Evil Under the Sun; Death Comes As the End; The Sittaford Mystery
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The Sittaford Mystery
In snowbound Sittaford House, Mrs Willett and her guests were considering how they might amuse themselves when someone suggested an evening of "table turning". They were a little unnerved when the rocking of the table spelled out a "message" to the effect that Captain Joseph Trevelyan, from whom Mrs Willett was renting Sittaford House, had been murdered in his temporary home - six miles away in Exhampton. Dartmoor deep under snow, on a midwinter evening and with more snow threatening, is no place for a six-miles-long walk but Major Burnaby was so disturbed by the idea that his old friend, Joseph Trevelyan, might be lying dead that he announced his intention of walking through the snow to Exhampton. The major was no longer young and Mrs Willett tried to dissuade him, but despite the fears of his host he was determined to set off down the snow-covered road. Trevelyan was dead indeed, and the evidence suggested that he had been brutally slain within a few minutes of the mysterious message.
In snowbound Sittaford House, Mrs Willett and her guests were considering how they might amuse themselves when someone suggested an evening of "table turning". They were a little unnerved when the rocking of the table spelled out a "message" to the effect that Captain Joseph Trevelyan, from whom Mrs Willett was renting Sittaford House, had been murdered in his temporary home - six miles away in Exhampton. Dartmoor deep under snow, on a midwinter evening and with more snow threatening, is no place for a six-miles-long walk but Major Burnaby was so disturbed by the idea that his old friend, Joseph Trevelyan, might be lying dead that he announced his intention of walking through the snow to Exhampton. The major was no longer young and Mrs Willett tried to dissuade him, but despite the fears of his host he was determined to set off down the snow-covered road. Trevelyan was dead indeed, and the evidence suggested that he had been brutally slain within a few minutes of the mysterious message.
Evil Under The Sun
Captain Angmering built his house in 1782 with the idea of being as close to the sea as possible without being actually afloat. The site was a solitary one, and became an island at high tide. By the twentieth century its solitude had come to be commercially exploited. The Jolly Roger Hotel (for such the house had become) provided just that blend of comfort and exclusiveness on holiday for which its own kind of patrons were prepared to pay handsomely. The hotel register's list of guests at the date of this story's opening was typical: apart from an American couple it read like a random selection from the residential directories of the most "respectable" parts of London and the Home Counties. One of the guests was Monsieur Hercule Poirot; another was soon to be found strangled on the exclusive beach; another was a murderer-to-be.
Captain Angmering built his house in 1782 with the idea of being as close to the sea as possible without being actually afloat. The site was a solitary one, and became an island at high tide. By the twentieth century its solitude had come to be commercially exploited. The Jolly Roger Hotel (for such the house had become) provided just that blend of comfort and exclusiveness on holiday for which its own kind of patrons were prepared to pay handsomely. The hotel register's list of guests at the date of this story's opening was typical: apart from an American couple it read like a random selection from the residential directories of the most "respectable" parts of London and the Home Counties. One of the guests was Monsieur Hercule Poirot; another was soon to be found strangled on the exclusive beach; another was a murderer-to-be.
Death Comes As The End
In this novel Christie takes a giant stride into the past to solve a murder in the Ancient Egypt of four thousand years ago. In such a setting the trappings of 20th century crime fiction have to be abandoned. Fingerprinting, forensic chemistry and telephones can have no part in the crime - nor in its unravelling. What remains, and what Christie brilliantly exploits, are the virtues and failings which in all periods of history have been the basis of human drama. The world of Imhotep and Henet, of Renisenb, Esa and Sobek, is not cluttered with the inessentials which are part and parcel even of rural life in our own century. On this well regulated scene a new element suddenly appears when Imhotep returns from Heracleopolis with his new concubine, Nofret. Hidden ambitions, rivalry, jealousy and sudden death turn the quietly peaceful life of a typical family in the Nile Valley into a nightmare of fear.
In this novel Christie takes a giant stride into the past to solve a murder in the Ancient Egypt of four thousand years ago. In such a setting the trappings of 20th century crime fiction have to be abandoned. Fingerprinting, forensic chemistry and telephones can have no part in the crime - nor in its unravelling. What remains, and what Christie brilliantly exploits, are the virtues and failings which in all periods of history have been the basis of human drama. The world of Imhotep and Henet, of Renisenb, Esa and Sobek, is not cluttered with the inessentials which are part and parcel even of rural life in our own century. On this well regulated scene a new element suddenly appears when Imhotep returns from Heracleopolis with his new concubine, Nofret. Hidden ambitions, rivalry, jealousy and sudden death turn the quietly peaceful life of a typical family in the Nile Valley into a nightmare of fear.
