Murder on the Links, a Hercule Poirot novel by Agatha Christie

 The Book

    Murder on the Links gives us the return of Hercule Poirot and Captain Hastings. Despite the name in the title, there is no golf involved, whew. 

This tale begins with Hastings on a French train during his return to England. He sits next to a perfectly bewitching young woman who captures his attention by using the perfectly banal swear word. "Hell." 

When they depart, and Hastings declares them friends, she impishly refuses to give him her real name, instead, calling herself "Cinderella." Hastings barely gets home to the flat he shares with Poirot, when Poirot is engaged on a case back in France. Hastings is invited to partake of the adventure, and not being needed in his job as a secretary to an MP, he dutifully comes along. 

Upon arriving in Merlinville, France, Poirot discovers his would-be employer Mr. Paul Renaud has been stabbed in the back and found near an open grave dug on the golf course. Meanwhile Mrs. Renaud has been bound and gagged by ruffians. Poirot feels honor bound to solve Mr. Renaud's murder. 

The suspects are: Mrs. Renaud, Paul's wife, because she may have been jealous of Paul's mistress. 

Madame Dabreuille -- Paul's mistress/blackmailer

Mademoiselle Dabreuille -- his son Jack's fiancee.

Jack Renaud -- Paul's son who quarreled violently with his father a few days earlier. 

Cinderella -- who mysterious shows up in the middle of the case and beguiles Hastings. 

Poirot must contend with Inspector Giraud, the French Suritee detective who has impressed Hastings. 

The reason for blackmail. 

The unexpected body. 

A criminal mastermind. 

And arranging for Hastings to be married. 

Whatever is Papa Poirot to do? 

My Thoughts

    In this book, we see Christie do something completely conventional, she has an A Plot, the murder of Paul Renaud, and a B plot, Hastings falls in love. During the book each plot adds to the other until we reach the emotional climax and conflict inside of our narrator, Hastings. All in all, for her third book, it's well done. Christie does not return to her "double bluff" motif in this book, which keeps her audience, the ones in love with Hercule Poirot, on their toes, something they undoubtedly love. She plays with expectations as well, keeping Poirot puzzling at the mystery as we go along.

    What continues to strike me about Agatha Christie's work is how light and breezy and fun the tone is. Today, many mystery writers, at least the really successful ones, use a much more serious, realistic tone. Pessimism seems to be the rule of the day. We as a public tend to view crime, the damage it causes, and the criminals as dark and dangerous things. They are not toys. 

    I wonder if this tone reflects Christie's relocation of crimes, from the dark, dangerous city to that of the country estate. If the tone, reflects our own wish to view small towns, with their close knit communities, as tranquil places, is yet another way of lulling the reader into a relaxed state. Or is it simply, Christie herself believes reading should be an enjoyable pursuit, if you are going to suspend your disbelief, you might as well go all in. She is not seeking to reflect reality, but to give us an alternate reality in which we can live for a few hours without being greatly disturbed by The Great Questions. Food for thought, for certain. 

How Much My Library Card Saved Me

This book is a large print edition circa 2016. The copyright page tells me that it was printed in 16 point Times New Roman. So in addition to seeing how my particular library has purchased books over the decades, I am able to see how aspects of the publishing world have changed in the past 35 or so years. In these older books, publishers told us considerably less about the book itself, usually just the date of copyright, and if they chose, which printing it was. Now we are getting things like the font. I am documenting this here, for anyone who is considering being an indie published writer, so you know what the big guys are doing. The cover of this book says that it retails for $34.95. 

This book                               $34.95

This summer                        $202.02