Agatha Christie

Done with another Agatha Christie murder mystery. And it was my very own favorite fictional character Hercule Poirot starring in it as the mystery solver. Uff I just had to go and check the title! “After the Funeral”. Funny, somehow I don’t place a lot of importance on Agatha Christie book titles, after I have taken one of them.

I have said before there are 2 kinds of novels you read, one you read cause you liked to appreciate the language, another cause it was too thrilling to be kept for later. This book definitely belonged to the second genre. Not that the language was anything non-commendable! I always like Agatha Christie’s narrations, the words are chosen carefully and the lines are connected beautifully. It was not only about suspense and murders, it was also about telling it admirably.

The book was typical of all A-C traits. A funeral, followed by a murder, a family involved; each and every character described vividly, that kept a reader alert, that threw every one into suspicion. A big family, so big there had to be a family tree drawn in the first page to know who is who (many of them dead – actually that avoided some confusion!), the Albernethies. Seven siblings, 3 alive, 4 dead. Their spouses, their kids. The story begins with the death of one of the 3 siblings who were left, Richard Alberneithe, who was apparently very ill. The family gathers together at the old house called Enderby, after the funeral and the family solicitor, Mr Entwhistle reads out the will. At the end of it, the youngest Albernethie sibling, Mrs Cora Lansquenet makes a remark that shocks them all. “But he was murdered, wasn’t he?”

The shock becomes more acute when the next day Mrs Cora Lansquenet was found murdered in her home, with a hatchet, a very savage murder. Everyone tries to cast it off as the work of a day-time burglar, a mad man’s, but at the back of everyone’s mind there is still something lingering. Cora, who was always known to say things abruptly that did better unsaid was murdered the next day after she said that shocking line. “When truth would have been better left unspoken, she spoke it”. So was it her telling an untimely truth that chucked her off so soon from the face of earth?

No one is removed from the picture. The author tracks each and everyone, giving fabulous details of their thoughts, ideas, doings all so detailed and yet mysterious, the reader cannot afford to leave the book for a second. The only surviving sibling Timothy, his over-caring wife, the sister-in-law, the younger generation of nieces and nephew- two nieces, one beautiful, the other intelligent; their spouses for whom they cared the whole world for; the careless nephew. Miss Gilchrist, the companion to Mrs Cora. Even Mr Entwhistle. No one leaves the picture.

It is Mr Entwhistle who approaches Hercule Poirot (My Hero!) and the little Belgian uses his usual style of picking up the tiny pieces of the puzzle, which others left behind unguarded. Readers who are familiar with the Agatha Christie mysteries would recognize the pattern, the pieces laid out to you in a casual nonchalant manner to be picked up by your self. She doesn’t include details for no reason, that’s one clue. Everything had its importance, so for little detectives out there, don’t leave anything unchecked. I followed the pattern, found out my killer, but I failed to find the motive till Poirot told me that. But I also had second and third back-up killers, so I guess I don’t really qualify to be a Hercule Poirot!

And it wasn’t just the murder story. There were a number of other stories connected with the characters which came into light. For this was not just about murder, this was about people. And people always came with stories.

There is mystery, there is tension, there is enough panic to match a good horror movie. And I would advise not reading the book past midnight; you are bound to have strange visions if you are an excessively imaginative person. Sigh! Why did I stay up so late!