Five Little Pigs by Agatha Christie

Five Little Pigs

Review of the novel Five Little Pigs by Agatha Christie

First Published by PAN in 1942 (USA) – version reviewed: UK reprint 1954.

Cost: 2/- in 1954 (Currently: £7.99)

ISBN 978-0-00-727456-7 (Paperback Edition – 190 pages)

This is the March book of the month, on the Agatha Christie website.

Christie purchased Greenway in 1938 with her second husband Max Mallowan. She described it as ‘the loveliest place in the world’, and it provided the inspiration for at least three of her novels, one of which was Five Little Pigs. ©Agatha Christie Website

Originally titled Murder in Retrospect (USA 1942), the book is set sixteen years after the murder of Caroline Crale’s husband, when their daughter is determined to prove her mother’s innocence. Hercule Poirot is enlisted to take on the unprecedented challenge, but soon fears that the case may be just as cut and dried as it had originally been suspected. ©Agatha Christie Website

This is the 24^th Hercule Poirot novel and by now the avid reader should know the methods used by Poirot in solving crimes. The story shows Christie’s fascination with memory and time through testimonies of those who were present on the day of the murder, leaving Poirot to reconstruct the scene sixteen year later. It must be considered Poirot at his best. The location for the crime is closely based on the house and grounds at Greenway, with parts of the estate beautifully described in detail, as only Agatha Christie can, but Christie wants us to focus on the approach used by Poirot to solve the murder investigation.

On page two Christie defines quite clearly the methods used by her detective, and his success based on psychology, so the reader knows what to expect:

‘Rest assured,’ said Hercule Poirot. ‘I am the best!’ ….. [He continues]

‘One does not, you know, employ merely the muscles. I do not need to bend and measure footprints and pick up the cigarette ends, to examine the bent blades of grass. It is enough for me to sit back in my chair and think. It is this’ – he tapped his egg-shaped head – ‘this that functions!’

Poirot is speaking to Carla Lemarchant, who is on the point of asking him to investigate the murder of her father. She is described as ‘a tall, slender young woman in her early twenties. The kind of young woman that one definitely looked at twice’. But it’s Carla’s eyes that reveal her feelings; in the introductory chapter they are described as; ‘dark eyes’, ‘two burning lights’, ‘dark dim pools’, and finally, ‘shinning eyes’.

Christie wants her reader to be fully aware how challenging this investigation is going to be and uses Carla to reminded us:

‘Oh! Of course it’s going to be difficult! Nobody but you could do it!’

Hercule Poirot’s eyes twinkled slightly.

Christie focuses on the way characters change over time, and in this case, the five possible suspects; the way they are able to recall past facts, crucial to the solving of this case. She wants the reader to be see everything through Poirot’s eyes and this is evident early in the story.

Having agreed to investigate the case, Poirot begins by talking to the Council for the Defence, Council for the Prosecution, the solicitors and Ex-chief Superintendent Hale; all concluded that the verdict of murder was correct based on the information to hand. During each conversation, the reader is presented with both facts and red herrings, typical Christie. It is the method of murder that has the eminent individuals under no doubt that Amyas Crale was murdered by his wife.

In this story, Christie reverts to one of her favourite methods of murder, poison. This time it is Coniine, defined in different terms by some of the characters, it is also known as hemlock, and the effects on Amyas Crale are described perfectly by Christie, after he drinks the poison:

‘Amyas tosses it off, making a face, and says: “Everything tastes foul to-day.”

[Quotes Poirot and then]… Philip Blake he speaks of Crale’s staggering a little and wonders ‘if he has been drinking.’

Early in the investigation Poirot is reminded of a Nursery Rhyme and matches the lines of the rhyme with the five suspects perfectly:

This Little Piggy went to Market.          Philip Blake

This Little Piggy stayed at Home           Meredith Blake

This Little Piggy had the Roast Beef     Lady Dittisham (Elsa Greer)

This Little Piggy stayed at Home          Cecilia Williams

And This Little Piggy went wee            Angela Warren

wee wee all the way home

After interviews with each suspect, Poirot asks them to write an exact account of what happened on the days leading up to the murder of Amyas Crale. When he interviews Meredith Blake he is invited to visit Alderbury, the house and grounds where the murder took place, and Christie is at her best in describing this location, one which she seems to know very well - Greenway.

Greenway: ‘Alderbury is just opposite – there you can see the house through the trees’ … a white house could just be distinguished high up amongst the trees’.

The Battery: ‘The Battery was an artificially cleared plateau with battlements set with cannon. It gave one the impression of overhanging the sea. There were trees above it and behind it, but on the sea side there was nothing but dazzling blue water below.’

The garden: [they walked up] ‘the zigzag path. At a higher level than the Battery there was another small plateau. It was overshadowed with trees and there was a bench there...’

Christie clearly uses her holiday home as the setting for the crime and its description is Christie at her best.

When Poirot reads the accounts of the time at Alderbury provided by the five suspects they appear to confirm Amyas Crale was murdered by his wife. At this point Christie has set out the facts before her readers, it is down to them to try and solve the crime. But it is only Poirot that is able to see through the truth, the red herrings, the misunderstandings and the true facts placed before him. In the accustomed way, he invites all his suspects to Alderbury to reveal his findings. As each suspect declares to be innocent, the murderer is revealed on the penultimate page. The reader is either delighted that they have solved the crime or startled that the murderer is a most unlikely suspect.

The characters are beautifully described by Christie, the reader becomes very familiar with them, during the interviews and their tales of the time at Alderbury. The plot is a master piece and Christie at her best; the rhyme that links the characters is not forced, but managed perfectly reflecting the individual’s mannerisms and life styles. The challenge of solving a sixteen year old crime must be considered daunting, no forensics or traceables, but Christie weaves a tale that is one of her best and might be considered a masterpiece of crime writing. Are there any faults with this tale? I question one aspect: while visiting Meredith, Poirot asks if he can visit Alderbury and is told that the shortest way is to row a boat across the creek or a three-mile drive by car:

Two boats were drawn up on a little beach. Meredith Blake, with Poirot’s somewhat awkward assistance, dragged one of them down to the water and presently they were rowing across to the other side. Page 78.

I find it difficult to image Poirot assisting in launching a boat, and willing to be rowed across a narrow stream; for Poirot, the thought of getting his shoes dirty and sitting on a possibly sandy/wet bench seat in the boat is unthinkable! However, I would point out that there is one nice touch in the story, and that is that one of the five suspects is named after the small village of Dittisham across the river Dart from Greenway.

A note: When Agatha Christie adapted the story into a play in 1960, not only did she change the title of the story to ‘Go Back For Murder’ but she also removed the character of Poirot, opting for the investigation to be carried by a young solicitor acting on behalf of Carla Lemarchant. It’s still a great story.

I really have loved re-reading this story. In September 2013 as part of the Agatha Christie Literary Festival week in Torquay, The Agatha Christie Theatre Company performed the play at The Princess Theatre and it was an excellent production. Rating: 5 stars

Dr James Sheppard

17th March 2015

Murder in Steeple Martin by Lesley Cookman

Murder in Steeple Martin

Review of the novel Murder in Steeple Martin by Lesley Cookman.

Published by Accent Press Ltd in 2012.

Cost: £7.99

ISBN 978-1-908-91707-2 (Paperback)

This is the first book of the series that has Libby Sarjeant as the lead character; currently there are 14 book in the series.

Libby Sarjeant lives in a small village in Kent called Steeple Martin. She is an actress and an artist and is directing a play called the The Hop Pickers by a local writer to be put on in an Oast House that has been turned into a theatre in the village where she lives. At the front of the book there is a map of the village; helpful as the characters do a lot of walking between locations; (It’s a shame that you have to keep turning the page around to read the street and building names.).

The play has been written by Libby’s friend Peter and is based on a real events associated with his family. But when the disappearance and murder of one of the cast members, makes everything much more serious, and past history seems to be coming to the fore. Libby gets curious and decides to look further into the accidents surrounding the play and the possibility of a link with the murder.

The story has strong links with the past and Cookman has a number of chapters where the story reverts to the lives of the hop pickers. The change is not obvious and when reading these chapters, I had to stop and ask myself what had happened to the story, as the children in these chapters are still alive as adults in the main story and the use of the names was confusing. I am not a lover of stories that revert to historical moments in time and I do not see why Cookman felt she needed to introduce this aspect into the story, unless she felt the reader needed to learn more about the script of play being rehearsed and later performed at the theatre.

Unlike the majority of today’s fiction, the murders and attacks are not too gory nor described in great detail, which may appeal to the reader of this book, but it does cause a problem for Libby, as no one investigating the murder discusses how the victim dies. Libby’s main focus is the accidents, and these involve long conversations with the other characters, and as a result, the story is rather slow moving. At the start of the book Cookman lists most of the characters the reader can expect to learn about in the story and their relationships to other characters. We learn of Sidney, Libby’s cat that is quite a character in his own right, with food being his main priority. Well into the book a new character is introduced; Fran Castle, and it’s the link between Fran and Libby that is at the heart of the story, as Fran has intuition like moments that help them understand the accidents and lead them to the murderer.

There were times when I wanted to put the book down, but as I had nothing else to read, it just kept me interested enough to read to the end. The characters spend a lot of time at a local eatery called The Pink Geranium, owned by Perter and Harry, but it was the spelling of the word ‘caff’ that did not appeal to me. I wonder if Cookman was trying to get the sense of local inflection across to her reader and as it grated on me this was unsuccessful; better to use the written word Café without the accent.

For once this is a story where the amateur detectives do not get too involved in the crime solving, letting the local police do their job, while at the same time hinting that solving a crime is not easy. We are introduced to the two local police officers that investigate the murder behind the scenes and when they come to the fore their manner is quite forceful and very police like, suggesting that Libby should leave the crime solving to them, they come across as very believable.

I do have a concern about the ability of Cookman to describe her characters so that the reader can identify with them and as I reflect on this story, I’m still not sure if I could describe the main character, Libby Sarjeant. She is defined as small and whenever she leaves her house she wears a cape; we know she is in her fifties, a divorcee, but I felt that I was looking at a different Libby, depending on where I was in the story.

For this story to be a real murder mystery there should have been some acceptable red herrings in the tale, but I seemed to have missed them, it was all very obvious from the start, and following the rule of the Detection Club, the murderer was identified early on, for which I give credit to Lesley Cookman.

In conclusion, I felt that as a first story based on Libby Sarjeant, it was a good novel, but I would hope that the next in the series developed the character, and as there are 14 stories to date, I must assume that this has happened. I would also hope that the location of the story moves out of the village of Steeple Martin and we learn about incidents that take place in other villages. I would read the next in the series, hoping the characters would develop along with the investigation skills of Libby and Fran. Rating: 3 stars.

Dr James Sheppard

10 March 2015

And Then There Were None (The Play) by Agatha Christie

And Then There Were None

Review of the play And Then There Were None by Agatha Christie.

Performed by the Agatha Christie Theatre Company

Venue: Theatre Royal, Windsor, Berkshire UK

Date: Tuesday 13^th January – First-night performance.

This is one of Agatha Christie’s most famous stories, and it is having a strong revival in 2015, Christie’s 125^th year.

The story line is as follows:

“A group of 10 strangers are lured to a remote island off the coast of Devon. Upon arrival it is discovered that their host, an eccentric millionaire, is missing… Stranded on the island by a torrential storm and haunted by an ancient nursery rhyme, one by one the guests begin to die… With only the fallen believed to be innocent who amongst them is the killer.” ©BKL Productions

Until now I had not seen the play performed. It must be difficult to act out a novel where the action takes place in various locations on an island, but on the stage it takes place in one room. Remembering that this was a first-night performance, I anticipated that it was possible for things to go wrong.

The play has three acts, however, Act II and III are split into two scenes. The setting for the play is the living-room of the only house on the island. The walls have a dark panelling, so the audience looks into ‘a brown box’; the rear of the stage has French Doors that are hidden as necessary, (with brown panels, moved by the actors). There are no actual doors to other areas of the house, instead, four arches led off stage, two left and two right.

At the end of each Act and scenes curtains are lowered and house lights switched on, which was confusing for the audience - the first time some got up and started to leave the auditorium thinking it was the interval.

Crucial to the intensity of the play is the rhyme of the Ten Little Soldiers and the accompanying little statues that get broken as each character in the story dies. On the stage the audience is able to observe the ten china soldiers lined up on the mantelpiece above the fireplace on the left of the stage. So, those of us that knew the story were observing any movement of the statues, and in this performance the removal of them could have been better. Emily Brent picked up the first one and declared it broken, but before she picked it up it was in one piece! Two more were removed in between the end of the Act I and start of Act II, unobserved by the audience. A further two were placed under Lombard’s coat as he left the stage, leaving it for someone to say, “Oh look that leaves five”. The final four remained on the mantelpiece for the remainder of the performance. You have got to wonder if there might have been a better way to manage the removal of the statues when one of the characters are killed off.

When I go to see a play at the theatre, I want to be taken to the place of action, but sometimes I’m left disappointed and in this case I was not convinced I was in the home of a millionaire and on an island. The play started well with the guests arriving one by one at the house. The stage is well used with chairs and tables arranged to meet the needs of the actors – drinks, newspaper. At the start of Act II Scene 2, Lombard enters the stage from the French Doors having returned from a walk around the island in the storm, shaking his hat and coat, but his hat and coat was as dry as a bone! What else could go wrong?

In the final moments, there are just two characters alive on the island and Vera takes Lombard to task about his involvement in the death of the guests, snatching his gun and eventually shooting him. However, the sound of the gun was so off stage it lost its effect – a little item that needs to be reviewed!

The big question that all Christie fans want to know, is how did the play end? The ending in the book was altered for the film version, because it was felt that the film going audience would want a pleasant ending, and the stage plays have a choice of which ending to use, in this performance the director has opted to have all the characters die, so the curtain closes with Vera about to do the right thing.

The cast of actors are well known to regular theatre-goers: [Cast of actors: Paul Nicholas, Colin Buchanan, Susan Penhaligon, Mark Curry, Verity Rushworth, Frazer Hinds, Ben Nealon.] The two younger actors playing the parts of Lombard and Vera [Verity, and Ben] presented themselves well, assisted by the costumes used to help develop their character. Most striking was the stunning “1920’s” backless dress worn by Vera. It went so low down her back that you could see her ‘white silk underwear’. Very stunning, but for the wrong reasons; someone must have seen it off stage! Was this the first dress rehearsal?

Finally, when it came to the closing the curtains at the end of the play, the actors took a bow, one by one, and the audience were expected to applaud each individual as they stood up and bowed, and this took simply ages – my hands actually hurt applauding for so long.

As a play I thought it was great, great actors, great entertainment, a must see for Agatha Christie fans. Rating: 5 stars

Dr James Sheppard

3 March 2015

The Skin Collector by Jeffery Deaver

The Skin Collector

Review of the novel The Skin Collector by Jeffery Deaver

Published by Hodder in 2015.

Cost: £7.99

ISBN 978-1-444-75748-4 (Paperback Edition – 434 pages)

I am an avid fan of Jeffery Deaver, so I was surprised that I missed the publication of the hardback version in 2014. Deaver is a thriller writer that you can depend upon – excitement, action, puzzles.

The Skin Collector is another Lincoln Rhyme thriller and is an eagerly awaited story for the avid followers of the Rhyme investigations. In this story we follow a murderer that decides to kill his victims by injecting poison in an unusual way.

The story starts on Tuesday November 5^th Noon, concluding on Tuesday November 12^th 1.00pm. So we have a week of murders and thrills to entertain us. Although the reader soon knows who the murder is, or in this case unsub 11-5, as Deaver presents much of the story from the murderer’s point of view, Lincoln Rhyme and Amelia Sachs do not. As a quadriplegic Rhyme has little movement, mainly from the waist up, but in contrast to The Bone Collector, an earlier Deaver story, it has little impact on the murder investigation. In The Skin Collector we have a an individual that likes to sedate his victims with propofol (a short-acting anaesthetic) and then sets about inscribing a tattoo on them using poison rather than ink, resulting in a quick death. At first there seems to be no logic to the killings. The unsub is able to tattoo his victims at the crime scene as he has access to a portable tattoo machine (not tattoo gun as we are reminded in the enquiry) an unusual item that helps Rhyme in the investigation. As a reader we learn a lot about poisons and their origins. Deaver has obviously done his homework, and the rules that tattoo artists follow.

Deaver has entangled rather a complex story, and as he frequently does, runs a second crime investigation alongside the main story; at first there seems to be no logic to the two cases – but I don’t want to spoil the plot or the brilliance of Deaver’s story telling. What makes the story so readable is the descriptive details if the crime scenes, and in this case it is the underground passageways that run beneath New York, supported by a diagram or two, which on reflection reveal vital clues to the astute observer.

In an attempt to delay the progress of the investigation the unsub attempts to poison both Rhyme and Sachs in separate instances, but instead poisons one of the investigation teams’ leading police officers and takes him out of the investigation, a character that Deaver has used very successfully in other stories.

There are twists and turns that the reader must wonder how and why did that happen.

In the very last chapters Rhyme discusses the case as part of the second sub story and he reveals how he was able to deduce some aspects of the main story that resulted in a speedy solution to the case and it was here that I felt cheated as a reader as vital details had not been brought out earlier in the story, but welcomed an answer as to how Rhyme had solved the case and the story had suddenly changed direction.

I love the way Deaver divides the story into short chapters, in some cases two pages, as he switches between the unsub and Rhyme the forensic science investigator. But if I have any concern about The Skin Collector, it is the speed that Rhyme and his team are able to solve individual aspects of the murder investigations. I think Deaver realises this as he switches to the second investigation, slowing down the pace of the main story.

I have read most of Jeffery Deaver’s stories, captivated by his excellent writing style and I wonder if over time he has changed his approach to convey his thoughts to his reader. In this story he has used paragraphs that consist of a single word, the word conveying everything that is necessary at that point in time. He also expresses the thoughts that his characters are thinking, as unspoken words, but there for the reader, revealing the frustrations and anger they go through as they try to contain it within themselves. When I looked back at some of his previous books he has used this approach before, but it is very predominant in this story.

This is such a great story and one I found difficult to put down, reading late into the night trying to find a convenient place to pause. It is Deaver at his best. Rating: 5 stars

Dr James Sheppard

2 March 2015