Conferences! Stockings! Fox Hunts!: The ABC Murders | 1936

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"A madman, mon ami, is to be taken seriously. A madman is a very dangerous thing." -Hercule Poirot, The ABC Murders, p. 5

The Sum of It:
This week, we present to you, dear readers, our recap of what has become one of our favorite #DameAgatha novels: The ABC Murders. We begin with the dynamic duo of Poirot and Hastings reunited again (it seems like Agatha decided these two just weren't as great without each other and has decided to keep them together #4eva). Poirot is dying his hair (#scandal!) and Hastings pretends to be shocked, but has also adopted the combover technique for his own sparse locks. Having tried retirement and not liking it too much (since he always gets pulled into solving murders anyway), Poirot is back in London and looking for the cream of the crop of crime to solve. Just such a crime comes his way in the form of a mysterious letter announcing a murderer's intention to commit a crime in the town of Andover in a few days. Poirot is skeptical of the taunting note because there is something that just doesn't seem right to him about the whole thing. But sure enough, the appointed day rolls around and an elderly shopkeeper named Ascher is found #coshed with an ABC railway guide near her body! The game is afoot!

Before long Poirot is receiving more letters with dates and locations of future murders and they are all in a sinister pattern following the alphabet (#clever). Betty Barnard is belt-strangled in Bexhill! Sir Carmichael Clarke is #coshed in Churston! (and so forth). At each location an ABC railway guide is found, reinforcing the murderer's devious plan to work his or her way through the alphabet of towns in England. (Also causing the question to be asked "uh...what's gonna happen when they get to the letter X?" #goodquestion). Poirot becomes more and more frustrated as he attempts to get one step ahead of the killer, and yet the bodies keep piling up. Along the way, he collects a legion of family members of the victims who attempt to make sense of the crime, and do their part to stop the murders. Just when you think Agatha has given you some resolution (#ABC), SHE DOES THE UNTHINKABLE! Another twist! And a better ending than you could have hoped for. This is truly one of Agatha's most ingenious plots, and deserves to be in the top "To-Reads" for anyone looking to read more of the Queen of Crime.

A Brief List of Hilarities:
This recap would not be complete without noting some truly excellent Poirot & Hastings moments found in The ABC Murders:
>At one point, Poirot teases Hastings about his general extreme love of women by singing (in what appears to be a fairly grating manner) #hastingsinlove #poirotthesinger
>Poirot also suggests that Hastings should think about joining a nudist colony (Hastings is not amused).
>Hastings, trying to be considerate of Poirot's extreme need to "think things over" aka engage the Little Grey Cells! that he (Hastings) literally falls asleep rather that disturb his friend (#friendshipgoals).
>In the end, Poirot must admit that, though his friend Hastings has a rather basic mind, he is the Belgian's good luck charm once again! A stray, obvious observance from Hastings ultimately leads Poirot to solve the crime.

The YOA Treatment:
It's interesting to think in today's society full of TV show, book, and real life serial killers, that the notion of such a murderer was not common when The ABC Murders was written. agathachristie.com notes that, at the time of ABC's publication, the term "serial killer" was not even yet coined! It is this serial killer plot that caused critics at the time of its publication to initially question the book's significance, and yet ultimately to hail its brilliance. Edward Powys Mathers asked himself in a 1936 review: "Is Agatha Christie going to let me down? Does she think she can give us this kind of tale as a detective story and get away with it?" Of course she isn't and IS and even Eddie PM must admit that "Ingenuity...is a mild term for Mrs. Christie's gift."

ANNOUNCEMENT: #Readalong! | Peril at End House

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Dear Readers,

We are so very excited to be nearing the end of our second month of The Year of Agatha (#timeflies #marchmadness #forgetbasketball #justreadagatha)! Thanks in part to the interest several of you have expressed, one thing we want to sprinkle throughout this year is an opportunity for all of you to join us in reading Agatha. As such, we are so pumped to announce that we are planning to have some read along activities (MORE DETAILS TO COME SO STAY TUNED) as we read Peril at End House [aka P@EH] starting the week of March 20th.

P@EH features, in our opinion, one of Agatha's most clever plot lines (according to agathachristie.com, the 1932 New York Times Book Review called it "diabolically clever"), as well as some of our favorite Agatha characters (Poirot! Hastings! Ladies for Hastings to Fall in Love With!, etc.) So prepare to join in on the fun! Dust off your own copy of P@EH (or pop over to your local bookstore or Amazon) and check back in over the next few weeks for more read along details!

-A. & E.

All the Cloaks and All the Daggers: The Big Four | 1927

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"It is a duel to the death, mon ami. You and I on the one side, the Big Four on the other. They have won the first trick; but they have failed in their plan to get me out of the way, and in the future they have to reckon with Hercule Poirot!" - The Big Four, p. 16

The Sum of It:

So you know that thing where you go to see the latest James Bond movie and it's all spy-ish and everyone is constantly dressed in evening wear and you're like yeah, I could be a spy? Well it seems like maybe Agatha Christie had that same feeling right before writing The Big Four. This third Agatha novel featuring Hercule Poirot and his ever faithful sidekick, Arthur Hastings, takes the air of adventure we were introduced to in The Secret Adversary to a WHOLE NEW LEVEL. I mean, look at the different cover art this book has had over the years - they are very Bond-esque.

   

(images found here, here, and here)

The Big Four begins with a sort of Gift of the Magi situation with fairly-newly-married Hastings making the long journey back to England from The Argentine (where apparently he has turned cattle farmer since the end of The Murder on the Links). He is super stoked to surprise his bestie, and shows up at Poirot's door only to see a pile of suitcases because OF COURSE Poirot was already on his way to South America to visit Hastings AT THE SAME TIME. Hastings is like okay great to let's just hang in England because I'm already here, but Poirot is like nope, sorry I just got offered an enormous amount of money by an American bajillionaire to go and investigate some "hocus pocus" in Rio so how about you drop me off at the station. However, as they are literally walking out the door for the train station, a man staggers into Poirot's apartment, scribbles the number 4 all over some paper, and then promptly DIES. (Hastings suggests perhaps he has "brain fever" - Poirot says uh no, you are not a doctor, Hastings.)

Thus begins a truly epic 198 pages of twists and turns as Poirot and Hastings literally put themselves in harm's way to get to the bottom of an international crime ring known as the Big Four. This book reads almost like a collection of mini cases with Poirot and Hastings investigating basically half a dozen murders, all seemingly unconnected...until Poirot finds that one little clue that links the death to the mysterious Big Four. 

Winners:

Stunts: In The Big Four, Poirot and Hastings jump out of a moving train, get into fist fights with thugs, are kidnapped NUMEROUS times, and escape from a country home by climbing down ivy from an upstairs window! 

Hastings: While still self-admittedly several steps behind Poirot for most of the book, Hastings does have a few shining moments, even receiving some kudos from Poirot himself: "How marvelous is my friend Hastings! He knows everything -- but everything! How do they say -- Inquire Within Upon Everything. That is my friend Hastings."

Losers:

English Coffee: Apparently, it is not to Poirot's liking. "Only in England is the coffee so atrocious. On the continent they understand how important it is for the digestion that it should be properly made."

#hastingsinlove: Poor Hastings. Even happily married, he can't help himself wistfully remarking how pretty girls are (sometimes based solely on their name), particularly if their hair is a "delicate shade of auburn." Poirot shamelessly calls him out: "Always looking for romance! You are incorrigible!"

The YOA Treatment:

Poirot makes a thoughtful observation about his friend Hastings in this book: "Your narrative style is masterly. I say to myself, it is a book that talks, not my friend Hastings." Hastings is our window into Poirot's world, giving the reader the perfect person to connect with, for not all of us possess the little grey cells of the Hercule Poirot! 

Without Hastings, Poirot's remarkable genius might feel too unrealistic, too uncanny to make much sense. But Hastings offers the foil that both reveals Poirot's brilliance and ensures that the reader doesn't feel alone in being a step or two behind the best. 

Agatha is obviously not the only mystery writer to employ the not-as-clever-but-good-at-writing-things-down friend as a narrator. Another obvious example is Dr. John Watson's narration of the Sherlock Holmes cases. Like Hastings, Dr. Watson serves as a conduit for the eccentric Holmes's methods to the reader, giving us the facts, and yet also not afraid to pose questions to the famous sleuth, so that both companion and reader can keep up. In her autobiography, Agatha notes the influence of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle as she created her own characters and story structures, and in Hastings is perhaps the clearest example. Seeing Poirot's cases through Hastings's eyes is a delight, not only because of the often hilarious exchanges between these two unlikely friends, but also because Hastings's reactions as events unfold are our reactions, particularly in The Big Four, where Poirot is often keeping Hastings in the dark of his clever plans to outwit the villains. 

-A.

Less Golf Than You'd Think: The Murder on the Links | 1923

"The trained observer, the expert, without doubt he is useful! But the others, the Hercules Poirots, they are above the experts! To them the experts bring the facts, their business is the method of the crime, its logical deduction, the proper sequence and order of the facts; above all, the true psychology of the case." - The Murder on the Links, p. 14

The Sum of it All:

This, Agatha's third published book, begins with Hastings (Poirot's sidekick, you'll remember from Styles) in his natural habitat: falling in love with some random girl he's known for five minutes. Not only does she literally appear out of nowhere, but she claims to be an actress, Hastings criticizes her cosmetics, she tells him her temper has gotten her into trouble in the past, and she refuses to tell him her real name and tells him to call her Cinderella. So I mean the falling in love was a foregone conclusion in Hastings' case. (They meet again later and Hastings and Poirot have the following exchange: "Journeys end in lovers' meetings is not that the saying?" "Don't be an ass, Poirot." "Yesterday it was Mademoiselle Daubreuil, today it is Mademoiselle--Cinderella! Decidedly you have the heart of a Turk, Hastings! You should establish a harem!" #mocking #hastingsinlove)

Anyhow, he meets her on his way to London from France, and when he gets there, his now roommate Papa Poirot is bemoaning his toast ("'This piece of toast, you remark him not? Is it square? No. Is it a triangle? Again no. Is it even round? No. Is it of any shape remotely pleasing to the eye? What symmetry have we here? None.' 'It's cut from a cottage loaf,' I explained soothingly") as well as the boring nature of his recent detective cases ("In verity I am reduced to recovering lost lap-dogs for fashionable ladies!"). This problem is soon alleviated by the receipt of a urgent letter from an M. Renauld in France stating that he fears he is in danger and needs Poirot to come STAT. So they go. 

ALAS they are too late and when they get there they find that M. Renauld is already MURDERED via a knife in the back, wearing his underclothes and a coat that's too long for him, laying in a pre-dug grave in the midst of a golf course in development next to his Villa. But why is he in his underclothes and why is the door to his house standing open, his wife inside all bound and gagged, telling a wild story about two Chileans with beards? Unfortunately, the French police are already on it, and with them, their star detective, Giraud, who quickly becomes Poirot's nemesis due to his more observational crime solving methods: "Here we have a true clue--a psychological clue. You may know all about cigarettes and match ends, M. Giraud, but I, Hercule Poirot, know the mind of man!"

We also find the recurring theme of the presence of a SURPRISE second will, which switches all the money to Renauld's wife, leaving a son out in the cold. Speaking of the son, he turns up claiming to have been in a totally different city waiting on a ship to South America upon telegramed orders from his Pa, returning when his ship was cancelled...a likely story? He and his father had a heated blow-up the day of his dad's death, all about a beautiful young lady down the lane about whom his dad said NO DICE re: marriage. Poirot meets the young lady and her mother who reminds Poirot of a crime popular in the news long ago. When a second body turns up, things get even more interesting. 

This is the part where I stop explaining the plot because part of the goal here is for you guys, our small but faithful (one hopes) cadre of readers to be inspired by our tantalizing leads and pick up a copy of the book for your own enjoyment! Needless to say, this one has more than one significant twist at the end, and you'll think you have it figured out more than once before it's all over (literally, one of my margin notes is "Whaaaaaat!").

Simon Baker owes it all to Agatha, probably.

The YOA Treatment: 

With this second Poirot book, Agatha makes a point of establishing the difference between him and the more "conventional" detective, a contrast she casts in the form of Giraud. Giraud is showier than Poirot, crawling about on the ground looking for shoe-prints and distinguishing South American matches. Hastings is disappointed in Poirot for letting this guy seemingly get the jump on him constantly with his quickly drawn conclusions, but Poirot is unruffled. 

"He builds a case, as a beaver builds a dam, with a fatiguing industry. But he will not have looked for the things I am seeking--in all probability he would not have seen their importance if they stared him in the face." 

The police, doctors, and M. Giraud move happily along, taking each evident clue at face value, and drawing rapid conclusions, while we see that Poirot is willing to look deeply at each piece of evidence and examine them from multiple angles. While Poirot is methodical always in his thinking, taking each clue and piece of evidence and considering how it fits with the others, then forming a narrative, we see the other detective using initial evidence to form a narrative, and then ditching anything that doesn't fit. Says Poirot, "Always the facts must be twisted to fit the theory! Did not Giraud find the traces of two persons, a man and a woman, in the shed? And how does that fit in with his reconstruction of the case? I will tell you--it does not fit in, and so we shall hear no more of them!"

This contrasting style of detecting remains present in today's popular detective realm, whether we're looking at the standard (yet great, nobody's tryin' to denegrate the bom-bom) crime procedurals of the Law & Order empire, where clue after clue leads Det. Olivia Benson to the real bad guy, or the clever, intuition based skills of crime solvers like Patrick Jane's Mentalist or Shawn Spencer on Psych. While Agatha clearly chose early on which style she felt was more compelling, the constant contrast of Poirot's "little grey cells" (not to mention Tommy & Tuppence's detecting which is based mainly on what they've read in fiction, or Miss Marple whose intuitive-little-old-lady act surprises folks every time) and the traditional police work of detectives like Giraud or Inspector Japp make every one of these stories more rich.

- E.