Agatha Christie's Hercule Poirot! Now Disc. "The Labours of Hercules"

One of my favourite stories. I like the fact the simple mystery and the intertwining love stories... There's something very poignant about Ruth's last line: "I wonder why she did it..."

 

I don't remember this one.

 

It's actually the first time I read it.

 

So when do we start discussing the novels?

 

This is the order which I am looking at Poirot's stories, novels and the play. Later today I will update for "The Mystery of the Spanish Chest" and then we move into the novels which she is most famous for.

I am also playing the Murder on the Orient Express computer game right now, so when I get to her most famous novel that will be reviewed too.

 

The Mystery of the Spanish Chest

Order

First published as "The Mystery of the Baghdad Chest" in The Strand Magazine in 1932, this shorter version was included in the collection "While the Light Lasts and Other Stories" in 1997. The expanded version first appeared in the collection "The Harlequin Tea Set and Other Stories" and now part of the collection "The Adventures of the Christmas Pudding".

Adapted for the iTV series Agatha Christie's Poirot in 1991.

Method

I could not find an online version to read, also, youtube is cracking down (again) and I could not find it on there though I watched it several months ago.

Recurring characters
Hercule Poirot

Other characters
Mr Clayton
Mrs Margurete Clayton
Commander McLaren
Major Charles Rich
Mr Spence
Mrs Spence
Burgess

Outline from Wikipedia

Poirot's attention is caught by newspaper headlines which tell of the latest developments in the "Spanish Chest Mystery". At his request Miss Lemon prepares a précis of the case. A Major Charles Rich held a small party at his flat. The guests were a Mr and Mrs Clayton, a Mr and Mrs Spence and a Commander McLaren. At the last minute, Mr Clayton received an urgent telegram summoning him to Scotland that night on business and did not attend the party. Shortly before the party, he had a drink with McLaren at their club where he explained his coming absence and then before going to the station, took a taxi to Rich's to offer his apologies. Rich was out but Burgess ? Rich's manservant ? let him in and left Clayton to scribble a note in the sitting room while he carried on his preparations in the kitchen. Some ten minutes later, Rich returned and sent Burgess out on a short errand. Rich denies seeing Clayton at the flat nor did Burgess after leaving the man to write his note. The party went well. The next morning, Burgess noticed what seemed to be bloodstains on a rug that were seeping from a Spanish chest in the corner of the room. Opening it, the startled man found the stabbed body of Mr Clayton. Rich has now been arrested as the obvious suspect but Poirot sees a flaw in that he cannot see how or why Rich would calmly have gone to bed with a bleeding corpse in the chest. He is able to start investigating the case when a mutual friend recommends him to Mrs Clayton. Meeting the widow, he is struck by her beautiful innocence and realises quickly that she is attracted to Major Rich although she denies having an affair with him. She does admit that she wasn't in love with her closed and emotionless husband. He then sees each of the people involved in the party in turn who each agree about the charms of Mrs Clayton and the lack of emotion in her husband. Poirot has some suspicions of Burgess and goes to Rich's flat where the manservant shows him the scene of the crime. Inspecting the chest, Poirot finds some holes in the back and side and asks Burgess if anything in the room is noticeably different from the night of the party. He is told that a screen in the room was almost in front of the chest on the night. Remembering a reference to Othello used by Mrs Spence, Poirot realises the truth. Mr Clayton is Othello and his wife is Desdemona and the missing character of Iago is in fact Commander McLaren. He is in love with Mrs Clayton and, jealous of her attraction to Major Rich, planned the perfect crime whereby Clayton would die and Rich be accused of the murder. He made numerous subtle suggestions to Clayton about his wife's infidelity to the point where the man himself hatched a plan to fake a summons to Scotland and then found a reason to get into Rich's flat where he hid in the chest to observe what happened in his absence during the party. McLaren, playing records for the people to dance to, nipped behind the screen, opened the chest and stabbed his friend. Poirot feels certain that if the theory is put to McLaren he will confess.

 

-

 

Let's try this again.

Is this the book that stars Young Nick, a.k.a. Magdala B?

 

Yes, that is the novel. It is also the first novel with Hastings since he returned from South America.

 

A *very* unlikely explanation.

"Peril at End House", OTOH, is a good one.

 

I do like the story, even if I don't like Nick Buckley.

I'll update it when I get home tonight, and I beat the Orient Express game and I have quite a few things to say about that. The ending was worth the tedious gameplay.

 

Peril at End House

Order

First published in 1931 as a serial in Liberty magazine, published as a novel later that same year.

Adapted as a play in 1940, adapted for iTV's series Agatha Christie's Poirot in 1990 and starring Polly Walker (later famous as Atia in Rome), adapted as a PC game in 2007 and made into a graphic novel in 2008.

This novel really starts Christie's 30's period. There are quite a few references to things at the time, like aviation as well as the generation of Bright Young People of which Nick and Freddie are a part of.

Method

Some clips from the TV series
Nick meets Poirot
Michael Seaton's death
End of Poirot's denoument

Recurring Characters
Hercule Poirot
Captain Arthur Hastings
Chief Inspector John Japp


Other characters
Magdala 'Nick' Buckley
Fredrica Rice
Commander George Challenger
Charles Vyse
Jim Lazarus
Maggie Buckley
Bert Croft
Mildred Croft
Ellen Wilson
William Wilson
Giles Buckley
Jean Buckley
Colonel Weston
Mr Whitfield

Outline from Wikipedia

Poirot and Hastings are spending a week's holiday at the Cornish resort of St. Loo, staying at the Majestic Hotel. Sitting on the hotel terrace in the morning sun, Hastings reads in the paper of Captain Seton who is lost near the Solomon Islands whilst on a round-the-world flight. They meet a local resident, a young girl called 'Nick' Buckley (her real first name being Magdala) who lives in End House, a slightly ramshackle house on a point in the bay. During conversation, Nick lightly mentions that she has had three lucky escapes from death in as many days, piquing Poirot's curiosity. At the same time, a wasp shoots past the head of the young girl. Nick is fetched away by a friend of hers, Commander George Challenger, RN. After they have gone, Poirot examines the straw hat the girl has left behind and finds a bullet hole in it and a spent bullet nearby. He resolves to help save Nick's life.

He calls on her at End House and she tells him of the other three 'accidents' ? a falling picture frame above her head, a dislodged rock on a cliff path down to the sea and the brakes failing on her car. Poirot tells her his belief that her life is in danger. She doesn't take the threat at all seriously but Poirot has identified the bullet shot at her as coming from a Mauser pistol. She tells him that she possesses one and looks in the drawer for it but it has disappeared. Nick starts to take the threat seriously. She allows Poirot to question her and claims to know of no enemies. She is in somewhat reduced financial circumstances and is an orphan, her only brother having died in a car accident three years earlier. Her nearest living relative is a lawyer cousin, Charles Vyse, who arranged the re-mortgaging on End House for her to supply desperately needed funds and, aside from some distant cousins in Yorkshire, she has no other relatives. Her household consists of Ellen, the housekeeper, her husband and their child, and the lodge house is let to an Australian couple by the name of Croft. Her other friends who will be staying at the house for Regatta Week with her are Freddie Rice, who Nick is trying to persuade to divorce her abusive husband who has now disappeared, and Jim Lazarus, a young man who is in love with Freddie. George Challenger is also one of the party for the weekend. He is as impoverished as Nick and quite a few years older and has half-heartedly proposed marriage to her on a few occasions. Nick made a will six months previously in which she left the house to Charles Vyse and anything else that remained to Freddie. Poirot persuades her to ask someone else to stay with her for the weekend and Nick thinks of asking one of her Yorkshire cousins ? Maggie Buckley. When they leave the house Poirot tells Hastings that Nick now has three l

 

You are not supposed to like her, I would guess.

Christie plays with names...not for the first, nor last (see: "A Murder is Announced") time. You always have to watch her. A very good effort.

 

Oh yes, Lottie and Lettie, I remember now.

From what I saw in the clips, Polly Walker did a good job at being Nick.

 

I had already read a lot of Christie books where this trope was used, so Nick was on my radar from the start. But I still enjoyed it and I loved the fact that one of the clues justified Poirot's egoism: everybody has heard about him!!

I really liked Nick's friend, though, in retrospect. Now that I think about it, the two women: Nick and her friend actually remind me a lot Azula and Mai from Avatar: the Last Airbender.

 

What trope, Leia?

BTW, it's great to see you here as for so long it has just been me and Zaz in this thread

 

Polly Walker! That I gotta see.

 

The ?Murderer Plays Victim? trope. She used the same trope in ?A Murder is Announced?, ?The Mirror Crack?s From Side to Side? and in ?Crooked House?.

Thanks! [voice=Sio Bibble]It?s an outrage![/voice] Agatha Christie is about the most read author in the world. I guess she's just not "in" at the moment.

 

I read a book about her saying she is the most read author in the world after the Bible and Shakespeare.

 

Her bestselling book of all time though is neither Poirot or Marple. And I agree.

I have requested Lord Edgware dies from my library so when I read it again I will update, it's been a few years since I have read it.

 

No question: "And Then There Were None" is fantastic...

 

Finished it last night, so here we go.

Lord Edgware Dies

Order

First published in 1933, published in the US as Thirteen at Dinner the next year.

Made into a film in 1934, it starred Austin Trevor who had played Poirot in Alibi and Black Coffee. Adapted into a film again in 1985 with Peter Ustinov as Poirot, Faye Dunaway as Jane Wilkinson and Carlotta Adams and David Suchet as Chief Inspector Japp. Adapted for teleivision as part of iTV's Agatha Christie's Poirot series in 2000.

Carlotta Adams is based off the actress Ruth Draper

Method

Recurring characters
Hercule Poirot
Captain Arthur Hastings
Chief Inspector John Japp

Other characters
Lady Edgware nee Jane Wilkinson
Carlotta Adams
Lord Edgware
Brian Martin
Ellis
Geraldine Marsh
Jenny Driver
Donald Ross
Duke of Alton
Dowager Duchess of Alton
Ronald Marsh
Sir Montagu Corner

Outline from Wikipedia

Jane Wilkinson, an actress, is suspected of murdering her husband, the fourth Baron Edgware, so that she can marry the Duke of Merton. The plot begins with Jane asking Poirot to convince her husband to agree to a divorce. When Poirot reluctantly does so, Edgware says that he has already agreed to a divorce and written a letter to Jane informing her of the fact. When Poirot reports this to Jane, she denies ever having received such a letter.
On the night of the murder, Wilkinson supposedly goes to the Edgware house, announces herself to the butler, and goes into her husband's study. The next day, Lord Edgware is found murdered and Chief Inspector Japp tells Poirot all about it. But in that morning's newspaper, they discover an article about a dinner party that was held the previous evening where Jane Wilkinson was reportedly a guest.
At the party, there were thirteen guests at the dinner table. One guest mentioned that thirteen people at table means bad luck for the first guest to rise from the table (hence the alternative title of the book Thirteen At Dinner) and Jane Wilkinson was the first to rise. Among the guests is a writer named Donald Ross, who spent a lot of the evening speaking with Jane. So the police are, at first, baffled with the case, as is Poirot.

On the same morning as Lord Edgware's murder, comedian/actress Carlotta Adams, who is known for her uncanny impersonations, is found dead due to an overdose of Veronal. A mysterious gold case with the sleeping powder in it is found among her possessions. The case bears an inscription reading: "From D, Paris, November". Poirot tries to decode this and arranges the evidence together.
A few days later, Jane makes an appearance at another dinner party where the guests talk about Paris of Troy. However, the Jane Wilkinson at this dinner party is thinking that the guests, again including writer Donald Ross, are referring to the city in France. Ross can't understand this because, at the party on the night of the murder, Jane was speaking knowledgeably about the mythological Paris. Ross goes to ring up Poirot about his discovery, but before he can say what he discovered, he is stabbed.

In the conclusion to the book, Jane Wilkinson really is the murderer, having paid Carlotta Adams to impersonate her at the party on the night she killed Lord Edgware. Jane's motive for killing Lord Edgware was because the Duke of Merton was an Anglo-Catholic and didn't want to marry a divorced woman. In the last chapter, she writes a letter to Poirot before her execution and tells him how she committed the crime.
With her made up alibi in place, Jane simply takes a taxi to the Edgware house and murders her husband. Later, she and Carlotta meet up in a hotel where they toast Carlotta's successful "performance" and ostensibly so Jane can pay Carlotta. However, Jane slips Veronal into Carlotta's drink, effectively killing her. Jane also discovers a letter Carlotta has written to her sister and is pa

 

This has one of the more amusing murderers, and I remember it fondly.

 

The Ustinov film is utterly dreadful; I've seen the Suchet version and its much better. This is one of the first Christies I remember reading, so I'm rather fond of it. I quite like the bit about the 'judgment of Paris,' though I'm not entirely sure that was in the book, it's been so long since I read it. I remember it from the Suchet version and it's quite a clever clue.

 

It is in the book. I've seen the Suchet version as well.