Curtain (c. 1940/75) by Agatha Christie

So the last two ramblings on this blog were rereads of Agatha Christie's novel-length introductions of her famous literary creations, Hercule Poirot and Miss Marple, who made their first formal appearances a decade apart – respectively in The Mysterious Affair at Styles (1916/20) and The Murder at the Vicarage (1930). If you have read those rambling reviews, you know my reasons (i.e. "hot takes") for preferring Hercule Poirot over Miss Marple. I'm not going to regurgitate those reasons here, except that I decided to reread The Mysterious Affair at Styles after The Murder at the Vicarage to put those reasons to the test.

The Murder at the Vicarage is backed by a decade of experience, which should have given the book a decisive edge over The Mysterious Affair at Styles, but even with a handicap, Poirot came out on top. However, they're both still minor titles in their respective series written when Christie's natural talent for murder was like a raw diamond in the process of being cut, shaped and polished. So having revisited the first Hercule Poirot and Miss Marple novels, back-to-back, I decided to go for the hat-trick and take a second look at a mystery from her vintage period. I think most of you agree there's only one logical title to follow a reread of The Mysterious Affair at Styles.

During the London blitz of World War II, Christie wrote two novels, Curtain (c. 1940) and Sleeping Murder (c. 1940), as an insurance policy, of sorts, for her family in case she was killed in the bombings – which were to be the last recorded cases of Hercule Poirot and Miss Marple. Fortunately, Christie emerged from the London blitz unscathed and the unpublished novels were stored away in a safety deposit box with the intention to publish them posthumously. A change of plans allowed Curtain to be published, in 1975, mere months before Christie passed away in January, 1976.

Curtain, often subtitled "Poirot's Last Case," gives a fitting end to the Golden Age most recognizable detective character. I don't think it would be spoiling anything at this point in time to note that The New York Times published Hercule Poirot's obituary when Curtain was published. So this is truly Poirot's last hunt and gave Christie her last hurrah from the past, which in turn also presented a continuity problem. Curtain was written in the early 1940s and some references imply it takes place during the war ("...the war that was wiped out now by a second and a more desperate war"). Something that would make sense as the story returns to the location of the first novel, Styles Court, which is set during the First World War, but Poirot survived long after World War II! The Third Girl (1966) places an aged Poirot in the Swinging Sixties and Hallowe'en Party (1969) has him realizing that his fame has somewhat faded in the modern world. There are numerous references to the death penalty ("do you think I want to see you hanged by the neck..."), but Poirot's penultimate case (Elephants Can Remember, 1972) was published three years after the death penalty was abolished in Britain. I'm not even going to speculate about Poirot's age.

So, chronologically speaking, the book can be deemed as a bit of a mess and therefore something of an oddity within the series. Which could explain why the book tends to be so strangely and unjustly overlooked. Curtain is certainly not the best detective story Christie wrote during the 1940s, but it's without question one of her most creative and daring pieces of detective fiction. This is how you end a series on a banger!

Curtain begins very similarly as The Mysterious Affair at Styles as Arthur Hastings travels down to Styles Court and reminiscing, "how long ago was it that I had taken this selfsame journey." Hastings is now widower and his children scattered across the globe, which made it both surprising and alluring when Poirot invited him to come down to Styles Court. Poirot is now a very old man, crippled with arthritis and bound to a wheelchair, but his brain still "functions magnificently" ("I could at least perceive clearly that no deterioration of the brain in the direction of modesty had taken place"). Poirot summoned Hastings to Styles Court to hunt down a murderer one last time. Hastings is presented with brief accounts of five different murder cases, "all occurred in different places and amongst different classes of people," which have "no superficial resemblance between them" and "in none of those cases did any real doubt exist" – except there was "one alien note common to them all." A certain person Poirot simply refers to as X who appears to have had no conceivable motive and even has an alibi for one of the murders, but X can be linked to all the victims. Hastings agrees getting involved in five murders is a bit too thick to be a mere coincidence and X has to be a murderer, but then Poirot tells him X is currently at Styles Court. Poirot believes "a murder will shortly be committed here," but can only prevent it if he knows who the next victim is going to be.

A sticky problem that not only requires a first-rate brain, but eyes, ears and a pair of legs, which is why Poirot needs Hastings. But refuses to tell Hastings the identity of X ("I do not wish, you see, that you should sit staring at X with your mouth hanging open..."). This naturally rankles Hastings to the point where he begins to questions his friends mental faculties ("what more likely than that he should invent for himself a new manhunt?"), but the reason why Poirot illogically guarded the identity of X so closely turned out to be entirely logical once you learn why the X-murders "the perfect crimes." Until that moment arrives, Hastings has wonder as he pokes around the guests staying at Styles Court which has since been sold and turned into a guest house that tries to pass itself off as a hotel.

There are the current owners of Styles Court, Colonel Toby Lutrell and his wife, Daisy Lutrell, who bullies her husband with "a tongue like vinegar." Dr. John Franklin is a research scientist specialized in tropical diseases and rents a small studio at the bottom of the garden that had been fitted up, "hutches of guinea pigs he's got there, the poor creatures, and mice and rabbits," to do his research work. Dr. Frankling brought along his wife, Barbara, who's an invalid and the reason he had turn down a research post in Africa. Nurse Craven came along to attend to Barbara and Dr. Franklin has a research assistant, Judith Hastings, who's Hastings modern, independently-minded daughter. Sir William Boyd Carrington is a former governor of a province in India, first-class shot, big game hunter and the sort of man, according to Hastings, "we no longer seemed to breed in these degenerate days." On the other hand, the easy talking, womanizing Major Allerton is the type of man Hastings instinctively dislikes and distrusts ("most of what he said holding a double implication"). Stephen Norton is a nice, but rather shy man who loves bird watching and Elizabeth Cole appears to be somewhat a woman of mystery ("a woman who had suffered and who was, in consequence, deeply distrustful of life"). But who could possibly be the mysterious, homicidal X?

Fascinatingly, Christie depicts Styles Court as psychologically tainted, possibly infected, by the tragic events from The Mysterious Affair at Styles ("A virus of murder, you mean? Well, it is an interesting suggestion"). A place where "evil imaginings" came easily to mind and even Hastings falls prey to the corrupting influence of its atmosphere. So the small, seemingly meaningless domestic incidents and quarrels turn into something more serious and eventually into something very deadly.

This is also the point in the story where I can't discuss much more about the plot and know the description, thus far, hardly sounds like an Agatha Christie vintage, but the stingy twist is in its tail. Here, more than ever! A smash ending precariously balanced on the last two deaths towards the end of the book. Firstly, one of the characters is found shot in a locked bedroom holding a small pistol and the key of the door in the pocket of the victim's dressing gown. This very late death earned Curtain a mention in Robert Adey's Locked Room Murders (1991), but the trick is extremely routine and what matters about this death is the who-and why. Here, more than ever! Well, you know who dies last ("I don't want to write about it at all"). So the solution had to be pretty good to turn it's low-key premise into something really special to justify it being Poirot's last great challenge. And it did!

Curtain ends with a posthumous letter from Poirot to Hastings, "I hazard a conjecture that by the time you read this you will have evolved the most preposterous theories," explaining everything that happened. Normally, ending a detective story with a posthumous letter lands like a damp squib, but this one delivered on practically all accounts. First of all, X truly proved to be a worthy final opponent and arguably one of the most intriguing killers the Golden Age detective story has ever produced. A subtle sadist who perfected the art of murder with "a technique superb, magnificent, that arouses admiration in spite of oneself." Secondly, which is not often mentioned, but can anyone name a single detective novel that handled (SPOILER/ROT13) zhygvcyr, vaqrcraqragyl-npgvat zheqreref as good and convincingly as Christie did here? Not a bad accomplishment considering it's the kind of thing we complain about as lazy and uninspired plotting, but it worked here like a charm. And to top it all, Christie delivered a mortal blow. A coup de grace preying on a glaring, psychological blind spot to deliver a grand play on her beloved least-likely-suspect! What a way to bow out of the grandest game in the world!

So, as you probably deduced by now, I really enjoyed rereading Curtain and appreciated it so much more second time around. My only complaints are purely stylistically. I think the text should have been slightly revised to correct some of the continuity errors, which could have been done easily enough by altering the period references. It would have blurred the timeline enough to make it conceivable it takes place shortly after Elephants Can Remember. The title should have been something like The Last Hunt or Another Affair at Styles. Curtain feels a little thin to cover such a grand-style detective story. Regardless of those few stylistic continuity issues and errors, Curtain is a detective story of a rare and very special excellence. I called The Mysterious Affair at Styles a diamond-in-the-rough, but Curtain really is a rare, precious metal that's perhaps not originally from the series main timeline and could be as some have suggested take place in a parallel universe in which Poirot's health deteriorated during the war years (rationing is what really killed that delicate man). Whatever your personal take is, Christie undeniably threw Poirot a phenomenal and unforgettable farewell party worthy of one of the greatest and most beloved Golden Age detectives.

I think its fitting to end with a quote from Sherlock Holmes: "If my record were closed tonight, I could still survey it with equanimity. The air of London is the sweeter for my presence." Yes, London and far beyond!