Read Agatha Christie: Murder in the Making: More Stories and Secrets From Her Notebooks Online
Authors: John Curran
Agatha Christie: Murder in the Making: More Stories and Secrets From Her Notebooks (12 page)
Extra complications in the shape of the history of the Heart of Fire are added in the novel and the inclusion of a new character, Katherine Grey, is significant. Katherine lives in St Mary Mead, although she does not know a certain Miss Jane Marple, who had made her detective debut some three months earlier in ‘The Tuesday Night Club’, the first of
The Thirteen Problems
. A quiet, determined, sensible young woman seeing the world for the first time, Katherine is a sympathetic character who captivates Poirot. And it is not fanciful to see her as a wish fulfilment for Christie herself.
The notes for
The Mystery of the Blue Train
are in Notebooks 1 and 54. Notebook 1 has a mere five pages but Notebook 54 has over 80, although the entries on each page are relatively short. They all reflect accurately the finished novel; no variations are considered and nor are there any ideas that did not make it into the published book, possibly because Christie was expanding a short story. For some reason the notes begin at Chapter 4 and then, 20 pages into Notebook 54, we find a listing of the earlier chapters, suggesting that the notes for those chapters had been destroyed.
I include a dozen pages from towards the end of Notebook 54. They contain Poirot’s explanation of the crimes, a passage so close to the published version in Chapter 35 that it merits reproduction in full, although the published version is more elaborate. Nowhere else in the plotting of her books is there anything else like this. Her flowing handwriting covers the pages, elucidating a complex plot with a minimum of deletion. Much of the following passage is almost exactly as Agatha Christie wrote it in Tenerife in 1927; it appears in the Notebook almost without punctuation, but I have added only enough to make it readable. The single most concentrated example of continuous text in the Notebooks, it is an impressive example of Christie’s fluency, clarity and readability – the factors that still play such an important part in her continuing popularity.
‘Explanations? Mais oui, I will give them to you. It began with 1 point – the disfigured face, usually a question of identity; but not this time. The murdered woman
was
undoubtedly Ruth Kettering and I put it aside.’
‘When did you first begin to suspect the maid?’
‘I did not for some time – one trifling
[point]
– the note case – her mistress not on such terms as would make it likely – it awakened a doubt. She had only been with her mistress two months yet I could not connect her to the crime since she had been left behind in Paris. But once having a doubt I began to question that statement – how did we know? By the evidence of your secretary, Major Knighton, a completely outside and impartial testimony, and by the dead woman’s own
confession
testimony to the conductor. I put that latter point aside for the moment because a very curious idea was growing up in my mind. Instead, I concentrated on the first point – at first sight it seemed conclusive but it led me to consider Major Knighton and at once certain points occurred to me. To begin with he, also, had only been with you for a period of 2 months and his initial was also K. Supposing – just supposing – that it was his notecase. If Ada Mason and he were working together and she recognised it, would she not act precisely as she had done? At first taken aback, she quickly
fell in with him
gave herself time to think and then suggested a plausible explanation that fell in with the idea of DK’s guilt. That was not the original idea – the Comte de la Roche was to be the stalking horse – but after I had left the hotel she came to you and said she was quite convinced on thinking it over that the man was DK – why the sudden certainty? Clearly because she had had time to consult with someone and had received instructions – who could have given her these instructions? Major Knighton. And then came another slight incident – Knighton happened to mention that he has been at Lady Clanraven’s when there had been a jewel robbery there. That might mean nothing or on the other hand it might mean a great deal. And so the links of the chain –’
‘But I don’t understand. Who was the man in the train?’
‘There
was
no man – don’t you see the cleverness of it all? Whose words have we for it, that there was a man. Only Ada Mason’s – and we believe in Ada Mason because of Knighton’s testimony.’
‘And what Ruth said . . .’
‘I am coming to that – yes – Mrs. Kettering’s own testimony. But Mrs Kettering’s testimony is that of a dead woman, who cannot come forward to dispute it.’
‘You mean the conductor lied?’
‘Not knowingly – the woman who spoke to him he believed in all good faith to be Mrs Kettering.’
‘Do you mean that it wasn’t her?’
‘I mean that the woman who spoke to the conductor was the maid, dressed in her mistress’s clothes –
wearing her
very distinctive clothes remember – more noticeable than the woman herself – the little red hat jammed down over the eyes – the long mink coat – the bunch of auburn curls each side of the face. Do you not know, however, that it is a commonplace nowadays how like one woman is to another in her street clothes.’
‘But he must have noticed the change?’
‘Not necessarily,
he saw
The maid handed him the tickets – he hadn’t seen the mistress until he came to make up the bed. That was the first time he had a good look at her and that was the reason for disfiguring the face – he would probably have noticed that the dead woman was not the same as the woman he had talked to.
M. Grey would
The dining room attendants might have noticed and M. Grey of course would have, but by ordering a dinner basket that danger was avoided.’
‘Then – where was Ruth?’
P
[oirot]
paused a minute and then said very quietly ‘Mrs Kettering’s dead body was rolled up in the rug on the floor in the adjoining compartment.’
‘My God!’
‘It is easily understood. Major Knighton was in Paris – on your business. He boarded the train somewhere on its way round the
ceinture
– he spoke perhaps of bringing some message from you – then he draws her attention to something out of the window slips the cord round her neck and pulls . . . .It is over in a minute. They
roll up
put the body in the adjoining compartment of which the door into the corridor is locked. Major Knighton hops off the train again – with the jewel case. Since the crime is not supposed to be committed until several hours later he is perfectly safe and his evidence and the supposed Mrs. Kettering’s words to the conductor will prove an alibi for her.
At the Gare de Lyon Ada Mason gets a dinner basket – then locks the door of her compartment – hurriedly changes into her mistress’s clothing – making up to resemble her and adjusting some false auburn curls – she is about the same height. Katherine Grey saw her standing looking out of her window later in the evening and would have been prepared to swear that she was still alive then. Before getting to Lyons, she arranges the body in the bunk, changes
Her own
into a man’s clothing and prepares to leave the train. It
must have been then that
When Derek Kettering enters his wife’s compartment the scene had been set and Ada Mason was in the other compartment waiting for the train to stop so as to leave the train unobserved – it is now drawn into Lyons – the conductor swings himself down – she follows, unobtrusively however, to proceed by slouching inelegantly along as though just taking the air but in reality she crosses over and takes the first train back to Paris where she establishes herself at the Ritz. Her name has been
entered
registered as booking a room the night before by one of Knighton’s female accomplices; she has only to wait for Mr. Van Aldin’s arrival. The jewels are in Knighton’s possession – not hers – and he disposes of them to Mr Papapolous
21
in Nice as arranged beforehand, entrusting them to her care only at the last minute to deliver to the Greek. All the same she made one little slip . . .’
‘When did you first connect Knighton with the Marquis?’
‘I had a hint from Mr Papapolous and I collected certain information from Scotland Yard – I applied it to Knighton and it fitted. He spoke French like a Frenchman; he had been in America and France and England at roughly the same times as the Marquis was operating. He had been last heard of doing jewel robberies in Switzerland and it was in Switzerland that you first met Major K. The Marquis was famous for his charm of manner
[which he used]
to induce you to offer him the post of secretary. It was at that time that rumours were going round about your purchase of the rubies – the Marquis meant to have these rubies. In seeing that you had given them to your daughter he installed his accomplice as her maid. It was a wonderful plan yet like great men he has his weakness – he fell genuinely in love with Miss Grey. It was that which made him so desirous of shifting the crime from Mr Comte de la Roche to Derek Kettering when the opportunity presented itself. And Miss Grey suspected the truth. She is not a fanciful woman by any means but she declares that she distinctly felt your daughter’s presence beside her one day at the Casino; she says she was convinced that the dead woman was trying to tell her something. Knighton had just left her – and it was gradually
[borne in on her]
what Mrs Kettering had been trying to convey to her – that Knighton was the man who had murdered her. The idea seemed so fantastic at the time that Miss Grey spoke of it to no one. But she acted on the assumption that it was true – she did not discourage Knighton’s advances, and she pretended to him that she believed in Derek Kettering’s guilt. . . .
‘There was one thing that was a shocking blow. Major Knighton had a distinct limp, the result of a wound – the Marquis had no such limp – that was a stumbling block. Then Miss Tamplin mentioned one day that it had been a great surprise to the doctors that he should limp – that suggested camouflage. When I was in London I went to the surgeon who had
looked after
been in charge at Lady Tamplin’s Hospital and I got various technical details from him which confirmed my assumption. Then I met Miss Grey and found that she had been working towards the same end as myself. She had the cuttings to add – one a cutting of a jewel robbery at Lady Tamplin’s Hospital, another link in the chain of probability and also that when she was out walking with Major Knighton at St. Mary Mead, he was so much off his guard that he forgot to limp – it was only a momentary lapse but she noted it. She had suspicion that I was on the same track when I wrote to her from the Ritz. I had some trouble in my inquiries there but in the end I got what I wanted – evidence that Ada Mason actually arrived on the morning after the crime.’
In
Agatha Christie’s Secret Notebooks
I discussed some of the ideas that appeared in the Notebooks but were not further developed. Most of those included in the earlier volume were short, single ideas; a few lines scribbled by Christie in a Notebook as the idea came to her. But there are more elaborate ideas that, despite development beyond a few sentences, still did not result in a story. In some cases detailed character descriptions (‘young schoolmaster type’), definite backgrounds (‘Hellenic cruise setting’) or exact plot devices (‘real drink poisoned earlier’) are listed; even titles (‘Mousetrap II’) are included. Many of these ideas seem very promising and it is easy to imagine most of them leading to a new ‘Christie for Christmas’. Fragments of some of these ideas were used, perhaps slightly adapted, in published works and this was one of the advantages that Christie saw in the chaos of her Notebooks when she wrote in her
Autobiography
, ‘What it’s all about I can’t remember now; but it often stimulates me, if not to write that identical plot, at least to write something else.’
This first selection includes two of the more elaborate sketches.
THE CLUEDO CASE
Book idea
George speaks to Poirot – his sister in law – she ‘obliges’ – giving evidence – but offered a very good post in Eire
[Ireland]
– can she take it? (or something
[in]
France). Or perhaps she is a ‘Nannie’ who now does a lot of ‘cooking’ in the house.
What evidence? Murder case but her evidence is quite unimportant
She saw Professor Plum in the library – with the candlestick.
Shall the people be
General
Col. Mustard
Mrs. White – Housekeeper?
Or Col. M’s sister
Miss Scarlet – young woman of doubtful morals – engaged to son? or secretary to Plum
Mrs. Peacock – Colonel’s sister
Reverend Green – Former owner – in neighbourhood
Professor Plum – Old friend of Mustard
Result of conversation
‘Nannie’ or ‘Daily Help’ dies after cup of tea?
Now – what did she see or know that she didn’t know she knew
A Point of Time
The siren goes on a Monday at a certain time. She says it always ‘gives her a turn.’ The point is siren went off at 11.30 and she has just said Professor Plum down stairs at 11.25 (really 11.35). Electric clock has been stopped and put on again
What a wonderful idea – the ultimate deviser of detective puzzles and the name most associated with the country-house murder mystery adapting the classic country-house murder mystery board game; and what a shame that it was never explored. This sketch appears in Notebook 12 between detailed notes for 1954’s
Spider’s Web
and the Marple short story
‘
Sanctuary’, so the mid 1950s seems to be the most likely date of composition. This also tallies with the 1950 release date of Cluedo.
In many ways this sketch reads like an elaborate version of the 1924 Mr Quin short story ‘The Sign in the Sky’. In that story a housemaid mentions seeing a ‘sign’ – the Hand of God, in reality the smoke from a passing train – at the time her mistress, Vivien Barnaby, is shot. Although during the investigation the time of the shot is taken from the clocks in the house, in reality the time of the train is accurate and the clocks have been altered by the murderer. Although she does not realise the importance of her evidence, the maid is subsequently offered, and accepts, a lucrative position in distant Canada. The variation in the unused idea above is a siren and an electric clock, but it is essentially the same plot. Unreliable clocks or watches are plot features of
The Murder at the Vicarage
,
Murder on the Orient Express
and
Evil under the Sun
.
The ‘Nannie dying’ idea featured in
Crooked House
; and the ‘post abroad’ ploy also appears in other titles. In Chapter 6 of
Why Didn’t They Ask Evans?
Bobby is offered an attractive job in Buenos Aires and a similar offer is made to no less a person than Poirot himself in Chapter 1 of
The Big Four
. The concept of a character knowing something (dangerous to the killer) without realising its significance was a regular feature of Christie plots throughout her career. Sir Bartholomew Strange in
Three Act Tragedy
, Miss Sainsbury Seale in
One, Two, Buckle my Shoe
, Agnes Woddell in
The Moving Finger
, Heather Badcock in
The Mirror Crack’d from Side to Side
– all die without knowing why. And the unfortunate Mrs De Rushbridger, also in
Three Act Tragedy
, dies because she knows nothing.
THE PLASTIC SURGEON
Old man is crook – played market etc. Or surgeon – plastic
Wife was hospital nurse – ill – heart – had to give up her job – nursed old man – married him –
happy in a quiet way – had had love affair with young medical student.
Morgan and Eiluned – son and wife – strong feelings
Selina – dau
Kathleen – daughter – (Nurse Vernon?)
They have to live together in ‘Crooked House’ because of War difficulties.
Old man holds purse strings – two children – Serena and Edward
Tutor? Young man – wounded in War – a cripple – Miles
Dr. Kirkpatrick – Suggestion is that Gertrude killed him – or Miles
Money is left to her
Possibly Dr. Kirkpatrick is her old boyfriend – he intends to marry Kathleen
Triangle
Country House Rich man dead in (1) office (2) study in suburban house
Crooked Mile (Dr. plastic surgeon – crook)
Old man like gnome – young hospital wife nurse
Crooked House
Crippled soldier with scarred face – old man is treating him for war wounds – but
not
war wounds – really a murderer
Combine with Helen idea – man convinced he is a murderer. Doctor persuades him and says he will remake his face
Crooked Man
Old gnome like man – plastic surgeon – (struck off for unprofessional conduct – did surgery for crooks) – young dumb house wife – boisterous son – hard intellectual wife – grandchildren?
Intelligent boy? girl?
Fantastic persons in the house – young crippled tutor – in love with wife
Although all of these extracts contain definite elements (and the title) of
Crooked House
–
a young tutor, an old gnome-like man holding the purse-strings and a young wife – and all come from Notebook 14, they are included here because they also feature the Plastic Surgeon idea. With three attempts over a dozen pages it would seem that this idea was one that appealed to Christie but ultimately defeated her. It is probable that she abandoned it and subsumed most of these ideas into
Crooked House.
But there are foreshadowings of at least two other novels. The ‘rich man dead in office’ from the first extract explicitly presages
A Pocket Full of Rye
; and both ‘Combine with Helen idea’ and ‘man convinced he is a murderer’ have strong echoes of
Sleeping Murder
.
