The Murder on the Links

Summary

The Murder on the Links is Agatha Christie's second Hercule Poirot novel, narrated like the first by Captain Arthur Hastings. Returning from Paris on the Calais boat-train, Hastings meets a pert young actress with black curls who calls herself Cinderella. In London, Poirot receives an urgent letter from Paul Renauld, a millionaire who made his fortune in South America, begging him to come to the Villa Geneviève at Merlinville-sur-Mer on the French coast. Poirot and Hastings arrive to find Renauld already dead: he was stabbed in the back with a paper-knife made from aeroplane wire and his body was found face down in a freshly dug grave on the edge of a new golf course. His wife says that two masked men broke in at night, tied her up, and dragged her husband away demanding a secret. The examining magistrate M. Hautet and the commissary Bex welcome Poirot, but the young Sûreté detective Giraud, whom Hastings admires as a human foxhound crawling for cigarette ends, treats him with contempt, and Poirot wagers five hundred francs that he will find the murderer first. Clues multiply: a love letter signed Bella, the beautiful Madame Daubreuil next door who has been receiving large sums from Renauld, her daughter Marthe, with whom Renauld's son Jack is in love, a quarrel between father and son over Marthe, a changed will, and a second body found in a shed stabbed with the same kind of dagger. Poirot learns that Madame Daubreuil is Jeanne Beroldy, tried and acquitted twenty years earlier for her husband's murder in Paris, and that Renauld was her vanished lover and accomplice Georges Conneau. Giraud arrests Jack. A young woman then confesses to the crime, and Cinderella, who has helped Hastings and stolen the second dagger to protect her sister, turns out to be Dulcie Duveen, twin of Jack's former sweetheart Bella. Poirot shows that Renauld, recognized and blackmailed, had planned with his wife to fake his own death using the body of a tramp who had died in an epileptic fit, and that someone who overheard the plan used it to kill him in earnest. Setting a trap at the villa, Poirot catches the real murderer, Marthe Daubreuil, in an attempt on Mrs. Renauld's life; she dies in a struggle with Dulcie. Jack and Bella are reconciled, and Hastings proposes to Dulcie. The novel was published by The Bodley Head in London and Dodd, Mead in New York in 1923.

Plot or Argument

• Chapters 1-3: Cinderella, the letter, and the Villa Geneviève

  Hastings meets the girl he calls Cinderella on the train; Poirot receives Renauld's appeal for help and reaches Merlinville to learn that Renauld has been murdered and found in an open grave beside the golf links.

• Chapters 4-8: Mrs. Renauld's story and the scene of the crime

  The letter signed Bella is found; Mrs. Renauld tells of the masked men; Poirot studies the bedroom, the shed, the footprints and the paper-knife, notices Madame Daubreuil and Marthe, and is startled when Mrs. Renauld collapses at the sight of her husband's body. Hastings meets Cinderella again.

• Chapters 9-13: Giraud's clues and the household

  Giraud scours the ground for physical evidence; Poirot questions the secretary Gabriel Stonor and Jack Renauld, who quarrelled with his father over Marthe, and later elucidates puzzling points such as the dead man's long overcoat and the time of death.

• Chapters 14-17: the second body and the Beroldy case

  A dead man is found in the shed with a second dagger; Poirot recalls the Beroldy case of twenty years before and identifies Madame Daubreuil as the acquitted Madame Beroldy and Renauld as the fugitive Georges Conneau.

• Chapters 18-24: Giraud acts, and Hastings falls in love

  Giraud arrests Jack; Hastings, trying to use his own grey cells, protects Cinderella, who confesses she took the dagger, and learns about the Dulcibella Kids; Bella Duveen appears and pleads for Jack.

• Chapters 25-28: dénouement and journey's end

  Poirot reveals Renauld's plan to fake his death with the tramp's body, sets his trap at the villa, and Dulcie saves Mrs. Renauld from Marthe, who dies in the struggle; Poirot sends Jack to Bella and Hastings wins Dulcie.

Characters

• Hercule Poirot, detective

  A fastidious retired Belgian detective who prizes order, method and psychology over physical clues.

• Captain Arthur Hastings, narrator

  Poirot's loyal, impulsive friend, who falls in love during the case and keeps a secret from Poirot to protect her.

• Giraud, rival detective

  A young, arrogant detective of the Paris Sûreté who trusts only physical evidence and scorns Poirot as old-fashioned.

• Paul Renauld, the victim

  A wealthy man with a South American fortune who is secretly Georges Conneau, fugitive from an old Paris murder case.

• Mrs. Renauld (Eloise), the victim's wife

  A dignified woman whose story of masked intruders hides a plan she shared with her husband, and whose grief proves genuine.

• Jack Renauld, the victim's son

  An impetuous young man torn between Marthe Daubreuil and Bella Duveen, and arrested for his father's murder.

• Madame Daubreuil, neighbor

  A mysterious beauty who is really Jeanne Beroldy, once tried for her husband's murder.

• Marthe Daubreuil, the murderer

  Madame Daubreuil's lovely daughter, engaged in heart to Jack, who kills for the Renauld fortune.

• Dulcie Duveen (Cinderella), heroine

  A spirited music-hall acrobat who helps Hastings, hides evidence to protect her sister, and saves Mrs. Renauld.

• Bella Duveen, Dulcie's twin sister

  Jack Renauld's former sweetheart, who writes the letter signed Bella and is willing to sacrifice herself for him.

• M. Hautet and Commissary Bex, French officials

  The examining magistrate and the local police commissary who welcome Poirot's help.

Lessons

• Method and the mind

  Giraud crawls over the ground collecting cigarette ends and matches; Poirot says that such clues, taken by themselves, never solve a problem, and that a detective must understand the psychology of the crime. The rivalry dramatizes a question about knowledge: facts matter, but they must be ordered and interpreted by thought.

  • What kind of evidence does Giraud trust, and what kind does Poirot trust?
  • Why does Poirot keep the piece of lead piping that Giraud dismisses?
  • Who wins the wager, and what does that suggest about the two methods?

• The past is never quite buried

  Paul Renauld built a new name and fortune in South America, but the Beroldy case of twenty years before comes back to destroy him. Poirot notes that criminals tend to repeat themselves. The novel shows how unrepented wrongs shape the future.

  • How does Poirot connect the Renauld murder to the Beroldy case?
  • Why did Renauld plan to fake his own death?

• Love that lays down its life

  Bella confesses to a crime she did not commit to save Jack, Dulcie steals the dagger to protect her sister and risks her life for Mrs. Renauld, and Mrs. Renauld's devotion to her husband and son is real despite her deception. Poirot tells Jack that his love for Bella has been tested in the fire.

  • What risks do Bella and Dulcie take for the people they love?
  • What does Poirot mean when he tells Jack he is his mother's son as well as his father's?
  • Can love excuse hiding the truth from the police? Why or why not?

• The appearance of guilt

  Jack, Bella and Mrs. Renauld all look guilty at different moments, and Hastings himself is drawn into hiding evidence. Christie shows how easy it is to judge by appearances and how patient reasoning protects the innocent.

  • Why does Giraud arrest Jack?
  • How does Poirot's caution save innocent people in the story?

Context

The Murder on the Links appeared in the opening years of what is often called the Golden Age of detective fiction, the period between the two World Wars when puzzle-centered mysteries with fair clues and a surprise solution became enormously popular in Britain. Christie's Poirot, a Belgian refugee settled in England after the First World War, belonged to a public that remembered Belgium's sufferings in 1914. The novel's setting in a French seaside resort, with its golf course under construction, reflects the fashionable cross-Channel travel of the early 1920s.

Composition

Christie wrote the novel as her second Poirot mystery, after The Mysterious Affair at Styles (1920) and the thriller The Secret Adversary (1922). It was serialized in The Grand Magazine and published in book form in 1923 by The Bodley Head in London and Dodd, Mead and Company in New York. It is dedicated to her husband, Archibald Christie, a fellow enthusiast for detective stories. In her autobiography Christie said the plot was suggested by a real French murder case reported in the newspapers.

Reception

Reviewers welcomed the novel as an ingenious puzzle with a surprising solution, and it helped establish Christie's reputation. Some readers have found its melodramatic romance between Hastings and Dulcie lighter than the mystery itself; others enjoy it as part of the novel's charm. The talk of Hastings joining the Renaulds on a ranch overseas at the end allowed Christie to vary Poirot's companions in later books, though he returned in several. The novel has been adapted for radio and for television, notably in the series starring David Suchet in 1996.

Comparisons

• the-mysterious-affair-at-styles

  Poirot's first case introduces Hastings as narrator, the country-house setting, and Poirot's little grey cells; The Murder on the Links moves the pair to France, adds a rival detective in Giraud, and gives Hastings a romance of his own.

• the-adventures-of-sherlock-holmes

  Poirot and Hastings follow the pattern of Holmes and Watson, a brilliant detective and an admiring, less perceptive narrator; Giraud's devotion to physical traces parodies a crude version of the Holmesian method.

• poe-tales

  Poe's Dupin, like Poirot, beats an official investigator by reasoning about the criminal's mind rather than by searching harder, and both stories mock the police for ignoring what is in plain sight.

• the-moonstone

  Collins's earlier novel, like Christie's, sets a professional detective against misleading appearances within a family, and lets love and loyalty conceal the truth.

• the-innocence-of-father-brown

  Chesterton's priest-detective solves crimes, as Poirot does, by understanding human nature; both writers show suspects whose guilt is only apparent.

Quotes

For Students

A reading companion for classical Christian high school students. See the student guide.

Reading Guide

Watch for

• The differences between Giraud's way of investigating and Poirot's.
• Small details Poirot notices that others ignore, such as the length of the coat and the piece of lead piping.
• Every time a character lies or hides something, and the reason they give.
• The Beroldy case of twenty years earlier and how it mirrors the present crime.
• Hastings's choices as narrator: what he tells the reader, and what he keeps from Poirot.

Key terms and names

Links

A golf course, especially one by the sea; Renauld's body is found beside a new one.

Sûreté

The French national detective police, where Giraud works.

Examining magistrate (juge d'instruction)

A French judge who directs the investigation of a serious crime, here M. Hautet.

Alibi

Proof that a suspect was somewhere else when a crime was committed.

Red herring

A misleading clue that draws attention away from the real solution.

Little grey cells

Poirot's phrase for the reasoning brain, which he trusts more than physical clues.

Seminar Questions

1. Comprehension What did Paul Renauld write to Poirot, and what had happened by the time Poirot arrived?
2. Comprehension Who were Madame Beroldy and Georges Conneau, and how are they connected to the Renaulds and the Daubreuils?
3. Comprehension What was Renauld's plan for escaping his blackmailer, and how did the murderer use it?
4. Interpretation Why does Christie give Poirot a rival like Giraud? What would the story lose without him?
5. Interpretation Hastings hides evidence to protect Cinderella. Was he right or wrong, and how does Poirot respond?
6. Big Question Is a person's character shaped more by their parents, by their choices, or by something else?

Faith Connections

• John 15:13 (Scripture)

  Jesus says there is no greater love than laying down one's life for one's friends; Poirot praises Jack and Bella because each was willing to lay down life for the other.

• Ezekiel 18:20 (Scripture)

  The prophet teaches that the son shall not bear the iniquity of the father; Poirot tells Jack that his father's crimes need not define him.

• Luke 12:2 (Scripture)

  Jesus warns that nothing covered will remain unrevealed; Renauld's buried past as Georges Conneau comes to light in spite of his new name and fortune.

• Aristotle, Nicomachean Ethics, Book II (Great Conversation)

  Aristotle teaches that character is formed by habitual action; Poirot's belief that criminals repeat their methods reflects the same insight from the other side.

Logic and Rhetoric

Central argument: Poirot reasons that a criminal tends to repeat his method; the staging of the Renauld crime, with masked men and a bound wife, closely resembles the Beroldy murder of twenty years before; therefore one of the people behind the Beroldy affair is involved in this one.

Rhetorical device: foil. Giraud, the young human foxhound who crawls after cigarette ends, is set against Poirot, who prefers to sit and think, so that each method shows up the other.

Debate: Resolved: that psychological reasoning is a more reliable guide to the truth than physical evidence.

Memory Work

You are your mother’s son as well as your father’s.

Man is an unoriginal animal.

Writing Prompts

Essay: Compare Poirot and Giraud as detectives. Using at least three episodes from the novel, explain the strengths and weaknesses of each method and why Poirot succeeds.

Comparison with The Mysterious Affair at Styles: Compare Hastings as narrator in The Mysterious Affair at Styles and The Murder on the Links. How does his role change when he has a secret of his own to protect?

Medical Lens

Medicine serves the puzzle. Dr. Durand fixes the time of death from the state of the body and prescribes a sedative for the prostrated Mrs. Renauld; the timing of death, and the discovery that the second body had died before it was stabbed, are decisive clues. The tramp is said to have died in an epileptic fit, a natural death that Renauld planned to exploit, which reflects the period's familiarity with sudden death in epilepsy. Mrs. Renauld's collapse at the sight of her husband's body is the genuine grief that tells Poirot she did not intend his death. Poirot's remark that he believes in heredity, and Jack's fear that he carries his father's guilt, touch on early twentieth-century ideas of inherited character, which Poirot answers by pointing to the mother's virtues.

• Chapter 3, At the Villa Geneviève

  Dr. Durand reports that death occurred seven to ten hours before his examination and that the stab could not have been self-inflicted; he has sedated Mrs. Renauld.

  Physicians Doctors Death Dying
• Chapter 5, Mrs. Renauld's Story

  Mrs. Renauld, viewing her husband's body, falls in a dead faint; Poirot later treats the collapse as evidence of real grief.

  Grief
• Chapters 14-15 and 19

  The examining doctor finds that the man in the shed was already dead when stabbed; Poirot's reconstruction attributes his death to an epileptic fit.

  Epilepsy Seizures Physicians Doctors
• Chapter 28, Journey's End

  Jack fears that as his father's son no one will marry him; Poirot says he believes in heredity but reminds him that he is also his mother's son.

  Heredity Degeneration

Creative Prompts

• Fiction

  Write a short scene in which Giraud, back in Paris, reports to his superior how he lost the wager to Poirot.

• Classroom

  Make a clue board for the first fifteen chapters, sorting Giraud's physical clues and Poirot's psychological ones, and predict the murderer before reading the ending.

• Dialogue

  Write the conversation between Dulcie and Bella Duveen on the evening after Jack is arrested.

• Essay

  Explain how Christie plays fair with the reader: list three clues to the murderer's identity that are given before the solution.

Further Reading

• An Autobiography, Agatha Christie

  Christie's own account of her life and early writing, published in 1977.

• The Secret Adversary, Agatha Christie

  Her 1922 thriller, published between the first two Poirot novels.

• Agatha Christie: A Biography, Janet Morgan

• Agatha Christie: An Elusive Woman, Lucy Worsley