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The Murder on the Links
(Hercule Poirot #2),
by Agatha Christie.
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For a mystery book titled "The Murder on the Links", it begins well by the opening being set in a train, with an elderly gentleman - Hastings - being won over by an impish teenager girl with her antics, despite his initial shock and disapproval at her lack of primness. One may ask how this is related to the title, or simply wait until the author proceeds. It comes soon enough.
This seems, from the next chapter dialogues, to be only the second Poirot mystery, one immediately after the first work of Agatha Christie, Murder At The Styles. Those two - Murder At The Styles, and The Secret Adversary - were set in England, with quintessential character traits and attitudes; the former, set in wartime, used the war background well, albeit minimally. The latter began with sinking of Lusitania and had characters of various international backgrounds, even if they were for most part small characters.
Now, the author sails across the channel to northern coast of France, to explore French characters and attitudes and their view of the Brits.
And the author seems fond of the name Marguerite, since she's using it for a villa this time after using it in The Secret Adversary, for a beautiful woman, and for a key to the mystery.
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" ... I received a telegram bidding me to proceed without delay to Buenos Aires, and from thence via the Andes to Valparaiso, and on to Santiago.”"
Curious! Did the author use the names without consulting a map? What she describes is roughly equivalent of "London, and from thence via Irish sea to Galway, and on to Dublin".
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Unlike 'Murder At The Styles', or The Secret Adversary, here the author is beginning to set up her own style of a plot, and so one is shocked at a second murder on the same spot not too long after the first. That it only seems like a murder, perhaps supports the idea that this was an early work, and in subsequent mysteries she was indulging the readers with handful of murders per mystery.
Also, unlike subsequent works, in this one as in her first work Hastings tends to get attached personally - here, perhaps, for last time.
And the author's usual round robin of finger of guilt pointing at one unsuspected person after another, too, seems well established by this time.
Finally, one has to wonder - was the Hindi film Gupt an Indianised version of The Murder on the Links, due to either a screenwriter or the makers being fans of this author? Far too similar in the theme, although not the plot specifics, to be coincidental.
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May 01, 2021 - May 03, 2021.
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