Ghosts of Painters Past: Five Little Pigs | 1942

(image from here)

"It's psychology that interests you, isn't it? Well, that doesn't change with time. The tangible things are gone—the cigarette end and the footprints and the bent blades of grass. You can't look for those any more. But you can go over all the facts of the case, and perhaps talk to the people who were there at the time—they're all alive still—and then—and then, as you said just now, you can lie back in your chair and think. And you'll know what really happened..." - Carla Lemarchant, Five Little Pigs, p. 8

The Sum of It:
I was in for a real treat this week. Five Little Pigs is, in my opinion, one of Dame Agatha's finest Poirot novels in that a) the premise is very clever, and, b) this case highlights perfectly Poirot's preferred method of crime solving: thinking on the facts.

A Murder in Retrospect
As an alternative title of this novel suggests, this crime is solved sixteen years after the fact. Poirot is approached by a young woman named Carla Lemarchant with the request that he find out who killed her father, artist Amyas Crale. Here's the twist: Carla's mother, Caroline Crale, was at the time of the crime convicted of her husband's murder and hanged died in prison! Okay, so…then what is there to solve? asks Poirot. Carla says her mother wrote her a letter to be read when Carla turned 21 (which just happened, #happybdayCarla) and it claims she (Caroline) was totally innocent! So who actually dun it?!, says Carla. She needs to find out pronto because she wants to marry her cute fiancee, but this whole "my mom maybe poisoned my dad" thing is kind of casting a shadow over their impending marriage and she needs #closure. So Poirot agrees to take on the challenge of finding out the truth, solely based on the recollections of the key players (i.e. lawyers and witnesses).

The Five Little Pigs
Poirot starts off his investigations by talking to Caroline Crale's defense counsel, Sir Montague Depleach and one of her prosecutors, Quentin Fogg, K.C. (THESE NAMES!!!) These men give Poirot a good picture of Caroline's trial, and, most interestingly, that she made no effort to disprove her guilt, and in fact, seemed very resigned to her fate of a guilty verdict. This seems to vastly contradict Caroline's profession of innocence in her letter to Carla #hmmmmm

Poirot then moves on to those he refers to as the Five Little Pigs, namely, Elsa Greer (Amyas's latest painting subject/much younger mistress), Philip and Meredith Blake (two of Amyas's besties since childhood), Angela Warren (Caroline's disfigured younger sister), and Miss Warren (Angela's governess.) These five were on hand for Amyas's death by poison and Poirot conducts very thorough interviews of each, and gleefully (in his head) gives them each a little pig character from the nursery rhyme (Poirot is, for some reason, really into nursery rhymes). I won't tell you much about the actual events surrounding Amyas's death because they're fairly basic, and much more interesting to read in the book. Suffice it to say, the book's intrigue comes (brilliantly!) from the re-hashing of fairly straightforward facts, which Poirot then aptly interprets based on his knowledge of psychology.

The YOA Treatment:
While I generally adore the Poirot TV adaptations, I must admit I often avoid this particular episode because it is SO SAD! This is a fairly accurate representation of the book, because Five Little Pigs does have a somber tone which is kind of unusual for Poirot. He doesn't have Hastings by his side for (mostly unintentional) comic relief, and right from the get go the reader is left with a bit of a lose-lose situation because Caroline Crale is dead so even if she IS innocent, Carla is still left without her parents. That being said, this book has a very compelling ending because you are left both satisfied and unsatisfied, but not necessarily for the reason you think. I shall reveal no more because a) NO SPOILERS! and b) I want you to be so intrigued that you run and pick up a copy of this book right away!

One other interesting note: in Five Little Pigs, Poirot mentions Hawley Harvey Crippen as a real-life example of a murder case involving psychology. I did a little research into this case AND LET ME TELL YOU - this is some truth-is-stranger-than-fiction sort of stuff involving a body under floor boards and a dude fleeing to Canada with his mistress dressed as a little boy and undercover police work, etc. You can read all the fascinating details here.

-A.

But WAIT, there's more! #READALONG 2.0:
Guess what! It's about to be #READALONG time again! We are coming up on one of Agatha's most beloved novels, Murder on the Orient Express, and heartily invite you all to join us as we read it! We will be reading Orient Express starting May 9th, so head out to your local bookstore and nab a copy ASAP so you'll be ready to read along with us (and finish the last page by May 14)! Oh, and there just might be another #giveaway on the horizon as well…stay tuned for details!