Death in the Clouds: Agatha Christie’s Poirot Mystery of a Poisoned Dart on a Flight From Paris
Death from a wasp sting is unusual, all the more so on board an aircraft, where every precaution is taken. So this time Poirot, who happens to be a passenger, is convinced there must be another explanation.
Author: Agatha Christie (1890–1976)
Title: Death in the Clouds (1935)
Format: English paperback (HarperCollins), 272 pages
Scope: Hercule Poirot novel
Amazon: www.amazon.es/dp/0008129533 (ASIN 0008129533)
A Wasp, a Dart and a Blowpipe
It soon becomes clear that the woman was poisoned, and when a blowpipe of the kind used by South American peoples is found, the case takes a sharp turn. The wasp, it seems, had been released by the killer to divert suspicion: an accidental death would explain all the symptoms of the poison, and no one would have any reason to think otherwise.
A Closed Cabin
Only the two stewards and a handful of passengers came anywhere near the victim, so the circle of suspects is small, yet no one saw anything. With his expert eye, Hercule Poirot sees a different motive, and he finally solves the case.
Follow the Money
The murder was premeditated and must have a reason, and money is the most likely motive. But who knew the passenger? The answer lies in the victim’s past and in her profession.
The Prometheus
The murder takes place on the Prometheus, an airliner flying from Paris to Croydon, then London’s main airport, in the early days of commercial flight. Christie makes the cramped cabin a perfect closed circle: a dozen passengers and two stewards, all within a few feet of the victim, and nobody saw a thing. Poirot is on board too, but he suffers from air sickness and dozes through most of the flight, which is not his finest hour.
Madame Giselle
The victim is Madame Giselle, a well-known Parisian moneylender whose business depended on secrets: she lent money to the rich and respectable, and she knew exactly how to make them pay. That gives several passengers a possible motive, from an aristocratic lady with gambling debts to people with more hidden connections, and Poirot must work out who had both reason and opportunity.
Poirot Under Suspicion
In one of the funniest scenes in Christie’s work, the jury at the inquest, puzzled by the blowpipe found beside Poirot’s seat, decide that the little foreigner himself must be the murderer. Poirot’s outrage is a delight, and so is the presence among the passengers of Mr Clancy, a writer of detective novels who becomes excited at being involved in a real case.
Jane Grey
The book also has a likeable young heroine, Jane Grey, a hairdresser’s assistant who has won money in a sweepstake and spent it on a trip to Le Touquet. Poirot takes her on as a temporary secretary, and her down-to-earth view of events adds charm to the investigation.
Adaptations
Published in the United States as Death in the Air, the novel was adapted for Agatha Christie’s Poirot in 1992, with David Suchet.
Christie and Air Travel
When the novel appeared in 1935, flying was still a novelty for most people, glamorous, expensive and slightly frightening. Christie herself travelled widely, and she clearly enjoyed setting a murder in this most modern of places. Seen today, the book offers a charming glimpse of early commercial aviation, from the passengers’ coffee and the noise of the engines to the short flight across the Channel. It also shows Christie’s talent for turning a fashionable new setting into an ingenious puzzle, as she did with trains in Murder on the Orient Express.
Why Read It
A classic locked-room puzzle moved to the cabin of an airliner in the golden age of air travel, and one of Christie’s most ingenious set-ups.
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