The Snow White Party
The Snow White Party (original title Hallowe'en Party ) is the 60th detective novel by Agatha Christie . It first appeared in the UK in November 1969 at the Collins Crime Club and later that year in the US at Dodd, Mead and Company . The Scherz Verlag (Bern, Munich, Vienna) published the German edition in 1971 to the one used to date translation of Hiltgunt Grabler. The new edition from 2018 is entitled The Halloween Party .
It is determined by Hercule Poirot in his 31st novel and Ariadne Oliver in her sixth and penultimate novel.
introduction
While preparing for a Halloween party on the eve of All Saints Day , the girl Joyce Reynolds tells everyone, including detective writer Ariadne Oliver, that she had seen a murder once and only later realized it was, in fact, murder. At the end of the party, Joyce is found dead in the library. She was drowned in the metal bucket in which "Apples Swimming" was played. Mrs. Oliver asks Hercule Poirot to help find the murderer.
action
A social party for children is held at Rowena Drake's Apple Trees home in the rural village of Woodleigh Common. Ariadne Oliver is visiting her friend Judith Butler there. While preparing for the party, the girl Joyce Reynolds claims to have witnessed a murder years ago. In the evening, at the party, various games take place. Among other things, the apple snap, in which the children have to put their mouths in a bucket of floating apples. At the end of the party, Joyce is found dead in the library after being drowned in the bucket while the rest of the children played " fire dragons " in the dining room . There is suspicion that the suggestion of murder cost her her life.
Poirot travels to Woodleigh Common at Mrs. Oliver's request to investigate the case. Rowena Drake doesn't believe Joyce witnessed a murder. She says the girl was just showing off and above all wanted to impress the crime writer Mrs. Oliver. Joyce has a local reputation for being a boor. Next, the Reynolds will be interviewed. Mrs. Reynolds knew nothing of the murder story, and Leopold, Joyce's younger brother, doesn't believe Joyce saw a murder either. But he heard her talk about it. Ann, Joyce's older sister, says Joyce was a liar.
Hercule Poirot asks his old friend, retired Superintendent Spence of Scotland Yard, to make a list of the possible deaths in the area Heart attack died. Her death appears suspicious because there is an addition to her will, a codicil , in favor of the au pair girl. The police believe that this au pair, Olga Seminoff, forged the addendum to the will. After discovering the fake, Olga disappeared without a trace after announcing that she would be leaving. The next candidate for a possible murder that Joyce might have witnessed appears to be Charlotte Benfield, a sixteen-year-old sales assistant found with multiple head injuries. Then there are Lesley Ferrier, a paralegal who was stabbed, and Janet White, a teacher who was strangled.
Poirot continues his investigation with a conversation with Dr. Ferguson, who tells him that Joyce was once his patient. Then Poriot goes to school and is received by the headmistress Miss Emlyn. He learns from the math teacher, who was also at the party, that she went into the hall during the fire kite and saw Rowena Drake come out of the bathroom on the first floor. Rowena stood there for a moment, obviously terrified at something she might have seen through the open door of the library - so much so that she dropped a vase of flowers.
It turns out that Lesley Ferrier was originally suspected of forging Mr. Levin-Smith's will. Maybe Lesley and Olga worked together to secure their legacy?
Poirot visits the "quarry garden" which Michael Garfield created for Mrs. Levin-Smith in a disused quarry. While he is talking to Michael there, he meets Miranda Butler, Judith Butler's daughter. She and Garfield are friends, and Miranda spends a lot of time in the garden watching birds and squirrels.
Mrs. Drake comes to Poirot's pension where he lives and tells that Leopold Reynolds, Joyce's younger brother, was also drowned. Poirot suspects that he blackmailed Joyce's killer. Mrs. Drake is very upset about the boy's death because she allegedly saw him in the library door. She claims that she did not want to express her observation beforehand in order to protect the child she believed to be the perpetrator.
Poirot asks the police to dig in the garden in the quarry, and they find the body of Olga, who was stabbed to death just like Lesley. Poirot sends Mrs. Oliver to get Mrs. Butler and Miranda to safety as soon as possible. Nevertheless, Michael Garfield manages to kidnap Miranda in order to kill her. He is prevented from doing this by Nicholas Ransom and Desmond Holland, two youngsters who were also at the party and were instructed by Poirot not to let Miranda out of their sight. Michael Garfield commits suicide with the poison that was used to kill Miranda.
Miranda then tells the police that she was the one who saw the murder. She had watched Michael and Rowena bury Olga's body. Joyce, an incorrigible fantasy, had appropriated the story, also because Miranda hadn't attended the party. Rowena then murdered Joyce; she had dropped the vase to explain her wet clothes after the murder.
Michael Garfield had played the role of Olga's lover in order to secure Mrs. Levin-Smith's legacy through Rowena. Garfield's motive was his obsession to secure the money from the inheritance and use it to build the perfect garden on a Greek island. Finally it comes out that he was Miranda's illegitimate father.
Acting persons
- Hercule Poirot, the Belgian detective
- Ariadne Oliver, the famous crime writer
- George, Poirot's servant
- Inspector Timothy Raglan, the investigating officer
- Ex-Superintendent Spence, a retired police officer
- Elspeth McKay, Superintendent Spence's sister
- Alfred Richmond, Chief Constable
- Joyce Reynolds, a 13 year old girl who claims to have seen a murder
- Rowena Drake, the owner of Apple Tree, the house that hosted the Halloween party
- Judith Butler, a friend of Mrs. Oliver and a young widow
- Miranda Butler, the daughter of Judith
- Leopold Reynolds, Joyce's younger brother
- Ann Reynolds, Joyce's older sister
- Mrs. Reynolds, Joyce's mother
- Michael Garfield, a landscaper and, it turns out, Miranda Butler's father
- Elizabeth Whittaker, math teacher at The Elms School
- Miss Emlyn, Headmistress at The Elms School
- Mrs. Goodbody, a local cleaning lady who plays the witch at the party
- Nicholas Ransom, an eighteen year old at the party
- Desmond Holland, a sixteen year old at the party
- Dr. Ferguson, a doctor
- Jeremy Fullerton, Mrs. Levin-Smith attorney
- Harriet Leaman, former cleaning lady at Mrs. Levin-Smith
References to other works
- Superintendent Spence and Poirot discuss in the fifth chapter the case of Four Women and a Murder , in which it was about the murder of Mrs. McGinty.
- Miss Emlyn explains in chapter 10 that she knows Poirot through stories from Miss Bulstrode, the headmistress in The Cat in the Dovecote .
- Poirot receives a letter from Mr. Goby. The reader knows him, among other things, from The wax bouquet .
Film adaptations
For the eleventh season of the English television series Agatha Christie's Poirot , the novel was filmed with David Suchet as Poirot and with Zoë Wanamaker as Ariadne Oliver.
Major expenses
- 1969 Collins Crime Club (London), November 1969
- 1969 Dodd Mead and Company (New York), 1969
- 1971 German first edition by Scherz Verlag in the translation by Hiltgunt Grabler
- 2018 new edition under the title Die Halloween-Party , Hamburg: Atlantik Verlag
Audio books
This novel is one of the few novels by Christie, none of which has been published in German audio books.
In 2010 BBC Audio published the story as a radio play with John Moffatt as Hercule Poirot and Stephanie Cole as Ariadne Oliver on 2 CDs ( ISBN 978-1-84607-041-9 ). With John Moffatt as the narrator, there has also been an unabridged English reading on six CDs since 2006 ( ISBN 978-1-57270-535-7 ).
Web links
- Hallowe'en Party (2010) 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)
- ↑ John Cooper and BA Pyke. Detective Fiction - the collector's guide : Second Edition (Pages 82 and 87) Scholar Press. 1994, ISBN 0-85967-991-8
- ↑ American Tribute to Agatha Christie
- ↑ a b German first edition in the catalog of the German National Library