Murder in Retrospect by Agatha Christie, 1942

 

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 This is Hercule Poirot #25. It was also published under the title Five Little Pigs.

Major characters:

• Carla Lemarchant, Poirot's client
• Amyas Crale, a painter, her father (deceased prior to story)
• Caroline Crale, her mother (deceased prior to story)
• Angela Warren, Caroline's half-sister
• Cecilia Williams, Angela's childhood governess
• Philip Blake, stockbroker, was Amyas' best friend and neighbor
• Meredith Blake, herb and potion hobbyist, Philips's brother
• Elsa Greer, Amyas' 'other woman'. Now Lady Dittisham
• Hercule Poirot

Synopsis: Carla Lemarchant visits Hercule Poirot to ask him to investigate a sixteen-year old murder. Her father, painter Amyas Crale, had been poisoned. Her mother, Caroline Crale, was convicted on circumstantial evidence. The alleged motive was jealousy: Amyas was going to divorce her to marry young Elsa Greer (after several marriages, now Lady Dittisham). Caroline died in prison.

Carla is convinced her mother was innocent. She wishes her name cleared posthumously so that she (Carla) can marry without her fiancé forever thinking her mother was guilty.

Poirot reviews the cold case by interviewing the principals. He finds the poison, a hemlock concoction, had been lifted from the hobby lab of Meredith Blake, brother of stockbroker Philip Blake, who had been Amyas' best friend; and introducted into his beer glass.

Review: One thing I especially liked about this one is that the circle of suspects remains small - always just five. It made it easy to keep track of the cast of characters. Another thing which is unique is that Poirot got each of the five to write a narrative of the 16-year old murder, from their perspectives. These narratives are provided to the reader. 

Finally, Poirot gets a significant clue from one of the five which untangles the entire murder. As he explains it in the denouément, the sequence of events and motives is crystal clear. I kept page-turning to the very end. 

A final note: The (over)use of pronouns instead of proper names in the beginning led me to a misunderstanding: I thought Angela was Carla's half-sister. She is not. She is Caroline's half-sister, about ten years older than Carla. At the time of the murder, Angela was about fifteen, Carla about five. It was puzzling to me why a 15-year-old rated a governess, while the five year old did not! I suppose the governess was in place of a parent for Angela, who did not have any parents in the picture.

You may also enjoy this review by Bev Hankins on My Reader's Block.