Evil Under the Sun: Poirot on Holiday in Devon and the Strangling of Arlena Stuart
It seems that however hard he tries, Poirot never manages to have a holiday. This story takes place in Devon, Agatha Christie’s home county, and of course, among the bathers there is a murdered woman. It was not unusual to find the beautiful, tanned body of sun-lover Arlena Stuart lying face down on a beach. Only this time there was no sun... she had been strangled.
Author: Agatha Christie (1890–1976)
Title: Evil Under the Sun (1941)
Format: English paperback (HarperCollins), 288 pages
Series: Hercule Poirot
Amazon: www.amazon.es/dp/0007527578 (ASIN 0007527578)
A Crime of Passion?
Arlena, a former actress, is the kind of woman who turns heads and makes enemies, and at the island hotel where Poirot is staying there is no shortage of guests who might have wished her ill. But could this apparent crime of passion have been something far more wicked and completely premeditated?
Appearances
Hercule Poirot will once again have to use his legendary cunning to unravel a crime in which appearances play a key role. Alibis are timed to the minute, and every detail of the beach and the cove matters.
The Island Hotel
The Jolly Roger Hotel stands on a small island off the coast at Leathercombe Bay, linked to the mainland by a causeway that is covered at high tide. Christie fans have long identified it with the Art Deco hotel on Burgh Island in south Devon, where she is said to have stayed. The setting is perfect for a puzzle: a closed circle of guests, a limited number of ways on and off the island, and coves and beaches that can be reached only by certain paths or by boat.
The Guests
Arlena is staying with her husband, Captain Kenneth Marshall, a reserved man who seems to tolerate her behaviour, and his teenage daughter Linda, who hates her stepmother. Arlena’s latest conquest is the handsome Patrick Redfern, whose quiet wife Christine watches miserably. Around them are a successful dressmaker who knew Marshall long ago, a talkative American couple, a hearty sportswoman, a bore of a retired major, a clergyman obsessed with evil and a nouveau riche businessman. Poirot, in his immaculate white suit, sits among them and listens.
Timing Is Everything
Like several of Christie’s best novels, this one depends on a timetable: who was where, and when, on the morning of the murder. The clues include a bottle thrown from a window, a bath run at midday, a missing pair of scissors and a green cardboard hat. Christie had used a similar situation in an earlier short story, "Triangle at Rhodes", and readers who know it may enjoy comparing how she developed the idea.
On Screen
Guy Hamilton’s 1982 film, with Peter Ustinov, Maggie Smith and Diana Rigg, moves the action to the Adriatic and plays it for glamour and comedy. The 2001 ITV version with David Suchet is closer to the book. Both are enjoyable, but the novel’s clues are best appreciated in print.
The Reviewer’s View
The original review called it a perfect summer read, and it is: a holiday mystery in which the sunshine only sharpens the menace.
Christie’s Devon
Christie grew up in Torquay and later owned Greenway, a house above the River Dart, so the coast of south Devon was home ground. The cliffs, coves and tides of the novel are described with the ease of someone who knew them from childhood, and the setting is part of the puzzle.
Tip
Note every time mentioned.
Why Read It
It is one of Christie’s cleverest puzzles, in a sunny seaside setting that makes the darkness of the crime all the more striking. A perfect summer read.
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