him into presence of bundle of cash..

mimi25 05 Sep 11 at 6:49 p.m. GMT

I propose Captain Trevelyan killed (I don't know the right expression) by Major Burnaby in The Sittaford Mystery.

Nofret 05 Sep 11 at 6:03 p.m. GMT

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Sir Reuben Astwell, hit over the head by Owen Trefusis in The Under Dog?

Mr_Battle_Brent 05 Sep 11 at 4:23 p.m. GMT

I quote:''...Victim at the victims anger at being Murdered by the Murderer.'' So the answer to my question is yes.

Tommy_A_Jones 05 Sep 11 at 2:37 p.m. GMT

I don't think I know what you mean, I wrote my teaser from the viewpoint of the Victim at the victims anger at being Murdered by the Murderer, I shall give you a hint, This Victim is a Man.

Mr_Battle_Brent 05 Sep 11 at 1:47 p.m. GMT

Did ''the man'' kill that murder victim?

Tommy_A_Jones 05 Sep 11 at 1:34 p.m. GMT

I have just checked and the Victim was not strangled

Tommy_A_Jones 05 Sep 11 at 11:39 a.m. GMT

Not Gladys, I can't remember how the victim was Killed

Mr_Battle_Brent 04 Sep 11 at 12:46 p.m. GMT

Strangled*

Mr_Battle_Brent 04 Sep 11 at 12:44 p.m. GMT

Gladys from A Pocket Full of Rye

Tommy_A_Jones 04 Sep 11 at 12:15 p.m. GMT

Sorry mimi and Nofret you are both wrong but mimi is closer

Nofret 04 Sep 11 at 7:02 a.m. GMT

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Lady Tressillian in Towards Zero, killed by Neville Strange, who she had treated as her son.

mimi25 03 Sep 11 at 5:25 p.m. GMT

Maybe Mrs Argyle in "Ordeal by Innocence" ? She was killed by her foster son Micky.

Tommy_A_Jones 03 Sep 11 at 1:55 p.m. GMT

No Mimi and Nofret you are both wrong, The Victim isn't in a Poirot book  

mimi25 03 Sep 11 at 7:05 a.m. GMT

Is it Mrs Inglethorp who was poisonned by her husband in "The Mysterious Affair at Styles" ?

Nofret 03 Sep 11 at 6:40 a.m. GMT

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Mrs Nicoletis in Hickory Dickory Dock about Nigel Chapman, who was involved in her smuggling operation?

Tommy_A_Jones 02 Sep 11 at 12:08 p.m. GMT

No, Not her, but I can see why you said that you are on the right lines in 1 way but not in 2 others, I am no good at giving Clues perhaps people should ask questions I can give Yes No Answers to.

Sorry GK, Just realised I misunderstood what you meant as I didn't look at my Post after I posted it, That will teach me to do so next time to answere your Question Properly the way My Offering appeared initially was my fault.

Nofret 02 Sep 11 at 5:52 a.m. GMT

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It could be Mrs Upward from Mrs McGinty's Dead talking about her adopted son, Robin.

Tommy_A_Jones 30 Aug 11 at 12:06 p.m. GMT

No Wrong

NightRayDuck 29 Aug 11 at 4:10 p.m. GMT

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um.. I have an odd guess, because the person I am thinking about is quite meek and obedient in life, but perhaps the violent death might be an eye-opener..

The young woman who presents herself as Rosalind Cloade after the death of Simon Cloade? She was overdosed on sleeping stuff in Taken at the Flood.

Tommy_A_Jones 29 Aug 11 at 11:40 a.m. GMT

Sorry I thought mimi said she didn't want to have a Go so I did I should have asked if it was O.K. I suppose sorry anyway Yes that was my Offering If that is all right, I have just Noticed my last D isn't here so I shall do it again if you want?

"Damb The Man, After what I did for him"

I think This victim would say that in anger.

GKCfan 28 Aug 11 at 8:04 p.m. GMT

Are the spellings a clue?

Tommy_A_Jones 28 Aug 11 at 2:59 p.m. GMT

If you don't want a Go Mimi I will?

"Damb The Man! After What I di foer Him". 

mimi25 28 Aug 11 at 12:48 p.m. GMT

Well, the "big job" put me on the right track.

My knowledge of English is not good enough to write a description of a character, so who else ?

Nofret 28 Aug 11 at 11:28 a.m. GMT

I'm not going to laugh at you, clever Mimi, you're quite correct! It's the creepy drugs dealer Morris from ATTWN!

Your turn now to set us a puzzle.

Tommy_A_Jones 27 Aug 11 at 2:40 p.m. GMT

 Mrs Nicoletis Hickory Dickory Dock

mimi25 27 Aug 11 at 9:08 a.m. GMT

It could be Morris (Ten Little Niggers) poisonned by judge Wargrave. He buys the island for Wargrave and he has digestive problems.... please don't laugh at me !

Nofret 27 Aug 11 at 6:18 a.m. GMT

No, neither Rudy nor Ruby!

mimi25 26 Aug 11 at 12:03 p.m. GMT

I think it's Rudy Schwerz in "A murder is announced".

Tommy_A_Jones 26 Aug 11 at 11:18 a.m. GMT

Ruby Keane from Body In The Library

Nofret 26 Aug 11 at 5:49 a.m. GMT

I suppose she would, apart perhaps from the health problem, but it's not Carlotta.

Mr_Graves 25 Aug 11 at 10:14 p.m. GMT

I don't know if she completely fits in, but my first guess would be Carlotta Adams from "Lord Edgware Dies".

Nofret 25 Aug 11 at 1:12 p.m. GMT

Thank you, Mr. G

Don't you go pointing the finger at me! That death wasn't my fault, and a person's got to make a living. In fact you wouldn't believe this big job I was asked to do recently - oooh, no wonder my health's been playing up again!

Mr_Graves 24 Aug 11 at 7:51 p.m. GMT

You're right onto it, Nofret. It is indeed Claudia Hardcastle! She mistook somebody else's pill for one of her own and ended up dead, as you say. It was her death which pointed to the murderer's guilt. Well done! It is now your turn.

Nofret 24 Aug 11 at 6:15 a.m. GMT

Aha! Is it Claudia Hardcastle from one of my favourite Christies - Endless Night? Took a cyanide capsule meant for another person.

Lyneve 24 Aug 11 at 5:51 a.m. GMT

Could it be Caroline (fake wife) in Taken at the Flood. She seems to fit the clues of this who done it.

Mr_Graves 24 Aug 11 at 4:17 a.m. GMT

Not from a Poirot novel, Tommy. And in regards to your thoughts, NightRayDuck, this victim is very aware of her cause of death. Not at the time, because only until she died did she realise what had happened. Her death was an accident, as it was not intended to happen. Nobody even meant to harm her. I hope this is enlightening...

NightRayDuck 23 Aug 11 at 7:58 p.m. GMT

I've been wondering.. but I suppose the victim might not have solid information on this.. Did the case appear as "someone else was targeted, but this particular person was killed"? Or did it look like "this person was attacked, but the attacker didn't mean to cause death"?

The victim probably doesn't really know... hmm, my condolences and sympathy~~

Tommy_A_Jones 23 Aug 11 at 3:21 p.m. GMT

The Person Killed By Mistake in ABC Murders?

Mr_Graves 23 Aug 11 at 6:50 a.m. GMT

Ooh, a very good guess, Nofret! Mrs Crale's death was, after all, the result of somebody's murderous acts and I suppose she could be considered a murder victim, indirectly. But I'm afraid it is not her!

Nofret 23 Aug 11 at 6:13 a.m. GMT

Caroline Crale? Sentenced to life imprisonment and died in prison.

Mr_Graves 22 Aug 11 at 7:55 p.m. GMT

Not Bunny. Miss Marple does not appear in this book...

Tommy_A_Jones 22 Aug 11 at 1:39 p.m. GMT

Bunny from A Murder Is Announced

Mr_Graves 21 Aug 11 at 10:14 p.m. GMT

Not Lucky either. What sort of name is that anyway?

Tommy_A_Jones 21 Aug 11 at 3:06 p.m. GMT

Lucky Caribbean Mystery

Mr_Graves 21 Aug 11 at 12:54 a.m. GMT

Not Pearse's sweetheart. I can divulge, though, that the victim is a woman.

Tommy_A_Jones 20 Aug 11 at 11:28 a.m. GMT

What about (And this is a long shot) Tom Pearse's sweetheart? When Badgeworth gets a Phone call telling him of the Murder at Chimneys Constable Johnson says there hasn't been a Murder since Tom earse killed his sweatheart and that wasn't reeally murder because he was Drunk

Mr_Graves 19 Aug 11 at 9:08 p.m. GMT

Not him either, I'm afraid...

Tommy_A_Jones 19 Aug 11 at 12:16 p.m. GMT

The old man in Postern of Fate

Mr_Graves 18 Aug 11 at 10:42 p.m. GMT

Not the Bartons, and not Esther Quant. This victim is from a novel, however...

NightRayDuck 18 Aug 11 at 6:45 p.m. GMT

for example, the parlourmaid Esther Quant, killed by poison in a fig sandwich, in the T&T short story "The House of Lurking Death".

NightRayDuck 18 Aug 11 at 6:30 p.m. GMT

If from Sparkling Cyanide, George Barton fits the description better? I think there are several other possible answers, though.

..can't find my book at the moment. be back later with other answers..

Tommy_A_Jones 18 Aug 11 at 2:17 p.m. GMT

Rosemary Barton Sparkling Cyanide

Mr_Graves 18 Aug 11 at 7:34 a.m. GMT

Hmm... What to do? OK, here goes:

I suppose you could class me as a murder victim. Well, I should think so! My death was the product of somebody's murderous acts. Although I don't think I was really meant to die...

NightRayDuck 16 Aug 11 at 10:21 p.m. GMT

Well done, Mr. Graves! Celia Austin was poisoned with sleeping draught that she didn't even know that was being given to her, and nobody had yet announced a threat on her life, so she didn't know that she was being murdered..

Your turn. :-)

Mr_Graves 16 Aug 11 at 8:11 p.m. GMT

How interesting for a murder victim to do a smiley! My guess is Celia Austin from "Hickory Dickory Dock", poisoned with an overdose of chloral, I think. Some kind of sleeping draught. 

NightRayDuck 16 Aug 11 at 5:08 p.m. GMT

...at the moment, I can't think who Josephine is, in Ordeal by Innocence...

Hint 1: This victim was not aware of the murder.

Tommy_A_Jones 16 Aug 11 at 2:20 p.m. GMT

Josephine from Ordeal By Innocence

NightRayDuck 05 Aug 11 at 1:27 a.m. GMT

"Huh? I was murdered, I suppose. I mean, I didn't attempt suicide or think about it or talk about it. Now my acquaintances say perhaps I killed myself because I felt guilty about many petty crimes or telling too many lies." o.O

Note: the puzzled o.O smiley is from the murder victim.

Noah 04 Aug 11 at 11:57 p.m. GMT

Correct!

NightRayDuck 04 Aug 11 at 11:52 p.m. GMT

Dr. Humbleby, who died of septcemia in "Murder Is Easy"?

Noah 04 Aug 11 at 10:52 p.m. GMT

"My murder was predicted by someone who was also murdered."

GKCfan 04 Aug 11 at 9:57 p.m. GMT

Correct!  Well done!

Noah 04 Aug 11 at 9:02 p.m. GMT

Mr. Lorrimer?

GKCfan 04 Aug 11 at 6:07 a.m. GMT

Right book, wrong victim!

Noah 04 Aug 11 at 2:27 a.m. GMT

Luxmore in Cards on the Table?

GKCfan 03 Aug 11 at 7:20 p.m. GMT

"I was murdered before the book I'm mentioned in started.  It's not certain how I died, but it must have been in one of two ways.  My killer is known, though proving that person guilty is a very different matter.  Other than the fact that I was closely connected to a single prominent character in this book, absolutely nothing is known about me."

Nofret 03 Aug 11 at 1:03 p.m. GMT

Of course, Duck! See you all in 2 weeks!

NightRayDuck 03 Aug 11 at 7:18 a.m. GMT

Yes, GKCfan! This victim is Alex from They Do It With Mirrors. Finally! :D Your turn, GKCfan.

I am randomly wondering whether Nofret has really got the correct answer..

GKCfan 03 Aug 11 at 6:36 a.m. GMT

Alex Restarick from They Do It With Mirrors, killed by a piece of falling stage scenery, along with Ernie?  The "red herring" is of course Carrie-Louise Serrocold.

Nofret 03 Aug 11 at 5:24 a.m. GMT

Aha, I think I've got it! However I'm off on hols tomorrow so won't have time to set the next one.

Not one of my favourite Christies, if I'm correct, due to the fact that it's too obvious how the original murder was committed.

Hurry up and solve my "Guess the Story" - it's quite a NORMAL one!!!!

NightRayDuck 02 Aug 11 at 6:55 p.m. GMT

Hello, Lyneve. Glad you could join us. I'll point out Hint 2: This victim is not an originally intended victim, but rather needed to be eliminated due to finding out too much.

and Tommy Pierce wasn't known to have found out any particular facts pointing to the murderer.

Hint 3: This victim died at the same time, same place as another victim; thus, it is difficult to say whether this victim was "the second victim" or "the third victim".

NightRayDuck 02 Aug 11 at 1:32 a.m. GMT

Nice effort, Gary! I think you also miss the point, though.

This victim says: "Every man has a different goal in life, and his own method of accomplishing it. Other than being a murder victim, I don't see much cause for me to complain. But the murderer using the most sweet, innocent family member as the red herring - that is more unethical than everything else the criminal had done."

Note: The red herring is alive and a murder attempt is never made at the red herring. (This victim is not the red herring!)

Hint 2: This victim is not an originally intended victim, but rather needed to be eliminated due to finding out too much.

Mr_Battle_Brent 01 Aug 11 at 7:46 a.m. GMT

Stephen Babbington poisoned by his cocktail,or hm... Maybe Angela from Five Little Pigs... But she isn't a victim!

NightRayDuck 01 Aug 11 at 1:03 a.m. GMT

Ah, sorry, but this victim is not Maggie Buckley. Maggie Buckley herself was the intended victim (murderer wanted a lot of money that Maggie had a claim to), and then the murderer put some clues that confused the detectives about the murder motive..

I think Nofret has also been mis-interpreting the "red herring". This is a murder case. The murderer uses the "red herring" sweet and innocent character to confuse the sleuths. Taking this "red herring" character as truly sweet and innocent, thus not intending to help the murderer, then the possible uses of the red herring is very limited.. 

mimi25 31 Jul 11 at 9:02 p.m. GMT

Thank you GKCfan.

My answer is still Maggie Buckley in Peril at End House.

GKCfan 31 Jul 11 at 8:38 p.m. GMT

A "red herring" is a term that means a clue that goes nowhere, or some bit of information that is used to mislead someone.  The term originates from when fugitives spread red herrings (smelly fish) along their path to throw off the scent-tracking dogs that were after them.

mimi25 31 Jul 11 at 7:01 p.m. GMT

My English is not very good, could you explain "red herring"please?

All the same, I think the victim is Maggie Buckley in Peril at End House.

NightRayDuck 28 Jul 11 at 4:33 p.m. GMT

Ah no no no, definitely not George Barton. I'd recommend that you consider the red herring - in this murder case, the most sweet and innocent family member is being used as a red herring.

Hint: This red herring is alive throughout the case.

Nofret 28 Jul 11 at 7 a.m. GMT

Hmm, this is a difficult one! George Barton from Sparkling Cyanide - Iris being the sweet innocent? Wasn't George a banker? well nowadays that profession has a very bad press!

NightRayDuck 24 Jul 11 at 6:32 a.m. GMT

Ah, this particular victim isn't as blame-worthy as old Mr. Simeon Lee. This victim is in a profession that's often stereotyped as fast-living or having loose morals, but I don't recall particular bad behaviors described for this victim.

Well other than the old trout.. I mean, Audrey is far more than a red herring.

Nofret 24 Jul 11 at 6:06 a.m. GMT

No, you silly Duck, I wasn't suggesting that the old trout Lady Tressillian was sweet and innocent, that was Audrey! And I didn't reveal the murderer, so no spoiler there!

Am I right in thinking that the victim hadn't led a blameless life, someone like Simeon Lee? Except that no-one in the embittered Lee family could be described as sweet or innocent!!!

NightRayDuck 23 Jul 11 at 7:16 p.m. GMT

Not Lady Tressilian, I don't quite see her calling herself the most sweet and innocent family member. She knows about all sort of human evils, she just doesn't go around tolerating evil. (Also, I don't think she'd say that she had no personal complaint about the murder).

The last sentence in the clue, the rather long one, describes a quite complex situation, but it can still be broken down into two or three different "murder motive" components.

Oh! and, oh dear, wouldn't your guess have done better with a spoiler warning?? although I know the website still messes up and fails to load particular buttons of the comment area..

Nofret 23 Jul 11 at 6:52 a.m. GMT

Is it Lady Tressillian, bludgeoned to death, with Audrey Strange being framed for the murder?

NightRayDuck 21 Jul 11 at 10:43 p.m. GMT

"Every man has a different goal in life, and his own method of accomplishing it. Other than being a murder victim, I don't see much cause for me to complain. But the murderer using the most sweet, innocent family member as the red herring - that is more unethical than everything else the criminal had done."

I went ahead and posted a puzzle, seeing as there's not yet a new puzzle when I woke up. o.o

NightRayDuck 19 Jul 11 at 1:34 a.m. GMT

I am deaderly sleepy than any dead spoilt teenager. I'd like to request any friend who has an accurate yet humorously misleading puzzle to go ahead and post it.

Nofret 15 Jul 11 at 4:56 a.m. GMT

Well done, Ray, it is indeed the spoilt teenager Ipy.

Your turn.

NightRayDuck 15 Jul 11 at 1:14 a.m. GMT

Ipy, who is found dead with his face down in a stream, in "Death Comes as the End".

Nofret 13 Jul 11 at 8:10 p.m. GMT

Not Third Girl, Ray.  Sittaford, you're nearly there - who thought they were the brains of the family?

NightRayDuck 13 Jul 11 at 6:43 p.m. GMT

In "Third Girl", the lady who has been using several names and several identities, who ends up being pushed out of a seventh storey window, and falls to her death? Very undignified, I am afraid.

InspectorGrant 13 Jul 11 at 1:32 p.m. GMT

Nofret

No, in the book Mary was a sweet, modest creature (unlike the scrubber in the TV adaptation!)

I'm glad I'm not the only one who thought she was a scrubber!

Sittaford 13 Jul 11 at 7:37 a.m. GMT

Sticking with Death Comes as the End, was it Satipy who was also pushed off a cliff

Nofret 13 Jul 11 at 7:26 a.m. GMT

Not David Baker.

Clue - one of you is very close, right book, wrong body!

NightRayDuck 12 Jul 11 at 8:46 p.m. GMT

Um... very early on in this quiz thread, I think there had been a mention of a blackmailer who got stabbed to death in "Third Girl"? Name of David Baker, I think.

Nofret 11 Jul 11 at 8:58 p.m. GMT

Not Vera Claythorne and not Jacko Argyle.  Sorry, GCKfan, not Nadina either. Clue - no-one in this story had ever heard of St Mary Mead.

NightRayDuck 11 Jul 11 at 6:42 p.m. GMT

I thought Jacko Argyle in "Ordeal by Innocence"; he might be funny-looking, but he could consider himself good-looking from the way he gets at the ladies... I don't know if there's any place that he has the patience to stay at and make changes to, though.

christie_greece 11 Jul 11 at 9:29 a.m. GMT

I thought Vera Claythorne from And Then There Were None but I don't think that she wanted to be feared..

Nofret 11 Jul 11 at 6:49 a.m. GMT

No, in the book Mary was a sweet, modest creature (unlike the scrubber in the TV adaptation!)

Mr_Battle_Brent 10 Jul 11 at 1:07 p.m. GMT

Mary Gerrard,poisoned with morphine hydrochloride

GKCfan 10 Jul 11 at 8:23 a.m. GMT

Nadina from The Man in the Brown Suit?

Nofret 10 Jul 11 at 7:31 a.m. GMT

Yes, GKCfan, this character is from a full-length novel, and no, Ray, it's not Greta Andersen.

NightRayDuck 10 Jul 11 at 1:25 a.m. GMT

Maybe Greta Andersen, who was strangled by bare hands in "Endless Night"? In the few stories that I remember, she's the only good-looker who'd have no worry over being a fearsome figure. 

GKCfan 09 Jul 11 at 9:40 p.m. GMT

Is this from a novel?

Nofret 09 Jul 11 at 8:44 a.m. GMT

Not Rosemary Barton, nor Nofret.

GKCfan 09 Jul 11 at 6:11 a.m. GMT

Norfret, is it Norfret from Death Comes As the End, who was pushed off a cliff?

Mr_Battle_Brent 08 Jul 11 at 9:46 p.m. GMT

Brains... Oh

Mr_Battle_Brent 08 Jul 11 at 9:46 p.m. GMT

Rosemary Barton?

Nofret 08 Jul 11 at 8:54 p.m. GMT

It's not Linnet, though I think she wanted to be obeyed.

NightRayDuck 08 Jul 11 at 5:37 p.m. GMT

I would have said it's "Linnet Ridgeway, later Mrs. Doyle, shot by handgun in Death on the Nile", but I don't think Linnet ever thinks herself as someone to be feared.

Nofret 07 Jul 11 at 6:55 a.m. GMT

You're correct, Tommy, Miss M does not appear in this novel.

Tommy_A_Jones 06 Jul 11 at 4:13 p.m. GMT

Am I right in thinking it is not a Victim gtom a Miss Marple Novel?

Nofret 06 Jul 11 at 1:37 p.m. GMT

Thank you, Ray.

It's not fair! I had everything, brains, good looks, excellent prospects! I would have made changes around here, everyone should have feared me, yet I was killed in such a demeaning way!

NightRayDuck 03 Jul 11 at 6:49 p.m. GMT

Harold Crackenthorpe by poison pills is correct! Over to you, Nofret. :)

Nofret 03 Jul 11 at 10:50 a.m. GMT

Aha! I see a Ray(!) of light! Is it Harold Crackenthorpe, referring to his sister Emma taking advice from Dr Quimper? Killed by poisoned sleeping pills.

NightRayDuck 03 Jul 11 at 3:58 a.m. GMT

Hi Hercule! Good to see that you've had a moment of leisure to check on the quiz games. I started writing that comment for a friendly invitation of questions, but I am afraid that my brain switched off in the middle of writing, and the automated babbling module lighted up.

Anyway - This victim is not the old man from Postern of Fate, and not (dentist) Dr. Morley from One Two Buckle my Shoe, either. I think it would help if you try to sort the original clue and the replies into several topics, and then look for a victim with all of the characteristics.. (e.g. I've thought that this victim's state of marriage doesn't end up having much bearing on the murder; however, it is true that in the story the marriage was bland, empty, and several such adjetives..)

Nofret 02 Jul 11 at 4:40 p.m. GMT

Is it Mr Morley the dentist from One, Two, Buckle my Shoe? Killed by a gunshot at close range.

HerculeJC 02 Jul 11 at 6:20 a.m. GMT

First off, Night Ray, June was a hectic month for me: so many things kept me occupied, and away from the Site.

Anyways, is this the old man from POSTERN OF FATE??  Tommy and Tuppence felt quite bad that he was killed.

NightRayDuck 01 Jul 11 at 7:56 p.m. GMT

Well, anybody want to take a shot oops I mean try a guess at this victim? Or ask for a specific hint ("Was this a Tom&Tup story?" "Was this victim strangled?")? Or ask this victim some questions?

I thought this clue would be fairly easy... I put in all of the relevant details except for the victim's name and cause of death. (Example of irrelevant detail is this victim's boring marriage.)

Somebody ask for a hint before I throw out more of the random irrelevant details that won't be much use in solving this puzzle. 

NightRayDuck 26 Jun 11 at 12:29 a.m. GMT

This character is nowhere as successful as Granddad Leonides or Rex Fortescue. Also, notice the second half of the clue, in which this victim blames a sister for giving the murderer some opportunities.

Nofret 25 Jun 11 at 5:46 p.m. GMT

It could be Aristide Leonides or Rex Fortescue, except that I don't think either of them was particularly conventional.

NightRayDuck 19 Jun 11 at 4:15 a.m. GMT

Thank you, GKC!

"I maintain the appearance of a conventional old stick. I keep quiet about the difficult financial state of my business - just the same thing that many other businessmen are doing during this difficult time. I didn't do anything to provoke any murderer. I'd like to blame first of all my foolish, credulous sister who's been taking advices from someone who had no business giving her advice. Her foolishness didn't provoke anything, either; no, she simply made the situation wide open to the murderer." 

GKCfan 16 Jun 11 at 6:22 a.m. GMT

Sorry!  Yes, it's Nannie from Crooked House!

NightRayDuck 15 Jun 11 at 7:33 p.m. GMT

hi GKCfan, are we still here? ;-)

NightRayDuck 01 Jun 11 at 12:59 a.m. GMT

I thought of Mag Buckley (the one who died), too, only I couldn't think of anything about not being wasteful in the circumstances of her death. Another possible answer I thought of was Janet Rowe, the Nanny to the Leonides grand-kids, in Crooked House. killed by poison in a cup of cocoa that was snubbed by its usual consumer. with the Nanny, though, the weapon that was hidden, as far as I can remember, was difficult for the murderer to obtain?

Mr_Graves 01 Jun 11 at 12:25 a.m. GMT

Could you be Maggie Buckley from "Peril at End House"? I only say this because it was thought that she was a mistake on the murderer's part- when she wasn't!

GKCfan 29 May 11 at 7:57 a.m. GMT

"People thought that I wasn't the intended victim at first, but I was!  I don't believe that my real name is mentioned until very late in the book, and then only once.  A metal object was needed to get the murder weapon that killed me, since the weapon was carefully put away.  I don't think that anyone else in Christie's books was killed for quite the same reason that I was.  I died because I didn't want to be wasteful..."

HerculeJC 28 May 11 at 10:58 a.m. GMT

Correct GKC, it was Barbara Franklin, who poisoned her husband John's coffee. 

Then Hastings, in looking for a Shakespeare book, rotated the corner turntable, where the two coffees were located, and Barbara did not catch what had happened.  Thus, Barbara died, and her death was declared a suicide, instead. 

Your turn.

GKCfan 28 May 11 at 7:14 a.m. GMT

Barbara Franklin, from Curtain.

HerculeJC 28 May 11 at 5:41 a.m. GMT

Did I make this one too easy??

Any takers??

HerculeJC 18 May 11 at 2:29 a.m. GMT

"Here goes":

"Maybe I should not be 'The Murder Victim', as I was the one planning the murder; had everything all set up.  Then that 'somewhat dim-witted widower', literally, 'turned the tables on me', and I ended up being killed, instead of my planned victim".  

cameronjhw 17 May 11 at 2:46 p.m. GMT

You are correct it is Betty's actual mother who was tragically shot by the fake mother Mrs. Sprot.

Over to you...

HerculeJC 17 May 11 at 4:54 a.m. GMT

I think this is Little Betty's actual Mother, who was desperately trying to retrieve her from the Sans Souci in N OR M.   This woman was shot during the ensuing chase, and confrontation with some of the Sans Souci guests, including Tommy and Tuppence.

cameronjhw 17 May 11 at 3:52 a.m. GMT

Not even the talkative Heather Badcock is the right answer.

Hint-This person is of a foreign origin

NightRayDuck 16 May 11 at 5:22 a.m. GMT

the first victim in The Mirror Crack'd? died from some sort of poison in her glass of wine. my unreliable reference book says the name is Heather Badcock, but I wouldn't swear to it.

cameronjhw 15 May 11 at 7:20 p.m. GMT

Not Mrs. Nicoletis either I'm afraid

Nofret 14 May 11 at 5:18 p.m. GMT

Mrs Nicoletis from Hickory Dickory Dock?

cameronjhw 14 May 11 at 5:06 p.m. GMT

No it's not Elizabeth Temple or Mrs. Boynton

HerculeJC 14 May 11 at 5:40 a.m. GMT

Another guess: Mrs. Boynton, from APPOINTMENT WITH DEATH: she may have been, momentarily worried, about who was coming up behind her, while awaiting Lady Westholme.   

Then she received the fatal injection.

HerculeJC 14 May 11 at 5:38 a.m. GMT

One guess: "Long-Shot": Elizabeth Temple, from NEMESIS: she was hit by rocks, and she might have heard voices calling out to 'look out!!'.

cameronjhw 12 May 11 at 8:49 p.m. GMT

Sorry not the unlucky "Lucky" Dyson

Mr_Battle_Brent 12 May 11 at 4:28 p.m. GMT

Could that woman be 'Lucky'?

cameronjhw 12 May 11 at 3:42 p.m. GMT

No it is not Edna Brent

HerculeJC 12 May 11 at 3:26 p.m. GMT

Edna Brent, from THE CLOCKS

cameronjhw 12 May 11 at 2:44 p.m. GMT

No to Lily Kimble and Arlena Marshall although I will say this person is a woman

Nofret 12 May 11 at 8:59 a.m. GMT

Arlena Marshall in Evil under the Sun?

HerculeJC 12 May 11 at 6:26 a.m. GMT

How about Lily Kimble, in SLEEPING MURDER

cameronjhw 11 May 11 at 9:59 p.m. GMT

No it's not the rich and lovely Ruth Kettering

HerculeJC 11 May 11 at 6:02 a.m. GMT

Is this RUTH KETTERING, from THE MYSTERY OF THE BLUE TRAIN??

cameronjhw 10 May 11 at 2:55 p.m. GMT

"I don't know why I had to die...I didn't do anything wrong....I only wanted to see someone very badly....I was scared when I heard voices and saw some figures after me...Then someone killed me by.....

Nofret 09 May 11 at 6:02 p.m. GMT

Absolutely correct, Cameron. Well done, your turn.

cameronjhw 09 May 11 at 3:06 p.m. GMT

Could it be Mrs. Craig who was poisoned by her husband and his mistress Eva Kane in Mrs. McGinty's Dead and her daughter Maude Williams was the one who tried to avenge her death.

Nofret 09 May 11 at 8:09 a.m. GMT

No, none of the answers is correct so far! Clue - one of my children came close to avenging my murder.

HerculeJC 09 May 11 at 3:32 a.m. GMT

I also thought of Amycus Crale, in FIVE LITTLE PIGS.

HerculeJC 09 May 11 at 12:01 a.m. GMT

Michael ("Mickey") Gorman, from AT BERTRAM'S HOTEL?

NightRayDuck 08 May 11 at 11:20 p.m. GMT

or Verity Hunt who was poisoned in Nemesis?

cameronjhw 08 May 11 at 9:01 p.m. GMT

Could it be Mrs. Boynton who died of a lethal injection of digatalis in Appointment with Death or is Louise Leidner who died of a blow to the head from a stone quern in Murder in Mesopotamia.

Nofret 08 May 11 at 8:34 a.m. GMT

Not Rachel Argyle, Hercule!

HerculeJC 07 May 11 at 11:52 p.m. GMT

This must be Mrs. Argyle, from ORDEAL BY INNOCENCE.

Nofret 07 May 11 at 8:33 a.m. GMT

Thank you, Duck!

Yes, I was murdered. My life was cruelly cut short, and someone paid the price. But did my real killer escape scot-free? I was not entirely unloved, perhaps those left behind will eventually uncover the truth.

NightRayDuck 06 May 11 at 9:20 p.m. GMT

wow, so many reasonable answers so quickly this time. well done me for writing a detailed clue? :p

Nofret is correct, this victim is Dora Bunner from A Murder is Announced, who had felt certain, long before anyone else thought so, and long before her own death, that her friend Miss Blacklock was in danger. Congrats Nofret, your turn. :)

HerculeJC 06 May 11 at 6:46 p.m. GMT

GEORGE BARTON, from SPARKLING CYANIDE

Mr_Battle_Brent 06 May 11 at 12:25 p.m. GMT

'Lucky' from Caribbean Mystery.

Nofret 06 May 11 at 8:31 a.m. GMT

Dora Bunner from A Murder is Announced? Poison tablets substituted for aspirin. She believed that the intended victim was Miss Blacklock, who had indeed led a difficult life.

Mr_Graves 06 May 11 at 3:35 a.m. GMT

Ho hum... So the wrong person died in a murder attempt... Will have to think about that one.

NightRayDuck 06 May 11 at 2:39 a.m. GMT

oooh!

the next victim up for guessing - does not think so.

What.. no, I wasn't murdered. They wouldn't get anything out of my death. Hmm. I died only as an accidental casualty in their attempt on my friend's life. I am really worried. My friend has had such a difficult life, and now some villains want to end it. 

MissQuin 05 May 11 at 5:14 p.m. GMT

This reply contains spoiler information. Show reply

Yes it's Coco Courtenay in my favourite short story. I'm sure she would have been sore to miss out the chance to become the future Lady Coco Conshaw. And she was pretty much murdered by her "friend" who encouraged her to take a fatal dose.

on another subject I wonder if she died still dressed as Columbine? People who dress as Columbine meet untimely ends in AC stories! Namely the short Harlequin's Lane story.

and so it's your turn now Duckie

NightRayDuck 05 May 11 at 4:46 p.m. GMT

Coco Courtenay in "The Affair at the Victory Ball"? died from overdose of cocaine. I forget if she really did take it herself, or if somebody surreptitiously administered it to her, but if she took it herself, it was a "friend" who told her to take such such a dose.. which was really a fatal overdose.

Mr_Battle_Brent 05 May 11 at 3:21 p.m. GMT

Oh yeah,you are corrent:it was a suicide.

MissQuin 05 May 11 at 2:35 p.m. GMT

This reply contains spoiler information. Show reply

Murder In The Mews SPOILERS!!! Wasn't her death suicide?

anyway, it's not her, but this person was due to marry a rich man with a title.

Mr_Battle_Brent 04 May 11 at 8:46 p.m. GMT

Barbara Aleen-Murder in the Mews

MissQuin 04 May 11 at 5:53 p.m. GMT

It is a Poirot and a young woman, but it's not Mary or Caroline. It's a short story as well.

Sad Cypress- the infamous fish paste sandwich, how very horrible! But I thought it turned out that the poison was in the tea?

cameronjhw 04 May 11 at 4:26 p.m. GMT

For some reason could it be Caroline Crale who was accused of her husband's murder and died in prison in Five Little Pigs

NightRayDuck 04 May 11 at 3:10 a.m. GMT

Mary Gerrard, killed by morphine sandwich in Sad Cypress? I think the timing is correct.. death before wedding and no live appearance in story.. I don't know if she'd got a reliable friend to tell of her, tho, and I don't remember anything about her nature. The only thing I remember about Sad Cypress is the sandwich.. fish sandwich, wasn't it?

NightRayDuck 03 May 11 at 8:02 p.m. GMT

hmm.. the timing of the death re: wedding rules out Helen in Sleeping Murder, the timing of the death re: appearing alive in story rules out Celia Austin in Hickory Dickory Dock, the gender rules out Adrian Royde in Towards Zero.. hmm.

..goes back to thinking..

MissQuin 03 May 11 at 7:52 p.m. GMT

No it wan't poor Verity, who I don't think had friends except Micheal.

This character is of a very volatile nature!

NightRayDuck 02 May 11 at 6:47 p.m. GMT

This reply contains spoiler information. Show reply

Miss Verity Hunt in Nemesis? killed by poison, I believe.

MissQuin 02 May 11 at 5:36 p.m. GMT

No, not Seaton or Mrs Ferrars. Wasn't Mrs F suicide? I'm sure it was, although she had been driven to it.

Okay another clue:

Well now I'm dead I know who my firends are! Someone I knew turned out to be my killer. I was so unsuspecting.

Nofret 02 May 11 at 4:32 p.m. GMT

Mrs Ferrars from the Murder of Roger Ackroyd?

Mr_Battle_Brent 02 May 11 at 4:31 p.m. GMT

Aaah..A woman!

Mr_Battle_Brent 02 May 11 at 4:30 p.m. GMT

Maybe Seton from Peril at End House.

MissQuin 02 May 11 at 4:19 p.m. GMT

One guess at a time please. But no it's none of those.  Nofret was alive in the story and the maid was not directly murdered, it was just that her death could have been prevented.

Although you guessed it is a woman.

cameronjhw 02 May 11 at 3:22 p.m. GMT

Is it the beautiful and yet manipulative concubine Nofret who was thrown from a cliff in Death Comes as the End? Or could it be the unfortunate and pregnant maid Beatrice Taylor who drowns herself in And Then There Were None

MissQuin 02 May 11 at 10:26 a.m. GMT

Readers wouldn't ever have known me when I was alive. I was only ever mentioned after my death. But a person close to me does a good job explaining about my self. I was due to get married although I never had the chance, which makes my heart ache.

Nofret 30 Apr 11 at 8:13 a.m. GMT

Thank you for the compliment, MissQ, and of course you are correct. Your turn!

MissQuin 29 Apr 11 at 10:19 a.m. GMT

On here as an desperate attempt to escape the Royal wedding fever  

I think it might be Mrs Lorrimer in Cards On The Table? Her life wasn't blameless, as she'd murdered her husband. But she never wanted to discuss why. I think the two unconnected murders could be Dr Roberts victim and Anne Meredith's crimes.

I congratualate you Nofret, on setting such a excellent clue, it's got us all puzzled!

HerculeJC 29 Apr 11 at 7:15 a.m. GMT

Could it be Madame Giselle, from DEATH IN THE CLOUDS??  She was revealed to be quite a nasty person when money was owed to her.

The 'other business' was, likely, related to Norman Gale's past deeds, as he blamed her for a down-turn in his fortunes, and which led him to use Madame Giselle's daughter to track her movements, including the plane flight, which the daughter was on, as well (but in the forward cabin).

Nofret 29 Apr 11 at 6:32 a.m. GMT

Not Mrs Clapperton, and both the incident in this character's past life, and the "other awful business" were two unrelated murders.

NightRayDuck 29 Apr 11 at 2:43 a.m. GMT

I'd almost say Mrs. Clapperton, a.k.a. Lady Carrington before her latest marriage, stabbed to death in "Problem at Sea", but, again, can't think of an awful business that she might discuss. 

Nofret 28 Apr 11 at 11:31 a.m. GMT

Well, MissQ, the facts would certainly fit Eileen Corrigan (I think that was her name) but it's not her. Neither is it Ella Zielinsky or Barbara Stranleigh. But Poirot, by a cunning trick, managed to bring my murderer to justice! 

NightRayDuck 27 Apr 11 at 9:44 p.m. GMT

I thought of Barbara, the Baroness Stranleigh, who was drowned in her own bath in "The Voice in the Dark", but I doubt she ever thought of any event as an "awful business"..

cameronjhw 27 Apr 11 at 4:34 p.m. GMT

Is it Ella Ziliensky who was poisoned with cyanide from her atomizer in the Mirror Crack'd

MissQuin 27 Apr 11 at 1:59 p.m. GMT

The fact that Lord Edgware owned books by the Marquis De Sade is a hint at some of his interests. I think the word "sadist" come from the views of Sade, as in pleasure in hurting others.  Anyway moving very swiftly off a very unpleasant topic!

I wonder if it's the Irish girl, the fake Rosaleen in Taken At The flood? She thought she would be punished by God for lying and having a relationship with David out of marriage maybe? She couldn't throw any light on the mysterious death of the imposter Enoch Arden.

Nofret 27 Apr 11 at 8:02 a.m. GMT

Well reasoned, NRD, I think it's hinted that Lord E indulged in some dubious hanky-panky (could have just been that he was gay - illegal in those days) But it's not him.

The speaker is a woman.

NightRayDuck 26 Apr 11 at 9:20 p.m. GMT

Lord Edgeware, who dies in Lord Edgeware Dies? I forget if he'd been stabbed, or if he'd been shot to death. it's a little difficult to say exactly his dubious experience of blameless life or the particular other awful business, but these might be that a) he had been too stingy and rather unpleasant, driving his wife to a strong yearning to be parted from him, and b) he sent a letter to his wife saying very well and he would henceforth have a divorce with her, but somehow the letter managed to not be in evidence at his wife's place.

Nofret 26 Apr 11 at 9:46 a.m. GMT

Again, no-one as "common" as Lucky Dyson!

NightRayDuck 26 Apr 11 at 4:53 a.m. GMT

Mrs. "Lucky" Dyson in A Caribbean Mystery? drowned when her head was held underwater in a stream or little pool where she was attempting a tryst..

Nofret 22 Apr 11 at 11:26 a.m. GMT

I think Merlina Rival got her comeuppance by being stabbed in the street, anyway, my victim is of a higher social class!

NightRayDuck 22 Apr 11 at 4:14 a.m. GMT

...what did the worried lady call herself, Marlina Rival or something equally difficult to spell, in The Clocks? the lady who told the police that the mystery dead man was her husband who left her a long time ago? can't remember the murder method exactly, I think it's poison added to her drink at a pub, but I might be getting confused with Mrs. Nicoletis in Hickory Dickory Dock.

Nofret 20 Apr 11 at 8:10 a.m. GMT

Not the dodgy Alfred, DK!

NightRayDuck 19 Apr 11 at 9:53 p.m. GMT

hmm.. Alfred Crackenthorpe in 4.50 from Paddington? Arsenic in cocktail, and then possibly an additional dose, which may or may not have been in his tea.

and Mr. Craddock had just got Alfred all taped out as murderer of the mystery woman found at the house..

Nofret 19 Apr 11 at 12:36 p.m. GMT

Thank you, DK. I agree with you about George Burton, how naive of him to think that a callous poisoner would break down and confess on seeing a double of his victim!

I suppose you would say that my murder was retribution for not having lived a blameless life - I do not wish to speak about that. However I feel that I was not believed when I stated that I could throw no light on that other awful business.

NightRayDuck 18 Apr 11 at 10:32 p.m. GMT

Yes, Nofret! This is poor Adele Fortescue. And we didn't have to refer to her bird-brainedness and any such similarity as may be found in George Barton! Your turn! 

(I'd consider George Barton bird-brained, for being easily alarmed without knowing enough of the relevant facts. Sort of like... the hen who worried that the sky was falling down?  )

Nofret 18 Apr 11 at 7:59 p.m. GMT

Adele Fortescue, poisoned with cyanide in her tea?

Mr_Battle_Brent 18 Apr 11 at 1:34 p.m. GMT

Damn,I was so sure about Mrs. Ferrars. I have no idea.

NightRayDuck 18 Apr 11 at 6:56 a.m. GMT

Not George Barton either. Here's a hint because it's something that this victim wouldn't have stated plainly, and probably wouldn't even think of saying so.

Hint: This victim may be seen as a gold-digger, marrying for the money. For that reason, this victim was routinely one of the top suspects for the murder of the wealthy and older spouse.

Nofret 17 Apr 11 at 9:33 p.m. GMT

It could be George Barton from Sparkling Cyanide, killed by cyanide in his champagne.

NightRayDuck 17 Apr 11 at 8:33 p.m. GMT

That's a nice guess, Gary, but not the victim I was thinking about. This victim, and the wealthy spouse, were alive at the beginning of the story.

Mr_Battle_Brent 17 Apr 11 at 8:28 p.m. GMT

Mrs. Ferrars,The Murder of Roger Ackroyd

NightRayDuck 17 Apr 11 at 8:08 p.m. GMT

I suppose it's only a matter of routine for me to be a suspect when my wealthy spouse met with sudden death. I didn't expect to be murdered, myself, though!

Nofret 17 Apr 11 at 8:32 a.m. GMT

Spot on, DK, it is indeed Madame Simone from The Last Seance. Your turn.

NightRayDuck 17 Apr 11 at 12:40 a.m. GMT

This reply contains spoiler information. Show reply

In "The Last Seance", the victim is the famous medium Madame Simone. She died while conducting a seance, where the client deliberately acted out of order and touched the manifested spirit, to turn the spirit into a living person of flesh and blood. Madame Simone ended up dead and her body quite shrunken to apprx half its living size.

I didn't spend enough time to find out about the advice, if any, that Madame Simone didn't heed. It might be from her housemaid Elise, who has always felt that this "spirits nonsense" was very dangerous for Madame Simone's health.

NightRayDuck 17 Apr 11 at 12:36 a.m. GMT

Is this victim from "The Last Seance", wihch in the UK publication is in the collection "The Hound of Death and Other Stories"? It's in quite a different volume in the U.S., I had just flipped through the last 3 pages of it (in a bookstore..). Seeing that nobody else had come close to answering, I am not sure I should spoil it here by posting my results obtained by cheating a bookstore.. 

Nofret 16 Apr 11 at 11:52 a.m. GMT

Not Dr Rose, although you're in the right volume of short stories. The victim had a peculiar talent - unfortunately this practice has been completely discredited nowadays.

NightRayDuck 15 Apr 11 at 5:55 p.m. GMT

Dr. Rose in "The Hound of Death"? He didn't heed the priestess's advice to respectfully stay away from the amazing power of whatever realm they were involved in. He died in a landslide that hit the house that he was in? Or did the house catch on fire first? Or did he get washed away in the flood? Sorry I can't remember. I don't have my book at the moment. But anyway his body was either unrecognizable or not recovered.

Nofret 12 Apr 11 at 11:45 a.m. GMT

Back last night from glorious Egypt!

You're getting warm, DK, though I thought that the Arthur Carmichael story was the weakest one in a volume of super (natural) stories!

NightRayDuck 03 Apr 11 at 9:59 p.m. GMT

hm... I thought of the cat and Sir Arthur in "The Strange Case of Sir Arthur Carmichael" (or whatever the title of that story is... can't remember at the moment, sorry), but there's no advice involved, unless the edition that I have is also drastically abridged..

Nofret 03 Apr 11 at 8:50 p.m. GMT

Not Flossie - this person's death was unbelievably macabre.

GKCfan 02 Apr 11 at 7:30 p.m. GMT

Mrs. Flossie Carrington in "The Plymouth Express?"

Nofret 02 Apr 11 at 7:31 a.m. GMT

Not Maybelle - she was probably killed before her face was disfigured.

This person appears in a short story.

By the way, please have a go at my "guess the object" - I'm off to Gatwick in the early hours of Monday morning!

GKCfan 02 Apr 11 at 6:03 a.m. GMT

HerculeJC, do you mean Maybelle Sainsbury-Seale?

HerculeJC 02 Apr 11 at 5:40 a.m. GMT

This has to be the character from ONE TWO BUCKLE MY SHOE whose body was supposed to be that of the Dentist's wife.  She was speaking with a friend before her Dentist visit.

It was easier for her to be believed missing, and the listed victim as dead; but for that her body was disfigured.

Nofret 01 Apr 11 at 10:06 p.m. GMT

Good guess, DK, especially as Michael sees her ghost at Gypsy's Acre. But not Ellie. This person's death was so ghastly that it left the body almost unrecognisable.

NightRayDuck 01 Apr 11 at 8:49 p.m. GMT

Ellie in Endless Night? killed by cyanide cunningly hidden in some ordinary object that she uses. did not heed advice of local odd gipsy old lady of staying away from that piece of land that Michael wanted to buy.

Nofret 30 Mar 11 at 9:31 a.m. GMT

Thank you, GKC and DK!

The trauma and agony of my passing you can only imagine.  Why did I not heed her advice? However - am I really dead?

NightRayDuck 30 Mar 11 at 1:55 a.m. GMT

I suppose the "if I'd not gone outside, and kept to myself" might be referring to the way that Miss Emily Arundell went about the village and chatted with old friends such as Miss Peabody, who knew her so well and was able to provide a lot of precise information to Poirot upon the first interview..

So now it's Nofret's turn for the next puzzle, yes?

GKCfan 28 Mar 11 at 12:09 a.m. GMT

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Yes!  Great work, Norfret, and thank you!  One problem– you're thinking of the Suchet TV version, where they see her breathing phosphorescent vapor in the garden.  In the book, the vapor is seen indoors, in the middle of a seance.

Nofret 27 Mar 11 at 9:01 p.m. GMT

Oh I do like your puzzles, GCKfan, they always seem to have a touch of the macabre about them!

Is it Emily Arundell, poisoned by phosphorus, which made her breath luminous when she went out into the dark garden?

GKCfan 27 Mar 11 at 7:52 p.m. GMT

"No one will ever be convicted for my murder, and that's just how I want it.  Just think- if I'd kept all the lights on and not gone outside and kept to myself, no one would ever have figured out how I died!"

NightRayDuck 27 Mar 11 at 7:08 a.m. GMT

Well done, GKCfan! Over to you for the next puzzle. 

GKCfan 27 Mar 11 at 6:59 a.m. GMT

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Victim: Simeon Lee

Cause of death: slit throat

Least respectful description: the dying cry was like killing a pig (spoken by Harry), and that was true because the noise was really the Dying Pig device.

Mr_Graves 27 Mar 11 at 6:58 a.m. GMT

Well, I will be a gentleman and allow Nofret to go first. 

NightRayDuck 27 Mar 11 at 5:04 a.m. GMT

some very good guesses there, Mr Graves and Nofret! and so quickly returned, too! May I suggest that we settle this puzzle on the person who lists the victim, the cause of death, the "least respectful description" and the way that it comes closest to the facts than the emotional gibberish? 

Nofret 26 Mar 11 at 7:40 a.m. GMT

Sorry, DK, I don't speak canary! (tweet tweet?)!!!!!

I'd go with Mr G and say definitely Simeon Lee.

Mr_Graves 26 Mar 11 at 1:07 a.m. GMT

Could this be Rex Fortescue, or perhaps Simeon Lee?

NightRayDuck 25 Mar 11 at 11:04 p.m. GMT

 LOL about bird-brained victims! Personally I would have written the canary's sentiments quite differently, but that's only due to the sections of biology and psychology that had been emphasized during my training.

Well, the next victim is definitely feeling.. hmm.. I think grouchy is the word.

The houseful of my devoted family, when asked by the police to describe circumstances surrounding my death, well hardly any of them detailed what they saw or what they heard - just a lot of emotional gibberish. The least respectful description was the best. It's like I often told them, an irreverent devil might have been better, the straitlaced ones or the devoted ones were no good at all.

Nofret 25 Mar 11 at 6:34 a.m. GMT

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Yes, you're right, DK, the poor little canary, whose death so revolted Miss W's fiance that he called off the engagement, leading to......... But I won't spoil it further for anyone who hasn't read this excellent Christie!

I said the victim was bird-brained!!!!! Over to you!

NightRayDuck 25 Mar 11 at 4:25 a.m. GMT

oh dear.. Miss Honoria Wyneflete's canary, which died of a wrung neck several decades ago, in Murder Is Easy?

I thought "wrung neck" meant "neck broken; vertebrae dislocated; spinal nerve torn", whereas "strangled" meant "neck gripped tightly so that airway was shut for long enough time to cause suffocation / asphyxiation".. so.. not the poor birdy?

Nofret 24 Mar 11 at 12:23 p.m. GMT

Not Greta (served her right!)

It was an accident - I didn't mean to hurt her!

NightRayDuck 24 Mar 11 at 6:38 a.m. GMT

forgot her name... the Valkyrie-like secretary / companion of Ellie, in Endless Night, strangled by bare hands of someone sort of wicked, sort of crazy, and sort of foolish?

Nofret 24 Mar 11 at 6:16 a.m. GMT

Not Helen - there was a horrified witness to this murder.

GKCfan 23 Mar 11 at 8:27 p.m. GMT

Helen in Sleeping Murder?

Nofret 23 Mar 11 at 10:05 a.m. GMT

Not Arlena, but you're right about the method of despatch!

NightRayDuck 22 Mar 11 at 10:33 p.m. GMT

maybe Arlena Marshall in Evil Under the Sun, then? definitely thought she was being loved. got strangled by someone's bare hands, I believe.

Nofret 22 Mar 11 at 12:51 p.m. GMT

A certain similarity to bird-brained Rosemary, but not her!

NightRayDuck 22 Mar 11 at 1:14 a.m. GMT

hmm.. Rosemary Barton from Sparkling Cyanide, poisoned with a surprising addition of cyanide to her glass of champagne at her birthday dinner?

Nofret 21 Mar 11 at 7:17 a.m. GMT

No, not such a strong-minded character as Lady Tressillian.

NightRayDuck 21 Mar 11 at 6:10 a.m. GMT

might be Lady Tressilian from Towards Zero... she knew there would be trouble, but she figured she would be able to deal with it. someone was very different from her estimation, and bludgeoned her in the head.

Nofret 20 Mar 11 at 8:02 p.m. GMT

No, neither is correct.

cameronjhw 20 Mar 11 at 7:16 p.m. GMT

Could it be Aristide Leonides who was poisoned with his eyedrops in Crooked House or Linnet Ridgeway who was shot through the head in Death on the Nile

Nofret 20 Mar 11 at 10:24 a.m. GMT

Thank you, Mr G.

I thought I was loved. But I was killed so suddenly, in such a brutal way. I really didn't mean any harm. I certainly didn't foresee the terible events which ensued. 

Mr_Graves 19 Mar 11 at 9:20 p.m. GMT

Yes, a very muddled death did old Maltravers have! Quite correct, Nofret, your turn to make a clue again. 

Nofret 19 Mar 11 at 9:51 a.m. GMT

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Mr Maltravers in The Tragedy at Marsden Manor. Local quack certified natural causes, then when Poirot discovered he had been shot, it was at fist thought to be suicide, but eventually the murderer was unmasked!

Mr_Graves 19 Mar 11 at 9:37 a.m. GMT

No him, I'm afraid. 

GKCfan 19 Mar 11 at 8:17 a.m. GMT

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Captain Smethurst in "The Gate of Baghdad?"  First they thought he accidentally hit his head on the vehicle roof going over rocky ground, then they thought he was hit was a sand-filled sock, then they noticed he was stabbed at the base of the skull with a very thin instrument.

Mr_Graves 19 Mar 11 at 7:27 a.m. GMT

Right-o! My next clue up for guessing..

What a palaver! I died of three different causes in all by the end of it. They got it right at last, though!

Nofret 18 Mar 11 at 7:23 a.m. GMT

Rough guess quite correct, Mr.G! Over to you.

Mr_Graves 17 Mar 11 at 7:51 p.m. GMT

Is it Micky Gorman from "At Bertram's Hotel".. At a rough guess!

Nofret 17 Mar 11 at 5:35 p.m. GMT

Miss Marple discovered why I was killed.

cameronjhw 17 Mar 11 at 1:48 p.m. GMT

Is the victim from a Poirot or Marple novel?

Nofret 17 Mar 11 at 8:34 a.m. GMT

Good guess, DK, but no!

NightRayDuck 17 Mar 11 at 5:43 a.m. GMT

Could this victim be the elderly gardener in Postern of Fate?

MissQuin 14 Mar 11 at 2:58 p.m. GMT

I'm going to Bath on holiday. I don't know if AC visited there. But I'm a huge Jane Austen fan, so there's plenty for me to go and visit.

Nofret 14 Mar 11 at 10:05 a.m. GMT

Thank you, MissQ. Enjoy your holiday - are you going anywhere interesting, or anywhere connected with AC?

I don't understand! I thought I was helping out, but I was killed! Why? I'm no-one, I've got no money, no prospects. Well, there was that other business, but that was years ago, and it was just a game.

MissQuin 13 Mar 11 at 10:12 a.m. GMT

Correct! The man was clearly a sadist and a weirdo!

Your turn Nofret. 

Nofret 13 Mar 11 at 10:09 a.m. GMT

Is it the mysogynist Lord Edgeware, stabbed by his wife Jane Wilkinson?

MissQuin 12 Mar 11 at 12:10 p.m. GMT

That's a very good guess Nofret, because this character has the same enjoyment in cruelty. But sadly it's not correct.

Well what good are women?! The ones around me cause nothing but trouble. Oh how I wish I'd never married!

Nofret 12 Mar 11 at 11:42 a.m. GMT

Mrs Boynton, killed by injection by Lady Westholme?

MissQuin 12 Mar 11 at 10:53 a.m. GMT

No it's not Prince Micheal. Let's just say this character would have rather a unusally sadistic pleasure when their killer was hanged.

NightRayDuck 11 Mar 11 at 8:32 p.m. GMT

yikes...? ..glancing at the long list of evil wenches..

possibly Prince Michael of Herzoslovakia, shot with a handgun by the woman who was formerly Queen Varaga of Herzoslovakia, in The Secret of Chimneys?

MissQuin 11 Mar 11 at 3:27 p.m. GMT

As I'm on hols next week, I'll make this easy so it'll be quessed quickly!

How furious I am that that evil wench killed me! Well she'll soon have the noose round her neck once she's caught. That'll be quite satisifying!

Miss_Eylesbarrow 10 Mar 11 at 3:50 p.m. GMT

Quite right Miss Quin, poor Marlene Tucker who was a murder 'victim' before she was a real victim.  Your turn :)

MissQuin 10 Mar 11 at 3:42 p.m. GMT

I wonder if it's Marlene in dead Man's Folly? She was pretending to be a dead body. But then she was found by the murderer.

Miss_Eylesbarrow 10 Mar 11 at 12:45 p.m. GMT

no, none of those, although I'd forgotten about Queen Varaga - that was a good guess.  This is a person, female, and she is from a novel.  Here's a little more from our friend:

I thought it was going to be ever so exciting, but turned out not to be so much fun at all.  I mean, no one found me - except the murderer!

Nofret 10 Mar 11 at 9:49 a.m. GMT

I suppose you could say that the unspeakable Ratchett was a murder victim more than once.........!

Or here's a better one - Queen Varaga from The Secret of Chimneys - thought to have been killed in the Herzoslovakian revolution, but survived and was shot in the library!

NightRayDuck 10 Mar 11 at 1:12 a.m. GMT

I am thinking about the grey Persian cat in "The Strange Case of Sir Arthur Carmichael"... first got poisoned, and then got sort of exorcised from Sir Arthur and his household.

Miss_Eylesbarrow 09 Mar 11 at 11:13 a.m. GMT

none of the above, and one at a time, please Cameron!

NightRayDuck 04 Mar 11 at 7:41 a.m. GMT

or Helen Halliday in Sleeping Murder, lost her life and then got her reputation ruined by deliberately malicious rumors. her case of being murdered twice over is metaphorical, but I think the wise elderly lady made a comment to that effect.

cameronjhw 03 Mar 11 at 9:19 p.m. GMT

Are you Josephine who first was knocked on the head and then later died in a car crash in Crooked House, Judge Wargrave who at first appeared to be shot in the head and later shot himself in And Then There Were None, or Yahmose who appeared to have been poisoned and then later was killed with a bow and arrow in Death Comes as the End

Miss_Eylesbarrow 03 Mar 11 at 11:36 a.m. GMT

How can you be a murder victim, twice over?  Well, I was....

Sittaford 02 Mar 11 at 12:57 a.m. GMT

I am very much indeed!! Congratulations!

Miss_Eylesbarrow 01 Mar 11 at 10:35 a.m. GMT

Aha!  You are Arlena Stuart Marshall from Evil Under the Sun!

Sittaford 01 Mar 11 at 10:26 a.m. GMT

I'll give it a shot!

Oh dear, I thought I was going to meet my lover but ended up meeting a murderer!! And people thought I wrecked lives!! All in all, a rather disappointing end to a holiday.

NightRayDuck 01 Mar 11 at 6:03 a.m. GMT

"Yikes, was my real name Ruby Keene or was that my stage name? Rather fuddled.."

Yes, Sittaford! This is Ruby Keene from The Body in the Library. Well done! (I don't know her exact cause of death, either.) Would you like to set the next "guess the murder victim" puzzle for us? 

Sittaford 01 Mar 11 at 4:08 a.m. GMT

Oh!! Are you Ruby Keene from The Body in The Library? I don't think they ever specify how exactly she was killed but she was drugged and i think it's implied that she was then injected with an overdose of something.

NightRayDuck 28 Feb 11 at 11:17 p.m. GMT

Response from the victim:

I wasn't delivering any object or parcel, and I wasn't typing anything. My temporary job was to perform at an establishment of leisure and be adorable and pleasant to the guests. By pocket money, I meant any little gift that a lonely, elderly guest might spend on me.

Bunch_Marple 28 Feb 11 at 7:36 p.m. GMT

Were you typing?

Miss_Eylesbarrow 28 Feb 11 at 10:30 a.m. GMT

Did you have to deliver anything?

NightRayDuck 25 Feb 11 at 3:19 a.m. GMT

Response from this victim:

I don't know if they had put in an advert, also. I got called in by someone I knew who had a job there.

Miss_Eylesbarrow 24 Feb 11 at 9:31 a.m. GMT

How did you find the job?  Was it a newspaper advert?

NightRayDuck 24 Feb 11 at 2:56 a.m. GMT

Yikes. Poor little canary. Bird, beak, peck, that's in the nature of birds. The murderer was so mean. 

This victim... didn't think things would turn out this way.

Where did I go wrong? I went and took up a temporary / fill-in job. I saw an opportunity and took it. Usually people doing this simply got a little pocket money, right? How come this opportunity just had to become so grand, that I became an obstacle that needed removing? Awww.

GKCfan 23 Feb 11 at 4:47 a.m. GMT

Yes!  It's the canary!  Excellent!

NightRayDuck 23 Feb 11 at 12:06 a.m. GMT

Eek. I had hoped it wouldn't be Murder is Easy, it's rather difficult for me to keep track of the chronological order of the particular murders. Although, of course, it's even harder to know which victim died first in The Pale Horse. Yikes. Hmm. The victims among the recent spree, only Mrs. Horton (grapes and tea) and the housemaid Amy (hat paint instead of cough syrup) died due to consuming something, and still there's no mention of them particularly liking sweets.

Awk.

The poor little canary bird, who liked picking sugar off of its owner's lips, but when once it pecked someone, it died of a broken / wrung neck?

..chirp.. 

GKCfan 22 Feb 11 at 10:20 p.m. GMT

Yes!  The book is Murder is Easy!  Now who's the victim?

NightRayDuck 22 Feb 11 at 7:39 p.m. GMT

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Not The ABC Murders? hmm...

Well, I still don't have a specific victim or the role of sweets identified, so I'll just detail the types of cases that may fit the description, and list the Christie stories that I do know well enough to fit the case types.

TYPE: if the innocent person could have been framed as an insane serial killer, and would be put into an asylum for dangerous, violent criminals rather than being prosecuted for multiple murders.

The ABC Murders? We've just been told that it's not this.

Murder Is Easy? Fits this interpretation of the "innocent person". I can't identify the specific victim.

TYPE: the "innocent person", even if suspected and arrested, the police would think there's not a hope of prosecuting the case.

The Pale Horse? The highly advertised witches and the well-staged witchcraft, though part of the murder-for-sale enterprise, cannot be admitted as evidence and prosecuted in a modern criminal court as the actual agents causing the deaths. I think the witches and other participants do get rounded up, along with the brain and executor of the scheme, when the case gets solved at the end?

Or, if still The Pale Horse, the innocent person may have been that invalid man who stayed home all day, who gets rather too much of unwarranted sleuthing from that pharmacy chemist.

I still don't know the specific victim, though.

Maybe it's in some other case? 

Miss_Eylesbarrow 22 Feb 11 at 10:52 a.m. GMT

So, this is a novel, is it a Poirot or Miss Marple novel, or one of the others?

GKCfan 22 Feb 11 at 6:15 a.m. GMT

The book in question is not The ABC Murders.

NightRayDuck 21 Feb 11 at 4:34 p.m. GMT

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"Would the innocent person be even more well and happy if he went to a good optometrist and followed through with the treatment plan / eyeglasses prescription?"

I am thinking of the same case as Miss Eylesbarrow. And I, too, haven't confirmed the bit about sweets for any of the victims in the ABC case. I spent last night flipping through the first few chapters, didn't get to the details in Betty Barnard's case (death by strangulation, by the way; was it by some belt that she was wearing? I couldn't remember exactly). But I think, if we're talking about the first known victim of the case... Alice Ascher, old lady who ran a tobacco shop all by herself; whatever her own likes, she was simply turning around to fetch some tobacco off the shelf for a killer who pretended to be stopping by to make a purchase (death by blunt instrument on the head).

I have noted that, in the earlier hint, the victim was stated as being from a novel, not a short story. It was simply that I own all the Poirot short stories published in the U.S., but rather fewer of the novels, so I thought I might perhaps go flip through the short stories in search for similar cases. 

Miss_Eylesbarrow 21 Feb 11 at 10:05 a.m. GMT

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It sounds a little like the ABC murders, from your last hint GKC.  If I were guessing a victim, I'd guess Betty Barnard, but I don't get the sweets bit?

GKCfan 21 Feb 11 at 5:56 a.m. GMT

Yes, it's not from a short story.

NightRayDuck 21 Feb 11 at 4:51 a.m. GMT

ah, thank you very much! I think I know which novel it is. I might not be the first to come back with the specific victim, but at least now I know I don't have to go and flip through some 5 Poirot short stories. 

GKCfan 20 Feb 11 at 11:25 p.m. GMT

The victim in question is the killer's first known victim (out of more than two victims).  Had the innocent person been arrested, the innocent person would have been thought of as a serial killer.  However, the innocent person would almost certainly never have been tried for the death of the victim in question.  The innocent person is alive and well and doing just fine at the end of the book.

NightRayDuck 20 Feb 11 at 9:54 p.m. GMT

If I may be extra-impertinent... Is this victim one among several victims, so that the innocent person would have been arrested, if it went as the real killer planned, the arrest would have been multiple homicide?

Or, on the other hand, the innocent person never got arrested... did the innocent person get killed at some point, also?

GKCfan 20 Feb 11 at 7:41 p.m. GMT

Any other guesses?

GKCfan 18 Feb 11 at 3:15 a.m. GMT

A novel.

Miss_Eylesbarrow 17 Feb 11 at 9:45 a.m. GMT

I'd love some more clues, GKC.  So, is this from a novel or a short story?

NightRayDuck 17 Feb 11 at 6:47 a.m. GMT

Good idea! I realize though that there are many stories that I haven't read or cannot remember. At the moment I can't think of anything that would help me identify the victim. Thanks for the offer. 

GKCfan 17 Feb 11 at 3:12 a.m. GMT

Sorry, no.  If you'd like a hint, why don't you ask some questions?

NightRayDuck 17 Feb 11 at 1:12 a.m. GMT

hmm... Marlene Tucker in Dead Man's Folly? again I am not sure about sweets, but I think her last snacks were tea and sandwich, things of that sort? and anyone being suspected for causing her death would have been accused of causing the disappearance and death of Hetty Stubbs.

GKCfan 15 Feb 11 at 5:36 a.m. GMT

It's not from Body in the Library, although Miss Marple does suspect (without verification) that Pamela was given a knockout drug in an ice cream soda.

NightRayDuck 15 Feb 11 at 1:26 a.m. GMT

I've been thinking about Pamela Reeves in The Body in the Library, but I think I am wrong. I can't remember if sweets or lack of sweets figured in her death, also her murderer(s) had several possible scapegoats prepared and one of them did get arrested.

GKCfan 09 Feb 11 at 9:37 p.m. GMT

Yes. 

Miss_Eylesbarrow 09 Feb 11 at 9:36 a.m. GMT

Were you the intended victim?

GKCfan 09 Feb 11 at 5:03 a.m. GMT

"I love sweets, but one time I didn't eat them, and when I went for something else I got murdered!  My killer blamed someone else for my death, and if my killer's plan had worked, that innocent person would've been arrested, but not for MY murder!  Thankfully, the innocent person was never arrested for anything."

Bunch_Marple 08 Feb 11 at 8:32 p.m. GMT

Tut tut GKC - you are too good! I thought this was quite obscure but yes, Mrs Rhodes, killed in her hotel room, with a stiletto through the heart. Well done!

GKCfan 08 Feb 11 at 7:15 p.m. GMT

It can't be Ratchett, train beds aren't that comfortable, even on the Orient Express.

How about Mrs. Rhodes, stabbed in a comfortable hotel bed in "Miss Marple Tells A Story?"

Bunch_Marple 07 Feb 11 at 4:06 p.m. GMT

Nope sorry, although I do have certain things in common with her, I was killed whilst I reposed peacefully on my bed. Sticking ones head out of a window is terribly undignified..

Tommy_A_Jones 07 Feb 11 at 3:04 p.m. GMT

Mrs Leidner (Murder in Mesopotamia

Bunch_Marple 06 Feb 11 at 8:37 p.m. GMT

There I was just lying on a rather comfortable bed, enjoying my time away when ohh, suddenly a rather sharp stab! I hope they don't get the wrong person for it...

GKCfan 06 Feb 11 at 7:57 p.m. GMT

Bunch_Marple is right!  It's M. Beroldy from Murder on the Links!

Bunch_Marple 06 Feb 11 at 7:44 p.m. GMT

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Oh are you the wealthy old M. Beroldy whose wife arranged his murder with M. Renauld and subsequently his daughter went on to become a killer herself in Murder on the links..

christie_greece 06 Feb 11 at 5:55 p.m. GMT

The only thing that I have in mind is The Big Four. That's the only book that I've read where the murderer gets away with it. But I can't remember the plot, and I may say something stupid, so I had better remain silent...

Bunch_Marple 06 Feb 11 at 12:14 p.m. GMT

You poor creature! Did you ever get some page time in a story or were you dead before it began ?

GKCfan 06 Feb 11 at 6:39 a.m. GMT

Oh, I didn't find your puzzle confusing, I just didn't think of the "The Strange Case of Sir Arthur Carmichael" until recently.

"I'm so upset!  Despite a trial, no one was ever convicted for my murder!  Indeed, someone responsible for my death got away scot-free, as far as anyone knows, and someone else who was involved in my death was never even arrested, although the latter person didn't entirely avoid punishment.  And my child is such a disappointment to me..."

NightRayDuck 06 Feb 11 at 4:15 a.m. GMT

Yes, GKCfan! This is the unfortunate cat who was killed in an attempt to incapacitate and/or kill Sir Arthur Carmichael. Your turn!

I am sorry if this puzzle was confusing? I am glad I didn't try to put the cat dead body as an object in a guess-the-object puzzle... 

GKCfan 05 Feb 11 at 7:49 a.m. GMT

This is "The Strange Case of Sir Arthur Carmichael," referring to the dead and buried cat, poisoned with prussic acid.

NightRayDuck 05 Feb 11 at 6:35 a.m. GMT

Response from this victim:

Ah. No. I was a house pet when I was alive, much admired by people and quite adored by my owner apparently. After being killed, my dead body was buried in the garden of the house I lived in.

The experts - the humans who dug up the dead body and looked at it... they're medical doctors by profession, but one of them is very sensitive to, hmm, bizarre events. I suppose that's why he felt so certain that the life that had been ended was that of some human victim. But I ask you to see it from my point of view nearer ground level... after everything settled down, the human that the experts thought of as the murder victim was up and about, getting on with his life just as normal, whereas I, the house pet, was never seen, heard, or perceived in any shape or form in the house, ever again. So I am a murder victim, am I not? Or, if one must take the bizarre point of view advocated by the experts, I was an innocent bystander who was exploited during a murder attempt, and ended up dead myself.

** I am afraid this victim is from a very, very odd case, and the experts in the story have decided to take the supernatural point of view rather than the mundane point of view. Hint: the experts' supernatural explanation was that arcane magic really had been done and really caused the death of a human victim. The victim here is arguing for the mundane point of view.

Bunch_Marple 04 Feb 11 at 11:23 p.m. GMT

were you connected to events in The pale horse?

NightRayDuck 04 Feb 11 at 8:55 p.m. GMT

Response from this victim:

An animal? Why, indeed, I am inclined to take that view! My dead body had four paws and a tail. The experts who dug up and examined the body were inclined to a different view, though. They felt the victim had been entirely someone else, and some intensive hocus-pocus had been committed before the murder. grrr. That's humans for you. 

Bunch_Marple 04 Feb 11 at 12:24 a.m. GMT

Are you an animal?!

NightRayDuck 03 Feb 11 at 3:59 a.m. GMT

Response from this victim:

A nuisance? Not that I know of. If my killer ever gave some sort of reason, I did not get to hear it. Truth to tell, when interviewed by the experts, some people in the house had only good things to say about me. 

Bunch_Marple 02 Feb 11 at 7:46 p.m. GMT

Why did they believe your death was necessary? Were you a nuisance?

NightRayDuck 02 Feb 11 at 7:17 p.m. GMT

The next victim up for guessing... is undecided whether to talk, or simply to growl and hiss.

My killer convinced people that my death was necessary, and killed me and buried me at home just like that! But there's no getting away with it; soon afterwards, the family had to apply to experts for help on some seemingly unrelated incidents. But here's the worst part! The experts dug up my dead body, puzzled over it, and had a debate on the real identity of the victim! That's intelligence and civilization for you! Hrumph!

Bunch_Marple 01 Feb 11 at 5:53 p.m. GMT

Yes indeed Darknightofrays! I hope she didnt feel too badly about not saving me!

NightRayDuck 01 Feb 11 at 5:51 p.m. GMT

Awww! Such a tragedy! And it was Old Faithful who lost his footing and bumped you off your feet from the tram, too, according to the observation of an odd elderly lady...

Bunch_Marple 01 Feb 11 at 5:43 p.m. GMT

Correct! Well done... I trusted old faithful til the end. When he said come up the back stairs to our room I would never have thought! Oh my poor head!

NightRayDuck 01 Feb 11 at 5:35 p.m. GMT

Gladys Sanders, who was hit over the head with a sandbag, in the Miss Marple short story "A Christmas Tragedy"? Gladys and husband could only rent the cheapest guest room in the attic of the spa. During the vacation, Gladys had fallen from the top level of a tram, and also nearly hit by a car. In her case though I am not sure who or what Old Faithful was. 

Bunch_Marple 01 Feb 11 at 3:06 p.m. GMT

Very succinctly put, Miss Eylesbarrow! It wasn't some fancy holiday either, mind. And its true there was more than one death where I was staying..

Miss_Eylesbarrow 01 Feb 11 at 2:51 p.m. GMT

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So someone who isn't a millionaire, but has been away on holiday, had a brush with death, then later went on to die? 

There are a few characters who are on holiday in the books and later cop-it, Lucky Dyson is one, but there was no brush with death, unless you take the other two murders to qualify as a 'frightening experience'?

Bunch_Marple 01 Feb 11 at 11:02 a.m. GMT

Oh I say! I wish I had the coin that beautiful lady had! My first "accident" had certain similarities though...

Miss_Eylesbarrow 01 Feb 11 at 9:45 a.m. GMT

Is it Linnet Doyle from Death on the Nile, she has a close shave to start with?  Old Faithful isn't exactly a term I'd apply to her loving husband though, so perhaps not.....

Bunch_Marple 01 Feb 11 at 2:22 a.m. GMT

Haha my old faithful is a person, and applying this term to them could possibly be questionable!

NightRayDuck 31 Jan 11 at 11:32 p.m. GMT

May I ask what "old faithful" was? Was "old faithful" a person? or a weapon? or other type of tools? or, to take a random example, reference books? (Yes, I am afraid my old faithful is a stack of dictionaries...)

Bunch_Marple 31 Jan 11 at 8:14 p.m. GMT

Im afraid I later become a victim

Miss_Eylesbarrow 31 Jan 11 at 1:09 p.m. GMT

Are you a murder victim or was it just a close shave?

Bunch_Marple 29 Jan 11 at 7:19 p.m. GMT

Well Nofret, that was a hrad one!

I just love being away for a break. So relaxing and good for you. Had a rather frightneing experience, but thankfully had old faithful by my side to help me..

Nofret 29 Jan 11 at 5:51 p.m. GMT

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Well done, Bunch, it was the uncle of Dr Rose, who set the Hound of Death on him! One of my favourite Christie short stories, it always leaves me wondering what was the "first sign", which we've already experienced!

Anyway, over to you.

Bunch_Marple 29 Jan 11 at 1:15 p.m. GMT

Ah, is it Dr Rose's rich uncle, supposedly killed by lightning in The hound of death?

Nofret 29 Jan 11 at 10:40 a.m. GMT

Not the Tragedy at Marsdon Manor, Bunch.

Darknight, you're on the right track with weather events.

Just checked the story again - apparently "one or two people" did hear a noise. Are you going to hound me for another clue?

NightRayDuck 28 Jan 11 at 9:39 p.m. GMT

Was there any case like, some object hit the victim on the head, the object presumably fell from its place on the wall or a shelf or wherever during earthquake, but nobody heard or felt an earthquake?

Or I might have gotten this idea from one of the Japanese mysteries I've read... they utilize weather events extensively, the Japanese story-tellers.

Bunch_Marple 28 Jan 11 at 6:08 p.m. GMT

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All I can think on is Tragedy at Marsdon Manor, where the man appeared to have dies of natural causes but was actually shot on the mouh..

Nofret 28 Jan 11 at 6:04 p.m. GMT

No, don't forget the certified cause of death was a natural cause, whereas the real cause of death was somewhat higher..........

Bunch_Marple 28 Jan 11 at 5:55 p.m. GMT

a gunshot then?

Nofret 28 Jan 11 at 5:54 p.m. GMT

No. much louder, all the neighbourhood would have heard it!

Bunch_Marple 28 Jan 11 at 10:34 a.m. GMT

a fall?

Nofret 28 Jan 11 at 8:51 a.m. GMT

It is from a short story, but not Four and Twenty Blackbirds, and the victim did not die of shock or a heart attack. The certified cause of death is normally accompanied by a very loud noise.

NightRayDuck 27 Jan 11 at 7:24 p.m. GMT

oh dear... no poison at all? hmm. that rules out all of the Pale Horse victims, then.

how about... heart attack due to shock / fright, and it's odd that nobody heard the victim call out, or nobody heard any noise that'd be thought to occur with the startling event?

Miss_Eylesbarrow 27 Jan 11 at 11:33 a.m. GMT

This is a real puzzle Nofret.  I can't think of a novel which fulfils the criteria, is it a short sotry?

If so, is it from the short story Four and Twenty Blackbirds where the victim might have been pushed down the stairs?

Nofret 27 Jan 11 at 10:01 a.m. GMT

Some very good ideas for a murder there, Darknight, remind me never to get on the wrong side of you!

Unfortunately I doubt whether you or I could employ this particular method of murder!  Poison was not employed, and the doctor's diagnosis was a somewhat unusual "natural cause".

NightRayDuck 26 Jan 11 at 9:27 p.m. GMT

I am thinking that this is a murder case disguised as an accident that's commonplace enough, and happened so fast that the victim didn't quite notice that a murder was in progress...

Possibly one of those "bee sting" cases? Victim is killed by poison introduced thru needle, dart, or syringe, but people think it's a reaction to bee sting. only that nobody heard the bee buzzing around...

A likely victim fitting the case summary is Madame Giselle in Death in the Clouds. I might be wrong though because I don't remember the personal details of any of the bee sting victims. 

Or was the poison in food or drink or inhaled or absorbed thru the skin but a dart or syringe had been left around the place to be found for when the bee was proven innocent? hmm. don't remember.

Nofret 26 Jan 11 at 7:05 p.m. GMT

Very well reasoned, Darknight, the fact that no-one heard anything is very relevant. but it's not Lady Stranleigh.

Miss E, my killer died from omitting one vital detail.

NightRayDuck 26 Jan 11 at 12:45 p.m. GMT

I am pondering on the "no one heard anything" being odd... and it's pointed out by a doctor, not a policeman; and the victim doesn't consider himself/herself murdered?

I am thinking it may be some case similar to Lady Stranleigh in the Mr. Quin short story "The Voice in the Dark", drowned in her own bathtub, b/c although an elderly lady could presumably lose consciousness and slip under the water, a drowning case also could presumably contain some last-moment struggle, splash, water sloshing out of the tub... that could be heard.

Miss_Eylesbarrow 26 Jan 11 at 9:06 a.m. GMT

was your killer murdered too, or did they die another way?

Nofret 26 Jan 11 at 8:29 a.m. GMT

Not Emily Arundell,  and my killer didn't survive me for long.

Bunch_Marple 26 Jan 11 at 7:55 a.m. GMT

Emily Arundel from Dumb witness, poisoned?

Nofret 26 Jan 11 at 7:48 a.m. GMT

Good guesses, but neither of them.

Bunch_Marple 25 Jan 11 at 6:54 p.m. GMT

Lady Tressilian from Towards zero, bludgeoned to death?

Miss_Eylesbarrow 25 Jan 11 at 10:01 a.m. GMT

Is it Richard Abernethie from After the Funeral?

Nofret 25 Jan 11 at 8:23 a.m. GMT

Thank you Bunch (being female am I a mistress?) Here goes -

What's that? I was murdered! Nonsense, the doctor said there was nothing fishy about my death, except that no-one heard anything. Mind you, that young relative of mine was due to inherit a tidy sum, and I'd heard some very odd rumours - but  that's all rubbish!

Bunch_Marple 24 Jan 11 at 4:51 p.m. GMT

Nofret you are a master! I offer you my sincere respect! Your turn..

Nofret 24 Jan 11 at 3:38 p.m. GMT

Aha, inspiration has struck! Is this from the short story The Lemesurier Inheritance, and the legend that a medieval Lemesurier suspected (wrongly) that his wife had been unfaithful, and walled her and her child up alive. In revenge she cursed him and his descendants.

Miss_Eylesbarrow 24 Jan 11 at 2:54 p.m. GMT

was this victim falsely accused of murder or some other crime?

Bunch_Marple 24 Jan 11 at 11 a.m. GMT

Sorry, no. A more early offering

Miss_Eylesbarrow 24 Jan 11 at 10:18 a.m. GMT

Is the character from A Pale Horse?

Bunch_Marple 20 Jan 11 at 3:24 p.m. GMT

Nope sorry, my death was much more drawn out...

Nofret 20 Jan 11 at 1:36 p.m. GMT

Is it Olga Seminoff from Halloween Party, who was stabbed?

Bunch_Marple 20 Jan 11 at 11 a.m. GMT

Im impressed, thinking outside the box! Dame Agatha didnt make me a prominent character in the story, but oui, M. Poirot was there!

Nofret 20 Jan 11 at 8:52 a.m. GMT

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Is it from Murder in Mesopotamia, the person being the real Eric Leidner, whose identity Frederick Bosner took after the train crash?

Bunch_Marple 20 Jan 11 at 8:06 a.m. GMT

Good thinking but not Mrs Crale. I was not formally tried for my alleged wrong-doings..

NightRayDuck 20 Jan 11 at 5:18 a.m. GMT

can't be Mrs. Caroline Crale from Five Little Pigs? when she got thrown into jail, she had a mistaken idea on the identity of the person who committed the crime, so I don't think she would've wished such vengeance on the person that she suspected.

Bunch_Marple 20 Jan 11 at 2:17 a.m. GMT

No sorry, I died long before the actual story took place..

cameronjhw 19 Jan 11 at 10:31 p.m. GMT

Could it be Nofret who was thrown from a cliff in Death Comes as the End  

Bunch_Marple 18 Jan 11 at 1:42 a.m. GMT

That's a good piece of thinking Mr Graves but not the person I had in mind..

Mr_Graves 17 Jan 11 at 9:16 p.m. GMT

A wild shot in the dark: is it Mr Mackenzie who died at the Blackbird Mine in Africa, as mentioned in "A Pocket Full of Rye"?

Bunch_Marple 17 Jan 11 at 8:31 p.m. GMT

Poor old Rudi was surprised from behind with a rather nasty gun as he played an innocent little game of stick em up!

Falsely accused, I died in a dark place..but I was not alone in my final torment! No worry, I will make sure my killer and their precious family suffer for my ghastly fate for many a year to come....

NightRayDuck 17 Jan 11 at 6:14 p.m. GMT

Yes, Bunch Marple! This is poor Rudi who thought he could ask random old friends for pocket money or alter checks of elderly ladies just so to get a little extra money to take his young lady out.

How was he killed, i.e. stabbed? shot? poisoned? or...? I think you can find it easily as Rudi's death occurred quite early in the novel. Please post it along with the puzzle that you set up for our next round? Thank you. 

Bunch_Marple 17 Jan 11 at 3:23 a.m. GMT

Oh are you Rudi Scherz from A murder is Announced?

NightRayDuck 17 Jan 11 at 12:38 a.m. GMT

I was killed very unexpectedly, and when it happened, I was utterly surprised, but nothing more. Now that the local police is looking into my death, I am feeling more and more perplexed and outraged. They think I botched my first attempt at robbery? They think I was a scapegoat? All I did was ask an old acquaintance for a little pocket money... that made them think I was a blackmailer? Well then what's the big secret that they want to hide and that I was thought to be threatening to expose? You can't see one, can you? Neither could I.

Poor old Lucky... at least she knew she was committing a murder for money and a marriage... This victim didn't have any clue what was going on.

Bunch_Marple 16 Jan 11 at 8:20 p.m. GMT

Well then perhaps it wasn't so bad that old Lucky went for a dip afterall! Hehe I sound awful!

GKCfan 16 Jan 11 at 7:54 p.m. GMT

That is correct!  Gail Dyson is the victim, murdered by Lucky with a prescription overdose.

NightRayDuck 16 Jan 11 at 2 p.m. GMT

ah! Gail Dyson, the first Mrs. Dyson, Lucky's distant cousin? may have had some chronic illness, but someone other than Greg Dyson convinced yet someone else to get some strong prescriptions, which were then used to poison Gail.

Bunch_Marple 16 Jan 11 at 1:52 p.m. GMT

Molly Kendall?

GKCfan 16 Jan 11 at 9:20 a.m. GMT

The victim is from A Caribbean Mystery, and you're on the right track when you mention Lucky, but she's not the victim here...  You're almost there, keep thinking!

NightRayDuck 15 Jan 11 at 10:52 p.m. GMT

I didn't even remember if it's the spouse or the spouse's lover who shot the Vicarage victim... sorry... I guess I should go back to sleep...

NightRayDuck 15 Jan 11 at 10:50 p.m. GMT

no, wait! the unfortunate Lucky Dyson who was drowned in mistake for the intended victim in A Caribbean Mystery? the killer tried to convince people that Lucky wanted to die only after finding out that she, rather than the intended victim, had died.

GKCfan 15 Jan 11 at 10:49 p.m. GMT

No, remember the victim's spouse is NOT the killer.   And the victim was not shot...  It's not from Vicarage at all....

NightRayDuck 15 Jan 11 at 10:47 p.m. GMT

oh! the colonel whathisname that everybody disliked, who ended up dead in the Vicar's house, in Murder at the Vicarage? shot to death with some firearm.

GKCfan 15 Jan 11 at 10:44 p.m. GMT

This murder is from a Miss Marple novel...

NightRayDuck 15 Jan 11 at 9:58 p.m. GMT

I think the murder might have been carried out with even more hocus-pocus than in "The Dream". Perhaps a victim of the enterprise in The Pale Horse? At a random guess I'd say the specific victim was Sandford, Roman Catholic who wouldn't give his much younger wife a divorce.

Bunch_Marple 15 Jan 11 at 9:12 p.m. GMT

ok, is it from a Marple/Poirot/TommyTuppence novel or another?

GKCfan 15 Jan 11 at 7:56 p.m. GMT

No, sorry.  If you'd like a hint or want a question answered, please let me know.

Bunch_Marple 15 Jan 11 at 4:48 p.m. GMT

Mrs Argyle from Ordeal by Innocence?

GKCfan 15 Jan 11 at 9:01 a.m. GMT

No.  Remember, it's from a full-length novel, not a short story.

Bunch_Marple 15 Jan 11 at 8:07 a.m. GMT

Depending on your interpretation of Mr Quin, this could be Anna from harlequin's lane..

GKCfan 15 Jan 11 at 6:35 a.m. GMT

Sorry, no.  This murder is in no way connected to the characters in Cards on the Table.

Bunch_Marple 15 Jan 11 at 12:56 a.m. GMT

Is the killer Dr Roberts from Cards on the table?

GKCfan 14 Jan 11 at 8:11 p.m. GMT

Sorry, neither is correct.  It's from a novel, not a short story.

Nofret 14 Jan 11 at 1:01 p.m. GMT

Is it Benedict Farley from The Dream?

Shot in the head, if I remember rightly.

Miss_Eylesbarrow 14 Jan 11 at 11:31 a.m. GMT

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The only one I can think of that comes close is Rex Fortescue from A Pocket Full of Rye, but it doesn't fit exactly to your clue.  Unless this is from a short story perhaps?

GKCfan 14 Jan 11 at 6:59 a.m. GMT

"My killer attempted to convince a co-conspirator that I really wanted to die, but no one with an ounce of sense would believe that...  If only my spouse had been better behaved, my murder never would have happened.  My spouse didn't kill me, though."

cameronjhw 13 Jan 11 at 9:22 p.m. GMT

GKCfan is correct it is James Stephen Landor the man who died in prison.

Over to you...

GKCfan 12 Jan 11 at 10:09 p.m. GMT

It's Landor, blore's victim in ATTWN, who died from the rigors of penal servitude after being falsely convicted!

Nofret 12 Jan 11 at 5:07 p.m. GMT

Could be Blore, who was framed into giving false evidence which got a man hanged.

Bunch_Marple 12 Jan 11 at 4:55 p.m. GMT

Oh it was a toss up between Dr Armstrong and Vera, so it must be Vera, left alone and dazed at the end of the novel

cameronjhw 12 Jan 11 at 4:16 p.m. GMT

Right novel but wrong victim.

You're getting there

Bunch_Marple 11 Jan 11 at 12:33 a.m. GMT

Oh is it Dr Armstrong from ATTWN?

cameronjhw 11 Jan 11 at 12:27 a.m. GMT

No it is not Why Didn't They Ask Evans or Miss Barton from Sparkling Cyanide.

Hint-This victim comes from a novel during the 1930's and towards the 1940's

Mr_Graves 09 Jan 11 at 9:21 p.m. GMT

Is it Rosemary Barton from "Sparkling Cyanide", who was poisoned with potassium cyanide?

Bunch_Marple 09 Jan 11 at 8:54 p.m. GMT

The victim from Why didnt they ask Evans ?

cameronjhw 09 Jan 11 at 8:17 p.m. GMT

No, it is not Jacko.

Hint-this victim is mentioned in retrospect

cameronjhw 09 Jan 11 at 8:17 p.m. GMT

No, it is not Jacko.

Hint-this victim is mentioned in retrospect

Bunch_Marple 08 Jan 11 at 9:11 p.m. GMT

I hadn't made any phone calls or had any dinner plans that evening, and perhaps just as well as someone made sure I wouldn't live to reach the dining room!

Nofret 08 Jan 11 at 11:33 a.m. GMT

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Is it Jacko Argyle from Ordeal by Innocence, lying as usual when he says it's nothing to do with him! He died in prison, and the "him" is Arthur Calgary, his alibi for his mother's murder.

cameronjhw 07 Jan 11 at 10:04 p.m. GMT

No, I'm afraid it is not Mr. Hawes the curate.

Hint-This male murder victim is not from a Poirot or Marple novel

InspectorGrant 07 Jan 11 at 6:32 p.m. GMT

Is it Revd Hawes, the young church warden out of 'Murder at the Vicarage?

cameronjhw 07 Jan 11 at 5:31 p.m. GMT

Both good guesses but I'm afraid they are not the right answers.

Nofret 07 Jan 11 at 10:39 a.m. GMT

Major Palgrave from A Caribbean Mystery? Poisoned so as to make it look like death from alcoholism.

NightRayDuck 06 Jan 11 at 11:06 p.m. GMT

Charles Trenton, cousin of Frances Cloade, in Taken at the Flood? hit by surprising brute force and cracked his head when he fell on a fireplace or something.

cameronjhw 06 Jan 11 at 10:30 p.m. GMT

No, it is not Celia Austin.

Hint-This victim is a male

Nofret 06 Jan 11 at 12:28 p.m. GMT

Celia Austin in Hickory Dickory Dock?

cameronjhw 04 Jan 11 at 4:59 p.m. GMT

No, it is not Gladys. Let me know if anyone would like a hint

Nofret 03 Jan 11 at 8:58 p.m. GMT

Could it be Gladys from A Pocket full of Rye?

cameronjhw 03 Jan 11 at 12:05 a.m. GMT

This was a big mistake....I had nothing to do with this and yet I was framed and I ended up in a rotten plight...I don't know how they are going to take this...I wonder whatever happened to Him...

GKCfan 01 Jan 11 at 5:43 a.m. GMT

cameronjhw is correct!  Great job!

cameronjhw 01 Jan 11 at 1:32 a.m. GMT

Is it the aunt who was brutally killed with a meat chopper by her unattractive and plain niece Lily Gamboll all because the aunt would not let her go to the movies?

NightRayDuck 31 Dec 10 at 6:50 a.m. GMT

This is a random comment... I didn't know there were so many aunts in Mrs. McGinty's Dead. Maybe something got lost in the translated version I read.

GKCfan 30 Dec 10 at 8:13 p.m. GMT

You're very close, but note that those three do not fit all the clues.  It IS a victim from Mrs. McGinty's Dead, but neither of the two you mentioned.

cameronjhw 30 Dec 10 at 3:12 p.m. GMT

Is it Elinor's aunt who was poisoned in Sad Cypress, Mrs. McGinty who was hit on the head, Mrs. Upward who was strangled,

GKCfan 30 Dec 10 at 1:41 a.m. GMT

Excellent summary, save for one change:

So far we are looking for victim in a Poirot novel published after 1935 who is a female, whose name we are not fully informed of, who was murdered by means other than stabbing or shooting by her niece or nephew with a pointless motive and may or may not be somehow connected to two other murders. She is best known through her relationship with somebody else.

Mr_Graves 30 Dec 10 at 12:17 a.m. GMT

Right! So far we are looking for victim in a Poirot novel published after 1935 who is a female, whose name we are not fully informed of, who was murdered by means other than stabbing or shooting by her niece or nephew with a pointless motive and is somehow connected to two other murders. She is best known through her relationship with somebody else. Hmmm... Things have been narrowed down considerably... 

GKCfan 29 Dec 10 at 11:39 p.m. GMT

The victim is not from Hallowe'en Party, but she is the aunt of her killer.

NightRayDuck 29 Dec 10 at 9:58 p.m. GMT

I've been thinking of that aunt of Hugo Drake, both Hugo and the aunt died at least a year or longer before the case related in Halloween Party. But I think the aunt left some money, and so motive for her death wasn't so very feeble...?

GKCfan 28 Dec 10 at 9:35 p.m. GMT

Sorry, it's not from ABC Murders.  The book in question was published quite a bit later than ABC Murders.

A_N_Omynous 28 Dec 10 at 7:32 p.m. GMT

At first I thought it could be from the ABC murders because of the feeble motive... but I am not so sure about the relation and they were killed in the book I believe.

GKCfan 28 Dec 10 at 6:44 p.m. GMT

No to all guesses, sorry.  The victim was neither shot nor stabbed, and the victim was related to her killer, but was not married to that killer.

Miss_Eylesbarrow 28 Dec 10 at 4:05 p.m. GMT

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Is the person the wife of someone who turns out to be a murderer?  From Evil Under the Sun, perhaps?  Where Patrick Redfern has been up to no good in the past and killed his wife Alice Corrigan?

cameronjhw 28 Dec 10 at 3:48 p.m. GMT

It is Miss Springer who was shot in Cat Among the Pigeons or Mrs. Merlina Rival who was stabbed in The Clocks

GKCfan 27 Dec 10 at 7:57 p.m. GMT

No to both, sorry.  It is from a Poirot novel, though, and the victim is female.

cameronjhw 27 Dec 10 at 3:11 p.m. GMT

Could it be Nofret who was thrown from a cliff from Death Comes as the End or perhaps Susanne who threw herself out of the window from Murder on the Orient Express

GKCfan 24 Dec 10 at 7:42 p.m. GMT

If by "outside," you mean "long before the events of the book take place, and some distance away from the book's setting," then yes.

Miss_Eylesbarrow 24 Dec 10 at 10:28 a.m. GMT

Does the murder of this person take place 'outside' the book?

GKCfan 23 Dec 10 at 8:03 p.m. GMT

"My name may escape you, because my full name is not mentioned.  I am best known through my relationship to someone else, and one can't even be certain of my surname.  The motive for my murder is rather pathetic and pointless.  Everyone knows I was murdered, but no one (save the killer) knows if my death is connected to two other murders until the very end!"

Miss_Eylesbarrow 23 Dec 10 at 9:49 a.m. GMT

Bob-on GKC, your turn

GKCfan 22 Dec 10 at 9:41 p.m. GMT

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Oh, and he was poisoned by his wife.

GKCfan 22 Dec 10 at 9:41 p.m. GMT

It's Ashley Ferrars from The Murder of Roger Ackroyd!

NightRayDuck 22 Dec 10 at 9:11 p.m. GMT

I can think of several stories where a murder took place before the main narrative began, but I can't think of a case which included all of the dark deeds such as theft, gossip, blackmail and drug taking...

Now that I think about it, I haven't read that many stories that have either blackmail or drug taking... thefts I've read a-plenty, but most of them being Poirot stories with odd similarities, I don't really remember them.  and there's usually gossip just about everywhere.

Miss_Eylesbarrow 22 Dec 10 at 11:37 a.m. GMT

Nope, a much earlier offering.  Pre WWII.

MissQuin 22 Dec 10 at 11:35 a.m. GMT

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SPOILERS!!!! Is it the real Andrew Restarick in third Girl? I can't remember if he was murdered though.

Miss_Eylesbarrow 22 Dec 10 at 11:27 a.m. GMT

There are three deaths mentioned altogether, the one that takes place before the book begins and two deaths which occur during the story, only one is muder, however...

MissQuin 22 Dec 10 at 11:20 a.m. GMT

I'm really stuck, can I have another hint please?

Miss_Eylesbarrow 22 Dec 10 at 10:35 a.m. GMT

Depends on your point of view Ivi.  As my victim said, he/she was killed before the story begins...

ivi21 22 Dec 10 at 10:20 a.m. GMT

Ok, so it is a story with more than one murder, isn´t it?

I thought about Taken at the Flood, but it doesn´t fit properly.

Miss_Eylesbarrow 22 Dec 10 at 10:10 a.m. GMT

No, not a short story, Ivi.

ivi21 22 Dec 10 at 9:58 a.m. GMT

Is it from the short story?

Miss_Eylesbarrow 22 Dec 10 at 9:34 a.m. GMT

anyone playing?

Miss_Eylesbarrow 16 Dec 10 at 11:06 a.m. GMT

I was murdered before your story takes place, but my murder has significant repercussions for many people.  Murder follows murder and dark deeds such as theft, gossip, blackmail and drug taking are afoot...

GKCfan 10 Dec 10 at 8:27 p.m. GMT

Correct!

Miss_Eylesbarrow 10 Dec 10 at 9:39 a.m. GMT

in that case it must be Mrs Lorrimer's husband?

GKCfan 09 Dec 10 at 7:33 p.m. GMT

No, not him.  Remember, the cause od death is not revealed.

Miss_Eylesbarrow 09 Dec 10 at 11:28 a.m. GMT

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Is it the husband of Mrs Luxmore, the man Major Despard killed?  He was rumoured to have died of fever but was really shot.  The description of the circumstances change depending on who is interviewed...

GKCfan 09 Dec 10 at 12:11 a.m. GMT

Yes, the victim is from Cards on the Table, but which one?

Miss_Eylesbarrow 08 Dec 10 at 10:58 a.m. GMT

Is it from Cards on the Table?

Nofret 08 Dec 10 at 10:22 a.m. GMT

Is it Mackenzie from A Pocket full of Rye?

GKCfan 08 Dec 10 at 5:37 a.m. GMT

Oh, Helen was strangled, probably manually (the monkey's paws).

When I died, no one suspected murder, except for one man.  My killer was never tried for the crime.  No one has ever mentioned my first name, and though my exact cause of death is not known, it must have happened in one of two ways...

NightRayDuck 08 Dec 10 at 3:11 a.m. GMT

GKC is correct! Yes, it is the unfortunate Helen from Sleeping Murder. Your turn...

Oh! Wait. And the murder method and/or her cause of death? It shouldn't be too hard to figure out if you look into the flashbacks. Please post that along with your next puzzle? Thank you. 

GKCfan 07 Dec 10 at 5:30 a.m. GMT

Helen from Sleeping Murder?

NightRayDuck 06 Dec 10 at 8 p.m. GMT

I had been a little unhappy all of my life, but it's only after I found true happiness that I realized I had a real cause for fear. Now the child has come back to this house, and is getting frightened of all the flashbacks. I don't mean to haunt! But I've got to get the kid to notice that a dangerous killer is still nearby...

GKCfan 05 Dec 10 at 11:38 p.m. GMT

That is correct!  Great work!

NightRayDuck 05 Dec 10 at 9:51 p.m. GMT

Little boy shot to death with bow and arrow while playing with another little boy who grew up to be Neville Strange, in Towards Zero?

GKCfan 05 Dec 10 at 9:43 p.m. GMT

Don't bother looking up my name– it's never mentioned.  I was murdered, but the official story is that it was an accident.  Even after evidence came forward to prove that the death was murder, I don't believe that my killer was ever prosecuted, and in fact the criminal justice system went to some trouble to protect my killer's reputation and future.  If only the authorities hadn't done that to my assymetrical destroyer, two more lives might have been saved, and thankfully a third didn't die.

NightRayDuck 05 Dec 10 at 8:55 p.m. GMT

Yes, GKCfan! Over to you for the next puzzle.

The correct answer was posted even before I had time to go flip through the book and find the victim's name... maybe it's time for me to take a break from quizzing and plunge into re-reading? hmm.

GKCfan 05 Dec 10 at 8:16 a.m. GMT

Lucky Dyson from A Carribean Mystery, drowned in a pool of water.

NightRayDuck 05 Dec 10 at 7:29 a.m. GMT

Hey! I was only keeping an, um, appointment. How was I to know that some murderer had planned to lure a victim here? And killing me in a case of mistaken identity? Murderers nowadays don't have the attention to details and careful planning like there used to be. Humph.

Who was this victim, and what was the cause of death? Since we've been sneaking victims and criminals into the "Guess the character" puzzle, please specify the cause of death or murder weapon or such in this game. Thank you. 

MissQuin 04 Dec 10 at 12:14 p.m. GMT

*Nods* Correct! Over to you Nighty!

NightRayDuck 03 Dec 10 at 8:14 p.m. GMT

Dr. John Christow from The Hollow, shot to death with a handgun?

MissQuin 03 Dec 10 at 5:05 p.m. GMT

His death was unexpected but quite prolonged. Very good guess though, your'll have it on your next go i'm sure

Nofret 03 Dec 10 at 5:02 p.m. GMT

Amyas Crale?

MissQuin 03 Dec 10 at 4:49 p.m. GMT

Good guess, but no. Louise was scared for her life, whereas this person was unaware of any threat of danger.

Nofret 03 Dec 10 at 4:44 p.m. GMT

Is it Louise Leidner fron Murder in Mesopotamia?

MissQuin 03 Dec 10 at 2:53 p.m. GMT

No, Ive not read that one.

cameronjhw 03 Dec 10 at 2:38 p.m. GMT

Could it be Aristide Leonides from Crooked House

MissQuin 03 Dec 10 at 12:18 p.m. GMT

Did I expect to be murdered? No. It was all so unexpected, very sudden. Yet my demise brings fresh clarity to my thoughts. All those people around me, who really cared for me? Perhaps only truly one person, who I hope will be safe.

NightRayDuck 02 Dec 10 at 11:02 p.m. GMT

Ah, I see. The small inconvenience of a toothache. That was a good one, Nofret! 

Nofret 02 Dec 10 at 7:18 p.m. GMT

Yes, you've got me! The slimy Mr Amberiotis!

Your turn!

MissQuin 02 Dec 10 at 4:59 p.m. GMT

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How about One Two Buckle My Shoe? Amberiotis. Death in the dentsit chair.

Nofret 02 Dec 10 at 3:49 p.m. GMT

Not David Baker - clue, this person was killed in a rather unusual way.

MissQuin 02 Dec 10 at 3:14 p.m. GMT

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There's a few it could be David Baker in Third Girl for instance. SPOILERS * His business being art fraud.*

Nofret 02 Dec 10 at 12:40 p.m. GMT

You're on the right track, MissQ, but it isn't Mlle Blanche.

MissQuin 02 Dec 10 at 10:51 a.m. GMT

I think it's a blackmailer. But there's so many it could be! I think it might be the French teacher in Cat Among The Pigeons?

Nofret 01 Dec 10 at 10:07 p.m. GMT

OK, try this one -

How could I have been so stupid! In my business one needs to be constantly on the alert, yet I walked into that room like a lamb to the slaughter suspecting nothing! Despite a certain small inconvenience I was so pleased with myself, dreaming of my future prospects.

Miss_Eylesbarrow 01 Dec 10 at 9:45 a.m. GMT

Great guesses, but Nofret is right.  He must have come back as a ghost because (if his wife is to be believed and we have no reason not to) he can be seen over the inspector's shoulder!  Over to you Nofret...

NightRayDuck 30 Nov 10 at 11:28 p.m. GMT

Hi Nofret! 

Miss Eylesbarrow- I am stumped also. Has a sorta visible ghost of the victim really appeared in the story, whether the real ghost or by someone's trick? Or is the victim talking about maybe he/she might like to come back and see how things were going?

I was thinking of the lovely Rosemary Barton from Sparkling Cyanide, who was poisoned by cyanide in champagne glass at dinner party. But I don't think she had plans for particularly two people... 

Nofret 30 Nov 10 at 10:13 p.m. GMT

This one's really got me stumped. Could it be Gervase Chevenix-Gore from Dead Man's Mirror - the two people could be Hugo and Ruth. Though he doesn't really come back as a ghost - it's a trick by the murderer! Oh, yes, and he was shot at close range.

MissQuin 29 Nov 10 at 5:36 p.m. GMT

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I wasn't sure because the Endless night (spoilers)

ghost wasn't a real ghost it was only in somone's mind. Somone's ghost... Ive checked the supernatural stories but i'm not sure which one it might be.

Miss_Eylesbarrow 29 Nov 10 at 4:23 p.m. GMT

Not 'Endless Night'.  You are on the right track with a ghost though.

MissQuin 29 Nov 10 at 3:57 p.m. GMT

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wild wild guess.... ENDLESS NIGHT SPOILERS!!!

But Ellie's ghost appears to Micheal. I wonder if the plans concerned Greta and Micheal?

I might be wrong.

Miss_Eylesbarrow 29 Nov 10 at 3:44 p.m. GMT

yes

MissQuin 29 Nov 10 at 3:39 p.m. GMT

Is there a supernatural element like the clue suggests?

Miss_Eylesbarrow 29 Nov 10 at 2:12 p.m. GMT

clue anyone?

NightRayDuck 24 Nov 10 at 5:50 a.m. GMT

I have a few possibilities in mind, but I think it's none of them, because I can't think of any of them having made plans for "those two" before death. hmm. 

Miss_Eylesbarrow 23 Nov 10 at 9:19 a.m. GMT

Great!  That's the first of these ones I've identified

Absolutely outrageous that I should be murdered.  Me!   Just when I was in the middle of doing a Very Important Thing.  I just hope that the plans I made for those two will be carried out.  I almost feel like coming back to keep an eye on things, I wonder if anyone would be able to see me?

Mr_Graves 22 Nov 10 at 7:38 p.m. GMT

Congratulations, Miss Eyelsbarrow! It is Maggie Buckley. So your turn!

Miss_Eylesbarrow 22 Nov 10 at 11:40 a.m. GMT

Is it Maggie Buckley from Peril at End House?  She was shot.

Mr_Graves 21 Nov 10 at 1:20 a.m. GMT

Here's my clue:

"This was so out of the blue! I never expected to die at all when I was invited here... I don't know who killed me exactly, as it was dark, but I think I have a pretty good idea. These coincidences must mean something!"

Who is the character speaking and how did they die?

GKCfan 20 Nov 10 at 9:35 p.m. GMT

That is correct!  Excellent work, Mr_Graves!

Mr_Graves 20 Nov 10 at 9:06 p.m. GMT

I am going to guess Miss Chadwick, who took a bullet in "Cat Among the Pigeons". And the girl who she saved from being orphaned was Juila Upjohn?

GKCfan 19 Nov 10 at 11:09 p.m. GMT

No.  Actually, this murder victim is killed towards the end of the book.

Miss_Eylesbarrow 19 Nov 10 at 11:58 a.m. GMT

Not Father Gorman from A Pale Horse???

GKCfan 19 Nov 10 at 8:04 a.m. GMT

Right, it's not "Sanctuary," or any other Miss Marple tale.  I should have clarified– the "young girl" in question is a teenager, not a little child.

NightRayDuck 19 Nov 10 at 6:56 a.m. GMT

I understood that, GKCfan.  What I was trying to work out went something like this: The more unusual features: this victim has been able to tell a friend something very important, and also the death of this victim results in some young girl not becoming an orphan. So I thought over the stories that I could remember, and I couldn't think of an instance where the presence or death of a victim would change whether some girl's parents would die or live. The only young girl I can think of that's even remotely likely is the girl Jewel in the Miss Marple short story "Sanctuary", Jewel's parents were involved in some theft, Jewel's father leaves her a message but dies from wounds dealt by his other accomplices in the theft... so Jewel ends up an orphan. So Jewel isn't the young girl referred to by this victim. So this victim is not Jewel's father in "Sanctuary"....

Anybody have better guesses?

GKCfan 18 Nov 10 at 8:45 p.m. GMT

Sorry, it's not a young girl, and the victim was not killed by a family member or someone who was a close friend.

NightRayDuck 18 Nov 10 at 6:39 p.m. GMT

I think it's very likely that this victim is from a story I haven't read, or have no memory of. The few young girls that I can recall to mind are mostly innocent witnesses in the neighborhood. The only one that I know of that is threatened by crimes among her family members and their friends - well, she is orphaned, in the sense that both her parents are dead by the end of the story.

Anybody have better guesses?

GKCfan 13 Nov 10 at 6:40 a.m. GMT

I am actually not that upset about getting murdered, since it serves multiple purposes and helped someone close to me.  I'm also glad that I did not die instantly, since I got to tell a friend something very important.   And also, a young girl won't be orphaned. 

NightRayDuck 13 Nov 10 at 5:58 a.m. GMT

Yes, GKCfan! The victim is the unfortunate Ambassador Sam Cortman, American, shot in front of his own Embassy in England, in Passenger to Frankfurt. Over to you for the next puzzle.

GKCfan 12 Nov 10 at 11:04 p.m. GMT

Sam Cortman of Passenger to Frankfurt?  He was shot on the American Embassy steps, where he was U.S. Ambassador.

NightRayDuck 11 Nov 10 at 5:59 p.m. GMT

"My wife is wealthy, good-looking, clever, and adorable. She has done very much to help me carve out my distinguished career... I am not a man of enough brilliance to have attained my current rank all on my own. We had some good years of me doing my job adequately and my wife adding the necessary touch to it. I've never thought it would all end in me being killed a long way away from my own country..."

Who is this victim, and what is his cause of death?

The unfortunate victim figures he can tell a little more about himself.

"Come to think of it... although I wouldn't like to say... all of this, my happy marriage and my plain-sailing career, have probably been engineered to bring one of their agents to the right social spheres to extract intelligence and exert influence. I've been the one to look like I've been fortunate and got a very good career, but all along, they probably thought of me as 'expendable'."

NightRayDuck 08 Nov 10 at 1:18 a.m. GMT

Yes, GKCfan, this victim is indeed one of the diplomats who have appeared in Passenger to Frankfurt. If you can identify 1) his cause of death, and 2a) his name, or 2b) his diplomatic rank, or 2c) his country of origin and the country where he got killed, or 2d) any notable relationship with a character of more importance - perhaps one of the "good guys", and yet on the other hand perhaps an international villain - that would be quite sufficient for the purposes of this puzzle. 

Do I seem to be asking for even more details? Cause of death is requisite in this game. Name is usually required but in this case the diplomatic rank may be more memorable. And one of the details listed above is rather important to the plot. 

GKCfan 07 Nov 10 at 7:44 p.m. GMT

Hmmm...  Aren't there some diplomats in Passenger to Frankfurt?  I don't remember very much of the plot...

NightRayDuck 07 Nov 10 at 5:32 p.m. GMT

Well... for a hint, I might point out that, for the purposes of this victim, at least, "diplomat" and "politician" are two distinctly different careers. A diplomat's career deals mostly with other countries, therefore it's quite natural that this victim is far away from his country when his death occurred. A politician, like Stephen Farraday, deals much more often with setting the policies within his own country, laws and regulations and such. Hope that helps. Happy guessing. 

Mr_Graves 07 Nov 10 at 8 a.m. GMT

Stephen Farrady, from "Sparkling Cyanide" fits the description, the obvious flaw there being that he wasn't murdered.

A diplomat, killed far from his own country? Something to think about...

NightRayDuck 06 Nov 10 at 4:15 a.m. GMT

Sorry if I was a little brusque. And I forgot to mention that this victim does have one important characteristic in common with the other guess "Tim Revel": This victim's career is in diplomatics.

NightRayDuck 05 Nov 10 at 9:53 p.m. GMT

It's not Simeon Lee. Please do take the original clue into consideration. Simeon Lee fitted approximately 0% of the original clue.

biggles_aristide 05 Nov 10 at 7:20 p.m. GMT

Simeon Lee who's thoroat was cut?

NightRayDuck 05 Nov 10 at 6:03 p.m. GMT

Aww, Virginia would be so surprised if anyone figured that Tim Revel had been murdered. No, sorry, Miss Eylesbarrow, this victim is not Tim Revel. This victim has a very obviously violent cause of death.

Please let me know if there's anything else you'd like to know about this victim.

Miss_Eylesbarrow 05 Nov 10 at 10:06 a.m. GMT

Hi Darknight, it's good to be back.  I've puzzled over your clue but can only come up with Timothy Revel, diplomatic husband of the lovely and charming Virginia Revel (Chimneys).  But he couldn't really be described as a 'victim' I thought he just died?

NightRayDuck 02 Nov 10 at 5:18 p.m. GMT

I'll go ahead and post the next victim puzzle... Please let me know, cameron, if I haven't got the correct answer to your puzzle yet.

"My wife is wealthy, good-looking, clever, and adorable. She has done very much to help me carve out my distinguished career... I am not a man of enough brilliance to have attained my current rank all on my own. We had some good years of me doing my job adequately and my wife adding the necessary touch to it. I've never thought it would all end in me being killed a long way away from my own country..."

Who is this victim, and what is his cause of death?

NightRayDuck 27 Oct 10 at 12:14 a.m. GMT

oh dear... Grandpapa Aristide Leonides from Crooked House, murdered by eserine eyedrops (for external use) that had been put into an insulin bottle (for injection)?

...he's opposite of Ratchett or Mrs. Boynton, in that he's twisty in doing business, but he's a fascinating personality, and much beloved by most of his family members...

cameronjhw 26 Oct 10 at 10:01 p.m. GMT

Right book but wrong victim so this should be obvious...

you are very close

NightRayDuck 26 Oct 10 at 9:04 p.m. GMT

I take it this victim is not a domineering or powerful personality...?

Could it be nannie Janet Rowe from Crooked House, murdered by poisoned hot cocoa in a cup intended for one of the children? Nannie has always thought that one member of the household was odd / queer / strange / crooked, but hasn't got to anything like having definite knowledge on the identity of the murderer.

cameronjhw 26 Oct 10 at 2:23 p.m. GMT

I am afraid it is not the patient Mrs. de Rushbridger from Three Act Tragedy although a very good guess.

You are right there are a lot of victims who were killed by simple methods so here is a hint-This victim was the complete opposite of victims like Ratchett or Mrs. Boynton. Hope this helps.

NightRayDuck 26 Oct 10 at 1:02 a.m. GMT

I've been thinking it might have been that psychiatric patient who was murdered by poisoned chocolates in Three Act Tragedy... but I can't think what she might have thought. 

Mr_Graves 25 Oct 10 at 11:36 p.m. GMT

I am at a loss... So many characters have never harmed a fly, and so many methods were simple... Can we please have a hint?

cameronjhw 21 Oct 10 at 1:44 p.m. GMT

Good guess but no it is not Dora Bunner

ampman 21 Oct 10 at 12:48 p.m. GMT

Dora Bunn in A Murder is Announced ?

cameronjhw 20 Oct 10 at 8:57 p.m. GMT

"I don't understand why I was murdered...I never harmed anyone...the method was too simple...I somehow can't think of who did it and yet in my mind I thought that...

Who am I? How did I die and in what book?

ivi21 19 Oct 10 at 5:55 p.m. GMT

Lady Tresillian is correct! Well done.

cameronjhw 18 Oct 10 at 8:35 p.m. GMT

was is Mrs. McGinty and was killed by a sugar hammer in Mrs. McGinty's Dead or Lady Tresillian killed with a steel fender attached to a tennis racket with tape in Towards Zero

ivi21 18 Oct 10 at 8:05 p.m. GMT

None of them.

Mr_Graves 18 Oct 10 at 7:37 p.m. GMT

NO! It was Cora Lansquenet, from "After the Funeral"! She was hacked to death with a hatchet!!!

Mr_Graves 18 Oct 10 at 7:36 p.m. GMT

Was it Alice Ascher, from "The ABC Murders"? She was stabbed, I think... No, she was dealt a blow to the head..

ivi21 18 Oct 10 at 7:17 p.m. GMT

You're right, I forgot, sorry. So once more, without murder method :

"I was an old woman, I was found dead in my house. The murderer just wanted to use my death for something."

What was she murderered for and who was the murderer?

NightRayDuck 18 Oct 10 at 6:37 p.m. GMT

As Mr. Graves said at the beginning of this game: "you must try to guess which character is being described, and also HOW THEY WERE MURDERED."

Please remember to leave the murder method out of the clue, and make it a necessary part of the correct answer? We have already got victims and murderers in the "Guess the Character" game, so this game needs to be a little more specific. 

ivi21 18 Oct 10 at 4:01 p.m. GMT

Exactly! So fast!

Your turn.

MissQuin 18 Oct 10 at 3:50 p.m. GMT

It's David Baker in Third Girl! He is rather sexy, but quite bad.

ivi21 18 Oct 10 at 3:33 p.m. GMT

Ok, here it is:

" I am young man, murdered by a knife. The reason was one of my paintings. It seemed to be evident who killed me, but fortunatelly he found a real murderer."

cameronjhw 16 Oct 10 at 4:57 p.m. GMT

Good job! Yes it is the sinister and nasty Ratchett/Cassetti who was brutally stabbed. (He is probably one of the most ugly murder victims in the Christie canon).

Hope you come up with a puzzler...

ivi21 15 Oct 10 at 5:35 p.m. GMT

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It could be Ratchett, original called Casseti, criminal from The Murder on the Orient Espress. He was stabbed to death by other passengers on the train.(Except Poirot, of course ).

cameronjhw 15 Oct 10 at 12:45 p.m. GMT

"I am not what I appear to be. To many I have a savage or malevolent demeanor. It is due to something I did a long time ago and I have been frightened for my life. I thought he might be able to help me but no and I end up brutally dead in the middle of the night...

Who am I, how did I die, and from what book? 

GKCfan 14 Oct 10 at 9:59 p.m. GMT

Correct!  Well done!

cameronjhw 14 Oct 10 at 8:35 p.m. GMT

Is it Issac Morris from And Then There Were None and he was killed with some poison tablets by Wargrave?

GKCfan 14 Oct 10 at 6:27 p.m. GMT

"To the best of my knowledge, my murder has not been included in any of the multiple adaptations of my book.  I am involved in an illegal business, although I often do some strictly legitimate work on the side for people who like to keep secrets.  I have terrible stomach problems, and that led to my murder.  The thing is, no one can prove that I was murdered, unless the killer were to admit guilt!"

Who am I, what book did I appear in, and how was I killed?

NightRayDuck 13 Oct 10 at 5:31 a.m. GMT

Yes, GKCfan! Over to you for the next puzzle.

GKCfan 13 Oct 10 at 2:04 a.m. GMT

Rev. Babbington from Murder in Three Acts, poisoned with a nicotine-laced cocktail.

NightRayDuck 12 Oct 10 at 11:33 p.m. GMT

"I am quite a blameless man, and I am typical of people of my profession. I do go to parties if someone respectable invites me... cocktails or tea and cakes, perhaps, nothing excessive or immoral. My famous neighbor, you might think he'd be the rowdy, wild kind like many other members of his profession. Nothing can be further from the truth. He has very interesting friends, from many different walks of life.... Well, so, as I was saying, I am blameless, and I go to this pleasant little party thrown by my neighbor. It's been a shock to my wife - widow - that I get carried out of the party, stiff and dead. What is my name and how was I murdered?"

Not sure if this puzzle is up to the specifications...

Mr_Graves 12 Oct 10 at 7:13 p.m. GMT

Yes, it was Tommy Pierce, who was pushed from a window. Correct, agathasgreatestfan- unfortunately, darknightofrays beat you to it! That means it is now darknightofrays' turn to describe a murder victim, and we get to guess who it is.

agathasgreatestfan 12 Oct 10 at 5:46 p.m. GMT

Tommy Pierce in Murder is Easy !

christie_greece 12 Oct 10 at 5:18 p.m. GMT

This game is really interesting! However I can't find the answer. Could you give any hints?

NightRayDuck 12 Oct 10 at 5:54 a.m. GMT

Tommy Pierce, annoyed Lord Easterfield; some days later, got pushed out of an upper-storey window and died from the fall, in Murder Is Easy?