Hercule Poirot novels by Agatha Christie - part 1

THE ABC MURDERS

Other titles: THE ALPHABET MURDERS (in US reprint, Pocket Books, 1966) UK publication: 1935 (Collins) US publication: 1935 (Dodd, Mead)

Poirot is joined by Hastings on extended leave from his ranch in Argentina. Poirot receives a taunting letter promising a crime in Andover on a given day. Sure enough, a murder occurs there, and more letters follow.

It soon becomes clear that the criminal is working his way through the alphabet. Alice Ascher is killed in Andover, waitress Betty Barnard is murdered in Bexhill, Sir Carmichael Clark is killed in Churston. But in Doncaster a Mr Earlsfield is killed. A railway timetable, The ABC Rail Guide, is left next to each victim. Poirot and Hastings find the method in ABC's pretended madness and the reason for the alphabetical order, and stop the killing spree in time to save the fifth victim. The prime suspect for most of the book is a mysterious Mr Alexander Bonaparte Cust. A film of the story, The Alphabet Murders, was made in 1966, but it is not a faithful adaptation.

AFTER THE FUNERAL

US title: FUNERALS ARE FATAL Other titles: MURDER AT THE GALLOP (in UK reprint, Fontana, 1963) UK publication: 1953 (Collins) US publication: 1953 (Dodd, Mead)

The family of the late Richard Abernethie, a wealthy old man, is gathered to hear his will when one of the family remarks that he must have been murdered. When this relative (Cora Lansquenet) is herself murdered, the family solicitor, Mr. Entwhistle, called in Poirot. The Abernethie family is so complicated that a tree is provided, and the mystifications of the plot are among Christie's most convoluted. Mr. Goby, an eccentric investigator who last assisted Poirot in the 1926 Mystery of the Blue Train, comes out of retirement to help him again. The 1963 film, Murder at the Gallop, was based loosely on this story, with Miss Marple substituted for Poirot and the action shifted to a riding school.

APPOINTMENT WITH DEATH

UK publication: 1938 (Collins) US publication: 1938 (Dodd, Mead)

Poirot is a member of a party of tourists on an excursion to Petra in Trans-Jordan when one of them is killed, and he is asked to help with the investigation. The party includes the Boynton family, a large American brood touring the Middle East and consisting of old Mrs Boynton (fat, grotesque, and cruel), her four children, and the wife of one of them; as well as a French psychiatrist, a young Englishwoman medical student, and Lady Westholme, a redoubtable British member of parliament. It is Mrs Boynton who is murdered. The atmosphere of the Holy Land is well conveyed. Christie adapted the novel into a play produced in 1945.

THE BIG FOUR

UK publication: 1927 (Collins)US publication: 1927 (Dodd, Mead)

This novel rather uneasily combines Poirot and Hastings with the sort of international crime syndicate usually found in Christie's thrillers. It was rewritten from a series of short stories and is loosely episodic in form. Hastings has arrived in London on a business trip from Argentina; Poirot has not yet retired to King's Abbott and is about to travel abroad when a stranger bursts into his room, collapses and dies. The pair are set on the trail of the Big Four, an international crime cartel headed by an American, a French woman, a Chinese man, and an Englishman. Each of them are dealt with in separate episodes, with many uncharacteristic adventures, including the abduction of Hastings' wife in Argentina, the appearance (never to be seen again) of Poirot's brother Achille, and Poirot's own apparent death, a mock funeral in which Hastings is overcome with emotion. The Countess Vera Rossakoff also appears for the first time, and the agent Joseph Aarons makes a final appearance.

CARDS ON THE TABLE

UK publication: 1936 (Collins) US publication: 1937 (Dodd, Mead)

A psychological problem for Poirot, one of his favorite cases. Mr Shaitana, a connoisseur of the bizarre, holds a dinner party in his Park Lane flat. He invites four investigators of crime and four people whom he says have committed murders and not been caught. After the two groups play two separate games of bridge, Shaitana is found murdered. The four successful murderers are equally suspicious. They include a young woman domestic, a widow who may have killed her husband, a doctor who lost several patients, and a major who may have killed a botanist on the Amazon. The detectives are Poirot, Superintendent Battle of Scotland Yard, Colonel Race (known from The Man in the Brown Suit and here revealed to be a Secret Service agent) and Mrs Ariadne Oliver, the crime novelist and gentle self-parody of Christie. One of the suspects reappears 25 years later in The Pale Horse.

CAT AMONG THE PIGEONS

UK publication: 1959 (Collins) US publication: 1960 (Dodd, Mead)

One of the best of the later Poirot stories. The action takes place at a girls' school in England, run by the sensible Miss Bulstrode, although it is also concerned with a revolution in Ramat, a fictional country in the Middle East. Poirot attempts to discover who is murdering the staff of the school, and a plethora of motives is revealed. We meet two characters later to be encountered in thrillers: Colonel Pikeaway, in charge of intelligence, and Mr Robinson, a fat and enigmatic financier.

THE CLOCKS

UK publication: 1963 (Collins) US publication: 1964 (Dodd, Mead)

Poirot is called into a case by Colin Lamb, an intelligence agent of some kind whose father knew Poirot. A body has been discovered in the seaside town of Crowdean, in the house of a blind woman, and in a room full of clocks, most of which do not belong there. Lamb happens to be passing by when the body is discovered, and goes to Poirot, his old mentor. There are really two separate plots which are linked at the end. One of the more unusual late books, with an amusing lecture on fictional detectives given by Poirot.

CURTAIN: POIROT'S LAST CASE

UK publication: 1975 (Collins) US publication: 1975 (Dodd, Mead)

Christie, at 85 years old, was unable to devote the necessary concentration to a new novel; her publishers persuaded her to release Curtain, which she had written during World War II and kept back for posthumous publication, planning Poirot's final case to coincide with her own death. Hastings returns as narrator for the first time since 1937. He is visiting Poirot once more while Poirot is staying at Styles, the scene of his first book. Hastings is probably over 50; Poirot is very old and frail, using a wig and a false moustache to keep up his vanity, and maybe about 85 years old. It is a sad and nostalgic book, in which Poirot dies about two thirds of the way through, and in which the other characters are for the most part disappointed and embittered. One of Hastings' four children (Judith) is also at Styles, and it is a problem concerning her that leads Hastings himself to contemplate murder. The criminal is apparently never brought to justice, but a manuscript written by Poirot is found by Hastings after Poirot dies and this reveals the truth. When this book was published in the US, Poirot's obituary was printed on the front page of the New York Times.

DEAD MAN'S FOLLY

UK publication: 1956 (Collins) US publication: 1956 (Dodd, Mead)

A murder occurs at a village fete in Nassecombe in Devon, where the girl playing the 'body' in a murder game is found dead. The affair was organized by Mrs Ariadne Oliver, the detective novelist, who invited Poirot because she felt something might go wrong. They had met twice before - in Cards on the Table and Mrs McGinty's Dead. A traditional Poirot novel, enlivened by the presence of Mrs Oliver, Christie's self-parody.

DEATH IN THE CLOUDS

US title: DEATH IN THE AIR UK publication: 1935 (Collins) US publication: 1935 (Dodd, Mead)

Murder is committed on an airliner during a flight from Paris to London. Poirot is one of the passengers and the murderer can only be one of the 10 other passengers in the rear compartment or one of the stewards. Poirot investigates the crime in London and Paris, working with Inspector Japp as well as Monsieur Fournier of the Surete. Madame Giselle, the murdered passenger, has a minor puncture wound on her throat and the actual cause of death is one of the puzzles. The other passengers include an aristocrat, an ex-chorus girl, two whitecollar workers with romantic interests, a doctor, a businessman, two French archaeologists, and the crime novelist Daniel Clancy, suspected by Japp.

DEATH ON THE NILE

UK publication: 1937 (Collins) US publication: 1938 (Dodd, Mead)

One of Christie's finest novels, set on the steamer Karnak, cruising the River Nile. The stage is set in the first chapter which outlines how all of the characters came to be in Egypt. The beautiful and rich Linnet Ridgeway has lured the handsome Simon Doyle away from her best friend Jacqueline and married him. Jacqueline retaliates by following the couple on their entire honeymoon . During the cruise, Linnet is killed. Other passengers suspected are a grand American lady, a novelist, Mrs Otterbourne and her daughter, an upper-class Englishwoman and her son, two solicitors, an Italian archaeologist and a young radical. The secret service agent Colonel Race is also a passengers but unlike Poirot, who is on holiday, he is shadowing a murderer. Christie adapted the story herself into a play in 1945, as Murder on the Nile and a star-studded film including David Niven, Mia Farrow, Angela Lansbury, Bette Davis, and Peter Ustinov as Poirot was made in 1977. The picture shows Linnet Ridgeway played by Lois Chiles and Simon Doyle played by Simon McCorkindale in the 1977 film.

In 2004 David Suchet also played Hercule Poirot in the remake of Death on the Nile.

DUMB WITNESS

US title: POIROT LOSES A CLIENT Other titles: MYSTERY AT LITTLEGREEN HOUSE or MURDER AT LITTLEGREEN HOUSE in several reprint editions UK publication: 1937 (Collins) US publication: 1937 (Dodd, Mead)

Poirot receives a long and rambling letter from Emily Arundell, an elderly spinster who lives at Littlegreen House in the village of Market Basing, Berkshire. She asks him to undertake an investigation for her but forgets to tell him what it is. Poirot and Hastings visit Market Basing to find that she has died of a heart attack, but investigate the case anyway. The 'dumb witness' of the title is a dog, a wire-haired terrier called Bob who plays an important role in the plot. The story is another take on the village murder with a small number of suspects and a death by poison.

ELEPHANTS CAN REMEMBER

UK publication: 1972 (Collins) US publication: 1972 (Dodd, Mead)

The last Poirot novel Christie wrote - another story in which a crime is investigated in the past. A girl's parents were killed or committed suicide twelve years ago. The girl is now engaged and her future mother-in-law thinks it is important to know who killed whom. Poirot and the novelist Mrs Ariadne Oliver, who is scattier than ever, dig up the family history. Several old Poirot characters appear, such as Superintendent Spence and Mr Goby, still gathering information. Both Poirot and Christie are getting old, and the plot meanders, but the idea is still clever.

EVIL UNDER THE SUN

UK publication: 1941 (Collins) US publication: 1941 (Dodd, Mead)

Poirot is holidaying on a resort island off the coast of Devon and feels certain there will be murder committed, but he cannot prevent it. The victim is envied and disliked by many and the suspects are other guests at the Jolly Roger Hotel on Smuggler's Island. An American couple, the Odell Gardeners, provide comic relief. Poirot enjoys the assistance of the chief constable, Colonel Weston. A well-known film version was released in 1982, with the scene changed to the Adriatic, and with Poirot played by Peter Ustinov. The David Suchet version returns the action to Devon.

FIVE LITTLE PIGS

US title: MURDER IN RETROSPECT UK publication: 1943 (Collins)US publication: 1942 (Dodd, Mead)

Poirot is called on to investigate a crime committed some years in the past. A painter, Amyas Crale, not a particularly attractive figure, is murdered. His wife Caroline is found guilty of his murder and dies in prison. Sixteen years later, her daughter asks Poirot to clear her mother's name. The other five principal suspects are still alive and each writes for Poirot a memoir of those events. The different interpretations of the different characters and their own changes in the course of sixteen years are well portrayed and make interesting reading. Christie herself made the story into a play, Go Back for Murder.

HALLOWE'EN PARTY

UK publication: 1969 (Collins) US publication: 1969 (Dodd, Mead)

At a Halloween party attended by Mrs Ariadne Oliver, Poirot's old friend and Christie's spoof on herself, a 13-year-old girl who has been telling everyone that she witnessed a murder. She is then found drowned in a tub of apples. Poirot is enlisted to help and he finds Superintendent Spence living in the neighbourhood who helps him with information about the locals. Poirot cannot prevent a second murder but stops the criminal just before a third. The novel is a little odd with Christie's characterizations beginning to fade and a few loose ends are left untied.

HERCULE POIROT'S CHRISTMAS

US title: MURDER FOR CHRISTMAS Other titles: A HOLIDAY FOR MURDER (in US reprint, Avon, 1947) UK publication: 1938 (Collins) US publication: 1939 (Dodd, Mead)

This novel combines the traditional murder in the English country-house party in a locked room. The Christmas party is held by the family of a wealthy and unpleasant old man who is murdered on Christmas Eve. Poirot has been staying nearby with Colonel Johnson of the Middleshire Police whom he met before in the Three-Act Tragedy and is called in. The family is rather a collection of stereotypes and the locked room clue is disappointing.