The Devil is Everywhere: "Triangle at Rhodes" (1936) by Agatha Christie

Last time, I revisited Agatha Christie's Evil Under the Sun (1941), a classic of the simon-pure jigsaw puzzle detective story, which served as a reminder why Christie towered above so many of her contemporaries and made me want to take another look at an earlier, shorter version of the novel – generally considered to be one of her better short stories. So did it stand up to rereading? Let's find out! 

Christie's "Triangle at Rhodes" was originally published in the February 2, 1936, issue of This Week, reprinted in the May, 1936, publication of The Strand Magazine and finally collected in Murder in the Mew and Other Stories (1937). 

"Triangle at Rhodes" takes place on the titular, sun-soaked island where the celebrated Belgian detective, Hercule Poirot, had come to for a much deserved rest and holiday. A hopefully non-criminal, corpse-free holiday and he had booked his holiday during a period when Rhodes would be nearly empty. So the island resembled "a peaceful, secluded spot" outside of the tourist season with only a small group of guests staying at the hotel, but, even within that "restricted circle," Poirot noticed "the inevitable shaping of events to come." The internal triangle!

This small circle of holidaymakers comprises of Miss Pamela Lyall, a student of human nature, who's "capable of speaking to strangers on sight" instead of "allowing four days to a week to elapse before making the first cautious advance" as "is the customary British habit" – acting, more or less, as the female counterpart of Arthur Hastings. Pamela is there on holiday with a friend, Miss Sarah Blake. Old General Barnes is "a veteran who was usually in the company of the young" or boring other guests with anecdotes military career in India, but the foreboding, triangle-shaped patterns take shape among two married couples, the Chantrys and the Golds.

Valentine Chantry is a "man-eating tiger" who widowed one husband, lost three in the divorce courts and recently married a navy officer, Commander Tony Chantry. Douglas Gold is a good looking, golden-headed man who there with his mousy-looking wife, Marjorie, but becomes infatuated with Valentine. So the familiar, age-old pattern of murder begins to take shape and ends with Valentine drinking poisoned gin and an arrest.

Poirot and Pamela were the only ones who observes the eternal triangle take shape, but Pamela saw it "the wrong way round" and here the story turned out to be weaker than I remembered. There's no meaningful clueing or misdirection with its only strong points being its geometrical plot-structure and how beautifully the ending reversed the whole situation, but the conclusion played out off-page with Poirot being an eyewitness to the murderer's handiwork – telling the reader about it afterwards. So plenty of good ideas here, but not very satisfying as a detective story nor anywhere near as good as its novel-length treatment. That's a shame as I used think "Triangle at Rhodes" would easily make my top 10 of best short detective stories. Don't worry. Christie will still be represented on such a hypothetical, future list with the massively under appreciated "Wireless" (1926).