Dying in Wychwood
The dying in Wychwood (original title Murder is Easy ) is the 25th detective novel by Agatha Christie . It first appeared in the United Kingdom on June 5, 1939 at the Collins Crime Club and in September of the same year in the United States at Dodd, Mead and Company under the title Easy to Kill . The German first edition was published in 1943 by Scherz Verlag (Bern) in the translation by Auguste Flesch von Bringen, which is still used today.
It determines Superintendent Battle, which the reader is already familiar with from the novels The Count's Memoirs , The Last Joker and With Open Cards . Battle appears only as a marginal figure, however, the case is solved by the newly-felled Luke Fitzwilliam and Bridget Conway.
action
Luke Fitzwilliam returns to England after a long stay abroad, with a pension and a small fortune. On the train ride to London to see his friend Jimmy Lorrimer, he meets Miss Pinkerton, a seemingly crazy but amiable elderly lady. She tells him about a series of strange deaths in her hometown of Wychwood and that she suspects it may be a series of murders. She's on her way to Scotland Yard in London because she's sure she knows who the killer is.
The next day, Fitzwilliam learns from the newspaper that Miss Pinkerton has been run over by a car. Since Lorrimer has a cousin in Wychwood, Fitzwilliam heads there to find Miss Pinkerton's killer.
He is guest of Lord Whitfield (Gordon Ragg) and pretends to be writing a scientific paper on homeland customs in the village. The story was threaded by his friend Jimmy. His cousin Bridget was the lord's secretary and is now his fiancée. Actually, the lord is not a native, but an ennobled economic climber. The sharp-sighted Bridget quickly finds out that Luke is someone other than he pretends to be. She takes part in his investigation and the two fall in love. Together they find out that all of the victims of the series of murders were somehow related to Lord Whitfield.
Luke succeeds in convicting Miss Honoria Waynflete, the Lord's former fiancee, of the murders. At the last moment he can prevent her from strangling Bridget. Her motive was to portray the lord as a serial killer by murdering all those who caused the lord any inconvenience or danger. She could never get over the separation decades ago. Ragg had broken off the engagement because Honoria had twisted her canary's neck. In the end, Luke and Bridget become a couple.
people
main characters
- Luke Fitzwilliam, retired police officer
- Bridget Conway, cousin of Jimmy Lorrimer, secretary and fiancee of Lord Whitfield
- Lord Whitfield (Gordon Ragg), editor of Groschenheften, who grew up from humble backgrounds to wealth; in his youth he was with the somewhat older Miss Waynflete and now he is engaged to Bridget Conway
- Miss Honoria Waynflete, volunteer librarian
The victims
- Mrs. Lydia Horton, Major Horton's wife, who died of gastritis
- Harry Carter, the owner of the Seven Stars pub , drowned in the river
- Tommy Pierce, a teenager who died after falling from a window of Wych Hall , the local library
- Amy Gibbs, Miss Waynflete's housekeeper, who died of poisoning from a hat dye that she allegedly mistook for cough syrup
- Miss Lavinia Pinkerton, an elderly lady who was run over by a car on the way to Scotland Yard in London
- Dr. John Edward Humbleby, the village doctor who died of poisoning
- Rivers, Lord Whitfield's chauffeur who was fired for misconduct
More people
- Jimmy Lorrimer, friend of Luke Fitzwilliam
- Jessie Rose Humbleby, widow of Dr. Humbleby
- Rose Humbleby, daughter of Dr. Humbleby, engaged to Dr. Thomas
- Mrs. Anstruther, aunt of Bridget Conway
- Wonky Pooh, Miss Pinkerton's orange Persian cat, now with Miss Waynflete, who suffers from an ear infection
Adaptations for the stage and the film
Murder Is Easy (1982)
The novel was adapted for a television film in 1982 for the CBS with Bill Bixby , Lesley-Anne Down , Olivia de Havilland and Helen Hayes .
Play (1993)
In 1993, Clive Exton wrote the stage version of this novel.
Agatha Christie's Marple
In 2008 the novel was adapted with major changes for the British television series Agatha Christie's Marple . So plays Miss Marple , who does not appear in the novel at all.
Major expenses
- 1939, Collins Crime Club (London), June 5, 1939, hardcover
- 1939, Dodd Mead and Company (New York), September 1939, hardcover
- 1943 German first edition in the translation by Auguste Flesch von Bringen, Scherz Verlag (Bern)
The first publication of the novel was a serial in seven parts in The Saturday Evening Post from November 19 (volume 211, number 21) to December 31, 1938 (volume 211, number 27) under the title Easy to Kill with illustrations by Henry Raleigh.
Audio books
- 2006 Dying in Wychwood (3 CDs). Abridged reading. Translated from the English by Sven Koch. Read by Peter Kaempfe . Director: Sven Stricker . The Hörverlag (Munich)
- 2009 Dying in Wychwood (6 CDs). Only unabridged reading. Speaker: Hans Eckardt; Directed by Ann-Sophie Weiß Verleger Marburg: Audiobook productions
Web links
- Murder is Easy on the official Agatha Christie website
- Marple: Murder is Easy (1982) in the Internet Movie Database (English)
- Marple: Murder is Easy (2008) in the Internet Movie Database (English)