Evil Under the Sun (novel)
The evil under the sun (original title Evil Under the Sun ) is the 29th detective novel by Agatha Christie . It first appeared in the UK at the Collins Crime Club in June 1941 and in the US at Dodd, Mead & Company in October of that year . The German first edition was published in 1945 under the title Rätsel um Arlena in the translation by Ursula von Wiese by Scherz Verlag .
Hercule Poirot is investigating in a holiday hotel on an English island.
action
Arlena is an attractive former actress and is constantly on the lookout for affairs with younger men that are mostly hopeless. She comes to Hotel Jolly Roger with her husband, Kenneth Marshall, and her 16-year-old stepdaughter, Linda, who hates Arlena . Arlena flirts with handsome Patrick Redfern at the hotel, who is in love with her. This makes his wife Christine Redfern, a former teacher, jealous and angry. The hotel also includes the famous detective Hercule Poirot, the milliner and childhood friend of Kenneth, Rosamund Darnley, the American tourists Odell and Carrie Gardener, the retired Major Barry, the constantly grumbling Horace Blatt, the vicar Stephen Lane and the sporty bachelorette Emily Brewster.
Linda plans to kill her stepmother with the help of a voodoo doll . When she returned to her room one morning with the utensils she had bought for this purpose, Christine Redfern was waiting for her there and asked if she could take her to Gull Cove . The same morning Arlena wants to take a raft to the fairy cove (English Pixy Cove ) and asks Poirot, who is watching her departure, not to tell anyone where she has gone. Poirot suspects that she wants to meet Patrick Redfern, but shortly afterwards sees Patrick who asks him if he has seen Arlena. Patrick Redfern invites Emily Brewster to take a rowboat tour . When the two rowers reach Fairy Bay, they find a motionless body on the beach - the strangled Arlena. While Emily fetches the police by boat, Patrick waits at the scene.
Poirot now asks everyone where they were at the time of the murder at 11:45 a.m. Kenneth Marshall says he was in his room writing letters. Linda explains that she and Christine went to Seagull's Bay at 10.30am and that Christine returned to the hotel at 11.45am. So it couldn't have been you. The Gardeners were with Poirot, which clears them of all suspicion. Rosamund Darnley explains that she went to the Sunny Ledge above Fairy Bay to read a book. She says she didn't see anyone because she was engrossed in her book. The rest of the group, Stephen Lane and Major Barry, were out hiking and Horace Blatt was out in the sailboat. Christine, Rosamund, Kenneth, and Mr. Gardener started playing tennis at noon .
Then Poirot asks the maid Gladys Narracott if she has heard that a bottle is missing somewhere. He asks this because Emily Brewster told him that on the way back from Fae Cove, she almost got hit by a bottle that was thrown out of a window. The maid is unaware that a bottle is missing. But she was surprised that someone took a bath at twelve. The housekeeping also heard that Kenneth Marshall was typing in his room . That supports his alibi and he leaves the group of suspects.
Poirot and the investigating officers go to Fairy Bay to investigate the crime scene. They find new scissors, a piece of tobacco pipe, and a bottle. The pipe could be from Kenneth, but he didn't tell them he was missing one. There is a cave in the bay where investigators find heroin . This leads to the suspicion that Horace Blatt has something to do with drug trafficking or with the murder. Some time after the murder, desperate Linda tries to kill herself with sleeping pills , but is saved. She believes that she is to blame for Arlena's death because of her voodoo ritual.
Poirot recalls the murder of Alice Corrigan many years earlier. She too was strangled and the killer was never found. Alice's husband Edward then protested his innocence and had a safe alibi - he was in a different place at the alleged time of the murder. Alice's body was found by a teacher at the time. Eventually Poirot can prove that Patrick Redfern is identical to Edward Corrigan and that he murdered both Alice and Arlena. He and his wife Christine are arrested as urgent suspects. Christine is also identical to the teacher who found Alice Corrigan's body and is also responsible for this murder.
The murder of Arlena took place as follows: Christine tanned her arms and legs in the hotel with a self-tanner and threw the bottle out the window. She put on long dresses and went to Seagulls Bay with Linda. There she adjusted Linda's watch and went to Fairy Bay. Arlena wanted to meet Patrick undisturbed and therefore hid from Christine in the cave. Christine lay down on the beach in a bathing suit and hat, both of which resembled Arlena's clothes. So the present Emily was to be deceived and set up as a witness for Patrick's alibi. After Patrick arrived, Christine ran to the hotel. At the hotel she washed to remove the paint. Patrick went into the cave, strangled Arlena, and laid her on the beach. The motive for the murder was money Arlena had given him to invest.
At the end it is implied that Rosamund Darnley will become Linda's new stepmother.
people
- Hercule Poirot , the famous Belgian detective with the little gray cells
- Arthur Hastings , Poirot's assistant and friend
- Colonel Weston , the chief constable
- Inspector Colgate , the investigating officer
- Sergeant Phillips , a cop
- Dr. Neasdon , the police doctor
- Arlena Stuart Marshall , a former actress
- Captain Kenneth Marshall , Arlena's husband
- Linda Marshall , Kenneth's daughter and Arlena's step-daughter
- Patrick Redfern , Arlena's lover and Christine's husband
- Christine Redfern , Patrick's wife
- Rosamund Darnley , a milliner and childhood friend of Kenneth
- Emily Brewster , a sporty bachelorette
- Mrs. Carrie Gardener , an American tourist
- Mr. Odell Gardener , her husband
- Mr. Horace Blatt , a sailor
- Reverend Stephen Lane , a clergyman who describes Arlena as "Evil Under the Sun"
- Major Barry , a retired officer
- Gladys Narracott , a maid at the Jolly Roger Hotel
- Mrs. Castle , the owner of the Jolly Roger Hotel
Reviews
The review of Maurice Willson Disher in The Times Literary Supplement of June 14, 1941 was positive: "To maintain a place at the top of detective writers is difficult enough, even without the ever-increasing competition." So far, however, the author has also agreed succeeded in this novel. After recapitulating the plot, Disher concludes: “Miss Christie lets the shadow of guilt fall on one and then the other with such easy ease that it is difficult for the reader not to be guided by feelings. Everyone should be fully aware that the most suspicious people need not be the perpetrators, but this main principle is easily forgotten when Miss Christie makes us feel more astute than we really are. And then she lets the secret go off like a land mine. "
In The New York Times Book Review October 19, 1941, Isaac Anderson writes: “The murder is an artfully planned affair - a little too much for credibility in terms of some chances of mishap or mishap along the way - but Poirot's solution is flawless as always. Evil Under the Sun is another novel in Agatha Christie's long list of successful mysterious stories. "
Maurice Richardson writes in a short review of June 8, 1941 in The Observer : “ Evil under the sun , the best Agatha Christie since And then there was no more - and you can't say more than that - has a luxury hotel, a limited circle of suspects, Poirot in a white suit. Victim: man-murdering red-haired actress. Impact solution after sand has been put in the eyes and you can no longer see properly. As light as a soufflé . "
The Scotsman of July 3, 1941 speaks of some “surprising discoveries” in the solution and says: “Following all of these is best left to the reader himself, knowing that the hunt for the perpetrator will prove to be as appetizing as all that this talented author offers us. "
ER Punshon in The Guardian of August 26, 1941 sums up the plot briefly in praise by beginning: "Are you going too far to describe Miss Agatha Christie as one of the most remarkable writers of our time?"
Robert Barnard : “The classic three-way Christie relationship in a resort by the sea, with the special game of alike, sunbathing bodies and dead bodies. Possibly a little too sophisticated and uncharacteristic. "
References to other works
The plot bears some resemblance to Christie's crime story Vacation in Rhodes , which first appeared in February 1936 in This Week magazine in the US and in Strand Magazine issue 545 in May 1936 in the UK . It is also included in the 1937 collection from 1937 Murder in the Mews (American title Dead Man's Mirror , German title Poirot never sleeps ). In holiday in Rhodes Poirot will also witness a liaison between two married people. Before his eyes, an ominous relationship develops between the extravagant, man-murdering Valentine Chantry and her violent-looking husband and the Gold couple, whose male half feels drawn to the rich beauty from the very first day. Valentine Chantry dies of a poisoned cocktail originally intended for her husband. It seems that her lover wanted to kill her husband. Poirot realizes, however, that Valentine's husband made common cause with Mrs. Gold and that the murder of Valentine and the suspicions against Mr. Gold should solve two problems at once.
A bathing suit also plays a crucial role in the story The red bathing suit from the crime story collection The Tuesday Night Club . In terms of plot structure, it is most similar to the novel: The plot is also a seaside resort on the coast. Here, too, the perpetrator is a notorious woman murderer who has already murdered several times, but in this case the victim is the wife. Other parallels are astounding: the beloved also acts as an accomplice and slips into the role of the victim for alibi reasons. The scene of the crime is a remote cave by the sea, to which the perpetrators and unsuspecting victims row.
expenditure
- Evil Under the Sun . Collins Crime Club, London 1941.
- Evil Under the Sun . Dodd Mead and Company, New York 1941.
- Riddle around Arlena . Translation by Ursula von Wiese . Scherz, Bern 1945.
- Evil under the sun or the mystery of Arlena . Retransmission of Ursula Gail . Scherz, Bern 1982.
Audio books
- Evil under the sun; 3 CD; The Hörverlag; Munich, 2006. Abridged version by Neville Teller. Translated from the English by Anja Hansen-Schmidt. Read by Stefan Wilkening .
- Evil under the sun; 6 CD; Publishing house and studio for audio book productions, 2006: Unabridged reading. Speaker: Martin Maria Schwarz. Director: Hans Eckardt. Translation by Ursula Gail.
- Evil under the sun; 1 MP3 CD; The Hörverlag; Munich, 2013. Speaker: Jürgen Tarrach. Director: Wolf-Dietrich Fruck. Translated from the English by Ursula Gail.
Film adaptations
Movie from 1982
Evil Under the Sun was the second film starring Peter Ustinov as Hercule Poirot , who made his role debut in 1978 in Death on the Nile . The scene is relocated to a lonely resort in the Adriatic , visited by rich and famous people . The film was actually filmed in Mallorca . There are some deviations from the book, including the people. Emily Brewster becomes Rex Brewster, the author of the soon-to-be unveiling biography. The Gardners are film producers , Reverend Lane and Major Barry are absent.
Agatha Christie's Poirot
The novel was also adapted for the series Agatha Christie's Poirot in 2001, with David Suchet in the lead role. Again there are changes to the novel. Kenneth Marshall's daughter Linda became his son Lionel. Instead to practice voodoo, he reads a book about poisons and does not try suicide to commit. The Gardeners do not even appear. As in many early Poirot adaptations, Hastings, Inspector Japp, and Miss Lemon also play, although they don't even appear in the novel: Hastings is in the resort, Japp the investigating officer (the role of Colonel Weston in the book) and Miss Lemon as Poirots Secretary investigates Alice Corrigan's murder.
computer game
On October 17, 2007, The Adventure Company released a computer game based on this book. In the game, Kevin Delaney lends his voice to Hercule Poirot. The story was provided with some adventure elements (searching for or exchanging objects, analysis of found clues), but otherwise only slightly changed compared to the novel. In particular, in contrast to the computer game adaptations of other Christie novels, the resolution was kept almost unchanged, only the drug smuggling aspect was expanded. In addition, the game has a framework story: While the novel has an anonymous narrator, Hercule Poirot is the narrator in the game, who describes the case that has already been closed to his friend Captain Hastings.
Web links
- Evil Under the Sun on the official Agatha Christie website
- Evil Under the Sun (1982) in the Internet Movie Database (English)
- Evil under the Sun (2001) in the Internet Movie Database (English)
Individual evidence
- ↑ Chris Peers, Ralph Spurrier and Jamie Sturgeon. Collins Crime Club - A checklist of First Editions . Dragonby Press (Second Edition) March 1999 (Page 15)
- ↑ Insight Broadband.com: AN AMERICAN TRIBUTE TO AGATHA CHRISTIE
- ↑ German National Library : Agatha Christie: mystery of Arlena , joke-Verlag 1945
- ^ The Times Literary Supplement June 14, 1941 (Page 285)
- ↑ The New York Times Book Review October 19, 1941 (Page 26)
- ↑ The Observer June 8, 1941 (Page 3)
- ↑ The Scotsman July 3, 1941 (Page 7)
- ↑ The Guardian August 26, 1941 (Page 3)
- ↑ Barnard, Robert. A Talent to Deceive - an appreciation of Agatha Christie - Revised edition (Page 204). Fontana Books, 1990. ISBN 0006374743
- ↑ German National Library : Agatha Christie: Evil under the Sun or Riddle about Arlena , Bern 1982
- ↑ German National Library : Agatha Christie u. a .: Evil under the sun [sound carrier] , Hörverlag 2006
- ↑ German National Library : Agatha Christie: The Evil Under the Sun , publisher and studio for audio book productions Marburg 2006
- ^ German National Library : Agatha Christie: Evil under the Sun , Der Hörverlag Munich 2013