Wuff, Wuff!: Dumb Witness | 1937

(image from here)

"'Oh Poirot,' I cried. 'It can't be natural death! It's got to be murder!'

'Oh la la, we seem to have changed places, you and I.'" 

Dumb Witness, p. 220

The Sum of It:

Our story this week begins (quite literally!) with a death: that of Ms. Emily Arundell. Emily Arundell is a secretly-uber-wealthy spinster woman with many needy nieces and nephews, all of whom decide Easter weekend is the perfect time for a family reunion at which to beg Aunt Emily for some of her money. During said holiday weekend, Emily falls down the stairs in the nighttime, an incident which is unfortunately blamed on her darling dog Bob and his allegedly left upon the stairs ball! But is that really what happened? Ms. Arundell doesn't think so and writes a letter to Poirot about her concerns, a letter which she hides from her nosy maidservants tucked away in her writing-case (#snailmail). ALAS, she turns up dead some weeks later and her maidservant mournfully finds the unsent letter and says "Oh I'll be a good servant and send this for my poor dead mistress" (of course not knowing who Poirot is and why Emily Arundell sent him a letter). Poirot receives said letter many weeks after Ms. Arundell initially writes it, a fact which intrigues him instantly.

Poirot and Hastings, under the guise of being a Mr. Parotti & Plus One who are alternately researching for a book on the super en vogue topic of lesser known generals in the Indian Munity (#someonesgottadoit), looking to buy some real estate in the countryside, or having vague liver diseases, scour the small village of Market Basing for clues of the cause of Emily Arundel's eventual demise. They finally dispense with the theatrics (after Hastings starts feeling bad about the web of lies and also people find out it's THE Hercule Poirot and put two and two together) and investigate the case FOR REALZ. After many interviews with Emily Arundell's frankly super shady relatives Theresa, Charles, and Bella (#moneygrubbers), as well as her household staff, occult-loving neighbors, and recently-ish acquired paid companion (and soul recipient of Emily's VAST fortune), Miss Lawson, Poirot and Hastings sit back and think about the facts they have gathered and try to piece together whether they are dealing with a natural liver-failure death or #MURDER.

The YOA Treatment:

We were a bit saddened to realize that Dumb Witness is the penultimate Poirot book featuring Hastings as a narrator/sidekick/BFF! As always, their banter is really terrific in this book. Here are some of our favorite moments:

"Dear me," I complained. "There is something about this place that makes me feel extremely conspicuous. As for you, Poirot, you look positively exotic."

"You think it is noticed that I am a foreigner—yes?"

"The fact cries aloud to heaven," I assured him.

"And yet my clothes are made by an English tailor," mused Poirot.

(Chapter 6)

"Poirot," I said. "Have we got to listen at doors?"

"Calm yourself, my friend. It was only I who listened! It was not you who put your ear to the crack. On the contrary, you stood bolt upright like a soldier."

(Chapter 15)

We also enjoyed seeing Agatha's love for dogs shine from her adorable character, Bob the dog. Agatha has sprinkled a bit of Bob "dialogue" throughout the book and the result is so charming that even anti-pet Poirot is won over:

"Good watchdog, aren't I? he seemed to be saying. "Don't mind me! This is just my fun! My duty too, of course. Just have to let 'em known there's a dog about the place! Deadly dull morning. Quite a blessing to have something to do. Coming into our place? Hope so. It's durned dull. I could do with a little conversation."

"Hullo, old man," I said and shoved forward a fist.

Craning his neck through the railings he sniffed suspiciously, then gently wagged his tail, uttering a few, short, staccato barks.

"Not been properly introduced, of course, have to keep this up! But I see you know the proper advances to make."

"Good old boy," I said.

"Wuff," said the terrier amiably.

(Chapter 6)

David Suchet also writes in his memoir, Poirot and Me, about being "captivated" by Bob the dog on the set of the film Dumb Witness (shown in photo below played by the adorable terrier named Snubby!)

(image from here)

Overall, we came away from Dumb Witness appreciating it as a rather classic-feeling Christie. While the plot and character development didn't really stand out, the whimsical Bob and delightful Poirot/Hastings dynamic we know and love made for an enjoyable read.

-A. & E.

Agatha's Dearest Companion

Hello dear readers!

This week we are making our way through Dumb Witness (stay tuned early next week for our recap and review!) For those of you not familiar with this story, it includes a terrifically endearing character in Bob the dog, the family pet of one of Poirot's clients. In our Agatha studies this year, we have enjoyed learning about her personal love of dogs - most particularly her own pets throughout her lifetime. In fact, she dedicated Dumb Witness to one of her favorites, inscribing:

To

Dear Peter,

Most Faithful of Friends

and Dearest of Companions,

A Dog in a Thousand

You can learn more about Agatha's enchanting doggie friends in this wonderful video from Agatha Christie Trust in their The Essence of Agatha Christie series!

Have a lovely weekend, one and all!

-A. & E.

2016: The Year of Agatha

Hi, we’re Audrey and Emily. The Year of Agatha is a project we conceived via text message in 2015 while simultaneously watching episodes of Marple in our respective homes. Agatha Christie has been one of the best known and best loved masters of mystery for almost 100 years. Since we both admit to being occasionally teased, nay, mocked for our devotion to almost century-old British mysteries, we wanted to explore what it is that makes her stories connect just as much with millennials as they did with the post-WWI readers who were her contemporaries.

To get ready for the project, we read Agatha’s self-titled autobiography to learn a little more about her life and her personality. Over the course of 2016, we’ll be reading all of Agatha’s mystery novels -- some we’ll divide and conquer and some we’ll team up on, like Hastings and Poirot (but with a less marked gap in intelligence). We’ll be documenting our thoughts on themes, plots and characters drawn from real life, whether Tommy & Tuppence are basically millennials, the number of times Hastings totally misses the boat, favorite side characters, the poor souls who find the bodies and whether they are similar to Law & Order cold-opens, and much more. On Saturdays and Mondays, we’ll provide a quick overview of each book, accompanied by our super-erudite analysis, and the occasional mood board of things we think Tuppence might buy while online shopping.

Audrey (aka Clawdrey), tell us about your life-long interest in Agatha and the inspiration for this project.
I grew up in a tiny town in the middle of nowhere Michigan which, bizarrely, had a fantastically extensive public library. One summer I discovered the Agatha Christie bookcase way in the back of that little library. Several big shelves housed her complete works, and I devoured each one in rapid succession. I can vividly remember reading Peril at End House in one sitting and coming to the end and being so excited that the Queen of Crime had dozens more of these glorious mysteries for me to read. My grandma would tape Masterpiece Mystery episodes of Poirot for me and I would watch them over and over until the tapes nearly wore out. Agatha Christie stories give me such a happy nostalgic feeling and I can't wait to relive all the mysterious memories with Emily this year!

Emily, why don’t you tell us about how you got into Agatha?

As a preteen, I also picked up a number of our lady’s greatest hits in my regular summertime library runs, familiarizing myself with some of the most well known mysteries in the canon, like And Then There Were None and Dumb Witness. Once I became friends with Audrey and we realized that we basically like 95% of the exact same things, she was shocked to realize that I had never watched David Suchet’s long-running BBC Poirot series, so naturally I watched them (as well as Marple) and of course became a devotee, reviving my interest in Agatha. Since then I’ve read a few more of the books, seen the Doctor Who where Agatha Christie helps the Doctor save everyone from a giant wasp alien, and gotten more curious about Mrs. Christie herself. When Audrey suggested we read all the books as a joint project, I was pumped to get to know Agatha and her stories better.

So if you’re out there, thanks for joining us! Let us know when we’re reading one of your favorites, share your theories about the stories, and discuss how all the Girl on the Train fans have Agatha to thank.

Tune in after January 9 for our first book post, a joint review from both of us on Agatha’s first two books, The Mysterious Affair at Styles and The Secret Adversary.