A Murder is Announced

First Published: 1950
Setting: Chipping Cleghorn 

Starring: Miss Marple, Letitia Blacklock, Dora Bunner, Inspector Craddock

Important Other People: Patrick and Julia, Pip and Emma, Hincliffe and Murgatroyd, Mitzi, Philipa Haymes, Colonel and Mrs. Easterbrook, Edmund and Mrs. Swettenham, Bunch Harmon, Belle Goedler

Sticking with the theme of the post-war world, we are reminded at the beginning that all you know about people is what they say of themselves. Just like in Roger Ackroyd, we need to remember that that statement applies to everyone. No one is exactly who they seem. Due to all of the disruption that occurred after World War II, it was much more difficult to establish connections with people or to find a common friend or relative. There was also the secret black market world that was going on, even with seemingly-respectable spinsters and other pillars of the community. England after the war was much different than it had been before the war, and even people living in small villages had to adjust their worldviews accordingly. 


In keeping with the idea of a disrupted world, this is the first book where we get explicit talk of premarital relations, but still couched in Agatha's Victorian terminology. Referring to war widows, Edmund says he'll "take her to bed." This to me is a clear indication of goings-on that should not be going on, and it once again shows how much England changed in the years right after the war. 


I don't really have anything else to say without giving a ton of plot points away, but I do have to say that if you haven't read this book, you need to. It's one of the best, for sure, and it's one of my favorites. Mitzi is ridiculous, and Miss Marple is ingenious. It's just so good.

Interesting facts: Sir Henry Clithering and Inspector Craddock are in this book. I love both of them. 

Favorite? Yes. I love how intricate the plot and details are, all of the mystery characters that keep popping up, and how everything really comes together at the end. It is just brilliant. 

Death by: shooting, poisoning, strangulation 

Body Count: 3; Cumulative: 111

The Count: Poirot-22, Miss. Marple-4, Tommy and Tuppence-2, Hastings-7, Japp-7, Colonel Race-4, Superintendent Battle-5, George-2, Goby-1, No Recurring Character- 5, Mrs. Oliver-1, Albert- 2

Agatha's Life Lessons: All you know of people is what they say of themselves. Youth is the time to have your fling. People like living. You can get away with a great deal if you have enough audacity. One is alone when the last one who remembers one when they were young is gone. It's never a mistake to marry a man you want to marry- even if you regret it. Weak and kindly people are often very treacherous. People with a grudge against the world are always dangerous. It's what's in yourself that makes you happy or unhappy.

Up Next: They Came to Baghdad 

Hercule Poirot's Christmas

First Published: 1938

Setting: Addlesfield

Starring: Hercule Poirot, Lee family, Superintendent Sugden

Important Other People: Pilar Estravados, Stephen Farr, Tressilian, Horbury

"Yet who would have thought the old man to have had so much blood in him?"

One of my favorite parts of this book is the dedication. It is dedicated to Agatha's brother in law in response to his complaint that her murders were getting too refined, and he wanted one with lots of blood. This novel is her response to him, and there is plenty of blood to let us know that a murder has occurred, and that it has been violent.

Simeon Lee, similar to Mrs. Boynton in Appointment with Death. They are both presented as tyrants that rule over their families. Mrs. Boynton dictated her family's every move, controlling them completely in mind, body, and spirit. Simeon Lee, on the other hand, does not have the level of control he wishes he had. Because of that, he must occupy himself in other endeavors, such as saying and doing malicious things and observing peoples' reactions. We would think that this streak of evil would be inherited by the tyrant's children, but Mrs. Boynton was killed by an outsider to the family. Simeon, on the other hand, was killed by one of his children, although not who we would expect. The idea of inheritance and nature versus nurture that Christie begins to explore in these two books will be explored in further detail in future novels (particularly Crooked House, Ordeal by Innocence, and Murder with Mirrors). A big difference between Simeon Lee and Mrs. Boyton is that, while I find Mrs. Boynton terrifying, I have to admit that I kind of like Simeon. I have a lot of pity for him, similar to how Sarah King realized that Mrs. Boyton was someone to be pitied because her tyranny only extended over her family. I also like Simeon because, although he is malicious and sneaky, he makes me laugh a little bit. Also, he's senile.

Interesting facts: Three Act Tragedy is mentioned. The book is dedicated to Agatha's brother in law. The theme of the innocent suffering while the police and detectives look for the culprit is introduced in this book, and it is one that Agatha explores in greater detail in later novels. We also are reminded that yellow symbolizes money.

Favorite? Yes. I read it every year at Christmas, and try to read it on the correct days. A bit macabre, perhaps, but definitely fitting.

Death by: Slit throat

Body Count: 1; Cumulative: 56

The Count: Poirot-17, Miss. Marple-1, Tommy and Tuppence-1, Hastings-7, Japp-6, Colonel Race-3, Superintendent Battle-3, George-1, Goby-1, No Recurring Character- 2, Mrs. Oliver-1

Agatha's Life Lessons: The world is as you yourself make it. If we seek to keep the past alive we end up distorting it. The world is very cruel to women- they must do what they can for themselves when they are young. A man does not live and die to himself alone.

Up Next: Easy to Kill

Death on the Nile

First Published: 1937

Setting: Wadi Halfa, on the Nile

Starring: Hercule Poirot, Colonel Race, Linnet Ridgeway, Jacqueline de Bellefort, Simon Doyle

Important Other People: Mrs. Allerton, Tim Allerton, Rosalie and Mrs. Otterbourne, Cornelia Robson

One of the major themes of the book is the idea of how one can want something so passionately that they lose sight of everything else, including rationality and reason. Once one thing becomes your whole reason for existence, you will do whatever it takes to achieve that end, including opening your heart to evil. Poirot knows this, and so takes steps to avoid evil from occurring. He warns Jackie about the possible consequences of her actions because he knows it's always better to prevent a murder than try to get justice after it has been committed. There are three pieces of advice about forgetting the past and moving on the the future in the book, which should have given Jackie a hint...

I also like how this is another one of Christie's murders that takes place in a confined space (although I don't think any other novel is in quite so confined a space as Cards on the Table). The suspect pool is limited, and there are quite a few people who have huge motives for murder. Still, the ones who are most likely to have committed it have alibis. There is only one day of questioning before the truth is revealed, so Poirot and Race have their work cut out for them trying to clear away all the extraneous mysteries and uncover the real motives and alibis.

The whole book is about money. Linnet has too much of it, Jackie and Simon have not enough of it. Simon gets enough of it, but then struggles to come to terms with it all, especially because the finances are controlled by his wife. The idea of money in this era is different- they talk about how poor Jackie is, but she went on a trip to the Middle East...in what way, exactly, is she poor? Even at that time, I can't imagine a trip to the Middle East being affordable for people from all walks of life. I think Jackie must be like many of Agatha's characters who are from the upper class, but have lost their money in some way and become "impoverished" according to their usual or familial standards (like the Lytton Gores from Three Act Tragedy, the Cloades from There is a Tide, and Lance's wife Pat from A Pocketful of Rye). This is also the first novel (I believe) that Agatha makes a point of yellow symbolizing money. Linnet with her golden hair is the supreme symbol of money, while Jackie with her dark hair, is in stark contrast. Love can be a very frightening thing, and the lengths characters in this book go to for love- of a man, and of money, have drastic results.

One final aspect of this book that I really enjoy is all of the extra mysteries that abound on this one trip up the Nile. It keeps the book moving at a face pace, it keeps it interesting, and it also makes it more difficult for Poirot to figure everything out. He does, of course, find the answer to ALL of the questions in the end, but I like how he brings different characters in one by one to basically explain that he knows the truth to their actions. To me, the extraneous mysteries in this book make it even that much more interesting.

Interesting facts: Japp is mentioned... yet again. I think I should keep a tally of how many times Japp is mentioned, but not actually in the story. The trip the group takes up the Nile is similar to one that Agatha and her husband, Max Mallowan, took in the 1930s. The vegetable code mentioned that is used by the man Colonel Race is looking for is similar to the one used in South Africa in The Man in the Brown Suit, which, coincidentally, Race also appeared in.

Favorite? One of them.

Death by: Shooting, stabbing

Body Count: 5; Cumulative: 53

The Count: Poirot-15, Miss. Marple-1, Tommy and Tuppence-1, Hastings-7, Japp-6, Colonel Race-3, Superintendent Battle-3, George-1, Goby-1, No Recurring Character- 2, Mrs. Oliver-1

Agatha's Life Lessons: To have money and looks is too much for one person- it isn't fair. Nearly everyone only likes successful people. Marriage has a sobering effect on people. Youth is the time of greatest vulnerability. You can't alter the past- you must live with things the way they are. Give up the past, turn to the future. What is done is done...bitterness will not undo it. When the sun comes out you can no longer see the moon. Do not open your heart to evil because evil will come. There is always a moment where one could hold their hand (as in, make a move). To succeed in life, every detail should be arranged well beforehand. When anything beautiful is dead, it's a loss to the world. Love can be a very frightening thing. It's not the past that matters but the future. "Un qui aime et un qui se laisse aimer" can be very dangerous. (Translation, according to google translate, and which I agree on based on my sketchy knowledge of French: One who loves and one who allows them self to love can be very dangerous).

Up Next: Appointment with Death

Cards on the Table

First Published: 1936

Setting: London

Starring: Hercule Poirot, Mrs. Oliver, Battle, Colonel Race (the Sleuths)

Important Other People: Mr. Shaitana. Dr. Roberts, Mrs. Lorrimer, Major Despard, Anne Meredith (The "Murderers")

The plot for Cards on the Table was laid out by Poirot in The ABC Murders. It truly is a crime that Poirot has ordered to test himself. The important aspect is that there are only 4 suspects, and there is no way to figure out who did it except by Poirot using his little grey cells. It is the supreme psychological crime.

We are introduced to Mrs Oliver- the epitome of Agatha herself. One of Mrs. Oliver's books, The Body in the Library, is mentioned by one of the characters, a book that was eventually written by Christie herself. I like Mrs. Oliver a lot and I always enjoy reading about her, and it's mainly because Christie is clearly parodying herself. She describes the clothes Mrs. Oliver wears, her crazy hairstyles and hats, and mocks herself on her "women's intuition" that she uses to "solve" the crimes she comes into contact with. She guesses everyone in turn, which we see as Christie mocking herself for doing the same thing.

One thing that is interesting- one of the characters says that people tend to stick to arsenic for murders, yet Agatha had not written of any murders committed with arsenic up to this point in her writing career (in her novels).

Hercule Poirot has a thoroughly bourgeois attitude towards murder. He doesn't deal with the lower classes and their problems and murders. The one case that sticks out to me as having a lower-class feel is Mrs. McGinty's Dead, being that she's a charwoman, but the other characters involved are upper-class. Murder has become more common nowadays, making it difficult to find a parallel from the early to mid 20th century.

One of my biggest problems with the book is the importance Poirot places on the bridge scores kept by the suspects. Mainly because I don't know how to play bridge, I don't know the rules or terms, and I basically don't understand any part of what's going on with bridge. It's difficult to truly appreciate the importance of the scores, or to even understand what Poirot deduces based off of them, if you don't understand bridge. I feel like more people in 1936 played bridge and understood it. I always feel like it's something I need to learn just to understand this book better. We'll see if that happens...

Interesting facts: Japp is mentioned. This is a crime to order for Poirot's little grey cells. We see Rhoda and Despard many books later in The Pale Horse. Poirot reveals the true solution to the Orient Express to another character, which could ruin the book if you had never read it before.

Favorite? Of Poirot, YES. Of Agatha, I think it's up there because she always wanted to write it for Poirot to solve. For me, after I've read it a few times, I've liked it better. I hated it the first time I read it because I thought it was so unexciting and the bridge part made no sense to me.

Death by: Stabbing, Veronal/evipan, drowning

Body Count: 3; Cumulative: 46

The Count: Poirot-13, Miss. Marple-1, Tommy and Tuppence-1, Hastings-6, Japp-6, Colonel Race-2, Superintendent Battle-3, George-1, Goby-1, No Recurring Character- 2, Mrs. Oliver-1

Agatha's Life Lessons: A murderer can be an artist, but he's still a murderer. Man is an unoriginal animal. What can't be cured must be endured. There's nothing like death for bringing out the meanness of human nature. One ought to live frightfully dangerously- if one gets the chance. Life, on the whole, is terribly tame. Men don't do purely disinterested kindnesses. The moment a man's a bad lot, all the girls stick up for him. Things are just the same whether you talk about them or not. Life is a difficult business- it needs infinite courage and a lot of endurance. Men always do take fancies to unsuitable women. Lying is not always a sign of guilt. No one can always be right (not even Poirot!)

Up Next: Poirot Loses a Client

Death in the Air (Death in the Clouds)

First Published: 1935

Setting: London, Paris

Starring: Hercule Poirot, Japp, Jane Grey

Important Other People: Fouriner, Norman Gale, Mr. Clancy, the Duponts

The idea of the innocent being affected by a murder as well as the guilty is one which Christie explores in many other novels. Here, we see the characters go back to their lives after the murder, and we see what they experience as people associate them with the crime until the murderer is unmasked. That is especially interesting given that the murderer suffers a lot in their professional life after the murder, so one would wonder why they chose to commit it in such a public manner...but oh well.

Mr. Clancy is introduced as an absent-minded writer, a parody on Agatha herself, as well as a precursor to Mrs. Oliver. I like Mr. Clancy because I feel like Agatha just wrote about herself, and the character did not change throughout subsequent novels in the way that Mrs. Oliver did.

This is one of the first novels that introduces science as one of Agatha's passions. She has two archaeologists, and ends with them going off on an expedition, which is something Agatha herself was passionate about. Also, it leads us to Murder in Mesopotamia, coming up in a few...

Interesting facts: Ariadne Oliver (who has not yet appeared as Agatha's alter ego) in a later novel makes reference to a book she wrote once where she got the length of a blowpipe wrong, and many fans wrote to her to inform her of it. This one small detail, around which so much of the novel revolves, is actually kind of a big deal to get incorrect.

Favorite? I like it in that it happened in an enclosed space, and thus the suspect list is significantly shortened, causing Poirot to really have to use his little grey cells to find the answer (similar to Murder on the Orient Express, Cards on the Table, Death on the Nile, Murder on the Blue Train). I also like that the jury at the inquest finds Poirot guilty of murder...

Death by: Boomslang (rare poison), prussic acid (cyanide)

Body Count: 2; Cumulative: 37

The Count: Poirot-10, Miss. Marple-1, Tommy and Tuppence-1, Hastings-5, Japp-5, Colonel Race-1, Superintendent Battle-2, George-1, Goby-1, No Recurring Character- 2

Agatha's Life Lessons: Murder affects the innocent too. Knowledge is security, knowledge is power. Everyone keeps something back. It's no good to regret what is already done. An answer depends on the question that is asked. Girls have to be able to fend for themselves. Meekness doesn't pay. If there's one fellow after a woman, there's sure to be another as well. To men, that women grow old is the great tragedy of life. Nothing is too sensational. Even a nine-day's wonder doesn't last longer than 9 days. Sensationalism dies quickly, fear is long-lived. In one approaches a problem with order and method, there should be no difficulty in solving it. Everyone likes talking about themselves. When everything else fails, music remains. Science is the greatest romance there is. One needs much courage to live. Always start at the beginning.

Up Next: The ABC Murders

Murder on the Orient Express

First Published: 1934

Setting: Somewhere along the line of the Orient Express!

Starring: Poirot, M. Bouc, Dr. Constantine

Important Other People: Armstrong household

Murder on the Orient Express is Poirot in his element. The train is snowed in and cannot be moved, there is no chance of outside help being called in, and the witnesses and suspects are all trapped! The case has to be solved on deduction and intellect only, leading Poirot to triumph in his usual non-humble way, but also showing his compassionate side when he realizes that sometimes, you do have to work outside of the law.

The idea of individuals meting out justice is used again in Appointment with Death, and here, Poirot accepts an official version of the murder. He condones murder because sometimes, man is evil, but goes unpunished. Thus, when justice comes to them, he knows that they deserved it. Which sounds awful, but in both cases, is entirely warranted.

This novel is also rife with stereotypes. The book allowed Agatha to have an international cast of characters meeting in an unlikely place. She was able to assign them to different stations in life based on where they come from- the idea of class with her is quite established. She also exploits stereotypes of different countries, which is useful in assigning them jobs and personalities.

Interesting facts: I cannot find a mention of the book in her autobiography. I don't know why! The book is loosely based off the Lindbergh kidnapping, as well as Agatha's love for the Orient Express. Many parts of her autobiography are about her travels upon it.

Favorite? Of course! I know I say this a lot, but it really is unique among Agatha's novels, and it is so ingenious. (Let's be real; they're all unique.)

Death by: Stabbing (12 times!)

Body Count: 1; Cumulative: 30

The Count: Poirot-8, Miss. Marple-1, Tommy and Tuppence-1, Hastings-5, Japp-4, Colonel Race-1, Superintendent Battle-2, George-1, Goby-1

Agatha's Life Lessons: The worst of Americans is that they are so sentimental and idealistic. The English are not sympathetic. If the impossible cannot have happened, then the impossible must be possible in spite of appearances.

Up Next: Why Didn't They Ask Evans? (The Boomerang Clue)