Agatha Christie's Secret Notebooks

8 Destination Unknown: Murder Abroad

Appointment with Death (play) • ‘The House at Shiraz’ • The Man in the Brown Suit • Murder in Mesopotamia • Triangle at Rhodes’

More than any of her contemporaries Agatha Christie used ‘abroad’ as a background throughout her career. As early as her third title, The Murder on the Links, she despatched Poirot to France. In her first decade of writing three further titles—The Man in the Brown Suit, The Big Four and The Mystery of the Blue Train—feature predominantly foreign settings. And as late as 1964 Miss Marple brought her knitting to the Caribbean. Many of Christie’s thrillers have similar backgrounds—They Came to Baghdad, Destination Unknown, Passenger to Frankfurt. And Poirot solves some of his most famous cases far away from Whitehaven Mansions—Death on the Nile, Murder on the Orient Express, Murder in Mesopotamia and Appointment with Death. All of this reflected Christie’s own lifelong love of travel.

When she is suddenly orphaned, Anne Beddingfeld comes to London where she witnesses a suspicious death in a Tube station. A further death in the deserted Mill House convinces Anne to investigate and she boards a ship bound for South Africa, where she becomes involved in a breathless adventure.

Christie’s fourth novel drew extensively on her experiences with her first husband Archie when they both travelled the world in 1922. Although it starts in England, much of the novel is set on a ship travelling to South Africa and the climax of the novel takes place in Johannesburg. It is not, strictly speaking, a detective story but it does have a whodunit element. An exciting story featuring murder, stolen jewels, a master criminal, mysterious messages and a shoot-out, it is an apprentice work before Christie found her true profession as a detective novelist. Nevertheless it is a hugely enjoyable read with a surprise solution. And this is why it is an important entry in the Christie canon—it presages her most stunning conjuring trick by two years and does it in a most subtle and ingenious way. And it also adopts the technique of using more than one narrator, a scheme that appears, in various guises, throughout her career in novels as diverse as The A.B. C. Murders, Five Little Pigs and The Pale Horse.

This unpublished photograph, from her 1922 world tour with Archie, shows Agatha Christie buying a wooden giraffe beside a train, exactly as her heroine, Anne, does in Chapter 23 of The Man in the Brown Suit.

The real-life Major Belcher, who employed Archie as a business manager for the round-the-world trip, convinced Christie to include him as a character in her next novel. And he was not satisfied to be just any character; he wanted to be the murderer, whom he considered the most interesting character in a crime novel. He even suggested a title, Mystery at Mill House, the name of his own house. In her Autobiography she says that although she did create a Sir Eustace Pedler, using some of Belcher’s characteristics, he was not actually Belcher.

She also relates in her Autobiography that when the serial rights of The Man in the Brown Suit were sold to the Evening News they changed the title to Anne the Adventuress. She thought this ‘as silly a title as I had ever heard’—and yet the first page of Notebook 34 is headed ‘Adventurous Anne’.

The surviving dozen pages of notes in Notebook 34 reflect the course of the story and represent all that remain of the plotting. Their accuracy suggests that they represent a synopsis of earlier, rougher notes, but as Christie began the notes for this book in South Africa it is understandable that they no longer exist.

Chapter I—Anne—her life with Papa—his friends…his death—A left penniless…interview with lawyer left with £95.

Chapter II—Accident in Tube—The Man in the Tube—Anne comes home.

Announcement in paper ‘Information Wanted’ solicitor from Scotland Yard—Inspector coming to interview Anne—her calmness—Brachycephalic—not a doctor. Suggest about being a detective—takes out piece of paper—smells mothballs—realises paper was taken from dead man 17 1 22

III—Visit to Editor (Lord Northcliffe)—takes influential card from hall—her reception—if she makes good. The order to view—Does she find something? Perhaps a roll of films?

V—Walkendale Castle—her researches—The Arundel Castle—Anne makes her passage

VI—Major Sir Eustace Puffin [Pedler]—changing cabins—13—to—17—general fuss—Eustace, Anne and Dr Phillips and Pratt all laying claim to it

Or man rushes in to ask for aid—after stewardess has come she finds he is stabbed in the shoulder—Doctor enters ‘Allow me’—She is suspicious of him—he smiles—in the end man is taken into doctor’s cabin and Ship’s doctor attends him

The reference to Lord Northcliffe, the famous newspaperman, suggests that Christie intended to base Lord Nasby, whom Anne visits in Chapter 5 to ask for a job, on him. And both the alternative scenarios involving the changing of cabins and the stabbed man featured in the novel.

Why has Lady Esther Carr secluded herself in her house in Persia? What really happened to her maid? Parker Pyne investigates.

This short story, from Parker Pyne Investigates, is a minor Christie, but it nevertheless features a plot device similar to ‘The Companion’ in The Thirteen Problems and, much later and more elaborately A Murder is Announced. There are references in Notebook 63—all, surprisingly, to a stage adaptation which was never realised as a script. It seems a very unlikely possibility for a stage transformation; but then so, probably, did ‘Witness for the Prosecution’! Here Christie toys with various titles, all of which have a relevance to the story:

The Worlds Forgetting (Play? House at Shiraz) Desert Lady

The notes for the adaptation include a sketch for two acts and three scenes:

Hotel—jumping off places—Lady Esther Carr—scene between her and old lady or old gentleman—globetrotter friend of her mother—the chauffeur—her fury—ran way with him—he left her—old friend says man mad. Conversation between Lady E and girl—Muriel—nice normal girl—or has been nursery governess—she is engaged—chauffeur—a pilot—hard-bitten young man. At the interview he talks to other girl—likes her—they get friendly.

Act II The house in the Desert—native servants—Lady E—all in Arab dress. Sends him off on errand to Damascus—will be away for a month—then turns on her slave—tells girl she won’t be allowed to see Alan—M retorts—turns on her—as tall and as strong as you—she walks backwards—falls. New British Consul is due to call—she throws over breakfast tray—puts on ring—lets him in—receives him as Lady E.

The major difference between the original and the proposed adaptation is that information we are given in the short story through conversation between Pyne and the English Consul is played out on stage. The first scene sets the background to the story and the second shows the accident that precipitates the masquerade. This means that the audience is fully aware earlier of the revelation at the end of the story. But we have no way of knowing if Christie had another surprise in mind—there are no notes for a last act.

Mrs Adela Chester asks Parker Pyne to convince her son, Basil, to abandon his girlfriend Betty, whom she considers unsuitable.

There are brief notes in Notebooks 66 and 20 for this lighthearted Parker Pyne short story. The only question was where to set it. A non-crime trifle, it was obviously written for the magazine market:

Excited woman wants M PP to stop her son marrying a girl—they won’t be happy—son asks whether PP will help him.

Corsica? Majorca?

A mother and her son—a girl he likes—parents—trousers—Madeleine comes out—this scene—the boy distracted

Despite warning the protagonists, Hercule Poirot is unable to prevent a murder in his Rhodes holiday hotel. But he can solve it by correctly interpreting the fatal triangle.

The genesis of this short story is complicated. There are variant texts in the US and the UK appearances, while there are copious notes for its dramatisation. And as it was expanded and altered for the novel Evil under the Sun, some of the notes overlap and intersect. It is not possible to date the Notebooks accurately, but the following in Notebook 20 succinctly summarises the plot:

The triangle—Valerie C. loved by Commander C. and Douglas Golding

It went through a few changes before arriving at the version we know. These notes, complete with Christie’s sketches of the various ‘eternal triangles’, are on either side of those for ‘Problem at Pollensa Bay’. To complicate matters even more, two separate and totally different settings and sets of characters are listed:

Soviet Russia

Room at hotel—

In train—

The Triangle

George and Edna

Anna and Ivan

The Gordons—Lloyd and Jessica

Rhodes—Bathing—Emily Renault (Joan Heaslip)

The Courtneys—beautiful—faded—empty-headed The Goldings arrive—man—plain wife—a shock to discover they are on honeymoon—his devotion to Mrs C—bowled over—antagonism between him and C—a quarrel at dinner—everyone talking about it.

Quiet woman comes to PP…what shall she do? He says leave the island at once—you are in danger—(PP says to himself where has he seen her—remembrance of murder trial). Lee a chemist—Golding has his usual drink—gin and ginger tonic—Mrs Golding drinks it instead and dies

The setting of Soviet Russia (perhaps inspired by a brief foray there while returning from Ur in 1931) would have been unique for Christie and very unusual for crime fiction in general at the time. It is perhaps not surprising that this version was never developed. The other scenario is nearer to the published version, but it was still to go through further refinements. Note also that this early draft has it as a case for Parker Pyne.

Eventually in Notebook 66 we arrive at the ‘real’ version. The short précis below of the plot is in the middle of the notes for The A.B.C. Murders, a position which tallies with the publication dates of each. That this plot and setting should suddenly appear, fully formed, while Christie was plotting one her greatest novels is yet another example of her creative fertility.

Poirot story—Chantries—she beautiful, empty headed, he a strong silent man of personality—The Goldings—G infatuated with Mrs G—Mrs G in despair comes to Poirot—you are in danger. Various scenes if book—actually Chantries and Mrs G are lovers—the gin and tonic—Gold—is supposed to want to kill C—Mrs C drinks it instead—and dies

Note the words in the middle of this jotting—‘Various scenes if book’. She obviously thought, and correctly, that this situation had great potential for elaboration. And she did just that a few years later in Evil under the Sun, although the plots are quite different. Both feature a triangle situation in a beach setting and neither triangle is the one the reader has anticipated, but the motivation for the crimes is different and the eternal triangle theme is given yet another variation in the later work. There is also a distinct similarity to the method of poisoning adopted by the killer in The Mirror Crack’d from Side to Side, over 25 years later.

Finally, the following in Notebook 58 may seem like a rough note for ‘Triangle at Rhodes’, although it actually occurs in the middle of the jottings for A Caribbean Mystery:

Triangle idea (Rhodes)

Lovely siren—her husband—devoted, dark, cynical—little brown mouse, nice little woman, wife—plain stupid husband—dark husband really has liaison with mouse. They plan to do away with siren—stupid husband is to be suspected

There are similarities between the two—the quartet of two husbands and wives in an exotic beach setting. But in fact it is included at this point in the Notebook as a plot resumé to herself as she considered possibilities for her new Caribbean quartet.

When Amy Leatheran accepts a nursing job on an archaeological dig looking after the neurotic Mrs Leidner she little suspects that she will be involved in the investigation of her patient’s murder. But how did the killer gain access to his victim when the room was under constant observation?

From the time of her marriage to Max Mallowan, Christie accompanied him annually to Iraq on his archaeological expeditions. These travels gave her background for her foreign travel novels but the one that most closely matches her own experiences is Murder in Mesopotamia. The setting is an archaeological dig and, apart from the detective plot, there is much detail of day-to-day living, written from first-hand experience.

The surviving notes are not extensive, less than 15 pages in total scattered over four Notebooks. Notebook 66 has a oneline jotting in a list dated January 1935; she wrote the novel during that year with hardback publication in July 1936:

Dig murder 1st person Hospital Nurse?

A list of characters given in Notebook 20 tallies with the published novel (although some of the men are not definitely recognisable), as does the basic situation outlined immediately following:

The People

1. Dr. L[eidner]

2. Mrs L[eidner]

3. Architect B. man of 35 taciturn attractive [Richard Carey]

4. Epigraphist P. moody man—hypochondriac or Priest (not really a priest!) [Fr. Lavigny]

5. Young man R. inclined to be garrulous or naïve [David Emmott]

6. Miss Johnson—middle aged—devoted to L.

7. A wife—not archaeological—pretty—frivolous [Mrs. Mercado]

8. A dour young man G. [Carl Reiter]

The wife—very queer—Is she being doped against her own knowledge? Atmosphere gradually develops of intensity—a bomb may explode any minute

It is a pity there are not more detailed notes for the plot mechanics, especially in view of Christie’s reminder to herself at the start of the following extract:

The ‘window idea’ is undoubtedly one of her most ingenious and original ploys, and like all of her best plots it is so simple—in retrospect. That said, when Miss Johnson stands on the roof in Chapter 23 and says ‘I’ve seen how someone could come in from outside—and no one would ever guess,’ this is not exactly the truth. It would have been more strictly accurate to say ‘I’ve seen how someone could commit this murder—and no one would ever guess.’ The murderer did not come in from outside—he was already present; and although Miss Johnson realised how he had managed to commit the murder without ever leaving the roof, this is not the same thing.

And despite the reference to the vital ‘window idea’, the accompanying diagram is not really relevant to it as it represents part of the ground floor plan of the Expedition House, although a different one to that included in the finished novel.

Although Christie experimented briefly with other possible killers, the front-runner always seems to have been the one eventually unmasked:

Possible gambits—Mrs. L’s past life—Some man she has injured—husband or someone she betrayed—hate her—pursued her—she gets more and more nervous

Development

A. Mrs. L is killed

B. Somebody else is killed in mistake for her—really she engineers it and persecution story is an invention

Dr. L murders Mrs. L

Then a second murder—someone who knew something—Miss Johnson?

Miss J original wife—her revenge?

Or—a trumped up story by wife—and husband killed?

Or Dr. L the villain

Finally, Notebook 47 reveals that Christie considered using Murder in Mesopotamia as the basis for a play. However, she rejects the idea of using the novel’s characters or plot as a basis (despite the ‘troublemaking attractive woman’, a similar character to Mrs Leidner) in sketching a possible scenario:

Play on a dig? Possible characters from Murder in Mesopot[amia]

Director American—with a troublemaking wife—in love with a troublemaking attractive woman—widow of an inventor—or atom scientist—imprisoned for Communist activities—(after Hiss idea?) Ten years ago—he’s in prison—she has divorced him—in love with Deirdre? Married to him—is Really on point of having affair with middle-aged architect—two doctors from medical conference Baghdad come along—one a friend of expedition—the other a plastic surgeon—he gets killed—then she does

Alger Hiss was a US State Department official accused of spying and jailed in 1950, but for perjury. His guilt or innocence of the spying accusation is still a matter of debate. He died in 1992.

The above outline seems an unlikely subject for a stage play, but some of these ideas did eventually turn up in Destination Unknown.

The appalling Mrs Boynton terrorises her family even while they are on holiday in Petra. When she is found dead at their camp more than one person is relieved. Hercule Poirot, while sympathising with the family, has 24 hours to find the killer.

There are notes for both the novel and stage versions of this title. Over 60 pages of notes for the latter are contained in four Notebooks and 20 for the novel in Notebook 61, just ahead of preliminary notes for Hercule Poirot’s Christmas and extended notes for Akhnaton. Although published in May 1938, there was an earlier serialisation that January in the Daily Mail, where it was called A Date with Death, and it appeared at the end of the previous year in the USA. In an essay heralding the serialisation of the novel, Christie wrote that three points of this case appealed to Poirot—the 24 hour deadline, the psychology of the dead woman and the fact that he was asked to investigate by a man with a passion for the truth similar to his own, Colonel Carbury.

In Appointment with Death Christie sets herself another technical challenge. The investigation takes place in just 24 hours (although the set-up takes considerably longer) in the spectacular setting of Petra, far removed from the facilities of Scotland Yard. There are no fingerprints, no outsiders, no Hastings; just Hercule Poirot and the suspects—although it has to be said that parts of the solution can be explained only by divine intervention—for example. how can Poirot know about the earlier life of the killer? Tellingly, when Christie adapted this for the stage she completely changed the ending and presented the audience with a more plausible and psychologically compelling solution.

The first page of Notebook 61 is headed ‘The Petra Murder’. This is immediately followed by a list of characters and brief descriptions, whose forerunners can clearly be seen in the notes for Death on the Nile (see Chapter 6). The name Boynton does not appear at this stage, however, and the family are referred to throughout as Platt:

Characters

Roy—young, neurotic (26?)

Nadine (22?)

Lucia—Mrs P’s own daughter?

Jefferson—eldest son

Prunella (his wife—clear, balanced hair

Sarah Grant (Sybil Grey) a young doctor—interested in mental psychology [Sarah King]

Lady Westholme M.P. (a possible future Prime Minister)

Dr Gerard (French?)

Mrs Gibson (very distraught talker)? [Miss Price]

When she returns six pages later (after a quick detour to jot down notes for ‘Dead Man’s Mirror’, Sad Cypress and Curtain), Christie amends her characters—as usual, some are later renamed, while others do not appear in the novel—and proceeds with her system of assigning letters to scenes. She plots A to L without hesitation or deviation (which may indicate that she had already worked on this elsewhere), even though the order will change quite considerably. The novel’s opening sentence, the most arresting of any Christie novel (‘You do see, don’t you, that she’s got to be killed’), does not appear until Scene L in the notes. The fact that Poirot is mentioned in conjunction with this statement may account for its being brought forward.

Petra Murder

The Platt family at Mena House—then on boat to Palestine

People

Mrs Platt [Mrs Boynton]

Jefferson Platt [replaced by Lennox]

Nadine his wife

Marcia [Carol]

Lennox [becomes Raymond in the novel]

Ginevra

Sarah Grey [Sarah King]

Amos Cope (in love with Nadine) [becomes Jefferson Cope

in the novel]

Lady Westholme M.P.

Dr Gerard—French doctor

Sir Charles Westholme [does not appear]

A. Sarah Grey and Gerard discuss Mrs Platt—S says sadistic [Part I Chapter 6]

B. Marcia and Lennox—‘It can’t go on—Why shouldn’t it? It always has—She’ll die some day—There’s no one to help us. [Part I Chapter 1]

C. Mrs Platt and Ginevra—you’re tired tonight my dear—ill—she forces her to be ill [Part I Chapter 4]

D. Nadine and Amos—Why are you here? Leave it all [Part I Chapter 5]

E. Nadine and Jefferson—she begs him—he cries Don’t leave me [Part I Chapter 8]

F. Nadine and Mrs Platt—She does not feel spell [Part I Chapter 8]

G. N and Marcia who has overheard conversation—I wouldn’t blame you if you did go

H. Amos and Mrs P—latter says she is ill—can only have her own family—a snub [Part I Chapter 5]

I. Marcia and Sarah Grey [Part I Chapter 7]

J. Lennox and Sarah—she tells him to leave—I can’t—I’m weak—I’m no good to you [Part I Chapter 9]

K. Sarah and Gerard she admits I’ve fallen for him [Part I Chapter 9]

L. Lennox and Marcia—we’ve got to kill her—It would—it would set us all free—HP overhears that last sentence [Part I Chapter 1]

There is much speculation in the notes as to the method of murder, lending strength to the argument that this was a character-driven, rather than a plot-driven, book. And it is not insignificant that in the stage version it is not only a different villain that is unmasked but also a totally different method adopted by the villain. As can be seen, Christie considered quite a few poisons before settling on digitoxin:

Method of Crime etc.

Sarah’s drug stolen

Abricine—Sarah’s stolen—sudden violent illness of Mrs Pl[att]

Prussic acid in smelling salts?

Digitalin

Narcotic at lunch

One servant takes up genuine drink (tea?)—One Lady M who takes false tea

If poison—Coniine—Digitoxin—Coramine

If coniine or coramine—did Lady MacMartin and Miss Pierce go up and speak to her—she did not answer

If insulin Mrs P injected herself

Point of coniine (or coramine) the muscular paralysis

The old woman sits—each of family goes up and speaks to her—they all see she is dead—but no one says so

The stage adaptation, up to the denouement, is largely the same as the novel. However, as with some of the other stage plays—The Hollow, Death on the Nile, Go Back for Murder/Five Little Pigs and Cards on the Table (although not dramatised by Christie)—Poirot is dropped. The major difference is the new ending but there is also a discussion in Act II, Scene I of Mrs Boynton’s previous career as a wardress. Both of these are discussed in the notes. And it is the seemingly insignificant Miss Price who supplies the vital information leading to the solution, as Christie sketches the revelatory dialogue:

Do you know—have you done perhaps done rescue work? A wardress. Miss P uncomfortable—gets up goes away. Sarah who is sitting nearby—then breaks in—‘That explains a lot of things—you didn’t give up your job when you married—you’ve carried on with it. The need to dominate etc.’

To be a drug addict—so very sad for the family

S: Miss Pierce what are you saying

Miss P: Nothing—nothing at all

S: Are you saying that Mrs. Boynton took drugs

Miss P: I found out—quite by accident—of course. I knew it was far worse

S: But that means…Mrs. Boynton was a drug addict

Miss P: Yes dear, I know

S: Tell me—you’ve got to tell me

Miss P: No, I shall say nothing. The poor woman is dead and…

S: Tell me—what did you see or hear—

Miss P tells what she saw—put into stick. Sarah calls Col. Carbury—all come—takes out from stick

While holidaying in the West Indies, Miss Marple is subjected to the endless reminiscences of Major Palgrave. After his sudden death she regrets not paying more attention when he talked about a murderer he knew. Is it possible that the same killer is planning another crime on St Honore?

In A Caribbean Mystery Christie used memories of a holiday in Barbados from a few years earlier. It is Miss Marple’s only foreign case, although sending her abroad had been considered shortly before Christie began Four-Fifty from Paddington:

Miss Marple—somewhere on travels—or at seaside

The notes for A Caribbean Mystery are scattered over 14 Notebooks, although many of these are no more than jottings of isolated ideas that Christie subsumed into A Caribbean Mystery when she came to write it in 1963. Notebook 4 shows early musings and in Notebook 48 we find speculation about two couples:

1961 Projects

Carribean [sic]—Miss M—after illness—Raymond and Wife—Daughter—or son? Bogus major Taylor—like a frog—he squints.

Idea A Couples Lucky and Greg Evelyn and Rupert [Edward]

Greg very rich American—Lucky wants to marry young chap—however pretends it is Rupert—has affair with him. Point is to be R. kills Greg or Evelyn kills G by mistake for R. Really it is young man kills Greg

Despite the presence of two couples with almost identical names in the novel, none of the various permutations and combinations considered here found their way into A Caribbean Mystery. And in Notebook 35 she lists what were to become three novels, although the alphabetical sequence is odd. Perhaps this is the order in which she intended to write them, although they were actually published in the order below:

1962 Notes for 3 books

Y. The Clocks (?)

Z. Carribean [sic] Mystery

X. Gypsy’s Acre

Some of the ideas Christie jotted down in the various Notebooks—the frog-faced Major, someone telling longwinded stories about murder, the administration of hallucinogenic drugs and a husband who ‘saves’ his wife a few times only to ‘fail’ to save her at some later stage—do appear in the novel. She also reminds herself a few times about ‘The Cretan Bull’ from The Labours of Hercules and its use of hallucinogenic drugs:

Look up datura poisoning as administered by Indian wives to husbands—and re-read Cretan Bull

Book about Cretan Bull idea—insanity induced by doses of Belladonna

Play or Book—depending on root idea of Murder Made [sic] Easy or Cretan Bull—everything closing round one person gradually—engineered by someone else

A man’s wife hangs herself—he cuts her down in time. Really man is preparing the way for her suicide…Does this tie in with what doctor or other officer remembers of another case—same man

Story about—woman hanged herself—husband cut her down in time—hushed up

One fact strikingly revealed by the Notebooks is how different a story A Caribbean Mystery could have been. In early drafts in Notebook 3 we see the germ of a bizarre idea, not pursued, which is elaborated in Notebook 18. Note also the early possibility of including Hercule Poirot. I can only speculate that Poirot was dropped in favour of Miss Marple as Christie, now as elderly a lady as her creation, had spent a happy holiday in the Caribbean:

(Happy idea) West Indian book—Miss M? Poirot

Girl crippled by polio—has given up her young man—goes out to where they were going on their honeymoon—she has nurse with her—a rather doubtful character—girl kills anyone who is happy

West Indies

Miss Marple and possibly Jean Brent—Polio victim and a hospital nurse Doran Watson (Miss? Mrs.?)

Could start with the girl—Jean—crippled—tells fiancé she must give him up—he protests—everyone applauds her—then given a trip because she wishes she could get away. Raymond must perhaps make an arrangement with Mrs. Watson who is going with an old Mr. Van Dieman (rich)—(to give him massage every day?)…

If a warped Jean who hates to hear other people’s happiness is the murderer—how does she bring it about.

Poison? Narcotic? Tranquillisers? Substitution of same Pep pills—What drug

Combine Polio Jean—(or car accident) sacrifice with frog faced Major (West Indies)

Three consecutive pages in Notebook 3 contain three important elements of A Caribbean Mystery:

Book about Cretan Bull idea—insanity induced by doses of Belladonna.

2 pairs husband and wife—B and E apparently devoted—actually B and G (Georgina) have had an affair for years—Brian, G’s husband doesn’t know? Really it is a different husband and wife—husband is a wife killer. Old ‘frog’ Major knows—has seen him before—he is killed

And it is in Notebook 18 that we get the main source of misdirection (even though it is mentioned frequently)—the idea of the glass eye:

A different story by Major P—his glass eye rests on ? (1) ? (2) but really on Jean and Nurse Boscombe

Interestingly, in the original typescript at the end of Chapter 23 and after the ‘Evil Eye…Eye…Eye’ clue, there is an extra sentence—‘Miss Marple gasped.’ This may have been considered too daring and does not appear in the published version. And in Notebook 23 we get a rough sketch, literally, of the all-important scene, with the Major looking over Miss Marple’s shoulder. Here Christie draws, probably for her own clarification, the physical set-up as Miss Marple listens to the Major’s story and misinterprets his gaze:

After lunch Miss Marple talking to Maj—verandah steps

Notebook 58 is still considering very basic character setting and a slightly different version of the story told by Major Palgrave. Here, the CID man who investigated the crimes tells the story directly to Miss Marple. At this stage in the planning there is no mention of the hotel owners—just the quartet. But there was to be a Christiean twist, not adopted for the novel, even with this limited field of suspects.

Carribean [sic] Mystery

A quartet [of] friends

Mr and Mrs R. Rupert and Emily—English—friends of many years standing—one pair app[ear] very devoted. One daywife confides they never speak to each other in private—husband (to girl) says wonderful life together—which is lying?

The CID man is in County district in England—man’s phone broken down—he walks into town—(car at garage) for doctor—they get back—wife is dead—heart?—man terribly upset—it worries CID man—remembers man—has seen him before—remembers—in France—and his wife had died—same thing in Canada—then marries an American woman—comes to Tobago—CID man found dead

But is it really the woman—The dog it was that died

The wrong man or wrong woman dies—of heart trouble so that you suspect the wrong pair—really Mrs Rupert is the one with her fads and illnesses—she and chap are having an affair

Finally, we can see the amount of thought that went into the Major and his story, elements of which appear in three Notebooks:

Problem of Major P

Points Why did Major not recognise his murderer before?

No new comers to the island—Edward, Greg, Van D Jackson all known to him

Answer by Miss M?—Major had not seen the man himself—this was a story told him—he had only glanced at snap—then kept it as a curiosity—he takes it out preparatory to showing it to her looks at it—looks up, seeing suddenly the man in the photograph—hastily stuffs it back again

Possibilities (1) Major had several murderer stories that he had picked up in course of travel

(2) Could Miss M—(or Esther) have misunderstood

(3) (Not supported!) Esther lied—why?

The murderer story is different—could be either a man or a woman.

Does Kelly tell Miss M—how Palgrave told him a story this indicates that it was a woman

Miss M with Jenny in West Indies

The frog faced Major—his gossip—glass eye—appears to be looking different direction from what he really is—3 husband and wives applicable—Chuck and Patty (affair?)—Greg and Sarah Evelyn

Once more, we can see how the fertility of Christie’s imagination might have created a very different novel from the one we have.