Cloudy with a Chance of Death: Death in the Clouds | 1935

This is the wonderful late 1960's/early 1970's cover art by Tom Adams, found at deliciousdeath.com

"'Supposing,' said Fournier, 'that when traveling in a train you were to pass a house in flames. Everyone's eyes would at once be drawn to the window. Everyone would have his attention fixed on a certain point. A man in such a moment might whip out a dagger and stab a man, and nobody would see him do it.'" - Death in the Clouds, p. 59

The Sum of It:

The summary on the first page of the version I read (which was published in America and sillily called Death in the Air instead of Agatha's original title Death in the Clouds, but we're going with the latter because it's obvi a better title, like why change it? Solve that mystery, Poirot) sets the scene quite dramatically:

"Twenty-one passengers are winging their

way across the English Channel.

Twenty are alive.

One passenger, Madame Giselle --

blackmailer, money-lender, woman with a

past -- is dead. Murdered.

How? Why? By whom?"

OOOOOOoooOOoooh what happened one wonders? Well the facts are basically as outlined there. Poirot is flying back (in an "air liner" which is described to have multiple cars, I honestly don't know what kind of vehicle this is supposed to be. I'm picturing the zeppelin from Indiana Jones but I feel like she would have called it a zeppelin if it was one so who knows, it could just be a regular airplane) to England from France, suffering mightily from an upset "estomac" on account of flying and him being so sensitive. Mid-flight, a woman dies and Poirot discovers a tiny poisoned dart that appears to be the murder weapon! 

The dead lady seems to have had some pretty risky info on lots of important wealthy Brits, including at least one of the plane's passengers. Problem being, the poison dart seems to have been fired from a blowpipe, found shoved behind Poirot's seat. No one takes seriously the idea that he could have been the culprit, but the whole team (which includes good ol' Inspector Japp) are baffled by how anyone could have fired a dart out of a blowpipe without a single person in the...air liner car... noticing #butforreal. 

As he is wont to do, Poirot befriends a young lady traveling in the air liner at the time of the murder, a miss Jane Grey, and engages her and her handsome young dentist friend, whom she met while on vacay and who was also aboard, to help him figure out #whodunnit. He and the other police types, French and English, spend a good deal of time investigating Madame Giselle's potential clients, as well as the passengers on the air liner, but it comes right down to the wire at the end of the story, and takes another #MURDER before Poirot finally figures out how this crime could have been committed, and which of his fellow passengers could have been the culprit.

The YOA Treatment:

So honestly my favorite thing about this one is the fact that this is the Agatha novel that the Doctor and Donna help inspire in the Doctor Who episode "The Unicorn and the Wasp," featuring a fictional version of Agatha Christie and a wasp-like alien. At the end of the episode, the Doctor pulls out a copy of Death in the Clouds, published in the year 5 billion, to demonstrate to Donna that Agatha remains a beloved writer for all of history. (I really love the Doctor Who episodes where they're joined by historical characters, but this one is probably my favorite of that set). 

This particular tale, while of course a quality mystery and an easy read of a sunny afternoon in a hammock, didn't really stand out for me in terms of clever or engaging characters, or even a particularly surprising twist in the culprit reveal. While this is a Poirot book, it is not one of the ones narrated by Hastings. As Audrey noted in a recent post, you do kind of know what you'll get with Hastings' narration in terms of his obtuseness and terrible intuition about cases. I find though that the levity contributed by Hastings tends to add a layer of interest and enjoyment to a Poirot tale, especially if its one without a zingy, bon-mot-dropping, firebrand one-off sidekick #bringbackHastings #ishestillmarried #whathappenedinArgentina. 

On to the next!

-E.