Agatha Christie's Secret Notebooks

10 Sanctuary: A Holiday for Murder

At Bertram’s Hotel • Evil under the Sun • Hallowe’en Party • Hercule Poirot’s Christmas • Peril at End House • Sad Cypress • Towards Zero

Holidays and festivals have provided backgrounds for a number of Christie stories. Some of them—Peril at End House, Evil under the Sun—interrupt Poirot’s summer holiday; others disrupt his Christmas—Hercule Poirot’s Christmas—while Hallowe’en and Guy Fawkes Day also proved a suitable dramatic backdrop for murder. Some of his more exotic holidays in Petra—Appointment with Death—and Egypt—Death on the Nile—can be found in Chapters 8 and 6 respectively while Miss Marple’s holiday in the Caribbean is discussed in Chapter 8. The other unmistakable family holiday, Afternoon at the Seaside, is discussed in Chapter 9.

While holidaying in St Loo Poirot and Hastings meet Nick Buckley, the impoverished owner of End House. When she tells them that she has had three close brushes with death, Poirot investigates, but is unable to avert a real tragedy at End House.

Peril at End House was published on both sides of the Atlantic in early February 1932 with a serialisation in both places some months earlier. This, in turn, would mean that it was written most probably during late 1930/early 1931. The plotting for it is contained in two Notebooks, 59 and 68. Notebook 68 is a very small pocket-diary sized notebook and, apart from a detailed listing of train times from Stockport to Torquay, is devoted entirely to this novel. Notebook 59 also contains extensive notes for the Mr Quin story ‘The Bird with the Broken Wing’, first published in The Mysterious Mr Quin in April 1930, and for ‘Manx Gold’ (see Chapter 5), the treasure hunt story/competition that appeared in May 1930.

Peril at End House is a magnificent example of the Golden Age detective story. It is rarely mentioned in any discussion of Christie’s best titles and yet it embodies all of the virtues of the detective story in its prime: it is told with succinct clarity, enviable readability and scrupulous fairness in clueing. Every single fact the reader needs in order to arrive at the correct solution is given with superb sleight of hand. And like all of the best detective stories the secret of the plot (a mistake in names) is simple—when you know. On page 3 of Notebook 59 Christie uses a telling phrase—‘conversation without having a point’—referring to the early conversation between Poirot and Hastings in the garden of the hotel. At this point in her career virtually every conversation in a novel has a ‘point’—the delineation of an important character trait (the silk stockings episode in Cards on the Table), a hint about motivation (Major Burnaby gruffly discussing crosswords and acrostics in Chapter 1 of The Sittaford Mystery), a major clue (the difficulty established in Chapter 2 of getting a sleeping berth on the normally half-empty Orient Express) or the confirmation of a previously suspected fact (the picnic in Evil under the Sun). And although she refers to a conversation without having a point, there is a mention of the missing airman (the motive) in the actual conversation to which the notes allude.

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.

There are two pages of Notebook 61 that contain rough notes for what was to become Hercule Poirot’s Christmas. The pages follow immediately after those for Appointment with Death, published six months earlier:

Blood Feast

Inspector Jones—comes to see old Silas Faraday Chamberlayne—diamond king from S.A.

Characters

A family such as

Arthur—the good stay at home one

Lydia—clever nervy wife

Mervyn—son still at home dilettante artist

Hilda—his very young wife—rather common

David—very mean—sensitive

Dorothy—his articulate wife

Regina—unhappy woman—separated from husband

Caroline—her daughter—fascinating—reportedly bad

Edward—her devoted husband—bad lot

Although some names are accurate—Lydia, Hilda, David—the personality traits are not reflected in the eventual characters; and the last three listed have no equivalents. The policeman’s name changes although Simeon Lee did make his fortune in South Africa.

Of the 65 pages of existing notes, however, most of them are in Notebook 21. Christie opens with the beginning of a quotation from Shakespeare’s Macbeth, which may have been intended as a title, and quickly follows this with sketches of the Lee family. She breaks off to write brief notes for what were to become Curtain and Sad Cypress and then returns to Hercule Poirot’s Christmas. The first draft of the characters is immediately recognisable, apart from the Nurse, who does not appear in the novel:

A. Who would have thought [the old man to have had so much blood in him?]

Old Simeon Lee—A horrid old man

Alfred—the good son—(a prig) bores his father

Lydia—Alfred’s clever well-bred bitter wife—she makes gardens

Harry?—The Prodigal son—he comes home and the old man likes him

Stephen Fane—A young man from S. Africa—son of Simeon’s partner—(he cheated him!)—S. is really Simeon’s son

Juanita Simeon’s grand-daughter [Pilar]—back from Spain—his daughter ran away with a Spaniard and J. is really not grand-daughter—latter was killed in revolution—J was her friend

The Nurse—says old man was going to leave her all his money—wanted to marry her. She was married already—her husband is in New Zealand

The course of the story is outlined in the extract below, the novel following this synopsis closely:

Possible course of story

1. Stephen in train going up to Midcourt—this drab people—his impatience—the sun he comes from—then his first sight of Pilar—exotic—different—reads label

2. Pilar in train—thinking—keyed up—her nervousness—handsome looking man—conversation—about Spain—the war—finally he reads label

3.Alfred and Lydia—conversation—she is like a greyhound—mention of her gardens—telephone call—Patterson—Horbury—she doesn’t like that man

4. George and Magdalene—or David and Hilda strong motherly woman

If G and M—his pomposity—and earnestness—his wife’s impatience—her vagueness at some point about a letter (she has a lover)—he says better off when my father dies—they must go for Xmas important not to offend old man—he has written saying he would like to have all his children round him at Xmas—sounds quite sentimental

5. David and H

He gets letter—nervous—neurotic passionately fond of his mother—won’t go to the house—she, wise and motherly, persuades him—he goes off and plays piano violently

6. Harry Hugo arrives—cheery word to old Patterson—the prodigal—I could do with a drink—greeting from Lydia—she likes him

7. Old man himself—Horbury—he asks about his family—then goes and gets out diamonds—his face devilish glee

Interview with Alfred

Interview with Harry

Talk about prodigal son to Horbury

There were still significant clues to be inserted, while she also paid attention to the description, given by various characters, of the ‘scream’ establishing the time of death—or so we are led to think—heard in the murder room:

Scenes to work in

(A) Portrait of old Lee P looks at it—found by someone

(B) Passport dropped out of window

(C) Statues in recess

(D) P. buys moustache

(E) Balloon

Screams

Alfred A man in mortal agony

Lydia Like a soul in hell

Harry Like killing a pig

David Like a soul in hell

Although the plotting follows closely the course of the novel with relatively few deviations, Christie did try a few variations, the main ones being the presence of a co-conspiring nurse or a criminal husband-and-wife. At this stage ‘Drew’ is the forerunner of Sugden, the investigating officer, but there is no mention of his being a policeman:

Who is murderer?

Nurse—a fairly good looking young woman of thirty (actually his daughter)—her desire for revenge

Drew is the man—Why? Illegitimate son—then Nurse is his sister—the two of them planned it

or—like Macbeth—a man and his wife do this—son of an earlier marriage?

Possibly his second marriage was illegal—he makes a will so worded that the children of his second marriage inherit even if not legitimate—that will is destroyed—a draft is prduced by Nurse leaving it to her.

A new idea—is Nurse married to one of the sons?—the gay prodigal?—he manages to pull a string at the right moment As suggested by her crossing-out of the idea here, Christie did not utilise the nurse in this novel. But the homicidal nurse was to resurface two years later in Sad Cypress.

Beautiful vamp Arlena Marshall is murdered while staying at the same glamorous hotel on Smuggler’s Island where Hercule Poirot is holidaying. He investigates her murder, which involves a typewriter, a bottle of suntan lotion, a skein of wool and a packet of candles.

Evil under the Sun was written during 1938 and received, and read, by Edmund Cork by 17 February 1939. It had first appeared, in the USA, as a serial towards the end of 1940. At first glance Evil under the Sun and ‘Triangle at Rhodes’ (see Chapter 8) appear to be the same story. Both feature Hercule Poirot, a beach setting and two couples as the main protagonists. In each case, one couple consists of a vamp and a quiet husband, the other a charmer and a ‘mouse’ (in Christie’s own word). And both stories exemplify perfectly Christie’s fertility of plot invention because, despite these not insignificant similarities, the solutions and killers are completely different. In each case the triangle the reader is encouraged to envisage is completely wrong—and also completely different. In both cases clever stagemanagement forces the reader to look in the wrong direction despite, in the case of the novel, abundant clues to the truth.

There are 60 pages of Notebook showing its origins, and thanks to these we can see the detailed working-out that went into one of Christie’s most ingenious novels. The setting exists in reality as Burgh Island, off the coast of Devon, a venue well known to Christie as she stayed at the hotel there on a few occasions. The island is cut off from the mainland twice a day at high tide and is reached by a sea-tractor. She utilises its geography to suit her purposes in creating a perfect alibi.

That storehouse of plot devices, The Thirteen Problems, yet again provided the rough basis for this novel. ‘A Christmas Tragedy’ features two people, the murderer and a witness (in this case Miss Marple herself), ‘finding’ a dead body before it has been murdered, thereby providing the killer with an impeccable alibi. In the case of the short story the body is that of a natural death victim, conveniently dead two hours earlier, but in the novel it is the live body of the killer’s accomplice. Both plots feature a large and camouflaging hat (also a feature of Dead Man’s Folly). Many refinements were obviously possible in the course of a novel—a larger cast of suspects, the added complication of a triangle situation, a warm beach to confuse the time of death instead of a hotel room and a more elaborate alibi for the killer. But it is essentially the same plot.

Right from the first page of Notebook 39 Christie seems to have the plot, the main characters and the setting already well advanced. This may be because she was developing an earlier short story. Names were to change but this description was to form the basis of the book:

Seaside Mystery

H.P. is at seaside—comments on bodies everywhere—makes old-fashioned remarks. Main idea of crime—G an ordinary rather ‘simple’ man is apparently bowled over by a wellworn siren. His wife is very unhappy about it—shows distinct jealousy. He has alibi all morning (with H.P.) goes with a woman for a walk and discovers body of siren—distinctive bathing dress—Chinese ‘hat’—and red auburn curl. Suggest to woman to stay with body—she flinches—he finally says he will and she goes for police. Part of ‘dead woman’ is acted by (wife?) or (woman he really cares about?). Immediately after woman has gone for help—siren appears from other direction—he kills her (strangled?) and places her in same position

Therefore characters are:

George Redfern—quiet bank manager etc.

Mary Redfern—white skin / not (tanned) dark

Gloria Tracy—Siren very rich—mad on men

Edward Tracy—Husband

Rosemary Weston—in love with Edward

Scene Hotel on island—Bigbury [Burgh Island]

If the names were not exactly the same as those in the published novel—the first names of the Redferns became Patrick and Christine, while Gloria and Edward Tracy became Arlena and Kenneth Marshall, and Rosemary Weston is Rosamund Darnley—the differences are not significant enough to prevent recognition.

A few pages later, several details have been established:

Beginning

House—built by a sea captain sold first when bathing came in

Hercule Poirot—with whom?

The American in Appointment with Death [Jefferson Cope]

Major Blount [Barry] or Miss Tough [Brewster] looking at everyone

Arlena King—red haired lovely—husband—an author and playwright—Arlena left a fortune a year or two previously

Jean [Linda]—her daughter—athletic girl—hates stepmother

Middle aged spinster—sister of Arlena’s husband—says she’s a bad lot

People?

Kenneth Leslie Marshall

Arlena Leslie Marshall

Linda Leslie Marshall

Patrick Desmond Redfern—

Cristina “ or McGrane

Mr and Mrs Gardiner (Americans)

Or (Bev) (gone with Desmond) [Possibly Irene, the Gardiners’ far-off daughter]

Rosemary Darley

H.P.

Or Mrs Barrett [not used]

The Reverend Stephen Mannerton [Lane]

Horace Blatt (red faced magnate)

Miss Porter [Miss Brewster]

Mrs Springfelt [not used]

Major Barry

The reference to Appointment with Death above is slightly mystifying; there is no reference to this book in Evil under the Sun and no character in common, apart from Poirot. Christie may have toyed with the idea of introducing Jefferson Cope from the earlier novel and perhaps abandoned it in case it spoiled the reader’s enjoyment of Appointment with Death. The Gardeners, the compromise American characters she instead created, provide light relief throughout the novel.

She also utilises her alphabetical sequencing, here in working out short scenes of encounters rather than plot development. Although she does not follow the sequence exactly, the only scene not to appear in any form is E. Scene B is the allimportant one that Poirot remembers in Chapter 11 ii when he muses on five significant remarks uttered there:

Beginning

A. House built by etc. [Chapter 1 i]

B. H.P. watches bodies—Mrs Gardiner—reciting Beverly etc.—her husband says Yes, darling—Mr Barrett, Miss Porter and Miss Springer. Arlena—pushes off on her float. Major Barry—these red-headed gals—I remember in Poonah [Chapter 1 ii and iv]

C. The Marshalls arrive—Kenneth and Rosemary—an encounter

D. Linda thinks—her face—breakfast [Chapter 2 ii]

E. Miss Porter and Miss Springer—latter tells her friend what she overheard. You were with Desmond and Cristina and H.P. and Mrs Kane

F. Rosemary and H.P.—taste in wives [Chapter 2 i]

G. Christine Redfern and Desmond

H. Rosamund and Kenneth [Chapter 3 i]

One particularly intriguing element of the notes to this novel relates to the complicated alibis Christie attempted to provide for most of the characters. This caused much crossingout and rearranging and she changed the details quite considerably before she arrived at a version that pleased her. Two of her favourite unused ideas, the dishonest, collusive chambermaid and the two ‘arty’ friends, surfaced briefly before being discarded and returned to the ‘unused’ category, while she also experimented with other solutions before returning to the thoughts she had initially set out:

Alternative Plan

Arlena dies Christine disappears

Desmond and Christine go out on a float—early—or in their boat—Japanese sunshade. You do believe me, darling, when I tell you there’s nothing in it at all. No one sees them come back

Alternatives

A. Desmond kills Christine

First arranges body—then drowns her—gets rid of other woman—puts C’s body on rocks as though fallen from above—right spot indicated by stone (peculiar colour marking etc.) the night before.

B. Desmond and Gladys Springett do murder—(Christine is, perhaps, only fiancée?). Gladys and ‘friend’ are at Gull Cove—latter sketching—forever looking for flowers (or shells?). Goes through cave—acts the part of ‘the body’ and returns

C. Christine and Desmond are a pair of crooks. Money—banked in her name—her story of blackmail coming out when questioned by the Police

D. Is the chambermaid Desmond’s wife? ALL her stories false—about blackmail—about seeing Christine etc.—alters Linda’s watch

Where is everyone?

Blatt—out in boat—later sails found in a cave

Major Barry—drive his car into Lostwitch—business—market day—early closing—lots of people on beach

This sketch from Notebook 39 shows the mainland and the island (complete with compass points) and the route between the two. Also shown are the Hotel and Tennis Court, the Bathing Beach as well as Pixy Cove and Gull Cove. Note the change of mind about the last two locations.

The Gardiners—on beach (she goes up to get wool or he gets it for her)

Babcock—to church—signs book—but it could be previous day

Kenneth? Typing in room

Rosamund? Bathing? On float

Tennis—Christine, Rosamund, Kenneth, Gardiner

And many of the clues that feature in the novel (the bath that no one will admit taking, the candles, the sun-tan lotion bottle) appear in the Notebooks:

About Linda—Packet of candles—calendar—other things she remembers—green?

Bath?

Kenneth—typing at middle table

Bottle thrown from window

Before murder interrupts a holiday weekend in Lady Tressilian’s house in Gull’s Point, we meet a disparate group of people. All of their destinies are inextricably linked as zero hour approaches. Superintendent Battle investigates a case where the solution seems obvious. But is it too obvious?

This page from Notebook 32 shows both Neville’s actions on the night of the murder in Towards Zero, and a rough diagram of the local geography, including the scene of his alibi-breaking swim.

Towards Zero is superb Christie. The plot resembles a series of Russian dolls with one concealed inside the other. The reader is presented with one solution and within that is another, and behind that yet another. The motivation and clue laying are masterly because the whole plot is predicated on the ‘wrong’ solution being uncovered and then disproved and the subsequent one being discovered. And there is yet another solution behind that.

Nine months before Zero Hour we meet, in a series of vignettes, a group of people; at first they seem totally disconnected. Then we realise that, for various reasons, they are all converging on Lady Tressilian’s house in September.

Sharing a plot device used years earlier in The Murder at the Vicarage and more recently in ‘Murder in the Mews’, this is a dark and emotional crime novel as well as a very clever detective story with subtle clueing and better-than-usual characterisations. Twelve years after its publication the novel was presented on stage with a slightly altered ending (although the same killer), but it was not one of Christie’s major stage successes.

The plotting for this novel is contained in two Notebooks, the majority of it in Notebook 32 and with a further ten pages in Notebook 63. Its genesis seems to have been painless and clear from the start, as the notes follow the finished book very closely and very little of the plotting from the Notebooks is not included. As can be seen from below, the notes are quite detailed and accurate. Even here, however, Christie came up with a few ideas that did not appear.

On the first page of the notes the all-important story that Mr Treves tells is clearly stated. Apart from the importance of the homicidal tendency of its main protagonist, it also includes the important clue of the (unspecified) ‘physical trait’, a distinction shared by all the suspects:

Story about 2 children—bows and arrows—one kills the other—or shotgun?

One child practiced—narrator—old man—says he would know that child again by a physical trait

Yes, so many people all converging from different points—all Towards Zero

There is an alphabetical list of scenes, although it does not tally exactly with the novel. It would seem that there was to be a Sir Marcus and a Mr Trevelyan; in the novel they are amalgamated into Mr Treves. None of the members of the house party are included. The listing of ‘The Cleaners’ is at first puzzling until we remember that a dry-cleaning firm with mixed-up suits provides one of the main clues to the mystery. Their omission from the opening scenes is a shame as it would have been a fascinating puzzle for the reader trying to fit a dry-cleaners’ into the jigsaw.

A. MacWhirter—suicide—his rescue—fall off cliff—arrested by tree

B. Sir Marcus—holding forth in his chambers after acquittal of client

D. The murderer—his mind—the date

E. Superintendent Battle

F. Mr. Trevelyan—looking at hotel folders

G. The Cleaners

The list of characters is also very close to the novel. As usual, however, the names were to change, although not as totally as other novels (Nevil, Judy and Clare/Audrey Crane become Nevile, Kay and Audrey Strange):

People

Lady Tressillian

Mary Aldin or Kate Aldin

Barrett (lady’s maid)

Thomas Royde

Adrian Royde

Nevil Crane—well known tennis player and athlete

Judy Crane—formerly Judy Rodgers

Ted Latimer—wastrel—lives on his wits

Clare Crane or Audrey Crane—formerly Audrey Standish

MacWhirter

Towards Zero

Nevill (or Noel) Crane—tennis player—athlete sportsman

Audrey his first wife ‘Snow White’—frozen—fractured—hysterical childhood etc.

Judy his second wife—a glamorous girl—suffused with vitality—pagan—Rose Red

The events of the fatal night are worked out:

Night of Tragedy

Neville and Lady T—quarrel overheard by butler—then he goes—rings bell for Barret (old maid). He has also put narcotic in her milk—she sees him go out—goes to Lady T who denies ringing bell. B feeling very confused and queer gets back to bed and passes out. Lady T discovered in morning.

A few interesting ideas that never made it into the novel show that some of the detail was not self-evident. It must be remembered of course that the ‘victim’ below is not the real victim and is only a means to an end in this labyrinthine plot. Although none of the detail appears quite as outlined, the series of dated vignettes that opens the novel could indeed be seen, in retrospect, as sketches of eventual witnesses. The victim is not related to Judy/Kay and Audrey has not remarried, thus paving the way for a romance at the end of the novel:

Towards Zero

Series of vignettes of various people—witnesses at murder trial which takes place in last chapter?

Who is victim? Judy’s stepmother? Her father—very rich man—left the money to 2nd wife (chorus girl or shop girl) she has it for life—Judy wants the money

Audrey quickly remarries her quiet doctor—a biologist—or archaeologist—they are happy but poor—she wants stepmother’s money for research

But one of the most tantalising notes in Notebook 63 concerns a ‘new end’ to Towards Zero. The page references are, presumably, to those of the publishers’ proofs, and one interesting point is that in the novel it is McWhirter who carries out all of the actions here attributed to Thomas Royde. Unfortunately we will never know what the original draft was—the Notebook then continues to list the events that appear in the published novel just before the section ‘Zero Hour’:

New End to Zero starting P. 243

Thomas and little girl acquaintance—Dog and fish—Goes to cleaner—(lost slip) quarrel about suit—Royde—ever so sorry—thought you said Boyd—Easthampton Hotel—gets suit—takes it home—smell on shoulder—takes it back—or rings up. Goes to Easthampton Hotel—no Boyd staying there—goes up to cliff—Audrey—afraid of being hanged.

P. 255 the police come—Battle talks to the others ending with Royde—then goes to house—Mary comes across him in attic—Or Kay? Wet rope

269? Royde speaks to B privately—B comes out—A taken off- then B looks over house—finds rope—Mary? Or Kaye? Finds him there—it would be strong enough to hang a man!

In September 1956 a stage version of the novel opened in London, dramatised by Gerald Verner and Christie. Some of the notes for this adaptation appear in the Notebooks, although they are not comprehensive and consist mainly of a list of scenes without any elaboration. But the opening scene in Notebook 17 corresponds closely with the play itself:

Act I

Royde alone on stage—looking out of window—takes up Audrey’s photo—looks at it—puts it down—walks to window—Kay rushes in (tennis racquet) agitated—picks up Audrey’s photo—dashes it down into grate—Royde turns—she looks like guilty child.

Oh! Who are you? I know who you are—the man from Malaya

R. Yes, I’m the man from Malay

Miss Marple’s nephew treats her to a stay in Bertram’s Hotel, a relic of Edwardian decency in London. While enjoying its old-fashioned, and somewhat suspicious, charm, she becomes involved in a disappearance, robbery and murder.

At Bertram’s Hotel was the second Marple novel in as many years. Like its predecessor, A Caribbean Mystery, the title page included the reminder ‘Featuring Miss Marple The Original Character as created by Agatha Christie’. This appeared as a result of the recent incarnations of the character on screen in the Margaret Rutherford travesties.

While the setting of this novel is typical Christie and Marple, our expectations are confounded in the denouement when an even more breathtaking conspiracy than that of Murder on the Orient Express is revealed. The notes for this novel are evenly divided between three Notebooks. Notebook 27 has two dated pages, ‘October 30th’ and ‘November 17th’ (1964), and the first page of Notebook 36 is dated ‘October ‘64’. Notebook 23 would seem to pre-date the notes in the other two, as the following extract shows:

Bertram’s Hotel

Description of it—Mayfair St. etc.—Edwardian comfort—fires—porters…Tea and muffins—‘Only get muffins at Bertrams’. Points about hotel—a nucleus of ‘landed gentry’—old style Miss Marple points out later—‘pockets’ left over really no-one like that left—No, ‘Bertrams’ hotel belongs to two Americans—(never seen!). They cash in by deliberately recreating the nucleus (at low prices) to give the right atmosphere—then Americans and Australians etc. come at large prices.

Meg Gresham [Bess Sedgwick]—her career—well born? rich? Ran away with Irish groom. Then married Parker Whitworth—enormous man—then Duke of Nottingham—then Count Stanislaus Vronsky—Dirk Chester—film star—or Op. singer

Amalgamate this with frog-faced old major Ronnie Anstruther and Miss Marple—staying a week in London. His talk about murder—same chap—saw him again—different name—same kind of death—medical fellers seemed satisfied—quite all right—only different name again—Looks at someone coming

The general set-up is the same as the novel but the mention of the ‘frog-faced Major’ (possibly a forerunner of Colonel Luscombe, the guardian of Bess’s daughter, Elvira, although without the unflattering description) and his talk about an earlier murder had appeared in 1964 in A Caribbean Mystery, so these notes were probably written prior to that. Or it may be Christie’s general description of retired Army men! Despite this, much of the plot is accurately sketched; but it is sketched at least three times in the course of the notes, each adding little or nothing to the earlier, possibly an indication that her powers of weaving variations were waning.

Ideas

Bertram’s is a HQ—of a crime organization—mainly bank robberies? Train robberies? No real violence—Money is taken in respectable luggage to Bertram’s. Certain people take it there—rehearsed beforehand—they are usually actors—character actors and they double for certain people—Canon Penneyfather, General Lynde, Fergus Mainwaring—country girl—Mr and Mrs Hamilton Clayton?—Contessa Vivary—Ralph Winston

Resume of story

Bess Sedgwick—an outlaw rich loves dangerously—Resistance—racing car falls for foreign criminal—handsome—attractive Stan Lasky. She combines with him and they plan robberies on a colossal scale—this has now been going on for (5 years?) (longer?) HQ is Bertram’s Hotel which changes hands—has a lot of money spent on it and people of the gang are infiltrated into it. Henry is its controlling brain and Bess is his partner—the Americans are its titular owner—but really a façade for Henry—there is a shuttle service—jewels or bank notes pass through Bertram’s in the hands of old fashioned ‘clients’, elderly ladies—clerics—lawyers—Admirals and Colonels—pass out next day—with rich American to Continent

While there is very little in any of the Notebooks about the murder of Michael Gorman, the commissionaire at Bertram’s and an important figure from Bess Sedgwick’s past, our old friend the chambermaid gets yet another outing. Although the setting of a hotel would seem to be perfect for this idea, however, a satisfactory solution eluded her—again:

Circumstances of murder?

Meg—breakfast tray by bed—Kidneys, mushrooms, bacon, tea—chambermaid—evidence—as to conversation between Meg and husband (Chester? Stanislaus?) Anything the matter? She is opening letters. ‘No, nothing’—This evidence clears husband—also chambermaid collects tray—not waiter—

Bertrams Points

Murder—woman in bed—chambermaid’s evidence—took her breakfast in bed—quite all right then (9 a.m.) body not found until 12—really killed—at 8.30. Man (in evening dress) as waiter takes in breakfast tray—strangles her—knifes her—shot? Then goes down and out. In it are chambermaid and Richards

A bobbing-for-apples game goes horribly wrong at Lucilla Drake’s teenage party. One of the guests, Mrs Oliver, approaches her friend Hercule Poirot who subsequently visits Woodleigh Common and, in the course of his investigation, uncovers a long-forgotten crime as well as the killer at the Hallowe’en party.

The notes for Hallowe’en Party provide the clearest example in the whole of the Notebooks of a definite starting and finishing date for a title. The first page of Notebook 16, with the notes for Hallowe’en Party, is headed ‘Jan. 1st 1969’ and 45 pages later we read:

July 7th Halloween Party completed

Chapter 1 to 21 inc. ending p. 280 to be sent or taken to H[ughes] M[assie]. 3 or 4 chapters to go to Mrs Jolly [her typist] on Dictaphone rolls 1 to 9. Continue corrections and revisions in them commencing P. 281 and send on to H. M.

At this time Agatha Christie was 78 and although six months for a full-length novel is not unreasonable, it is a long way from the 1930s and 1940s when she finished two or three novels a year. It is entirely possible that the idea for this novel was hatched during a visit to America in late 1966, where Hallowe’en was a bigger holiday, when she accompanied Sir Max Mallowan on a lecture tour. She toyed with the idea of an eleven-plus, rather than a Hallowe’en, party for young teenagers. But the basic plot device was set from the beginning. Yet again Mrs Oliver appears, as she does in four of the final dozen titles that Christie wrote. Also making a reappearance is the policeman Spence from Mrs McGinty’s Dead and Taken at the Flood; and he was to appear again three years later in Elephants Can Remember.

Themes, ideas and plots from earlier titles abound. There are strong echoes throughout of Dead Man’s Folly. In both we have a child murdered during a game, witnesses to an earlier murder presenting a danger to a hitherto safe killer and the creation of a thing of beauty as a grave—a folly in one novel and a garden in the other. As we shall see, a short story from 35 years earlier, ‘How Does Your Garden Grow?’ was also in her mind. Dead Man’s Folly, Mrs McGinty’s Dead and The Labours of Hercules are specifically mentioned in Chapter 4, 5 and 11 respectively; the inspiration for Butter in a Lordly Dish is referred to in Chapter 11, Miss Bulstrode from Cat among the Pigeons is recalled in Chapter 10 and a brief allusion towards the end of Chapter 16 may have provided the basis for Nemesis, two years later. Mrs Drake’s looking over the staircase (Chapter 10) has distinct similarities to Marina Gregg’s in The Mirror Crack‘d from Side to Side. And the opening line of Chapter 17 is almost identical to that in ‘The Case of the Perfect Maid’.

Like many of the late titles, both the notes for Hallowe’en Party and the book itself are diffuse and unfocussed. There are some new ideas as well as those from earlier titles but there are also too many meandering conversations. The uneasy mix does not coalesce into a coherent and ingenious detective novel. Compare the set-up with similar titles from earlier decades—Dumb Witness, Taken at the Flood and Mrs McGinty’s Dead—where Poirot arrives in a small town to investigate a suspicious death and we can appreciate the deterioration in the quality of the titles from Endless Night onwards. Apart from Passenger to Frankfurt all of the titles after 1967 are journeys into the past, each one weaker than the previous. But they are all predicated on a compelling basic idea.

Apart from name changes, the following extracts outline the basic situation that sets the plot in motion, although it has to be asked why Miranda (Mifanwy in the notes) does not admit earlier that she, and not Joyce, was the original witness. And the later revelation of her parenthood in the novel beggars belief.

Jenny Butcher—Mrs. O’s friend on Hellenic cruise—widow—husband was (leukaemia?) or polio victim—contracted it abroad—a scholar? Man of intellect—child Mifanwy eleven or twelve—did father die at Ephesus? Stroke?

Is it Mifanwy who saw murder? Her father’s? or her father kill Jenny’s lover? Or—her father—or mother—or mother’s sister still alive and living in Woodlawn Common kills brother (or mental defective). Anyway Mifanwy saw a murder—tells her older friend Joyce. Joyce boasts about this at party as her adventure. Mifanwy was not at party—ill that day—cold?

Mrs Oliver is at Party—helping a friend—friend is:

Jean Buckley? Or Gwenda Roberts?

Her family consists of: Daughter of 14—Twin boys Henry and Thomas 12—A husband—Doctor? G.P.

Bobbing for apples? Looking glass? (future husband) Snap Dragon—talk about origins of these rites—snapdragon—should be Christmas

The following significant passage from Notebook 16 appears almost verbatim in Chapter 1. Here we see resonances of an earlier Christie as she teases and taunts the reader with hints of an earlier crime:

Joyce—‘Oo-er—I saw a murder once’

Grown up—‘Don’t say silly things, Joyce’

Beatrice ‘Did you really—really and truly?

Joan ‘Of course she didn’t—she’s just making it up’

Joyce ‘I did see a murder—I did—I did’

Ann ‘Why didn’t you go to the police about it, then’?

Joyce ‘Because I didn’t know it was a murder’

With the usual name changes—Mary Drake becomes Rowena and Sonia Karova is Olga Seminoff—she lists some of the characters:

Possible characters

Mary Drake—Giver of party (?)

Mother or step-mother of Joyce [Mrs Reynolds]

Alistair Drake—fair—good-looking—vague

Sonia Karova—Au pair girl came to Barrets Green four or five years earlier

The Drake—old Miss or Mrs. Kellway an Aunt lived with them—dies suddenly—left a will hand written, leaving money to Sonia—former wills left money to Alistair

Girl ran away—never found—or—girl’s body found—or au pair girl disappeared—went off with a young man

A school teacher—Miss Emlyn—her body found—seen with a man

The notes indicate that much of the plot eluded Christie for a long time, as again and again she tried to get a coherent outline:

A garden made out of a quarry by Mrs. Llewellyn Browne—rich eccentric elderly woman mad on gardens—sunk gardens—saw one in N. Ireland—spent a lot of money.

David McArdle—young, artistic landscape planner—rumoured to be an elderly woman’s fancy—to make money out of them.

Also au pair girl Alenka—looked after old lady—she was keen on David—(refer to Cornish Mystery— she thinks husband is giving her arsenic)

Au pair girl—looked after old Mrs. Wilberforce—Aunt dies—her will found later—hidden in Chinese jar—(under carpet?)—money left to Olga—A supposedly written by her—but it was a forgery

Mary Drake—rich runs place—husband—Julian—polio victim?—weak—works on board of hospital—draws beautifully—forges—or—is Mr. Drake her second husband—first one was polio victim—did she kill him? In order to marry No. 2

But eventually she settled on a scenario that pleased her, and on pages headed ‘May 20th’ and ‘31st’ (1969) we find the following:

Idea—Sonia (Olga) (Katrina) was friends with John Leslie Ferrier—he had a conviction for forgery. Michael induces Leslie to forge will—offers him money—Leslie then killed (knifed by Michael)—Or—Hit and Run by car. Mary in with him her husband killed (hit and run) Soon after he inherits—man in car—car was pushed from somewhere 15 miles away, Michael at a meeting in London

Sequence—

A. Mrs. L.B. makes will or codicil—Michael hears about it (from Olga)

B. Gets Leslie to forge a codicil—pays him money—knifes him after a row between jealous girls.

C. Death of Mrs. L.B. (overdose)

D. Death of polio nephew—his wife adored him—Mrs. Mary had people playing bridge.

E. Mrs. L.B. had written draft codicil of my will. She had written it—or shown it to girl—then changed its position (work out details). Possibly in library.

Ideas and Points May 31st

A. Cleaning woman goes to Mrs. Oliver about seeing codicil

B. Poirot opens letter—Hungarian Herzoslovakian friend—has visited family—Olga Seminova—young man Olga was going to marry

C. Poirot and Michael Wright—in wood—he was with Miranda.

D. Miss Byways and hedges—Doctor dispensary—has cooked up prescription—little bottle of pills

E. Leonard or Leopold was near Michael and Miranda—sly—knows something—nasty little eavesdropper—is Leopold the next victim? Leopold—scientific bent—eavesdropper—possible juvenile blackmailer—or his sister Ann

This is, in fact, the plot she adopted, although why Mrs Llewellyn-Smythe should have written a codicil and then hidden it is never fully explained in the novel. And is it at all likely that Leopold, an 11-year-old, should blackmail a double murderer, thereby becoming another victim?

The short story ‘How Does Your Garden Grow?’ hovers over the novel, as the extract below shows. Both feature an elderly lady ignoring her family to leave her fortune to a foreign companion and the subsequent scapegoating of the legatee. The ‘shells’ is a reference to the plot of the earlier story, where strychnine is concealed in an oyster and the shells later hidden in plain sight as a decoration in the garden:

What did Joyce see? Mary Drake comes out from back door—shells—sticks them by path