John Curran - Agatha Christie's Secret Notebooks

Good son Percival—bad son Lance—deadly enemies (really in cahoots?) Motive—swindle by one of the sons? Servant (N.A.A.F.I. girl) in league with Lance—she could alter all clocks. Girl takes father’s coffee to study—comes out screaming? Lance first to get to him (kills him then) others coming up. Old man drugged first—must have been at dinner (Lance not there). Girl suspected—could have doped him and stabbed him and put rye in man’s pockets. They argue—she is found dead—with clothes pin

This is much nearer to the one she eventually chose, although much of the detail was to change—e.g. there is no changing of clocks or stabbing in the finished novel and the brothers are not ‘in cahoots’. Here also is the first mention of Blackbird Mines, the supposedly worthless mines which prove to be a source of uranium, thereby providing the killer’s motivation. This aspect of the plot is very reminiscent of the swindle perpetrated on his partner by Simeon Lee, the victim in Hercule Poirot’s Christmas. The reference to a ‘N.A.A.F.I. girl’ is to the Navy, Army and Air Force Institute, founded in 1921 to run recreational establishments needed by the armed forces, and to sell goods to servicemen and their families.

But it is in Notebook 53 that we find most of the plotting for the book. Although this follows the pattern of the novel closely, we can see here that various other possibilities were considered before their eventual rejection. Both Percival and his wife, and Lance and Adele, were considered as the murderers; Lance might have been either a ‘good boy’ or a ‘bad lot’; and Christie proposed the use of strychnine or arsenic as a poison rather than taxine:

Percival married to a girl (crook) abroad. She comes down to stay with other brother Lancelot—posing as his wife—she and Percival are the ones who do the murder

Lance in it with Adele—Adele is engaged to father—gets her to kill father—then arrives just in time to poison her tea

Lance is on plane returning from East. He is good son—his wife is Ruby Mackenzie

Good son Percival—bad son Lance—deadly enemies (really in cahoots?)

Strychnine and arsenic found later in cupboard in hall on top shelf or in dining room alcove in soup tureen on top shelf

After these speculations the plot begins to emerge. The material in the following extracts, all from Notebook 53, appears in the novel:

Lance (bad boy) is returning on plane—father has sent for him. Before he can get home father dies—[Perci]Val’s wife is Ruby Mackenzie—Lance has got together with Marlene at holiday camp. Gives her powder to put in early morning tea—says it will make his father ill—he will be sent for—Marlene is in terrible state—Lance arrives home—in time to poison Adelaide—(in tea?) then adds it to honey

Chapter I

Tea during 11—the newest typist makes it Office—blond secretary—takes in the boss’s tea ‘Mr Fortescue is in conference—’ Scream—ill—blond rushes in—out—call for doctor—phone—Hospital

Tea—A[dele] eats honey off comb—son gives it to her in tea—dies. Or son poisons her by putting stuff in meal before he comes back officially—girl meets him outside

Maid in garden—clothes peg on nose. Miss M points out later you wouldn’t go out and hang up clothes at that time? But you would meet young man

After death of girl Gladys—Miss M arrives in hall—sergeant baffled—Inspector remembers her—Miss M very positive about girl Gladys—dead—must be stopped—nose and clothes peg—human dignity

A series of mysterious thefts in the student hostel run by Miss Lemon’s sister in Hickory Road culminates in the death of one of the students. The incongruity of the objects stolen attracts the attention of Hercule Poirot, who visits the hostel—just before the first death.

The notes for Hickory Dickory Dock are scattered over 50 pages of Notebook 12, with two brief and unsuccessful attempts to come to grips with it in two other Notebooks (See below and ‘Miscellaneous’ on page 129—a note which dates from six years earlier). Despite the rejection of these other ideas Christie did not give up on utilising the rhyme, although it supplies only the title and even that is tenuous. Apart from the address (which itself was changed from Gillespie Road) there is no attempt in the novel to follow the verse, one of the few references to it coming in the closing lines when Poirot quotes it.

The following in Notebook 12 shows that the book had been largely finished early in the year prior to publication:

Suggestions to enlarge and improve Hic. Dic. Doc. May 1954

Some motifs from earlier novels recur. Mrs Nicoletis has a conversation with her unnamed killer much as Amy Murgatroyd did in A Murder is Announced ; and Patricia Lane’s telephone call to Poirot as the killer attacks her recalls Helen Abernethie’s in After the Funeral and Donald Ross’s in Lord Edgware Dies. And there is another unlikely, and unnecessary, relationship revealed towards the end of the novel. It is along the lines of similar disclosures in Four-Fifty from Paddington and The Mirror Crack’d from Side to Side. Both Morgan and Osborne refer to the fact that there were plans, in the early 1960s, to turn this title into a musical. Unlikely as this may seem, some of the music was written and a title—‘Death Beat’—had been decided upon, but the project eventually came to nothing.

The incongruity of the stolen objects presents Poirot, and the reader, with an intriguing puzzle and the explanations are satisfying. But there are arguably too many characters and some of the foreign students are little more than stereotypes.

Each of the first five pages of notes for this book is headed ‘Holiday Task’, suggesting that it was written at a time when Christie should have been relaxing. And the plotting of it did not come easily, as endless permutations and much repetition is included. It does not read as if she had a very clear idea of the plot when she started. The first page of the notes has the glimmering of a plot, much of which remained, although there were to be many changes before she was happy with it. By the end of the first page she had reached a possible starting point with echoes—‘one thing needed others camouflage’—of The A.B.C. Murders :

Things have disappeared—a rather stupid girl ‘Cilly’ (for Celia or Cecelia)—very enamoured of dour student—going in for psychiatry—he doesn’t notice her. Valerie, a clever girl puts her up to stealing ‘He’ll notice you through silly things or rather—one really good thing’

Stealing—things keep disappearing—really just one thing needed others camouflage

Some early ideas were, thankfully, not pursued…

Hickory Dickory Dock

Complex about the word Dock—a terror story—danger—girl in job—finds out something

H.P. in train—girl gets him to go stealing

Holiday Task (Cont.) 23 Gillespie Road

Does Miss Lemon decide to go as Matron? Bored by retirement—asks Poirot’s advice

…and some later ones that sounded promising were also abandoned.

Hickory Dickory Dock

First death at one o’clock—Second at 2 o’clock

Important—2 murders

[First] happens quite soon after P’s lecture

Mrs. Nicoletis? Why? Blackmails? One of the gang and slipping?

Johnston?—Her trained mind has made certain deduction—etc.—possibly finds after with matter—a warning hold you tongue—

Aka bombo?