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SOLUTION TO THE MYSTERY FIGURE GAME

24 Nov 10 4:26PM

 By Chris Chan

Warning!  Several spoilers for Christie novels can be found here.

I looked around the room, looking at a sea of angry faces, all of whom were shifting uncomfortably in their chairs.  Odd… I was about to identify one of them as a killer… but they were all killers!  I was looking at a sea of about two hundred faces.  Men, women, doctors, lawyers, dentists, judges, police officers, actors, little old ladies, children, politicians, military men, members of the aristocracy, servants, teachers, secretaries, Britons, Americans, French… many nationalities, even an ancient Egyptian!  All these people, from all walks of life, with nothing in common except for one thing.  They were all murderers from Agatha Christie mysteries.  And one of them had struck again… not once, not twice, but twenty-one times!

There was no point in delaying things.  I cleared my throat and commenced my summation.  “Good evening, everyone.  You are all aware of why I’ve called you here tonight.  Earlier this spring, an announcement was placed on the official Agatha Christie website.  A faceless Mystery Figure began to stalk the website, and the Chipping Cleghorn Gazette posited that this mysterious figure was up to no good.  Absolutely nothing was known about this person, although a rumor surfaced that the Mystery Figure was a killer from an Agatha Christie novel.  Later, another, more disturbing rumor emerged, stating that the Mystery Figure was planning to kill members of the www.agathachristie.com online community.”

“This disturbed me.  I was concerned not only for my own safety, but for that of my friends on the discussion forums as well.  So I was on my guard until the afternoon of April 23rd, when poor angelica_blue became the Mystery Figure’s first victim!  Now at first I didn’t know where to start my investigation.  angelica_blue had made only one post, and I had never heard from her before her death.  I posited a number of theories, although there was precious little evidence to go on, and discussed my thoughts with my colleagues on the message boards.  After a few days, a forum Moderator announced that a local clairvoyant had been in tough with the departed spirit of angelica_blue.  Now, I was skeptical about this, but I thought that there might have been some clue in the following message that was purportedly from the murdered woman:”

         Hot off the press - Chipping Cleghorn's local clairvoyant has finally made contact with angelika_blue, who informs us that she was a "very wealthy heiress and philanthropist with a bunch of unhappy cousins who wanted to prevent her leaving all her money to the cat shelter" Maybe the Mystery Figure was one of her cousins... Oh, and she also told us that she was murdered with arsenic. Our clairvoyant will be in touch with future victims and we'll post their comments here! 

         “This was the last that I heard from Chipping Cleghorn’s local clairvoyant…”

“Soon afterwards, the Mystery Figure struck again.  biancaquan was the second victim.  A couple of patterns emerged.  Both victims had colors in their names, and the slayings were in alphabetical order.  It was not until the third victim, cracker_jack, was killed, and an announcement was posted that a clue to the murderer’s identity had been hidden on the website.  I thought for a while, and noticed that the alphabetical pattern of the three victims’ names reminded me of one Christie book: The ABC Murders.  I decided to go to The ABC Murders page in the stories section (http://www.agathachristie.com/story-explorer/stories/the-abc-murders/), and search for clues.”

To be perfectly honest, it had been much more difficult for me to find the clue, and I had spent hours searching fruitlessly.  But I wasn’t about to tell that to a roomful of murderers!

“And there, in the middle of the page, was a link stating “Mystery Murderer Was Here.”  I clicked it, and it led me to the first clue– Position of Trust.”

“‘Position of Trust.’  What could that mean?  Could the Mystery Figure have worked in some sort of highly respectable job?  A doctor, perhaps?  A lawyer?  A police officer?  A nurse?  A judge?  A politician?  A secretary?  A teacher?  Who could the clue be referring to?”  As I spoke, I looked at the killers who fit that description, such as several of the characters from And Then There Were None.  None of them returned my gaze.

“So much for the first clue.  But then, the Mystery Figure struck again, and it seemed as if the deaths would lead to another clue!  The next victim was beatriz91.  But then, two other posters on the website declared that they had found the second clue already!  But before they could investigate further, they became the next victims.  These poor people were HeiseiHolmes and m_hercule_poirot_2.”  My face grew hard and angry.  “They were friends of mine.  From this point forth, my investigation was personal.  I vowed to track down the Mystery Figure and bring that mad killer to justice.”

“But I didn’t have much time to call for vengeance… two more murders followed in quick succession– Rosie888 and agatha_911 met their ends at the Mystery Figure’s hand.  I struggled and wracked my brain trying to find a link between their names.  And then I did a little math.  All had numbers in their names.  91+888+91=1890.  1890… wasn’t that the year of Christie’s birth?  I looked at the biographical portions of the website, and then I noticed an italicized phrase on the announcement of the latest victims: full stop.  Now, “full stop” is a synonym for the punctuation mark, the period.  I analyzed the Christie timeline more closely (http://www.agathachristie.com/timeline/), looking at the 1890 entry, which read, “Agatha Mary Clarissa Miller is born in Torquay, Devon, England.”  I then noticed that the period had a tiny line underneath it… it was another link!  I clicked and it led me to the second clue: Death by Knife.”

         “Death by knife… well, there are plenty of stabbings in Christie’s books. Murder on the Links, The Murder of Roger Ackroyd, The Big Four, Lord Edgware Dies, Murder on the Orient Express, The ABC Murders, Cards on the Table, Death on the Nile, Hercule Poirot's Christmas, The Moving Finger, Ordeal by Innocence, The Clocks, A Caribbean Mystery, Third Girl, Endless Night, and Hallowe'en Party all contain stabbings, as do many short stories and the stage dramatization of And Then There Were None, the short play The Rats, and there are attempted stabbings in Murder is Easy and By the Pricking of My Thumbs.  That really didn’t narrow it down too much.”

         “Then a new series of murders started.  Three more victims in rapid succession: Gogo, CMATTHEW, and SBlogg.  What could that mean.  Also, there was another italicized phrase in the death announcement… “boat race.”  Then I said all three names together.  Could the message be “Go, go see Matthew’s blog?”  Mathew Pritchard, Christie’s grandson, has a blog on the website.  I checked it out, and in his post “The Guessing Game,” (http://www.agathachristie.com/blog/2009/09/28/guessing-game/), I found several words marked in bold that hadn’t been darkened in that way when I first read the essay.  Game.  Tray.  Set.  Chair.  Ilk.  Try.  Test.  What was the link between these seven words?  I couldn’t find one.  My mind was jumbled.  Jumbled… could these words be an anagram for something?  And then I realized, what’s another word for “boat race?”  Regatta!  Christie has a short story titled “The Regatta Mystery.”  Actually, she has two short stories with that title, one with Parker Pyne, one with Poirot.  Anyway, I checked the boldface words once more. Sure enough, all of the letters in the title were in those seven words.  That just left CAIILKRST.  What could that rearrange to?  Racist ilk?  Liar stick?  Trick sail?  It’s Al Rick?  Then I noticed that the “The” in “The blog” at the top of the page was also in bold.  That made the letters CAIILKRSTTHE.  I do a little shuffling, and hey presto: “CHRISTIE TALK.” I decided to track down “The Regatta Mystery” on the website under “Christie Talk.”

         “I found it on the Short Story Forum (http://www.agathachristie.com/forum/book-club/short-stories/regatta-mystery).  NCognito had posted a comment simply stating “Mwh ha ha haaaa….”  I clicked the link and it took me to the third clue: Attempted other murders or did murder others.”

         “Well…  That wasn’t a whole lot of help.  Virtually every Christie book has multiple murders or attempted murders.  Only a handful have only one death.  You don’t want to me to go through the whole list.”

         “The hunt for the fourth clue started with an unprecedented four murders.  The victims, were scarface, bookworm7, layneeface, and Bookboy101.  It took a long time, but I saw one familiar phrase repeated twice: Facebook.  Could the next clue be linked to the popular online social networking site?  I went to the Home Page and clicked the link to the official www.agathachristie.com Facebook fan page.  I immediately clicked “Like” and searched around until I found the topic “Mystery Figure was here” under “Discussions” (http://www.facebook.com/topic.php?uid=120851194614115&topic=150).  It took me straight to the fourth clue: Locked room.”

         “Did that mean the crime was committed in a locked room?  There are a number of locked rooms in Christie’s mysteries. The Mysterious Affair at Styles, The Secret Adversary, Murder on the Links, The Murder of Roger Ackroyd, The Big Four, The Mystery of the Blue Train, Murder on the Orient Express, Hercule Poirot's Christmas, Murder is Easy, By the Pricking of My Thumbs all include locked rooms.  Now we were getting somewhere.  Only a handful of Christie novels fit all four clues, or at least three, since some of the clues were ambiguous.  The suspects were the murderers from Murder on the Links, The Murder of Roger Ackroyd, The Big Four, Murder on the Orient Express, Cards on the Table, Hercule Poirot’s Christmas, Murder is Easy, and By the Pricking of My Thumbs.  A couple of these only fit three clues, but I kept them on the list just in case. I had a feeling that the fifth clue would narrow the field still further.”

         “And I was right.  The next victim was MaryParker.  I thought for a while and remembered that Parker was the butler in The Murder of Roger Ackroyd.  I searched under “Stories” and found a link (?) on the page (http://www.agathachristie.com/story-explorer/stories/the-murder-of-roger-ackroyd/).  It led to an odd photograph: the skull of a dead sheep.  The second victim, eileen_brent, at first reminded me of the character Bundle from The Secret of Chimneys and The Seven Dials Mystery, but I found nothing connected to those stories.  But then I recalled that And Then There Were None has the character Emily Brent.  I searched the story page (http://www.agathachristie.com/story-explorer/stories/and-then-there-were-none/), found another question mark link, and discovered another picture: the international symbol for a man.  The third victim, ejmichel, took me straight to the Murder on the Orient Express story page (http://www.agathachristie.com/story-explorer/stories/murder-on-the-orient-express/), since there is a character named Pierre Michel.  The question mark link took me to an odd picture.  The cover from the British edition of Ordeal by Innocence was there (consisting of the lower half of a corpse in a pool of blood), duplicated with its own mirror image.  What did they mean?  A dead sheep’s skull, the symbol for a man, the legs of a corpse reflected with it’s own mirror image… and then it struck me.  I took part of each picture and got… Dead Man’s Mirror.  I rushed to the story page (http://www.agathachristie.com/story-explorer/stories/dead-mans-mirror/) and found that one period at the end of the second paragraph was underlined.  I clicked the link, and found the fifth clue: Killed family member.”

         “Lots of Christie’s killers go after their own kin, if by “kin” one includes spouses, parents, children, siblings, and cousins.  This knocked off a few possibilities.  Hercule Poirot’s Christmas and By the Pricking of My Thumbs definitely fit all five clues.  The only other possibility was Murder is Easy, where a recent TV adaptation had the killer murder a family member, which I didn’t think counted.  Although… the killer in Murder is Easy killed her own pet, and many people consider a pet a family member.  I kept her on the list.”

         “I now move on to the sixth clue.  The first victim was willparish.  After a lot of searching, I noticed that the city “Paris” could be found in the name.  A few Christie stories have scenes in Paris.  One of them is Death in the Clouds.  I went to the story page (http://www.agathachristie.com/story-explorer/stories/death-in-the-clouds/) and found the following paragraph: “Death in the Clouds is one of the Mystery Figure's favourite novels to read, especially on long plane journeys.”  There was a tiny link under the comma.  I clicked, and found the cover from The Seven Dials Mystery, consisting of a big clock face, with the shadow of a gun removed and a second hand added.  The second victim, Jack_London, posed a bigger problem, since so many of Christie’s books take place in London.  I finally struck gold when I searched the page for At Bertram’s Hotel (http://www.agathachristie.com/story-explorer/stories/at-bertrams-hotel/).  There was a link under the period at the end of the fifth paragraph.  This picture was of a reddish handprint, from the cover of The Secret of Chimneys.  I must say, I loved the URL titles on the links.  The final victim was EgyptianKate.  I went straight to the Death on the Nile page, (http://www.agathachristie.com/story-explorer/stories/death-on-the-nile/), found the link at the end of the third paragraph, and found a picture of some very full bookshelves.  I quickly saw the link between the three pictures: Second-hand books.  I went straight to the Classified Ads page and under “Swap and Sell Christie books” I found a post titled “The sixth clue– Mwa ha haa!” (http://www.agathachristie.com/forum/classified/swap-christie-books/the-sixth-clue-mwh-ha-haaa/).”

         “In order to get the sixth clue, I had to post a reply to the post.  I did so, and several days later I got an e-mail to the link for the sixth clue: Not who they say they are.  Well.  This eliminated the Murder is Easy killer, who was exactly who she said she was.  There were only two possibilities remaining.  The murderer from Hercule Poirot’s Christmas, and the killer from By the Pricking of My Thumbs.”

         “The seventh clue was unlike any of the others.  No new victims, just a creepy little poem (http://www.agathachristie.com/mystery-figure/end-game/).  I noticed that eight letters, one in the name of each victim, were marked. They were PEEOAMHG.  I love anagrams.  A little rearranging, and I got: HOME PAGE.  I went straight to the home page, and after a frantic search I realized that the animated words in the background of the webpage header behind the pictures of Christie, Poirot, Miss Marple, the Mystery Figure, and Tommy and Tuppence had changed.  Now there were only four words and I realized that there were the seventh clue: Faked time of death.”

         “The killer in By the Pricking of My Thumbs fits the first six clues, but she never tried to fake the time of death as far as I can remember.”

         “There was only one murderer who was in a position of trust (he was a policeman), slit his victim’s throat with a knife, attempted to murder someone else with a booby trap, hid the murder in a locked room, murdered his own father, hid his true identity as an illegitimate member of the Lee family, and created the illusion that the murder occurred several minutes later than it actually had: the killer from Hercule Poirot’s Christmas, Superintendent Sugden!”

         “Is there anything you have to say, Superintendent?”

         Sugden had no reply.  He just pulled at his moustache and glowered at me.  I felt triumphant.  I had caught a serial killer and avenged my friends.

         Just one thing bothered me.  What on earth was up with that whole business with the clairvoyant?  That was one mystery I hadn’t been able to solve…

• 7 comments

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7 comments

Dulcie 01 Jan 11 at 6:33p.m.

exactly--you have no chnce if you haven't read that 1 book

MissQuin 29 Nov 10 at 3:37p.m.

The Mystery game was great fun! But I didn't work out all the clues by myself. But I did guess the killer right. But the whole game does boil down to having read one Chrisite book.

Kerr52 29 Nov 10 at 8:20a.m.

my spin is heading swell.
very well explained. far too elaborate a crime for me to solve i'm afraid.
i appreciate your thorough walkthrough. brilliant!
CHEEEERS!

LuvAgathaChristie26 28 Nov 10 at 2:12a.m.

My head is spinning too!

InspectorGrant 26 Nov 10 at 3:18p.m.

Nice work, Chris - a walk through was definitely needed. I can hardly believe there was so much work involved. It was fun, though. Two hundred killers - good grief!!

rmn797 26 Nov 10 at 4:48a.m.

I cant believe that somebody did all these "detective" work!
I don't think I could have managed it...Was anyone able to do it?

luvstoread 25 Nov 10 at 4:24p.m.

My head is spinning!!