#57 – Dead Man’s Folly

Mrs Oliver is organising a Murder Hunt at the Nasse House summer fête. She has a feeling that something is not quite right and calls Hercule Poirot down to investigate. He finds nothing amiss until the victim of the game is murdered in the same way as Mrs Oliver’s story and another person has disappeared.

This is one of Christie’s best hooks and I was very excited to read it first time round and remember being quite disappointed but on re-reading I’m not sure why. It’s not great but it’s not bad.

There is a nice episode where Inspector Bland proves that murder could be done in front of hundreds of onlookers with no suspicion raised.

The pleasure and hilarity of the summer fête is in sharp contrast to a callous killer, and sadly it is not just they who are guilty of a terrible crime. After the unusual setting for last month’s Hickory Dickory Dock, this is a welcome return to a traditional Christie scene.

Recurring character development

Hercule Poirot

Has moved since “One, Two, Buckle My Shoe” as his telephone number is now Trafalgar 8137.

Takes his tea with very little milk and four lumps of sugar. Opts to have a creamcake rather than sandwiches.

Never risks going out in the evening air with an uncovered head.

Is a friend of the Eliots, who are known to Mrs Masterman.

Met Inspector Bland fifteen years ago when the policeman was a sergeant in an unrecorded case.

Enjoys doing jigsaws.

Mrs Oliver

Bases her book “The Woman in the Wood” on the outline of the Murder Hunt.

Signs of the Times

Sir George owns a large Humber saloon. Thomas Humber (1841-1910) designed bicycles and his name was given to a limited company that also started to manufacture cars. By 1960 they had an annual production of over 200,000 but the business was undercapitalised and was sold to the Chrysler Corporation in 1967.

There is a Youth Hostel near to Nasse House. The British Youth Hostels Association was formed in 1930 but shortly split into separate associations for England & Wales, Scotland, and Northern Ireland. By the end of 1931 there were 60 hostels, with a flat charge of one shilling per night. In the book guests may only stay for up to two nights.

Captain Warburton says that he will go and talk to the people responsible for the tea tent “like a Dutch uncle”. This means in a harsh or admonitory manner; the opposite of the avuncular manner expected of an uncle. During the Anglo-Dutch Wars of the 17th century, “Dutch” was added as a pejorative prefix to a number of words to change the meaning e.g. Dutch courage (bravery induced by alcohol), Dutch wife (prostitute) and even Dutch nightingale (frog).

The Spenser quote “Sleep after toyle, port after stormie seas…” is from Book One of “The Faerie Queene” (1590).

Poirot wins a large Kewpie doll at the hoop-la. He thinks it is horrible and gives it to a young girl. Rose O’Neill (1874-1944) created these baby cupid characters for a comic strip in 1909 and started making them as paper dolls. In 1912 they started to be made from bisque in Germany. Poirot was right – they are hideous.

One of the Tucker boys is doing his National Service. The National Service Act 1948 required all young men aged 17-21 to serve for 18 months in the Armed Forces and then remain on the reserve list for 4 years. Calls ups ended at the end of 1960 with the last men serving leaving in 1963.

Lady Stubbs is described as being “dressed up like a mannequin of Jacques Fath or Christian Dior”. Fath (1912-54) and Dior (1905-57) along with Pierre Balmain (1914-82) are considered the three dominant influences on post-WWII fashion, although if I’m anything to go by only Dior has remained in the public consciousness.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

#57 – Dead Man’s Folly – WITH SPOILERS

Mrs Oliver is organising a Murder Hunt at the Nasse House summer fête. She has a feeling that something is not quite right and calls Hercule Poirot down to investigate. He finds nothing amiss until the victim of the game is murdered in the same way as Mrs Oliver’s story and another person has disappeared.

This is one of Christie’s best hooks and I was very excited to read it first time round and remember being quite disappointed but on re-reading I’m not sure why. It’s not great but it’s not bad.

There is a nice episode where Inspector Bland proves that murder could be done in front of hundreds of onlookers with no suspicion raised.

The pleasure and hilarity of the summer fête is in sharp contrast to a callous killer, and sadly it is not just they who are guilty of a terrible crime. After the unusual setting for last month’s Hickory Dickory Dock, this is a welcome return to a traditional Christie scene.

Recurring character development

Hercule Poirot

Has moved since “One, Two, Buckle My Shoe” as his telephone number is now Trafalgar 8137.

Takes his tea with very little milk and four lumps of sugar. Opts to have a creamcake rather than sandwiches.

Never risks going out in the evening air with an uncovered head.

Is a friend of the Eliots, who are known to Mrs Masterman.

Met Inspector Bland fifteen years ago when the policeman was a sergeant in an unrecorded case.

Enjoys doing jigsaws.

Mrs Oliver

Bases her book “The Woman in the Wood” on the outline of the Murder Hunt.

Signs of the Times

Sir George owns a large Humber saloon. Thomas Humber (1841-1910) designed bicycles and his name was given to a limited company that also started to manufacture cars. By 1960 they had an annual production of over 200,000 but the business was undercapitalised and was sold to the Chrysler Corporation in 1967.

There is a Youth Hostel near to Nasse House. The British Youth Hostels Association was formed in 1930 but shortly split into separate associations for England & Wales, Scotland, and Northern Ireland. By the end of 1931 there were 60 hostels, with a flat charge of one shilling per night. In the book guests may only stay for up to two nights.

Captain Warburton says that he will go and talk to the people responsible for the tea tent “like a Dutch uncle”. This means in a harsh or admonitory manner; the opposite of the avuncular manner expected of an uncle. During the Anglo-Dutch Wars of the 17th century, “Dutch” was added as a pejorative prefix to a number of words to change the meaning e.g. Dutch courage (bravery induced by alcohol), Dutch wife (prostitute) and even Dutch nightingale (frog).

The Spenser quote “Sleep after toyle, port after stormie seas…” is from Book One of “The Faerie Queene” (1590).

Poirot wins a large Kewpie doll at the hoop-la. He thinks it is horrible and gives it to a young girl. Rose O’Neill (1874-1944) created these baby cupid characters for a comic strip in 1909 and started making them as paper dolls. In 1912 they started to be made from bisque in Germany. Poirot was right – they are hideous.

One of the Tucker boys is doing his National Service. The National Service Act 1948 required all young men aged 17-21 to serve for 18 months in the Armed Forces and then remain on the reserve list for 4 years. Calls ups ended at the end of 1960 with the last men serving leaving in 1963.

Lady Stubbs is described as being “dressed up like a mannequin of Jacques Fath or Christian Dior”. Fath (1912-54) and Dior (1905-57) along with Pierre Balmain (1914-82) are considered the three dominant influences on post-WWII fashion, although if I’m anything to go by only Dior has remained in the public consciousness.

SPOILERS

We are given a number of hints that Sir George is guilty but this is obfuscated by Poirot’s feeling that, although he would normally suspect the husband in a case of uxoricide, he is devoted to his wife. Which of course he is – but it isn’t this wife that he has murdered!

We are directed to Sir George initially because it is the country squire who commits the murder in Mrs Oliver’s game.

The reasons for the murder are also given amongst the possible motives listed of what Marlene might have seen: someone burying a body or recognising that someone is not who they say they are –  in this case neither George nor Hattie is the genuine article.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Turning Chinese #7: Death in the House of Rain (2006) written and translated by Szu-Yen Lin

Another Oriental locked room mystery, another uniquely shaped house, this time in the shape of the Chinese character for rain.

A year ago the owner, Jingfu Bai, his wife and their daughter, were all brutally killed. The man seen hurrying from the scene took his own life whilst in police custody and the case was closed. But on the anniversary of the triple-tragedy Death returns once more to the House of Rain.

Jingfu’s brother, Renze has taken possession of the palatial country house – it contains, amongst other things, a piano room, a movie room, badminton hall, tennis court and probably room for a pony as well (the three-storey floor plan is an aficianado’s dream) – and has invited Ruoping Lin to re-open the investigation. His daughter, Lingsha, has university friends staying for the weekend and one by one they start to die in violent and impossible ways.

This is another excellent story with a beautiful piece of cluing which in hindsight is so obvious but I completely overlooked it at the time. The identity of the killer is culturally appropriate although I can see that some could be disappointed. The characters do act as stupidly as if they were in  a horror movie – leaving their bedrooms alone on the slightest provocation: I know you are temporarily cut-off from the outside world, but stock up from the kitchen and lock yourself in your room until the police do arrive – but then this is a staple of crime fiction from the Golden Age. The weekend houseparty always continues regardless of the fact that a murder has been committed.

Detailed Spoilers (highlight to read): I’m sure the basic premise has been used elsewhere – I’ve just never come across it before and I didn’t pick up on it even though I’d just read a completely different book where a woman was died when her feet were cut off by a lift – but the way that Lin uses it to explain an impossible beheading, strangling, fall from nowhere, a faked suicide, and then in the epilogue relates it back to the original case, is so wonderfully thorough. And even the title is fairplay – we’re primarily not dealing with murder here, just death, although our (incorrect) assumption is that murder is what has taken place.

Previous posts in this series:

The Tokyo Zodiac Murders by Soji Shimada

The Moai Island Puzzle by Alice Arisugawa

The Honjin Murders by Seishi Yokomizo

Murder in the Crooked House by Soji Shimada

The Inugami Curse by Seishi Yokomizo

The 8 Mansion Murders by Takemaru Abiko