March 2022 – Countdown John's Christie Journal

#76 – Curtain

Poirot invites Hastings to come to Styles Court to go hunting with him for one last time. He has identified five cases of murder, where the obvious suspect was arrested and often found guilty, sometimes even confessing to the deed, and yet he insists that they were in fact all carried out by a mysterious X who is one of their fellow guests. Poirot believes X is planning to kill again and hopes to forestall him but this time he may have met his match.

My somewhat negative thoughts about this book are perhaps rooted in the fact that I foolishly read the end of it for the first time in a secondhand bookshop as it was one that we didn’t have at home. I still have no idea why I did it and I really wish I hadn’t as I never appreciated its undoubted cleverness properly but psychologically I just don’t think things would have happened to these characters as they do.

All in all though, as Poirot’s final case, it is a must read, and a great improvement on some of his later cases.

Recurring Character Development

Hercule Poirot

His health has been deteriorating for some time. He is now crippled by arthritis and has to use a wheelchair.

Captain Hastings

His wife has died.

He has four previously unmentioned children. One boy in the Navy, the other married and running the family ranch in the Argentine. Grace has married a soldier and is living in India. Judith is staying at Styles with her employer and his wife.

Signs of the Times

Written in the early 1940s, although deliberately held back from publication until the 1970s, the story is set maybe at most five years’ after the end of WWII, which causes a problem given that Poirot continued his career well into the 1960s. Maybe this is what happened in a parallel universe?

References to previous works

As on his first visit to Styles, Hastings sees a woman gardening as he enters the grounds, not Evelyn Howard this time, but Mrs Luttrell.

There is a slight spoiler for “The ABC Murders” and slightly more for “Sad Cypress” although Hastings refers to Evelyn Carlisle when he means Elinor Carlisle.

#76 – Curtain – WITH SPOILERS

Unlike my normal spoiler posts, this includes spoilers the whole way through. You have been warned.

Poirot is so adamantly against murder (although he has on occasion let a killer go free or take an easier way out than the hangman’s rope) that I feel he should have been able to find another way. I do however enjoy the fact that Hastings becomes an unwitting killer by turning the revolving bookcase thus switching the poisoned cup back to Mrs Franklin.

All in all though, as Poirot’s final case, it is a must read, and a great improvement on some of his later cases.

Recurring Character Development

Hercule Poirot

His health has been deteriorating for some time. He is now crippled by arthritis and has to use a wheelchair.

Captain Hastings

His wife has died.

Signs of the Times

References to previous works

As on his first visit to Styles, Hastings sees a woman gardening as he enters the grounds, not Evelyn Howard this time, but Mrs Luttrell.

There is a slight spoiler for “The ABC Murders” and slightly more for “Sad Cypress” although Hastings refers to Evelyn Carlisle when he means Elinor Carlisle.

Poirot refers to an Iago type killer in “Peril at End House”:

“Such a jealousy as drove the Iago of your great Shakespeare to one of the cleverest crimes (speaking from the professional point of view) that has ever been committed.”

“Why was it so clever?” I (Hastings) asked, momentarily diverted.

“Parbleu – because he got others to execute it. Imagine a criminal nowadays on whom one was unable to put the handcuffs because he had never done anything himself.”

It is interesting that Poirot uses “when” rather than “if” in “Death in the Clouds” when replying to Inspector Japp who jokes that he is the murderer because the blowpipe was found down the back of his seat: “When I commit a murder it will not be with the arrow poison of the South American Indians.” Later Japp says ” Well, detectives do turn out to be criminals sometimes – in story books.”

They banter again in “Murder in the Mews” which leads Poirot to say: “My dear Japp, if I committed a murder you would not have the least chance of seeing how I set about it! You would not even be aware, probably, that a murder had been committed.”

The short story “The Dream” collected in “The Adventure of the Christmas Pudding” ends thus:

“I wonder of you’ll ever commit a crime, Poirot” said Stillingfleet.” I bet you could get away with it al right. As a matter of fact, it would be too easy for you – I mean the whole thing would be off as definitely too unsporting.”

“That,” said Poirot, “is a typical English idea.”

“The ABC Murders” includes the following prophetic exchange:

“I shouldn’t wonder if you ended by detecting your own death,” said Japp, laughing heartily. “That’s an idea, that is. Ought to be put in a book.”

“It will be Hastings who will have to do that,” said Poirot, twinkling at me.

“Ha, ha! That would be a joke, that would,” laughed Japp.

The Red Death Murders (2022) by Jim Noy

Jim Noy has been reviewing self-published crime fiction for several years on his blog, so in an unusual case of gamekeeper turned poacher, he’s self-published his own novel of murder. Given when he doesn’t like what he’s read he doesn’t pull his punches then either he’s got a lot of nerve or it must be at least better than average.

The story is seen through the eyes of Thomas, the thirteen year old servant of Sir William and Sir Marcus Collingwood. The Red Death, a plague spread through blood to blood contact, has swept the land and whilst the castle was once full of those who had responded to Prince Prospero’s invitation, hoping that he had a plan to combat the sickness, only a handful of men now remain.

Shortly after the Prince has been attacked by a figure dressed as the Red Death who then vanishes into thin air, Thomas finds Sir Oswin Bassingham dead in the locked privy and despite initial appearances it is clearly not suicide. And soon there are signs that despite all their precautions the Red Death has got into the castle.

Noy has taken the environment of Edgar Allan Poe’s short story “The Masque of the Red Death” (included with brief notes at the end as a bonus), expanded it into a world that feels real, chucked in a fistful of GAD tropes (including a six part Challenge to the Reader), given it a good shake and come up with something very clever indeed.

The hexagonal shaped castle deserves a set of floor plans but I completely understand why that wasn’t possible and whilst I’m fairly sure I understand the method used for the locked lavatory murder I’d like to see a YouTube video showing it actually happening, which from someone who experimented on “The Ten Teacups” shouldn’t be too much of a stretch, surely?

But these are minor quibbles and to conclude I am more than happy to say that it stands up to anything else I’ve read so far this year (including Brand, Carr, Christie, and Gardner) and I can’t recommend it highly enough. You won’t be disappointed.

Maigret’s World (2017) by Muriel Wenger and Stephen Trussel

Having read through the complete Penguin re-translation of the 75 Maigret novels it was inevitable that I would buy this book at some time. The following is what I took from it:

The very first point considered by the book is what is Maigret’s first name? Jules is the answer – except it isn’t. In “Lock No. 1” it is given as Joseph and the subject never comes up again until “Maigret’s First Case” when he becomes Jules. I assumed that in the new Penguin editions this would have been corrected but I was wrong. If publishers are going to change historic texts to remove potentially offensive language, then surely they should also be correcting errors like this?
Is a French sergeant senior to an inspector? Or is the translation of the ranks unclear? I’d vaguely thought about this before but Sergeant Lucas is definitely Maigret’s righthand man and, more importantly, he has his own room, whereas Janvier, Lapointe et al all sit in the inspector’s room. I’ve tried to look this up but with no success.
There is a whole section on which of his subordinates Maigret uses “tu” and “vous” with. The first puzzle of French lessons was the professeur beginning “Right so you will call me “vous” but I’ll call you “tu” unless there are two of you and then you’re “vous” too”. This is followed by discovering gendered nouns: le chien, le chat, le lapin, but la souris. This gives a misplaced confidence when starting German lessons: Ah, I know this, der Hund, der Katze, der Kaninchen – no, no, Katze is feminine – but in French it’s masculine, you mean gender is not consistent across languages? – yes, and by the way it’s das Kaninchen, German adds in a third gender, neuter – well if that isn’t the daftest thing I’ve ever heard!
We discover that Mme. Maigret’s often mentioned sister must actually be four separate women all with different husbands and offspring.

There is so much more than my personal highlights above: detailed analysis of the inspector’s habits (the pipes he smokes, what he wears, what he eats, and of course, what he drinks), his relationships, where he travels to, what the weather’s like, and even that a character’s first name can predict whether they are likely to be a killer.

A must for fans of the series.