This holiday, I had the overwhelming urge to reread some Agatha Christie. The first book I ever read was The A B C Murders, in Northern France on a very dull holiday where it rained pretty much solidly for two weeks and I had read all my Enid Blytons since we were stuck inside. My sister offered me her Christie to read. I remember that I fell for all of Christie's wiles and didn't even get close to the truth but fell for the red herrings. Likewise, The Murder of Roger Ackroyd. When I first read Curtain, I was fully versed in Christie and had perfected the art of recognising who dunnit although I didn't get this one!
Rereading all three, I saw the clues clearly as to who the murderer was (with the exception of Curtain which is just genius)
In the ABC Murders, Christie takes an interesting narrative device by including some chapters written in the 3rd person about the actions of one, Alexander Bonaparte Cust: we don't know who he is or what he's up to, but I haven't experienced another Christie where we meet a character like that in the 3rd person in between 1st person narrative. In the rest of the chapters, we revert to the 1st person narrative of Poirot's old friend, Captain Hastings, who is visiting from his home in South America and is seeing Poirot who has received a strange letter from the mysterious ABC who is telling him about something that is going to happen in Andover on the 29th of the month. It seems like a madman. It transpires that a murder happens there, to a lady whose name begins with A.All of a sudden, the police take it seriously. Subsequently, a murder happens to a B in Bexhill. It seems incredible that anyone could solve these murders since the murder could be anywhere, mad since they are picking random people with the correct letters. When C is murdered in a small village, and the letter has gone amiss so it only turns up on the day of the murder, they are furious!
I have to say, the solving of this murder, the motives behind it, STAGGERED me as a child and I really appreciated the small details and clues that Christie gives you as an adult. The book STILL captivated me. Who is the murderer? Who is ABC? Why is he doing it? Why did he send Poirot the letters? Is he really mad? And what has Cust to do with it? The murderer is a CRUEL person.
Next, I revisited Curtain. This is Poirot's last case. She wrote this long before she had written all of the other adventures and it was only published posthumously. Again, Christie makes a really interesting murder here. The premise of this book is that Poirot has returned to Styles, the scene of his first book murder case (and the second book I ever read). Hastings has returned from South America as his wife is now dead and his daughters in the world. Poirot has asked him to come and stay at Styles which is now a nursing and boarding house. Poirot is the shell of his former self, reduced to a wheelchair as he cannot walk. He is on the hunt of a murder he is certain will happen at Styles. BUT- though he knows/suspects who the murderer is, he will not tell Hastings. He wants to prevent the murder but he's not sure of who the victim will be. This is an interesting murderer who in the past, has been present at the scenes of many other murders but is never implicated and there is always a murderer who confesses or there's no shadow of doubt. The perfect murderer in other words. Strange things happen, emotions run high and eventually, a couple of murders occur including a devastating one! The denouement is pretty shocking in this book but utter genius! Again, strongly recommended.
The final book of my Christmas holiday reading, The murder of Roger Ackroyd, is considered to be her finest book. And I must agree. On first reading this, I was devastated by finding out who the murderer was. Reading it this time, I saw the clues. Poirot has retired to grow vegetable marrows. In the village, Mrs Ferrars has committed suicide. But it appears she had a dark secret- she murdered her husband. Then 2 days later, her love, Roger Ackroyd is murdered! But it appears, a blackmailer is involved. It is left to Poirot and Dr Sheppard, who is the 1st person narrator, to discover who the murderer is. The denouement of this book is again, so clever. Christie dangles so many juicy red herrings and conceals the truth. BUT, if you have a suspicious mind and trust no one, then you might just get an inkling of who the murderer is.
I thoroughly enjoyed rereading these three books. Now I long to reread all the others. If only my Mum hadn't chucked them all out!