Agatha Christie - Queen of the Slow Burn

“Murder is committed for gain, for fear, or for love,” says Hercule Poirot in Agatha Christie’s “Hallowe’en Party.” It’s a perfect description of the mystery novel (not of the thriller, which follows other rules). But then, there’s a lot Agatha Christie does perfectly in her novels.

Agatha Christie and Arthur Conan Doyle were the first authors of crime and mystery stories I’ve read and I soon realized the difference between them. Doyle does bests with his short stories (even though he always thought his historical novels were the best he did - they weren’t), which is where Sherlock Holmes is at his best, too - the same goes for his stories of unease. Christie, on the other hand, is a master of the slow burn, of setting up a novel slowly, steadily, increasing the tension, making us understand and like the characters, only to surprise us in the end with the solution to the crime.

Slow burn stories are something you need to like, of course. First, the stage is set and the most important people are introduced. You can usually be sure that the murderer will appear around that time, though not always. The reason for the murder is set up in some way - either by hinting that a character is in danger or by showing that they do have a lot of enemies. The murder happens afterwards and the detective (Hercule Poirot, Miss Maple, or someone else) comes in. We get a good look not only at the suspects (for some cases may be low on suspects), but also at the victim. Which aspect of the victim was the reason for the murder? Who liked and disliked them and why? Slowly, suspects fall to the wayside, they have alibis or had no means for committing the murder. At some point, it often seems as if nobody can have done it - but it was done, so what happened? The mysterious stranger is usually out from very early on, because that is not what you do in a proper mystery novel. That’s not fair towards the reader. Then comes the realisation that the murder was committed in a different way (that’s why I love “Evil under the Sun” and “The Body in the Library” so much, both play with the time of death). With it, it becomes clear who the murderer was, but there’s still the need of proving it. Once that is done, there’s the big reveal at the end with the detective telling us who did it and how they came to realize who the culprit was. That’s what I love about Agatha Christie’s books.

Recently, I went on a little e-book shopping spree and got myself six novels I’d either read before and loved or wanted to read from Agatha Christie: “The Body in the Library” and “Murder at the Vicarage,” are both Miss Maple stories; “The ABC Murders,” “Death on the Nile,” “The Labours of Hercules,” and “Hallowe’en Party” are all Hercule Poirot stories. I already own “Murder on the Orient Express” and “Evil under the Sun,” so I’m all set for many hours of good mystery stories for the stormy autumn days and cold winter nights to be expected soon.

“Hallowe’en Party” was the only story I was fully unaware of and the much lower price led me to believe it was a short, like “Hercule Poirot’s Christmas” which I’ve read a while ago. It’s a full novel, though (perhaps it was a special offer or something, not sure).

It’s not the first time Christie kills a young girl in one of her stories (the second victim in “The Body in the Library” is a sixteen-year-old girl scout) and not the first time children play a pivotal role (“Cat among the Pigeons” is set at a boarding school, although all victims are adults) or are even suspects (“Evil under the Sun” puts up Arlena Marshall’s step-daughter as one of the suspects - but then, Arlena was horribly good at making enemies). Still, Joyce, the victim, is merely thirteen and such young girls or boys are rarely killed in mystery stories - that’s more something for thrillers, again. She might have been killed, as Poirot is told when he’s hired, because she said she saw a murder ‘a long time ago.’ This would put up ‘fear’ as the motive, when it comes to Poirot’s words about reasons for murder. The fear of being finally found out, to be more precise. But then, this is a small village with few inhabitants and, naturally, there haven’t been many murders in Joyce’s lifetime (we’re not in Midsomer, after all).

Such settings are perfect for a slow burn and a study of humans - not psychological in the way in which modern thrillers do it, but more down to earth as ‘this is how humans think and act.’ Both Miss Maple and Hercule Poirot have a lot of experience with people and thus are able to understand what makes them tick. Poirot is a professional at solving murders, though, so it’s fitting he has more cases under his belt. There’s always secrets around, especially in small and close-knit societies such as a village or small town. There’s always secrets in the family, among the suspects. The art is to separate the secrets which have something to do with the crime from those which don’t. That’s the fun of the slow burn: to get all those pieces of human nature laid out and sorted, until the important ones are found. To see the detective follow leads which look promising (to them as much as to us), only to find themselves in a dead end and be forced to turn back and follow another lead. Sometimes the leads are plentiful, because the victim was good at making enemies, sometimes they are sparse, because the victim seems to be innocent (Joyce, of course, falls into this category, being a thirteen-year-old schoolgirl).

The fun of an Agatha Christie novel is not action and people shooting each other or the most gruesome murders possible (shooting, stabbing, poisoning, and strangling are quite common). The fun is to follow the twisted path the detective, no matter whether they’re a professional or not, must take in order to find out who did it. The way the case not only unravels the past of the victim, but also the past and the secrets of many other people. Also fun, of course, are her very distinct characters, the main ones as well as the side ones. They easily come alive on the pages and all have their distinct looks and mannerisms which make it easy to tell who is speaking or who is getting watched while doing something.

While the POV is usually with the detective, there are exceptions when Christie jumps to another mind to convey information which the detective doesn’t have yet and may never get, but which deepen our knowledge and give us a further insight.

I do enjoy reading Agatha Christie mystery novels, especially when it’s getting cold and windy and wet outside and I can curl up with my kindle and a cup of tea. But then, I always enjoy reading. If you like the kind of story I’ve described above, you might want to give her novels a try, if you haven’t done so already.