 |
| (Image from original UK cover) |
“One cannot be interested in crime without being interested in psychology. It is not the mere act of killing, it is what lies behind it that appeals to the expert.” - Hercule Poirot, Lord Edgware Dies
The Sum of It:
Audrey and I are both reading books this week written after 1932, and both of us have agreed that Agatha has really hit her stride by this point. This book is a Poirot mystery, published in the US as Thirteen at Dinner, and at this point Agatha seems to have abandoned the idea of Poirot as a retiree and just gone ahead letting him solve mysteries. There's also not much mention at all of Hastings' wife, although at some point he mentions a trip back to the Argentine (where their ranch is located).
As always there are a number of characters, the first of whom we meet in the book's introductory scene, an American comic actress named Carlotta Adams, whose "mobile features" and talent for mimicry lead her to impersonate another famous American actress, Miss Jane Wilkinson/Lady Edgware, as a part of her stage act. Hastings and Poirot happen to attend a Carlotta Adams show at the same time as said Miss Wilkinson, and chat with her, a fellow American film star with dashing good looks, Bryan Martin, Miss Adams, and her drunken and broke friend, Ronald Marsh (Miss Wilkinson's stepson and heir to Lord Edgware), at dinner. During this chat, the beautiful and seemingly dim Miss Wilkinson (bit of a Marilyn Monroe type) insists she must talk to Poirot about how she simply MUST get ride of her evil old husband, Lord Edgware, on account of wanting to marry a different and younger lord. She asks Poirot to go reason with evil Lord Edgware about granting her a divorce, which he and Hastings do with a surprising result, only to find out that later that same day Lord Edgware has been #MURDERED with a sharp stab to the medula oblongata shortly after the house staff claim a woman matching Lady Edgware/Miss Wilkinson's description marched proudly into the house!
Suddenly, poor broke Ronald Marsh is the new Lord Edgware #reversaloffortune, Lord Edgware's nervous, pale daughter Geraldine is free of her tormentor, Jane Wilkinson is free to marry again, and people who dislike Jane (aka her future mother-in-law who doesn't want this dim bulb marrying her scholarly only son, aggrieved lovers, and lovers of aggrieved lovers) rejoice in seeing her as suspect numero uno. BUT WHO ACTUALLY DUNNIT?? And who commits the subsequent other murders?? In this glorious example of Agatha's cleverness, one (once again #brokenrecord) never knows til quite the very end. We'll just say that the solution to the mysteries has to do with Paris (the Greek, not the French capital/city of love) and Paris (the French capital/city of love, not the Greek) #OOOHLALA!
The YOA Treatment:
Due to a momentary weakness of Amazon ordering skills, my copy of this book has not yet arrived at my house (let this be a warning to us all: always make sure you're shipping PRIME). This has resulted in somewhat unconventional digesting of this story on my part, which was actually kind of delightful. I read the first 20 or so chapters on some shady website online where every esteemed word of Lady Agatha was contrasted with dubious ads for magical age-erasing potions (#meaculpa, I justified this by telling myself that I did in fact pay for a copy of the book). However the last 11 or so chapters were not available from said shady website, so I used a free trial from #audible to listen to those as narrated by #DARLINGHUGHFRASER and BOY was that great. For reals, I definitely recommend the audiobooks of Agatha, especially as long as they are narrated by Hugh Fraser (aka TV's Hastings) who in addition to being the Hastings we all know and love the most is truly terrific at doing all the voices, from Scottish lads to Poirot to the indignant Inspector Japp (back again!).
Anyhow, that said, I think my enjoyment of this book was enhanced by listening to at least part of it as an audiobook, which I can never decide is cheating or not when it comes to reading. However, this is an excellent Agatha specimen. I'm keeping a mental list of Agathas that I plan to recommend to friends who are interested in getting started (Secret of Chimneys, Secret Adversary, Seven Dials, Man in the Brown Suit, voila no longer a mental list) and I am totes adding this one to it. The pacing is quick, the characters clear, as are the various potential motives, and the plot trips along compellingly as narrated by Hastings. Some of the others, despite being well done of course, are a bit slower, and I find its the fast-paced ones I enjoy most.
The final chapter of the book (NO SKIPPING AHEAD!) is a confession in the killer's own words, in the interest of having their cleverness preserved for posterity (including a stated disappointment that hangings are no longer public #goodlord). The killer is revealed to be a person in possession of cunning and vanity, and completely lacking in remorse or conscience. Poirot always works out his cases with the use of order and method, and searches for the rhyme and reason behind each crime. In this one he is repeatedly frustrated with himself for picking up a couple wrong rhymes before he lands on the right one, at which point he is startled by the psychosis of the murderer, quite the cool customer with purely selfish motives. As a case that even had the brilliant Poirot stumped most of the time, this book is as good as it gets.
-E.
