Musing on Peril at End House

I have been rereading Agatha Christie a lot lately. The books are real comfort to me in the unusual condition we are living in. On umpteenth repeat reading I have been noticing many things about the characters and many issues commonly covered in these books apart from the main murder plot. I missed these while reading the books first time in my teenage years. While writing my musing on these books I have been trying to focus on these issues and the characters.

In Peril at End House the lead detective is Hercule Poirot.

HERCULE POIROT

Hercule Poirot is Christie’s most famous detective and he is the most famous fictional detective after Sherlock Holmes.

He worked in Belgium law enforcement and then came to England after the First World War as a refugee. He is supposed to be already retired by then hence in mid-1960s he must be nearing 100. This fact always makes his creator tensed. Actually while creating the character Christie had never imagined Poirot would feature in more than a book.

After Poirot’s successful first case at Styles, his reputation increases gradually and he gets settled in London as a rich and famous resident. He is partial towards all the good things in life be it good food, or good patent leather shoes, or modern amenities in his modern London flat.

His detection method involves mostly thinking or “using the grey matter” as he calls it and interviewing people. He lets police and private investigators do the leg work.

He has a little obsessive compulsion for order, tidiness, and straight lines. The only non-straight lined thing in his life is his head, which is perfectly egg shaped.

The man is full of vanity. He takes great care in dressing up and grooming his moustache. He claims he has the best brain. His vanity can be insufferable at times with him looking down at people, especially his trusted friend Captain Hastings.

Although now a permanent resident, he is still a foreigner in England. People see him with distrust. But some time people easily confide in him as he is not “one of their own”. He is always mistaken for French although he is a Belgian. He uses many French phrases in his conversation as he is forever more at home in French compared to English. He can be quite emotional about his friends.

Christie writes these French lines in her Poirot books without giving their translations. She just assumes everyone understands French for some reason. Because of liberal use of French it was a little inconvenient to read Poirot books in pre-Google days.

There is one inconsistency I find in Poirot’s character – his knowledge on obscure English nursery rhymes. It would be difficult for a man who came to England at a ripe age and has not learnt English as his first language to know nursery rhymes in a non-native language. This is important because many of Agatha Christie’s murders use English nursery rhyme reference.

PREMISE

The book was published for the first time in 1932. It covers the events when Hercule Poirot and Captain Hastings take a holiday in a small seaside town named St Loo in south of England. But murderers never take holidays so it seems like someone attempted a murder in front of Poirot when he was relaxing in his hotel. That is really obnoxious of the murderer because now the self proclaimed best detective of the world would not stop at anything before catching the murderer.

In St Loo, a young girl owns the house named End House. She has a group of friends and a visiting cousin. One of them is a murderer. Poirot does his usual things, talking, sneaking, and thinking, to catch the murderer.

This is one of the best mystery plots of Christie, impractical maybe but an air tight puzzle.

I have only one issue with the plot, the character whose love of life is supposedly in peril, is not described at all as sad or anxious or at least a little off. That beefs up the misdirection unfairly.

CAPTAIN HASTINGS

Captain Arthur Hastings is Dr. Watson to Poirot’s Sherlock Holmes. The initial Poirot books are narrated by him. They became close friends in the first Poirot book “The Mysterious Affair at Styles”. In “The Murder on the Links” he meets his wife. Then he goes away to Argentina and settles down there.

But he keeps on coming to Britain a lot and suspiciously always without his wife. While he is in England generally he spends a lot of time with Poirot and becomes narrator of his murder investigations.

But unlike Dr. Watson he is not the exclusive narrator of Poirot’s murders. There are other narrating ways of Poirot books when Captain Hastings is not around.

Captain Hastings is a gallant, honourable, loyal, and straight forward person. He generally does not approve of some of the sneaky ways Poirot uses to solve crimes. But he plays along as the end justifies the means. He has vivid imagination but which always proves to be wrong in the end. He has a soft spot for red haired ladies.

Like Sherlock Holmes, Hercule Poirot too feels he is always the smartest person in the room. Poirot generally scoffs at others’ intelligence. Captain Hastings is at the receiving end of his “scoffing” more than anyone else.

I always feel their relationship is a classic case of an abusive relationship. Hastings almost worships Poirot. He can’t see any serious flaw in Poirot constantly insulting him. His submissive role in the relationship gives free pass to Poirot for behaving more brashly with him than anyone else. In this book Poirot’s abusive behaviour is quite glaring.

‘I did not ask you to describe the hat. It is plain that you do not see. Almost incredible, my poor Hastings, how you hardly ever do see! It amazes me every time anew! But regard, my dear imbecile – it is not necessary to employ the grey cells – the eyes will do. Regard – regard –’

I wish he stays in Argentina more even on his visits to England he should not meet Poirot

Because we must cut off abusive people from our lives even if they are world famous detectives. The use of plural here owes to the similar thoughts I have about the relationship between Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson.