John Curran - Agatha Christie's Secret Notebooks

There is more to this story than at first meets the eye. Amy Carnaby is a delightful but poignant creation. Her situation—elderly untrained companion facing a bleak future in her old age—is similar to that of Dora Bunner in A Murder is Announced when Miss Blacklock rescues her. Miss Carnaby’s criminal brain is, however, a major asset and Poirot, in ‘The Flock of Geryon’, calls her ‘one of the most successful criminals that I have ever encountered’. The plot, a very clever one, is also particularly rich for a 20-page short story. There is the main plot involving the Pekinese dog/Nemean Lion but also a sub-plot involving the soap manufacturer poisoner in Belgium years earlier. And it is not fanciful to see, in the switch-of-dogs idea, the forerunner of Evil under the Sun, which appeared two years later. Poirot also mentions this case in Chapter 14 of The Clocks.

Ugly rumours bring Poirot to a small village to investigate the death of the doctor’s wife.

The plot of this story is largely contained on two pages in Notebook 44, the only difference being the change of name from Nurse Carpenter to Harrison:

Doctor comes to P—embarrassed—no good going to police—wife dead—rumours—practice falling off- doesn’t know how to combat it. P asks—who is the woman? Doctor angry—leaves—P says must have truth. Girl dispenser—admits will marry her—wife a difficult invalid—details of her death consistent with poisoning arsenic. P warns him—I shall get at truth. P sees girl—honest—frank—says old Miss L is worst. P. sees Miss L—etc. etc. Tracked down to Nurse—Handsome middle-aged woman—Nurse Carpenter?—She did it. He finds nurse—her Madonna face—he presses her—autopsy—she says no—no indeed—she was murdered—morphia pills

And ten pages later…

Lernean Hydra Cont.

P talks of Home Office—she says yes—because Mrs O was murdered. P gets them to announce engagement—Jean gets abusive letter. The morphia pills—v—opium pills—Doctor called in—orders opium pills—which Jean supplies

The intervening pages include preliminary notes for four of the other Labours as well as two pages of chemical formulae, possibly of potential poisons. This outline is generally in keeping with the published story; note however that the idea, in the second extract, of announcing an engagement and a consequent abusive letter is not pursued. In many ways this is the most typically Christiean of all the Labours—Poirot goes to a small village to investigate a mysterious death, in this case the possible poisoning of a wife, whose husband is under suspicion. The short stories ‘The Cornish Mystery’ and ‘How Does Your Garden Grow?’, and the novels Dumb Witness and Mrs McGinty’s Dead, as well as the Marple novel The Moving Finger, all have similar set-ups. And this short story has distinct parallels with the earlier story ‘The Blue Geranium’ from The Thirteen Problems.

Poirot penetrates an impersonation in an effort to reunite two lovers before it is too late.

’The Arcadian Deer’ is an idyllic story, as befits one set in Arcady, and does not feature a crime. There is however a Christiean twist in the final words of the first extract—and one that she uses a few times elsewhere in her work, although usually for a sinister purpose. The impersonation of an attendant (maid, butler, waiter, steward) is used here for non-criminal reasons, unlike its use in Death in the Clouds, Appointment with Death, Three Act Tragedy, Sparkling Cyanide, Elephants Can Remember and At Bertram’s Hotel. And its reverse (the impersonation by a domestic of a ‘real person’) is a feature of Taken at the Flood, The Mystery of the Blue Train, After the Funeral and Murder on the Orient Express. Short stories ‘The Affair at the Bungalow’ and ‘The Companion’ from The Thirteen Problems and ‘The Mystery of Hunter’s Lodge’ from Poirot Investigates also feature this ploy.

There are two sketches for the opening scene of this story, the second of which is the more detailed. Both versions are accurate, although Ted’s beloved, Mary Brown in the first draft, has become in the second the more romantic Marie and, ultimately, ‘Nita—Incognita—Juanita’:

Young man in country village—car breaks down—appeals to him—find his sweetheart Mary Brown—gone to London and vanished—if in trouble will see her through. Was MB down there with a rich lady—MB was servant—really the dancer herself (kept by Lord Masterfield?) or wife of a rich polo playing young American. P sees her—a hard faced Young woman—she tells him she has not maid’s address. The maid—a coarse looking girl. P knows it is the girl herself

Begging your pardon Sir—the young man—simple—handsome as a god—his persistence. Recognised HP from photo in Tatler—couldn’t be another moustache like that—P softens. P has dinner at Inn—young man comes up there—find this girl—Marie—doesn’t know other name. Switzerland—the girl—he hardly remembers her—so changed—her maid—Yes—remembers her—that other—do you mean Juanita—replaced maid when latter was away—P says Yes—what happened to her—she died young—Arcady. P explains—mystery about maid—blackmailed Sir George—his wife—Nita—Incognita—Juanita

A violent criminal and an isolated setting combine to make this fourth Labour a very dangerous one.

As befits its origins, this is the most bloodthirsty of the Labours and is in many ways a very atypical Christie story. A gangster arranging a rendezvous on a Swiss mountaintop is not a regular feature of her output. The image of Hercule Poirot hopping out of bed to relieve three thugs of their firearms while someone else holds them at bay is one that sits badly with the great detective of the square eggs and the blackcurrant sirop. That said, it contains a twisting plot with multiple impersonations crammed into a mere 20 pages. This is also a use of the plastic surgeon idea, which is mentioned a few times in the Notebooks, including the early, unused notes for Sleeping Murder, as well as those for Crooked House and the tentative dramatisation of Murder in Mesopotamia.

The following notes accurately reflect, if somewhat cryptically, the course of a rather complicated story:

Switzerland—HP leaves World’s End—goes to Zermatt and up from there to hotel at top—something happens to funicular. Has HP first received telegram—or note—from M. Belex who saw him—the notorious Marascaud—believed to be up there—Inspector Drouet—certain people went up in funicular with him.

Schwab—lonely American

Dr. Karl Lutz (nervous physician) or Austrian Jewish doctor—facial surgeon

3 horsey men—cardsharpers

Nervous English doctor

Already there?

The waiter—Gustave—introduces himself to HP as Inspector Drouet

Manager—terribly nervous—has been bribed by Gust[ave]

Mysterious patient

Marascaud bookmaker—took cash—share out in this lonely place. Gustave said ‘It’s one of them’—G is ‘attacked’ in night—doctor attends on him—speaks to P. P sees him—his face smothered in bandages. Who attacked him—3 men—they get drunk—attack P—Schwab—saves him with pistol

Christie’s preliminary notes for this story are partly utilised as the criminal Marrascaud is ‘traced and taken’ alive—an important point, as Poirot underlines in the last line of the story; the ‘race gang’ element, however, is not pursued.