Murder on the Links

I've taken a very random approach to my reading of the Hercule Poirot stories so it felt very interesting to read this early novel (the second in his series?) after having read some of the later ones. It was fun to see ways in which Poirot's character and stories evolved over time. The most notable feeling I had was that Christie was still working out the nature of the relationship between Poirot and Hastings. Their interactions in this novel felt closer to a Holmes/Watson pairing than in later books. At the same time, I appreciate the points in which Hastings took a more central role in the plot (even if he did make a mess of it *spoilers*).

As you might expect, the writing is fantastic and the plot is tight. From the initial few show more chapters you are knocked off balance while thrown into the thick of things. Poirot receives a mysterious letter from a man worried for his life.

The day Poirot arrives, the police are there investigating his murder. The French inspector, Giraud, is resentful of Poirot's help and treats him with antagonism and condescension, claiming that Poirot's methods are outdated and useless and that he should leave the job to the professionals and their modern training and methods.

Fortunately, some of the other members of the French law enforcement group are a bit more open to Poirot's involvement but it is still a bit of an uphill battle. The interplay between Poirot and Giraud make for humorous and delightful commentary not only on law enforcement but the way professionals in an occupation often view themselves and their competition. I especially liked that Hastings was so impressed with Giraud that he tried to praise him and defend him to Poirot. Naturally Poirot would not change his opinion and instead he set out to show that his methods, and his little grey cells, would prevail.

In addition to the core mystery, I found it interesting that Christie creates a smaller mystery as a thread to wind throughout the story. Hastings has met a young woman on a train and become infatuated. Even though Poirot chides Hastings for his senseless emotional behavior, there is something mysterious about this girl and so her mystery continues to appear throughout the book. Rather than feeling distracting and disjointed, the working of this second mystery felt like a natural pairing and it was fun to see the two problems proceed to their natural conclusions and watch the interplay of the characters and their involvement in each.

This book does fall into the trap of having a solution that relies on specialized knowledge that the reader doesn't have. In fact, this knowledge is so specific that Poirot has to leave the investigation completely to go and do research elsewhere and return with the answer. There is some dissatisfaction in a mystery that can't be solved by the reader picking up on early clues dropped by the author. Fortunately, there are enough other clues that the reader is able to make deductions in logical directions even without the specific bit of knowledge that's withheld from everyone until Poirot reveals it.

Probably the biggest disconnect for me was the title. While it's true that the murder victim was found on a golf course, there was no other connection or interaction that tied the story to the golf course. I suppose the title could have been a type of red herring to leave readers expecting some sort of intrigue with the golf course owners or groundskeepers or something (if you're anticipating that, I apologize for spoiling the lack of connection). It's an adequate title, just a little misleading. And as my biggest disconnect, that should let you know that this is a solid novel.

I personally found this to be a fun read and an engaging mystery. There were enough questions to keep me second-guessing my assumptions up until the final revelations. I really enjoyed the interplay between the characters, particularly those of Hastings and Poirot. This is classic murder mystery done very well and well worth reading.

****
4 out of 5 stars show less

'The Murder On The Links' was light and clever but rested a little too heavily on coincidence and on hoof beats signalling zebras rather than horses. It was rescued by being delivered at a relatively fast pace and with relatively little time spent on laboured exposition.

I struggled a bit with Hastings at first. He was even more of an idiot in this book than he was in the later ones. When I reached the point where he left a girl, (whose name he did not know and who had told him that she was interested in selling the story of the murder to the newspapers), alone with the body and the murder weapon, I was ready to give up on him. It made me wonder at Poirot's motives for keeping around a young man who has all the appeal of an exceptionally show more stupid Beagle.

Then I realised that I was asking the wrong question. Poirot keeps Hastings around partly so he can have an unchallenging audience and partly out of a sort of misguided paternal instinct. The more interesting question was why Christie not only kept him around but made us see the world only through his eyes.

I think Hastings is a game Christie plays with her readers. A game called 'spot the blind spot'. The most important things in this story are all things that Hastings is blind to. Of course, the main thing Hastings is blind to is women. He seems pathologically incapable of seeing the woman who is standing in front of him. His vision is obscured and distorted by his expectations of the women. When he first meets the girl who calls herself 'Cinderella' for most of the book, he perceives her only dimly, through a fog of disapproval that her use of bad language was evoked. The next girl that he sees, as he enters the village where the action of the novel takes place, he declares to be a goddess and he continues to see her that way, even when Poirot repeatedly refers to her as 'the girl with the anxious eyes'. Hastings is equally but differently blind to the older women. He attributes roles to them as if they were characters in a Greek play - the noble and selfless mother - the untrustworthy seductress but he does not really see them as people.

In a novel where it is the actions of women, not men, that drive the plot, having a woman-blind narrator is a stroke of genius. Those who share his blindness will never notice it and will find themselves constantly surprised and astonished at events. Those who spot his conceptual cataracts and try to squint past them will be amused at his stupidity and or pleased at their own astuteness. Playing an undeclared game of 'spot the blind spot' with your readers is much more fun for everyone involved than having to add barely-credible red herrings.

Christie lubricates her plot with humour, some it at Hasting's expense. I thought that giving the great Hercule Poirot a younger rival from the Sûreté added a lot of fun to the plot. It allowed Poirot to show some passion for a change, albeit in defence of his own ego and it played nicely on the tension between Belgian and French ways of working and between 'modern' detectives and 'old school' ones like Poirot. It also establishes Poirot's method as being baed mostly in psychological insight rather than the erudite interpretation of physical evidence à la Sherlock Holmes.

The final thing that struck me about this novel is how well Christie writes. She gives Hastings as narrator a distinctive voice and yet brings out the characters of others, often through the use of dialogue. She moves the mechanics of the plot along with such a light hand that it's easy to miss the skill that that requires. From time to time she also leaves a little surprise in her prose This time it was an untypically lyrical comment from Poirot to Hastings which I rather liked.

'It is love that has come, not as you imagined it, all cock-a-hoop with fine feathers, but sadly, with bleeding feet.'

I started reading this novel as an ebook. I imagine there must be good ebook copies out there. The one I picked wasn't one of them.

I STRONGLY RECOMMEND THAT YOU DON'T BUY THE Aegitas, Kindle Edition ASIN B07MXLZ25Z.

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By the time I was 7% through the book, there had already been three publishing errors. It looks like they are simple OCR failures that have not been found or corrected. Here they are:

‘The letter was written on a foreign type of paper, in a bold characteristic hand: [Unreadable]’

'I do not know. But I have a premonition-a [unreadable].'

‘the body was lying face downwards, in an [unclear].'

When I finally gave up and moved to the audiobook version, l learned that that last quote should have read:

‘the body was lying face downwards, in an open grave.'

That's not the kind of detail you want to have to guess at in a murder mystery.

The good news is that Hugh Fraser has done his usual splendid job as a narrator of the audiobook version. show less

Perhaps because this was written and released early in Agatha Christie’s Poirot canon — 1923 — it seems more freewheeling than some later Poirot mysteries; and in many ways more charming. All the books with Hastings as narrator have an element of charm, the interactions between Hastings and Poirot giving readers an indelible impression of both men that remains steadfast and comforting all these years later. Murder on the Links in particular abounds with little nuances in their relationship, which intrudes into the mystery when Hastings falls in love, and actually goes against Poirot to protect the object of his affections.

The mystery is as freewheeling and enjoyable as the interaction between Hastings and Poirot. There are show more daggers, a murder, then a second murder, family secrets, a trial from the past which may have bearing on the present crimes, young love, unrequited love, false confessions, confession by silence, and a pompous detective that our favorite Belgian has to outwit to uncover the true murderer; whom few readers will actually guess. At one point, a murder is prevented as Poirot himself shimmies up the side of a house! I can’t recall much physical derring-do by Poirot in other stories; the little grey cells do all the work. It’s grand.

As many have noted, there is a great deal of clue-discovering and clue-explaining, but it’s handled within the charming narration of Hastings. For his part, Hasting observes Poirot mucking about with seemingly insignificant clues while the detective in charge appears to be solving the case quite nicely; all is not as it seems, however — perhaps nothing! Of all the Poirot entries, Murder on the Links feels more firmly set in the 1920s, capturing the romantic charm of a more innocent time — even when it comes to murder. There is some dark doings here, of course, but it’s all so romantic in a fashion that Murder on the Links is the epitome of a murder cozy.

If the reader is willing to go along with a more relaxed and freewheeling story and style of narrative — something you don’t often get in the rigidly defined cozy — they’ll have a great time reading this one, and more often than not find themselves smiling as they root as much for Hastings to find love as they do for Poirot to figure it all out and show up the pompous detective working the case. A wonderful read for fans. show less

هستینگز که راوی رمان‌های پوآروئه خیلی آدم رو مخ و اعصاب خرد کنیه... آدمی که از درک خیلی از معماها عاجز و هیچ کمک فکری یا جسمی‌ای به پوارو نمی‌کنه و تازه در این رمان دو سه جا مشکل هم براش به وجود میاره و این سؤال رو برای من به وجود میاره که چرا باید پوارو اون رو به عنوان همکار پیش خودش نگه داره! اقلاً شخصیت واستون تو رمان‌های شرلوک هلمز به شخصیت ضداجتماعی شرلوک در اجتماع کمک می‌کنه و سودی براش داره.
جدای از اون show more شخصیت پوارو هم کارآگاه جذابی نیست (حداقل تو این دو رمانی که ازش تا به اینجا خوندم)... تقریباً جز هوش سرشارش هیچ عامل دیگه‌ای نیست که اون رو متمایز و دوست داشتنی کنه برخلاف شرلوک که شخصیت عصبی و جامعه‌ستیزش باعث جذابیت اعمالش هم می‌شه... توی ماجرای اسرارآمیز در استایلز (شماره‌ی اول سری رمان‌های پوارو) پوارو نشانه‌هایی از اختلال وسواس فکری-عملی نشون می‌ده که به شخصیت ریزبین اون میاد اما هر چند این ویژگی شخصیتی تو رمان اول کمرنگ بود توی این رمان کاملاً محو شده بود.
اما جدای از این نقدها به نظر من آگاتا کریستی استاد ساختن پیرنگ‌های پیچیده‌ و جنایی‌یه. باز هم نمی‌شد حدس زد که آگاتا کریستی چه چیزی رو برای رو کردن آخر داستان ترتیب داده و چقدر استادانه همه چیز رو کنار همه چیده... شاید اگه آگاتا کریستی به جای نویسندگی جنایتکار هم می‌شد آدم موفقی می‌بود. show less

An after Christmas lunch snooze seemed likely, so I settled down with a book instead. It's a sufficiently convoluted murder, with 2 deaths and two different crimes and two different girls in love with the same boy - apparently. Themystery starts when the rich man who had called on Piorot for help is found dead in a grave in the garden, kidnapped and murdered from his own bedroom. And so the French police investigate. And my goodness, what a palava they make of it. The detective, the poilice, the doctor, the magistrate, there seem to be a cast of thousand suited men - none of then asking the right quesitons. Poirot gets to the bottom of it, not without some false trails being led here and there. And I think he might get annoying in large show more doses. If I plan to read Poirot in order, I'm going to space them out. show less

Hercule Poirot and his associate, Hastings, are invited to a small village in France by a client who believes he is in danger only to arrive and discover the client has been murdered. However, all is not as it seems and, of course, only Poirot can figure it out.

I always enjoy an Agatha Christie mystery and this was no exception (even if Hastings is on the obnoxious side). I enjoyed all the misdirection and the coming together of the various details. If you enjoy mysteries, you can't go wrong with this one.

I picked this book up with a few other Agatha Christie novels after reading The Science of Murder: The Forensics of Agatha Christie by Carla Valentine. I read through most of Christie's catalog when I was in junior high, but didn't remember a lot of what Valentine was mentioning, so I decided to revisit a few.

This is one of Christie's earlier works and it shows. Poirot vacillates between searching for physical evidence and deriding it before focusing on the work of his "little gray cells." I'm still not entirely sure of how the initial murder took place, though the motive was very clear. I also find Hasting's love story to be overly melodramatic and slightly maudlin - he has had three conversations with this woman and falls in love show more with her, ugh. show less