Dead Man's Folly:
Poirot's friend and mystery writer Ariadne Oliver is organizing a Murder Hunt as part of a Fete held at Nasse House in Devon.
Weapons for the hunt:
- small pistol
- a piece of lead pipe with a rusty stain on it
- a blue bottle labelled "Poison"
- a length of clothesline
- a hypodermic syringe
The Suspects in the murder hunt:
- Estelle Glynne: a beautiful and mysterious young woman, the guest of Colonel Blunt
- Colonel Blunt: the local squire
- Joan: The Colonel's daughter who is married to Peter Gaye
- Peter Gaye: a young Atom Scientist
- Miss Willing: a housekeeper
- Quiett: a butler
- Maya Stavinsky: a girl hiker
- Esteban Loyola: an uninvited guest
Ariadne Oliver summons Poirot to Nasse House prior to the Murder Hunt because her womanly intuition tells her that something will go wrong with her fictional murder. As it happens, her intuition was right and Marlene, a local Girl Guide who was chosen to play the role of Maya Stavinsky, is found dead in the tennis pavillon during the Murder Hunt. Miss Oliver and Poirot then go on a real murder hunt to find out who killed Marlene.
A Pocket Full of Rye:
This is one of several Christie novels organized around a nursery rhyme*:
"Sing of song of sixpence, a pocketful of rye,
Four and twenty blackbirds baked in a pie
When the pie was opened the birds began to sing.
Wasn't that a dainty dish to set before the king?
The king was in his counting house, counting out his money
The queen was in the parlor eating bread and honey
The maid was in the garden hanging out the clothes,
When there came a little dickey bird and nipped off her nose"
Rex Fortescue drinks a cup of tea in his office and dies shortly after, grains of rye are found in his pocket. A few days later, his late wife dies after having afternoon tea and cakes, and the housemaid Gladys Martin, is found strangled by the clothesline with a clothespin on her nose.
Miss Marple is drawn to the case after reading about Gladys' death in the papers. Gladys was her former housemaid. I have noticed that a couple of Miss Marple's former maids (usually named Gladys) are either victims of crimes or involved in them. I don't know if this was intentional on Christie's part, but it is a little odd.
Inspector Neele recognizes a valuable asset in Miss Marple. Together the two of them ferret out a particularly wicked killer targeting members of the Fortescue household.
* A Pocketful of Rye, Hickory Dickory Death/Hickory Dickory Dock, And Then There Were None
No comments:
Post a Comment