The Book
Hercule Poirot gets airsick, therefore on his Calais to London flight, he spends it asleep. While he sleeps the lady in seat 2, Madame Giselle, is murdered by a poisonous puncture wound. (What is says in the book, but as my children would remind you, don't eat puncture wounds, ah we mean venomous.) She is a money lender of ill repute, and quite possibly a blackmailer. Everyone on the plane, with the possible exception of Miss Jane Grey and Poirot himself are suspects for various reasons. We have the thoroughly selfish, nasty former chorus line girl, Lady Cicely Horbury and her maid Madeleine, Cicely's arch rival, Veronica Kitt. These four round out the ladies in their middle twenties. Then for the gentlemen, we have Normal Gale, an extremely handsome dentist in his mid-thirties who has a crush on Jane, the archeologists, father and son team of Armand and Jean Dupont, Dr Bryant, Mr. James Ryder, and mystery novelist Daniel Clancy.
Inspector Japp heads up the British investigation, while in Paris Inspector Fournier, a young detective is doing the legwork. Fournier follows the psychology of the crime, much like Poirot, and they get along famously. In London, Japp uncovers that Mr. Ryder's business is having problems, probably due to The Great Depression, Dr Bryant could have used some money for his practice, Normal Gale's practice suffers as a result of the murder, Armand and Jean Dupont may or may not be involved in the theft and sale of antiquities, and novelist Daniel Clancy is more than a bit of a mess. When we find out that Madame Giselle's business records were burned by her maid, we also discover that Madame had a child who would now be about 24.
From here, we the novel takes many twists and turns, until Poirot figures out who the murder was, and how a wasp and an empty box of matches are connected.
My Thoughts
Not a bad outing by Agatha Christie. This one, I had definitely never read before. And although I know I watched the David Suchet, ITV adaptation of this novel, I did not remember the plot twist at all. In fact, the story seemed almost strange to me. But as this is the only one set on a plane, and I do remember watching Suchet complain, on a plane about being airsick, I know I watched it, or at least the first quarter of it. So it's delightful to read these books, now that I can actually read Poirot novels, and see the source material. Poirot of the books is delightfully quirky, with his own meddlesome ways. I see him more as the older, softer, J.P. Morgen than I do of Suchet. It's not that Suchet is wrong, it's just, Morgan had the mustache, and if he'd been a gentler man, less hard driving than of the famous photo.
The solution, like always, is there if you know how to use your context clues. One of the impressions I get from reading and rereading all of these Agatha Christie novels is the extent to which she put thought into misdirection. These books are more about the ability not to miss the correct the clue, the ability to read and reason well. I am not surprised that they sell so well, because Christie is just better at misdirection than other writers, and even when you get the importance of the clue, and have the requiste knowledge of how some of the things might have been done, it's still incredibly easy to get sidetracked. Frequently I will guess several parts of the correct solution, if I haven't read it before, only to be surprised at the result in the end. And more times than not, Christie lands the denouement. As a writer I appreciate how difficult that is to do.
How Much My Library Card Saved Me
This is the last book in my summer project. And fittingly, it took the longest to get in, nearly five days. It was shipped to my library from Fremont Public Library, which is about six or seven miles from my house. The tape on spine of the paperback is very stiff. In fact the entire cover felt stiff, stiffer than any other paperback to date. I read the HaperCollins edition of his book, which was first printed in 2011, but this book is almost pristine, so it must be much newer. It has been gently read, and shipped between libraries. The cover says it was $12.99.
This Book $12.99
This Summer $816.10
What's Next
I am going to write up a review of my 50 Summer Reads, and then I am going to take a break. Not from blogging, this blog will go on and convert to a Monday, Wednesday, Friday blog. The reviews will slow, I have other things about writing mysteries that I want to say, but they are not going away. And besides, I may have challenged myself to read 50 mystery novels over the course of one summer, but I am in the middle of reading every Agatha Christie and Anne Perry book. Well, technically I'm about 1/3 of the way through Agatha Christie and about 1/6 of the way through Anne Perry. Expect those books to continue in a couple of weeks. And if you are a writer, then I am going to be writing a great deal about the business of selling books as an author as I prepare to release my first novel, probably some time in 2025.
Thank you so much for reading with me this summer. Thanks to all of the readers, and to those of you who have stuck around. If you have a favorite novelist you would like for me to read, please feel free to leave a comment below. I read them all.
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The Book
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