Appointment with Death: Poirot in the Middle East and the Murder of Mrs Boynton at Petra
On a long journey through the Middle East, among the ruins and cliffs of Petra, the body of an old woman from the powerful Boynton family is found. At first it is believed she died naturally, of her well-known heart trouble, but a tiny puncture mark on Mrs Boynton’s wrist is the only evidence that her death was no accident.
Author: Agatha Christie (1890–1976)
Title: Appointment with Death (1938)
Format: English paperback (HarperCollins), 270 pages
Series: Hercule Poirot
Amazon: www.amazon.es/dp/0008164959 (ASIN 0008164959)
The Most Hated Woman
Mrs Boynton was, in fact, the most detestable woman most people who knew her had ever met, and even the members of her own family are suspects. Many people could have wished for the death of the tyrannical Mrs Boynton, owner of a coveted fortune.
Twenty-Four Hours
Once again Hercule Poirot faces the challenge of solving a murder with more suspects than clues. Despite the complexity of the case, he sets himself the task of finding the killer in less than twenty-four hours, beginning an investigation that leads to the most unexpected ending. They all had reasons to want her dead; they are all suspects.
A Famous First Line
The novel opens with one of Christie’s most celebrated hooks. In a Jerusalem hotel, Poirot overhears a young man’s voice in the night: "You do see, don’t you, that she’s got to be killed?" The remark lodges in his mind, and when the party later travels to Petra and a death occurs, Poirot is one of the few people who suspect it was not natural.
The Boynton Family
Mrs Boynton is one of Christie’s great monsters. A former prison wardress, she has kept her grown stepchildren, Lennox, Raymond and Carol, and her own daughter Ginevra, in psychological captivity, cutting them off from friends, money and the outside world. Lennox’s wife, Nadine, wants to free her husband; a young doctor, Sarah King, falls for Raymond; a French psychologist, Dr Gérard, studies the family with professional fascination. The portrait of domestic tyranny is so convincing that the mystery becomes almost secondary to the question of whether anyone will escape.
Christie in the Middle East
Christie married the archaeologist Max Mallowan in 1930 and spent long seasons with him on excavations in Syria and Iraq. Her travels gave her the settings of several novels, among them Murder in Mesopotamia (1936), Death on the Nile (1937) and this one, and she had visited Petra herself. The descriptions of the rose-red city, the camp at the foot of the cliffs and the heat of the afternoon are drawn from experience.
Adaptations
Christie herself adapted the novel for the stage in 1945, changing the solution. It was filmed in 1988 with Peter Ustinov as Poirot, and adapted for the ITV Poirot series in 2009, with David Suchet; both screen versions take liberties, so the book’s ending remains a surprise.
Poirot Against the Clock
The investigation itself is a showcase of Poirot’s methods. Colonel Carbury, the local authority, has no hard evidence and cannot hold the travellers for long, so Poirot promises to solve the case within twenty-four hours using only interviews. Each member of the family and their companions gives an account of the afternoon at Petra, and Poirot builds a timetable from the small contradictions between them. Readers who enjoy following the logic step by step will find this one of his most satisfying cases, and the psychological portrait of the victim is part of the clue.
The Reviewer’s View
The original review called this one of the strongest late-1930s Poirots, and the combination of setting and character justifies it.
Why Read It
The exotic setting, which Christie knew well from her travels with her archaeologist husband, and one of her most chilling characters make this one of the strongest Poirot novels of the late 1930s.
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