John Curran - Agatha Christie's Secret Notebooks

A murder method that involves sending poisoned chocolates to a patient in hospital resurfaces three years later in Three Act Tragedy, when it is used to despatch the unfortunate Mrs de Rushbridger.

A vital and poignant clue from the contents of a letter posted by the victim shortly before her death and subsequently forwarded by the recipient to Poirot appears again (and arguably in an even more ingenious form) the following year in Lord Edgware Dies.

The use of cocaine by the ‘smart set’ of the 1930s is revisited in Death in the Clouds when Lady Horbury is found to have cocaine in her dressing-case.

Apart from the letter clue above there are other strong similarities to Lord Edgware Dies —an attractive and ruthless female draws Poirot, for her own purposes, into the case.

Subterfuge concerning wills was also to be a feature of Sad Cypress, A Murder is Announced, Taken at the Flood and Hallowe’en Party.

As usual some of the names change—Lucy Bartlett becomes Maggie Buckley, while Walter Buckhampton is Charles Vyse and the Curtises become the Crofts—but much of the notes tally with the finished novel, leading once more to the suspicion that earlier notes have not survived. Interestingly, in Notebook 59 the character of Nick Buckley is referred to throughout as Egg—the future nickname of Mary Lytton-Gore in Three Act Tragedy; although it is odd that the surname Beresford—already in use for Tommy and Tupppence—is chosen.

Poirot and Hastings sitting in Imperial Hotel—H reads from paper about Polar expedition—a letter from Home Secretary begging Poirot to do something. H urges him to do so—P refuses—no longer any wish for kudos. The garden—girl—someone calls ‘Egg’—Poirot goes down stairs—falls—girl picks him up—she and Hastings assist him to verandah—he thanks her suggests cocktail. H is sent to get them—returns to find pair firm friends

People in this story

Egg Beresford—owner of End House

Cousin Lucy—a distant cousin—2nd or 3rd cousin—Lucy Bartlett

Egg’s cousin Walter Buckhampton—son of her mother’s sister—he works in a solicitor’s office in St. Loo—he loves Egg

Mr and Mrs Curtis—old friends who live next door—he is an invalid who came down there years ago—they seem pleasant and jovial

Freddie—Frederica Rice—a friend—parasite who lives on Egg and admits it frankly

Lazarus—has a big car—often down there—a member of an antique firm in London

The hotel where Poirot and Hastings sit is a real Torquay hotel, the Imperial, with a verandah overlooking Torquay Bay; in the book it is re-imagined as the Majestic Hotel in St Loo. The rest of the cast is recognisable and the opening of the book follows the above plan exactly.

The plot is developed further in Notebook 68; I have indicated the chapters in which the following scenes occur:

At End House they pass Lodge and cottage—man gardening—bald head old fashioned spectacles—stares—admitted to End House—they wait for Nick—old pictures—gloom—damp—decay. Nick enters—slight surprise—Poirot talks to her—shows her bullet [Chapter 2]

They return to Hotel—Freddie Rice talks to Poirot—suggests Nick is an amazing little liar—likes to invent things. Poirot presses her—such as—she talks about brakes of car [Chapter 2]

P asks her if she will send for a woman friend—she suggests ‘My cousin Maggie’—she was to come to me next month—I could ask her to come now—second cousin really—there’s a large family of them—Maggie is the second—she’s a nice girl—but perhaps a bit dull [Chapter 3]

A call upon Mr Vyse—a reference to legal advice—P mentions he called yesterday at 12—but Mr. Vyse was out—Mr Vyse agrees [Chapter 6]

The fireworks—they go over to the Point—Nick and Maggie are to follow—they all watch—they’re a long time. Poirot and H go back—fall over body in scarlet shawl—then see Nick coming—it’s Maggie—Nick with traces of tears on her face [Chapter 7]

A quill pen, a dressing case, a game of golf and a cuff link all combine to make Hercule Poirot suspicious of a Guy Fawkes Night suicide.

The ploy of murder disguised as suicide is given the Christie treatment in the novella ‘Murder in the Mews’, an early proof of her ingenuity at ringing the changes on a clichéd plot. This ploy first appeared over ten years earlier in the short story ‘The Market Basing Mystery’, and when she came to elaborate it in the mid-1930s she retained the original idea and added a few refinements. It remains a handbook in detective story writing technique with the main clue brought to the reader’s attention again and again.

As the Notebooks reveal, the 5 November background was originally to have been a very different plot. Among a list of plot ideas in Notebook 20 that included Sad Cypress, ‘Triangle at Rhodes’ and ‘Problem at Sea’ we find the following:

Murderer leaves bodyjust before he finds it (officially)! It has been dead for two hours so he has alibi

Nov. 5th—fireworks going off. Book?

But the only aspect of this jotting that she subsequently used was in ‘Murder in the Mews’, where she adopted the Guy Fawkes connection; echoing Peril at End House four years earlier, it is used as a camouflage for the gunshot. Most of the plotting is in Notebook 30:

Adaptation of Market Basing Mystery

Mrs Allen—young woman living in Mews—engaged to be married—her friend, Jane Petersham—quiet dark girl

The Mews Murder

P and Japp Guy Fawkes day—little boy—back to Japp’s room—a call—young woman shot—in Mayfair

Mrs. Allen—Miss Jane Plenderleith—she arrived home that morning—found her friend dead

Locked cupboard (with golf clubs in) tennis balls—and a couple of empty suitcases.

Pistol in hand too loose—wrist watch on right wrist—blotting paper torn off- stubs of two different cigarettes

Typically, the pages are scattered throughout the Notebook and are interspersed with ideas for stories with a British Museum and National Gallery background, the death of a fortune-teller and much of the plotting for Dumb Witness. Not surprisingly in a novella more than six times the length of the original, most of the material above is new; only the wristwatch clue and the cigarettes are imported from the earlier story. And the characters and background in the two versions are totally different.

Simeon Lee is a wealthy and horrible old man who enjoys tormenting his family. When he gathers them together for Christmas he sets in motion a train of events that culminates in his own murder. Luckily Hercule Poirot is staying with the Chief Constable and is on hand to investigate.

Published originally during Christmas week, with a serialisation on both sides of the Atlantic a month earlier, this is Christie at her most ingenious. Expert misdirection, scrupulous clueing, an unexpected murderer all coalesce to produce one of the all-time classic titles. Despite its title and publication date, however, there is no Christmas atmosphere whatever, even before the murder occurs. ‘The Adventure of the Christmas Pudding’, an inferior story from every viewpoint, is far more festive. An earlier case, Three Act Tragedy, is discussed in Part III, ‘December 24th’, and a foreshadowing of They Do It with Mirrors appears in Part VI, ‘December 27th’, while the biblical reference to Jael two pages later is the basis of Butter in a Lordly Dish.