Agatha Christie's Murder in the Making Extract

Agath� Christie’sMURDER IN THE MAKING

MURDER IN THE MAKING_FINAL.indd 1MURDER IN THE MAKING_FINAL.indd 1 03/08/2011 11:0003/08/2011 11:00

From Notebook 4 a tantalising glimpse of a project, never realised, from the 1960s. See Unused Ideas Three.


Agath� Christie’sMURDER IN THE MAKING

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Stories and Secrets from her Archive

JOHN CURRAN


HarperCollinsPublishers77–85 Fulham Palace Road

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First published 2011

1

Text copyright © John Curran 2011.

Agatha Christie Notebooks/ The Man Who Knew/

The Case of the Caretaker’s Wife copyright © Christie Archive Trust 2011.

Quotations copyright © Agatha Christie Limited

(a Chorion company) 2011.

All rights reserved.

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UNUSED IDEAS: ONE

UNUSED IDEAS: ONE��

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 sen-

tences, still did not result in a story. In some cases detailed

character descriptions (‘young schoolmaster type’), defi-

nite 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 stimu-

lates me, if not to write that identical plot, at least to write

something else.’

This fi rst selection includes two of the more elaborate

sketches. ��


MURDER IN THE MAKING

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THE CLUEDO CASE

Book ideaGeorge 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 unimportantShe saw Professor Plum in the library – with the candlestick.Shall the people beGeneral Col. MustardMrs. White – Housekeeper? Or Col. M’s sisterMiss Scarlet – young woman of doubtful morals – engaged to son? or secretary to PlumMrs. Peacock – Colonel’s sisterReverend Green – Former owner – in neighbourhoodProfessor Plum – Old friend of MustardResult of conversation‘Nannie’ or ‘Daily Help’ dies after cup of tea?Now – what did she see or know that she didn’t know she knewA Point of TimeThe 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


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UNUSED IDEAS: ONE

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 ver-

sion 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 evi-

dence, 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 signifi cance 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 with-

out knowing why. And the unfortunate Mrs De Rushbridger,

also in Three Act Tragedy, dies because she knows nothing.

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MURDER IN THE MAKING

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THE PLASTIC SURGEON

Old man is crook – played market etc. Or surgeon – plasticWife 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 feelingsSelina – dau Kathleen – daughter – (Nurse Vernon?)They have to live together in ‘Crooked House’ because of War diffi culties.Old man holds purse strings – two children – Serena and EdwardTutor? Young man – wounded in War – a cripple – MilesDr. Kirkpatrick – Suggestion is that Gertrude killed him – or MilesMoney is left to herPossibly Dr. Kirkpatrick is her old boyfriend – he intends to marry KathleenTriangleCountry House Rich man dead in (1) offi ce (2) study in suburban houseCrooked Mile (Dr. plastic surgeon – crook)Old man like gnome – young hospital wife nurse

Crooked HouseCrippled soldier with scarred face – old man is treating him for war wounds – but not war wounds – really a murdererCombine with Helen idea – man convinced he is a murderer. Doctor persuades him and says he will remake his face

Crooked ManOld gnome like man – plastic surgeon – (struck off for unprofessional conduct – did surgery for crooks) – young


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UNUSED IDEAS: ONE

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 defi nite 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 offi ce’

from the fi rst 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.


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