Reading Agatha Christie in Order: Book 9: The Mystery of the Blue Train

Preceded by: The Big Four

First published: 1928. Christie's ninth book, eighth novel, and sixth featuring Poirot. Again, her life wasn't in the best place during its writing - she was still deeply affected by the breakup of her marriage and the death of her mother, and reportedly considered The Mystery of the Blue Train to be her least favourite of her books. 

Title: Pretty standard. Le Train Bleu was a French luxury night express train, favoured by the rich and famous, which operated from 1886 to 2003 between Calais and the French Riviera (thank you, Wikipedia).

Plot: It's a bit of an odd one. Numerous characters are introduced in the first part of the book, not all of whom will be ever mentioned again. First we're in the backstreets of Paris where an exchange of goods is taking place, then meeting a Greek antique dealer and a mysterious man with white hair known as M. le Marquis, then at the Savoy with a rich American (Christie's Americans are always rich), his daughter Ruth and her unsatisfactory husband. Then suddenly we're in St Mary Mead with Katherine Grey (but Miss Marple is nowhere to be seen). Then we're in the French Riviera with Lady Tamplin, her fourth husband and her daughter Lenox. (An unusual name, I thought. Ruth's husband is named "Derek", which I didn't know was popular in the 1920s.)

The eponymous Blue Train doesn't appear till around a quarter of the way through - neither does (the allegedly now retired) Poirot. To be honest, I forgot he was supposed to be in it for ages, though once he turns up, he does play a large role. Hastings is absent and unmentioned, aside from one passing reference.

Once all these disparate elements started coming together, I quite enjoyed it. Katherine is our heroine: a formerly penniless companion who has come into money, an intelligent and reflective young woman whose calm grey eyes seem particularly alluring to the various men she meets. An encounter on the Blue Train draws her into murder and mystery. 

The plot - jewel theft, murder, various comings and goings on the train - is a little complicated. I did suspect one person, but was still surprised when the identity of the "Marquis" was revealed.

There are hints of romance for certain characters, but it was impossible to predict exactly how it would turn out.

Poirot-isms: His avuncular relationship with Katherine is quite sweet. He's as self-effacing as ever, of course:

    "I am Hercule Poirot."

    "Yes, Monsieur?"

    "You do not know the name?"

    "I have never heard it."

    "Permit me to say that you have been badly educated. It is the name of one of         the great ones of this world."

Acceptable in the 20s? I don't think there's anything too jarring. Some national stereotypes and unnecessary references to people being Jewish, but nothing majorly offensive. 

I enjoyed this description of Lady Tamplin's dopily amiable fourth husband, known as "Chubby":

    "He was one of those staunch patriotic Britons who, having made a portion of a         foreign country their own, strongly resent the original inhabitants of it." 

Plus que change, etc.

 

Americans with Silly Names Watch: None. Rufus Van Aldin is this book's resident American millionaire, but his name isn't particularly ludicrous. There's a Frenchman called Armand de la Roche, which is rather marvellous. And the aforementioned Lenox Tamplin, but she's not American. 

Verdict: I liked it better than The Big Four, which isn't saying much. Christie herself deemed it her least favourite story, but I think there are more deserving candidates for the dubious accolade of her worst. Interesting to get an early reference to St Mary Mead - Christie clearly (and rightly) liked the name well enough to adopt it for Miss Marple's village. (It also marks the first appearance of Poirot's valet, George, or "Georges" as he calls him.)

Up next: The Seven Dials Mystery

Reading Agatha Christie in Order: Book 8 : The Big Four

Preceded by: The Murder of Roger Ackroyd

First published: 1927. Christie's eighth book, seventh novel, and fifth outing for Poirot.

Title: Moderately intriguing, I suppose. Who or what are the Big Four?

Agatha wasn't having a happy time during the writing and publication of this - reeling from both the death of her mother and the breakdown of her marriage due to her husband's infidelity. The book itself came out just a few weeks after her famous disappearance. 

I've been putting off reading it for a while, because I don't have especially fond memories of it (actually I barely have any memories of it apart from it being a drag to get through) and I'm really not keen on this particular species of Christie (even though it does in this case have Poirot in it, which is a minor saving grace). It's another one where there's a shadowy figure (or four, in this case) of extraordinary power behind all manner of world unrest, revolutions, etc. (Lenin and Trotsky, for instance, are "mere puppets whose every action was dictated by another's brain".) 

"Oh come," [protests Hastings], "isn't that a bit far-fetched?"

For once, I'm with the Captain on this one.

Anyway, Hastings is back from South America after eighteen months to carry out some unspecified business, and looks up his old friend Poirot. (His wife is left behind in Argentina for several months, so I'm not sure how she feels about that.) Following a rapturous welcome from Poirot, the two old friends are almost immediately caught up in danger and adventure, with the number four continually popping up right, left and centre.

It does feature Hastings briefly going undercover in the household of an American millionaire, which is fun. Ryland’s household includes a valet called Deaves with an “irreproachable manner”, surely a nod to the ineffable PG Wodehouse, whose similarly irreproachably-mannered and similarly-named Jeeves had been appearing in short stories for a number of years at this point. 

Oh, and Poirot is dead at one point. He has a funeral and everything.

Poirot-isms 

"But for my quick eyes, the eyes of a cat, Hercule Poirot might now be crushed out of existence - a terrible calamity for the world. And you too, mon ami - though that would not be such a national catastrophe."

"We are dealing with the second greatest brain in the world." [No need to ask who the first greatest is, of course.]

Americans with Silly Names Watch: "Richest man in the world" Abe Ryland is known as the American Soap King, but his actual name isn't particularly silly.

Acceptable in the 20s? The less said about the representation of Chinese people here, the better. Hastings’ comment that he can’t tell one “Chinaman” from another is in fact one of the less offensive stereotypes here, which probably tells you everything you need to know.

Hastings has some unreconstructed views on women scientists:

"It has always seemed to me so extraordinary that a woman should go so far in the scientific world. I should have thought a purely masculine brain was needed for such work."

But as the woman in question is described by Poirot and others as an incredible genius, it’s clear the Captain is in the minority here and his views on this, at least, probably don’t reflect the author’s.

Final verdict

Slightly more enjoyable than I expected, after detesting The Secret of Chimneys so much. It feels more like a Tommy and Tuppence than a Poirot, but he’s probably its saving grace.

Next up: The Mystery of the Blue Train

Reading Agatha Christie in Order: Book 7: The Murder of Roger Ackroyd

Preceded by: The Secret of Chimneys

First published: 1926. Christie's seventh book, sixth novel, and fourth (including the short story collection Poirot Investigates) to feature the little egg-shaped-headed one. 

Title: Another does-what-it-says-on-the-tin. There's a bloke called Roger Ackroyd and he does indeed get murdered. 

Background: Probably the first of the “big name” books - the ones most people have heard of, and the first to really mess with the established rules of the murder mystery. It also represents a setting which many people associate with Christie: no international jewel thieves or shadowy world-taker-overers here, just a murder or two in a country village - King's Abbot - where the inhabitants' "hobbies and recreations can be summed up in the one word: gossip". And it features the already-popular Poirot, though no Hastings to provide dim-witted sidekickery, the Hastings/Watson role here being taken by local GP Dr Sheppard, who narrates the story.

Plot: Poirot has retired to King’s Abbot, supposedly, in order to grow vegetable marrows (we know that's not going to last) and Hastings has got married and popped off to "the Argentine". Poirot's keeping quiet about his former profession and is generally presumed locally to have been a hairdresser named Mr Porrott. Unfortunately for his retirement plans, two deaths in rapid succession, of which the second - Ackroyd's - is most definitely murder, require him to dust off the little grey cells, leave the vegetable marrows to their own devices and annoy the local police (including the "weaselly" Inspector Raglan) by getting stuck into the investigation. 

I love Christie's character descriptions. They may lack a certain depth, but they really give you a lasting impression of the person. Ackroyd's housekeeper, Miss Russell, is

"a tall woman, handsome but forbidding in appearance. She has a stern eye, and lips that shut tightly, and I feel that if I were an under housemaid or a kitchenmaid I should run for my life whenever I heard her coming."

 

Sheppard's sister Caroline is one of those very Christie-esque spinsters who knows nearly everything about everyone without needing to leave the house, a type later to resurface more famously, and with more finely honed detection skills, as Miss Marple.

"The motto of the mongoose family, so Mr Kipling tells us, is 'Go and find out'. If Caroline ever adopts a crest, I should certainly suggest a mongoose rampant. One might omit the first part of the motto. Caroline can do any amount of finding out by sitting placidly at home."

Caroline also gets some great lines. 

'"Never worry about what you say to a man," [said Caroline]. "They're so conceited that they never believe you mean it if it's unflattering."'

 I mean, she's not completely wrong.

Poirot himself is introduced as follows, after hurling a vegetable marrow over the wall into his neighbour's garden:

"An egg-shaped head, partially covered with suspiciously black hair, two immense moustaches, and a pair of watchful eyes. It was our mysterious neighbour, Mr Porrott."

 

Acceptable in the 20s? A passing reference to "Semitic" moneylenders and a big-game hunter's mention of natives and their tom-toms, but I think that's about it. 

Verdict 

Roger Ackroyd was once voted the best crime novel ever by the Crime Writers' Association - quite an accolade. It certainly has a claim to be one of the most influential. When you read the story with knowledge of the solution, the clues and red herrings seem obvious, but it's so beautifully done that I doubt many first-time readers would spot it, and while the major twist has certainly been done since, it was undoubtedly ground-breaking at the time and was apparently greeted with quite an outcry. Complaints of Christie not playing fair with the reader are, however, unjustified. She doesn't so much break as reinvent the rules, and there's nothing wrong with that.

A classic Christie concoction of murder, blackmail, secrets and lies, a houseful of suspects and more red herrings than you can shake a stick at. Beautifully constructed and essential reading for Christie aficionados and casual fans alike.

Next up: The Big Four. Can't say I'm overly enthused about this one, but I'm keeping an open mind.

Reading Agatha Christie in Order Book 4: Poirot Investigates

 

Preceded by: The Murder on the Links

First published

1924, a year after The Murder on the Links, but not necessarily set chronologically after it, since there's no mention of Hastings being in love or getting married or going to South America. All the stories had previously appeared in the magazine The Sketch, a society magazine which also included short stories and printed many by Christie. This was Christie's first published short story collection, and her third book overall to feature the already-popular Poirot.

Good title?

Does what it says on the tin. 

The plot(s) Eleven short stories in which Poirot, as advertised, investigates cases from a jewel robbery to an abducted Prime Minister (and most mysteriously of all, a suspiciously cheap London flat) and Hastings bumbles along in his wake, misunderstanding things and barking up the wrong tree.

The little Belgian has by now acquired a degree of celebrity in London:

"Oui, my friend, it is true - I am become the mode, the dernier cri! One says to another: 'Comment? You have lost your gold pencil-case? You must go to the little Belgian. He is too marvellous! Everyone goes!"

Not only has Poirot become a "pet society detective", his renown is such that even the British government calls him in to investigate when the Prime Minister is kidnapped. Hard to imagine that happening today. (I mean, who'd want Boris?) 

All the familiar elements are here; the gentle ridicule directed at Hastings brain power or the lack of it:

"Poirot," I said. "Am I quite demented?"

          "No, mon ami, but you are, as always, in a mental fog."

and the mystery-solving brilliance of Poirot's little grey cells. Indeed, in The Mystery of Hunter's Lodge, Poirot solves the whole thing from his sickbed, having dispatched Hastings to the scene to gather information. Other stories, though, take him further afield.

The Adventure of the Egyptian Tomb allows Agatha an early opportunity to exercise her interest in Egyptology, and also offers the enchanting spectacle of Poirot on a camel:

'He started by groans and lamentations and ended by shrieks, gesticulations and invocations to the Virgin Mary and every saint in the calendar. In the end, he descended ignominiously and finished the journey on a diminutive donkey.'

Interestingly, in a story called The Disappearance of Mr Davenheim, Christie once again foreshadows her own much-talked about "disappearance" a couple of years hence in 1926, with Poirot listing three types of disappearance, of which the second is "the much abused 'loss of memory' case - rare, but occasionally genuine". A couple of books earlier, The Secret Adversary also included such a case.

Acceptable in the 20s? Dodgy references to “Chinamen" in the first story (complete with pigtails and embroidered gowns), reference to superstitious "natives" in the Egypt one.

Verdict  Poirot Investigates is Christie's fourth published book, the third to feature Poirot and Hastings, and the first short story collection. I generally prefer her full length novels - the short story form doesn't really give space for the development of plot and character, presenting instead a puzzle to be solved. (Some people view all Christie's work like that, but those people are wrong.) 

That said, I liked the final story, The Case of the Missing Will, although it certainly fits into this "pure puzzle" category and although the story is slight and the title uninspired. In this story a young woman of intelligence and independence (Hastings, naturally, remarks that "I am not a great admirer of the so-called New Woman myself") employs Poirot to solve a conundrum regarding her uncle's will.

Worth a read, nevertheless, and I'll end with a favourite, quintessentially Poirot quote which I really need to find a way to work into my daily life.

"Strange." [Poirot murmured.] "We all have the little grey cells. And so few of us know how to use them."

Next up: The Man in the Brown Suit

Reading Agatha Christie in Order Book 3: The Murder on the Links

Preceded by: The Secret Adversary

First published 

1923, Agatha's third novel and the second to feature Poirot and Hastings.

Good title?

Is it Murder on the Links or The Murder on the Links? Nobody seems to know. Some editions have it one way, some the other. The latter seems more prevalent, though, so I'll stick with that. A reasonable workmanlike title anyway, in the great tradition of Murder on the This, Death on the That, etc, though I'm pretty sure I didn't know what "links" were when I first read it. Heck, I hardly knew what golf was. I was young. And, in fact, the title notwithstanding, golf plays no part in this story, so if you're looking for a golf-themed mystery you are, I'm afraid, doomed to disappointment. 

Anyway, after first being unleashed on the world in The Mysterious Affair at Styles, Poirot's back! (And Hastings. Him too.) And they're living together! (Not like that.) When Poirot is summoned to the French home of a millionaire, Paul Renauld, for reasons to be explained when they get there, he and Hastings arrive to find their correspondent (drum roll)… already dead! Poirot soon locks horns with the arrogant (probably insecure) Giraud of the Sûreté, who regards him as distinctly past it and has a good line in sneers. 

‘“I know you by name, Monsieur Poirot,” he said. You cut quite a figure in the old days, didn’t you? But methods are very different now.”

“Crimes, though, are very much the same,” remarked Poirot gently.’

 Needless to say, Poirot has the last laugh.

The plot is fast-paced, complicated and probably unguessable, with clues, suspects, daggers and dead bodies strewn around all over the place. It's all very French, with a different feel about it from Styles (and even more French phrases liberally sprinkled about than usual.) This is also the one where Hastings falls in love (and where his first name, Arthur, is finally mentioned... on the very last page). We are also treated to his views on women:

“Now I am old-fashioned. A woman, I consider, should be womanly. I have no patience with the modern neurotic girl who jazzes from morning to night, smokes like a chimney, and uses language which would make a Billingsgate fishwoman blush!”

He’s later challenged on it, though:

“Your idea of a woman is someone who gets on a chair and shrieks if she sees a mouse. That’s all prehistoric.”

You definitely get the impression "Cinderella" isn't going to put up with any of his nonsense.

Americans With Silly Names Watch: Hiram P. Trapp, although he’s only mentioned and never actually appears. Extremely wealthy, naturally. 

Poirot is, as always, very much himself - I've been struck already by how consistently he is characterised from the very beginning. Here, he is described by one character as:

“A small gentleman, well dressed, very neat, very spotless, the moustache very stiff, the head of a peculiar shape, and the eyes green.”

 And as far as his philosophy on detection goes, it's expounded here as clearly as anywhere:

‘“I do not run to and fro, making journeys, and agitating myself. My work is done from within - here -” he tapped his forehead significantly.’

I don't think many people would consider The Murder on the Links to be Christie's best work - the plot is a bit too complex - but there's lots of fun to be had nevertheless. 

Next up: Poirot Investigates

 

 

Reading Agatha Christie in Order: Book 1: The Mysterious Affair at Styles

So, here goes with the Great Agatha Christie Reread of 2020-??, beginning of course with The Mysterious Affair at Styles, Poirot's first outing, which hit UK bookshelves in 1921 (although it was actually written in 1916 and turned down by various publishers). Who were, no doubt, kicking themselves in retrospect. A challenge from her sister Madge, Agatha's own experience of working in a hospital pharmacy, and the arrival in Torquay of Belgian refugees provided motivation and inspiration.

The Mysterious Affair at Styles

Captain Arthur Hastings (though neither his first name nor his rank is ever referred to in this book), invalided home from the Front during World War I, has been invited to spend his convalescence at Styles, the home of Mrs Inglethorp, stepmother of his friend, John Cavendish. Also in residence are Mrs Inglethorp's dodgy new younger husband, Alfred; John's wife Mary and brother Lawrence; Mrs Inglethorp's young protegee Cynthia, who like Agatha herself did, works in a hospital dispensary; housekeeper Evie (one of those brusque manly women who seem to pop up fairly regularly in Christie's work); and various servants, including Dorcas and Annie. 

The Hastings we first meet here seems a rather arrogant so-and-so, fancying himself a detective and referring to a certain detective he met in Belgium ("a marvellous little fellow....He used to say that all good detective work was a mere matter of method. My system is based on his - though of course I have progressed rather further."), congratulating his own conversational prowess, and commenting on how an attractive young woman "would have been a beauty" if only certain flaws were remedied. 

Poirot himself, when we meet him for the first time, is very much himself, physically described as a "quaint, dandified little man" with a head "exactly the shape of an egg". I’d forgotten, though, that he arrives in Britain as a Belgian refugee, living in a house with other refugees. It's a shame that Christie never gives us Hastings and Poirot's first meeting in Belgium (I'm not sure if we ever learn more about it.) Well, I'm sure there's fanfiction.

His famous vanity, too, is quickly on display:

"The case is not clear yet - no. For it is of the most complicated. It puzzles me. Me, Hercule Poirot!"

Yet moments later we can see that his character has greater depth than merely a comically vain little man with a passion for order and method, when he displays genuine emotion in expressing his compassion for and gratitude to Mrs Inglethorp.

The dynamic between Poirot and Hastings is quickly established, with Hastings taking on the role of Poirot's Watson (we also meet for the first time Christie's Lestrade, Detective Inspector Japp). It's obvious to the reader, if not immediately to Hastings himself, that he's really a bit of a dimwit with a lack of self-awareness, albeit one with his heart in the right place. Poirot is kind enough to rarely draw attention to the fact - at least, not directly.

'"Yes, he is intelligent," [remarked Poirot, of a suspect]. "But we must be more intelligent. We must be so intelligent that he does not suspect us of being intelligent at all."

I acquiesced.

"There, mon ami, you will be of great assistance to me." 

I was pleased with the compliment. There had been times when I hardly thought that Poirot appreciated me at my true worth.' 

Not a great deal to report on Christie Xenophobia Watch - a couple of references to Dr Bauerstein being Jewish, but little is made of it. However I can't miss the opportunity to quote this, from parlourmaid Dorcas ("dear old Dorcas") on Poirot:

"A very nice gentleman he is, sir […..] I don't hold with foreigners as a rule, but from what the newspapers says I make out as how these brave Belgies isn't the ordinary run of foreigners, and certainly he's a most polite-spoken gentleman."

For a first novel, Styles seems remarkably strong, showing many of the characteristics which would go on to make Agatha Christie such a legend (and rendering it incomprehensible that it was turned down by so many publishers). Maybe it fizzles out slightly at the end, but overall it's incredibly consistent with her later work and a must-read for any Christie fans. 

Next up: #2 The Secret Adversary …. introducing Tommy and Tuppence.