Quiz The Impossible Fortune Richard Osman

The Impossible Fortune Quiz: How Well Do You Know the Book?

Think you’ve mastered every twist of Richard Osman’s The Impossible Fortune? This quiz spans the entire story, from the wedding that opens the book to the final revelations on the English Channel. You’ll face 20 questions across four categories: plot sequence, character motivation, theme and symbol, and synthesis. Each question is either multiple‑choice or short‑answer. After you finish, check the answer key for brief explanations.

If you need a refresher, revisit the main book page, browse the questions and answers, or read the ending explained.

Quiz

Plot and Sequence (8 questions)

  1. Multiple choice – What event opens The Impossible Fortune?
    a) A funeral
    b) A wedding rehearsal
    c) Joyce’s diary entry about her daughter Joanna’s wedding preparations
    d) A car bombing

  2. Short answer – At the wedding reception, who confesses to Elizabeth that someone tried to kill him that morning?

  3. Multiple choice – What item does Elizabeth find hidden behind a radiator in Nick Silver’s trashed office?
    a) A burner phone
    b) A Post‑it note reading “Help me, Elizabeth. You’ll work out how.”
    c) A key to The Compound
    d) A photo of a car bomb

  4. Short answer – Which character is killed by a car bomb in the restaurant parking lot?

  5. Short answer – What two sets of numbers together open the safe inside The Compound?

  6. Multiple choice – Who hides in a Travelodge for eight and a half weeks, waiting for Elizabeth to find him?
    a) Davey Noakes
    b) Nick Silver
    c) Lord Townes
    d) Jasper

  7. Short answer – What does Davey Noakes reveal about the Bitcoin in the safe during his confession?

  8. Multiple choice – Where does Lord Townes sail to at the end of the book, and what does he attempt there?
    a) France; a new life
    b) The middle of the English Channel; suicide
    c) Spain; a business meeting
    d) Ireland; hiding from police

Character Motivation (5 questions)

  1. Multiple choice – Why does Elizabeth agree to help Nick Silver despite her grief over Stephen?
    a) She needs money
    b) She feels needed again and the mystery gives her purpose
    c) Joyce forces her
    d) Ibrahim convinces her

  2. Short answer – What does Connie Johnson hope to achieve by mentoring Tia Malone?

  3. Multiple choice – Why does Ron Ritchie decide to descend into The Compound with Connie, even though she once threatened to kill him?
    a) He wants the Bitcoin for himself
    b) He insists on protecting his family and refuses to let Connie go alone
    c) Elizabeth orders him
    d) He wants to prove he is still strong

  4. Multiple choice – Why does Joyce feel useless during the investigation?
    a) She cannot crack any codes
    b) She is kept out of meetings
    c) She has contributed nothing to the Bitcoin breakthrough while Elizabeth leads
    d) Her daughter forbids her from helping

  5. Short answer – Why does Ibrahim seek a romantic connection, as revealed in his dance with Joanna at the wedding?

Theme and Symbol (4 questions)

  1. Short answer – The flapjack that Joyce buys in Fairhaven is a symbol of what?

  2. Multiple choice – What does the galleon that Lord Townes sees in his final moments represent?
    a) Rescue
    b) Childhood dreams and a desire for escape
    c) The Bitcoin fortune
    d) His father’s approval

  3. Short answer – The Compound serves as a symbol of what in the novel?

  4. Multiple choice – The motto “aut neca aut necare” (kill or be killed) influences which character’s decision to take action?
    a) Elizabeth
    b) Ron
    c) Lord Townes
    d) Danny Lloyd

Synthesis (3 questions)

  1. Short answer – Compare the ways Elizabeth and Joyce each use deception during the investigation. Give one example for each character.

  2. Short answer – How do the younger characters (Tia, Kendrick, and Joanna) challenge or change the perspectives of the older generation?

  3. Short answer – In your own words, what is the “impossible fortune” of the title? Is it only the Bitcoin, or does the novel suggest a different kind of fortune?

Answer Key

  1. c – Joyce’s diary entry describes her daughter Joanna’s wedding preparations, including the mother‑daughter conflict over the size of the celebration.
  2. Nick Silver – At the wedding reception he shows Elizabeth proof of a car bomb.
  3. b – The Post‑it note urges Elizabeth to help and tells her she will work out how.
  4. Holly Lewis – She is killed by a car bomb after dinner with the Thursday Murder Club.
  5. 416617 (Holly’s phone number) and 217495 (hidden in text messages from Nick) – Holly used her phone number; Nick’s half was encoded in the first letters of six texts.
  6. b – Nick Silver waited in a Travelodge for weeks, hoping Elizabeth would find him.
  7. The Bitcoin is fake – Davey wrote random numbers on paper, kept the real cryptocurrency for himself, and cashed out for £31 million.
  8. b – Lord Townes pilots a cruiser to the middle of the English Channel and attempts suicide with his father’s gun, but a galleon appears on the horizon.
  9. b – After Stephen’s death Elizabeth feels adrift; the danger reawakens her sense of purpose.
  10. She wants to give Tia a chance at a bigger heist and to pass on the mentorship she received from Ibrahim – Connie herself says she owes someone a good deed.
  11. b – Ron insists on going to protect his family and to prove he is still capable; he later sacrifices the Bitcoin to save them.
  12. c – Joyce reflects that everyone else contributed to cracking the codes while she feels she has done nothing.
  13. He loved a boy named Marius, who is now dead, and he feels lonely – Ibrahim tells Joanna this during their dance.
  14. Joyce’s independence from Elizabeth – She buys the flapjack to assert her own choices.
  15. b – The galleon recalls the treasure‑laden ship from his favourite childhood book, symbolising his longing for a lost, innocent self.
  16. Secrecy, hidden wealth, and the lengths people will go to protect their valuables – The vault requires codes, retinal scans, and thumbprints.
  17. c – Lord Townes recalls his father’s motto and decides to stop letting life happen to him; he books a visit to The Compound and later attempts suicide.
  18. Elizabeth poses as a genealogical heir‑hunter when visiting Jill Usher. Joyce creates a fake story about a magician ancestor named Harry Ablett and produces doctored Victorian photographs.
  19. Tia helps Ibrahim notice the hidden pattern in the text messages; Kendrick questions the code of silence and forces Ron to rethink family loyalty; Joanna pressures Paul toward honesty and later reviews CCTV footage that leads to a breakthrough.
  20. The title refers both to the £350 million Bitcoin and to the characters’ searches for love, belonging, and purpose – Joyce’s opening lines hope for love and no trouble; Ron sacrifices wealth for family; Elizabeth finds purpose through danger; Lord Townes ends up alone despite his fortune.