Murder on the Links (1923)

I'm slowly but surely going through all of Agatha Christie's work. The weird thing for me is that I've been a Agatha Christie admirer since my early teens (I'm in my mid 20s now) through watching every adaptation of her work ever made on TV and in the Cinema, yet I have never read her novels until more recently; last year I read her first novel (and first Poirot story), The Mysterious Affair at Styles (published in the years 1920 and 1921), and I loved it!

The last couple of days I've read this novel, Murder on the Links (1923), which is the second in the Poirot mysteries. I loved it even more if it is possible, though I had to get used to some of the differences in the story from the TV adaptation with the brilliant David Suchet as Poirot - actually they made many understandable changes from the books in all the other episodes of the series (significantly they added Hastings and Japp into episodes based on the books, many of which they were not originally in!), so I'll have to accept this. However, I much prefer the version from the book than from the TV episode. In the TV episode the story is set in the 1930s, where in the book it is set in the early 1920s with a wonderful reference to flappers;
“Now I am old-fashioned. A woman, I consider, should be womanly. I have no patience with the modern neurotic girl who jazzes from morning to night, smokes like a chimney, and uses language which would make a billingsgate fishwoman blush!” - Hastings on his future love!
Obviously, as a Flapper fan and 1920s fan, I LOVE that! lol!

One of the twin characters was also removed (the Bella girl) and some other things were added, removed or combined into one scene etc. I recommend checking out the ITV program, Super Sleuths - Agatha Christie's Poirot (2006) which talks a good deal about some of the bigger things they changed and why they did it, plus we get interviews with some of the cast.
I think what I enjoyed the most about Murder on the links is the characters and what happens to the characters. Of course the mystery was great, but it was, in this case, not my favorite aspect. I could easily have read the book in one sitting and I almost did... it’s a wonderfully clever and easy to read novel, really, and I can't recommend it highly enough! ( )

I'm not much for cozies in general, but I do like Agatha Christie and, the earlier Hercule Poirot novels are very nicely crafted. In this story, an Englishman living in France summons Poirot to Merlinville-sur-Mer in France. The Englishman, Paul Renaud, believes his life to life to be endangered. Poirot arrives in all due haste; but it is too late. Renaud's body is discovered on a golf course.... Silly me, I was half afraid that the book was going to contain arcane golfing terminology and I was going to have to ask DH about mashies and niblicks and such, but rest assured, there was nothing about golf in the story :-)

Redacted from the original blog review at dog eared copy, Hercule Poirot Mysteries (1-4): Mini Op-Ed Reviews, 10/10/2011 ( )

The Murder on the Links is the second of Christie's Poirot series and from it a better picture of what this Belgian detective is like. The thing that struck me was that he might be a precursor to the man known in the current day as Mr. Adrian Monk. Hercule Poirot comes into a room and immediately looks around and if he can he will begin to straighten up the pictures on the wall, align edges of things out of place and generally look for what is out of order. This is basically the method to his madness as the saying goes.

Poirot's second characteristic is that he leaves forensic details to others because he can't waste time on clues like cigarette butts or blades of grass because frankly he knows nothing about them and he refuses to make himself look ridiculous moving his nose across the ground like a hound dog. Leave that for the dogs he says.

Poirot gets a frantic letter from France where a Mr. Renauld is in fear for his life. Despite leaving immediately with his friend Captain Hastings, he arrives too late. Renauld has been found in an open grave on a golf course wearing an overcoat which is too large for him over his underwear.

There are many entangled threads involving several mysterious characters that Poirot teases out in a delicate fashion all the while poor Captain Hasting is totally lost at sea. He is a lot more that a day late and a dollar short. It made me wonder just why Poirot puts up with him.
I like the early Poirot books the best because as yet you don't get tired of the little grey cells comments. ( )

A good HP book. I don't know why, but it felt more like a "first novel" to me than The Mysterious Affair at Styles did. There is a lot going on in the story, both with the main action and between various characters. I did really like the character development of Hastings and the development of the relationship between Hastings and Poirot. I expect that this background will make the rest of the HP books more enjoyable. ( )

World War One is over, and Captain Hastings and Hercule Poirot are sharing an apartment in London. Poirot has started working as a private detective, and he’s hired by a wealthy gentleman. But when Poirot and Hastings get to France, it’s already too late – Poirot’s client has been murdered. Poirot feels honor bound to solve the murder. But with his investigation he pits himself against the famous French detective Giraud, a member of the French La Sûreté Nationale – the National Police, France’s version of Scotland Yard.

Poirot is not as annoying as I remember him. Perhaps because it’s only the second book he appears in and Agatha Christie’s third novel overall, she is not yet confident enough to truly make Poirot’s quirks take center stage. Or it could be because I was distracted by my annoyance at Hastings. Shouldn’t Hastings know – especially after the Styles case – that the unimportant things Poirot interests himself in usually are important clues? And the whole ‘falling in love at the drop of a hat’ thing he has going for him – in the last book, and now again – is annoying as well. I cannot say I mind that Hastings doesn’t appear often after this book. His clueless bumbling, without seeming to learn from his mistakes, will not be missed by me.

As for the mystery, I liked it. Some parts of the plot I actually figured out before the reveal, but most of it I didn’t – exactly how I like my mysteries. The competitive element between Poirot and Giraud is fun, especially considering their very different methods of coming to a conclusion. All in all, a good, strong mystery which I recommend. ( )