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"I saw a murder once," said Joyce.
"Don't be silly, Joyce," said Miss Whitaker, the schoolteacher.
"I did," said Joyce.
"Did you really?" asked Cathie, gazing at Joyce with wide eyes. "Really and truly saw a murder?"
"Of course she didn't," said Mrs. Drake. "Don't say silly things, Joyce."
"I did see a murder," said Joyce. "I did. I did. I did."
-Hallowe'en Party, p. 14-15
The Sum of It:
I present to you the first of two #spookystories this weekend! Our first tale starts on a dark and stormy (well, maybe not specifically stormy...) night in the village of Woodleigh Common. Mrs. Ariadne Oliver is visiting a pal she met on a cruise (#cruisepals #shuffleboard), Judith Butler, and is quasi-helping out at a Halloween party for the local kids. Mrs. Oliver is sitting around, kinda just enjoying being a resident celebrity, and observing the party prep. In what appears to be an attempt to impress Mrs. Oliver, young party attendee Joyce Reynolds blurts out that she has seen a murder once. Everyone rolls their eyes and says don't be ridiculous, Joyce, that's obvi not true. Joyce keeps insisting she has seen a murder based on the fact that she didn't realize it was a murder at the time, but now that she's older, she gets that it was. More eye rolls commence, and then everyone continues going about their Halloween business. It seems like a pretty enjoyable party with treats and games and a local lady who dresses up as a witch. However, the evening turns truly sinister when young Joyce is found #DROWNED in the apple bobbing tub!
Joyce's death appears to be quite definitely #MURDER and Mrs. Oliver is badly shaken up (disturbed to the level of potentially giving up apples! #GASP!) from the whole affair. She rushes to London to visit the only person who can help her: Hercule Poirot. He agrees to look into the case and travels with Mrs. Oliver to Woodleigh Common to get down to investigating. Poirot's first order of business is to see if there was a murder in Woodleigh Common that Joyce could have potentially witnessed. He discovers a great many deaths...but were any of them truly murders?
The YOA Treatment:
I enjoyed this book very much. *(Caveat: I would say a good percentage of my enjoyment came from reading this right before Halloween. Agatha really does her holiday-themed mysteries rather well.)* I adore the Mrs. Oliver/Poirot dynamic, and their relationship works well for this particular story. Mrs. Oliver feels semi-responsible for Joyce's death, as her presence probably sparked Joyce's comments about witnessing a murder, which likely led to her death. It makes sense that Mrs. Oliver would turn to the very best for help to ease her conscience and take the burden of crime solving off her shoulders. The story gets occasionally bogged down in a great deal of time dwelt on sex crimes and the fashion choices of mid-60s teenage boys. There is also a fairly bizarre part that highlights the silliness/sometimes stupidity of tween-aged girls, and yet, I can forgive Agatha all of this because of her use of a single, well-placed clue that got my wheels turning along with Poirot's to ultimately discover Joyce's killer.
-A.
PS: for an absolute treat, I also recommend this young man's Agatha Christie reviews on YouTube. BE WARNED: he does have spoilers. But it's totally worth it.
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