Shortly before midnight
Shortly before midnight (original title Towards Zero ) is the 34th detective novel by Agatha Christie . It first appeared in the United States in June 1944 with Dodd, Mead and Company and in July of the same year in the United Kingdom with the Collins Crime Club . The German first edition was published in 1946 by Scherz Verlag (Bern) in a translation by Ursula von Wiese . In 2002 the same publisher published a new translation by Rebecca Gablé.
It determines Superintendent Battle in its fifth and final case. Battle had previously starred in The Count's Memoirs , The Last Joker , With Open Cards, and Dying in Wychwood .
action
The attractive tennis player Nevile Strange is divorced from his first wife Audrey and now lives with his second wife Kay. After meeting Audrey, he suggests to Kay that all three meet at Lady Tressilian's, whose late husband Neviles was guardian . Lady Tressilian is an elderly, wealthy lady who can no longer move from her room. Kay initially resists the proposal, but finally agrees. Lady Tressilian only accepts this after Audrey agrees.
As a result, they and others, including Thomas Royde, a home-leave planter from Indonesia who has been in love with Audrey since he was a teenager, meet Treves, an elderly lawyer with heart problems, and Ted Latimer, a friend of Kay's, who is in love with them , entered Lady Tressilian's house on the coast. Mary Aldin is also in the house, who is related to Lady Tressilian and who helps her with household chores. Treves and Latimer don't stay in the house, they live in hotels. Latimers Hotel is located outside of the village and can be reached either directly by ferry or by land with a longer drive. Those present feel uncomfortable with the triangular constellation of the Strange family, and doubt that Nevile really gave the impetus to this idea, although or rather because he vehemently claims it.
In this situation, Neville tied up more and more with his ex-wife, so that Kay stayed away from him. Meanwhile, the lawyer tells the story of a child (deliberately without naming a gender) who shoots another while playing with a bow and arrow. He considers the act to be deliberate and believes that he would still recognize the child in question by a physical characteristic. Treves also says that he had actually booked a room on the ground floor, but has now got one on the top floor. Fortunately, there is a lift that he will use to protect his heart.
Treves is accompanied home by Thomas and Ted, there is a sign on the elevator that it is unusable, whereupon Treves says goodbye and takes the stairs. That evening he dies of his heart problem.
A few days later, the situation came to a head. Lady Tressilian calls Nevile for a chat, and Nevile declares that he wants to marry Audrey again, which creates an argument. He goes out of the house, takes the ferry across and meets with Ted, who doesn't drive him home until well after midnight.
That night Lady Tressilian is murdered. In addition, a nurse serving Lady Tressilian was drugged. Superintendent Battle, who is visiting his nephew, Inspector Leach, nearby, accompanies him through the confusing traces of the case. Leach is the responsible officer on site with the investigation and consults his uncle as a senior police officer. The murder time is set before midnight.
At first all traces point to Nevile, but the nurse saw Lady Tressilian after the doorbell rang after Nevile left the house. Later traces point to Nevile's ex-wife, who is left-handed. Battle receives unexpected help in solving the case from the formerly suicidal Angus MacWhirter.
Treves' story also seems to be a clue, but several of those involved have a noticeable feature, including Audrey a scar on her ear (from a dog bite), Mary a strand of white hair, and Nevile two little fingers of different lengths. Also, the elevator in Treves' hotel was actually fine the night he died.
It turns out that Nevile Strange killed the old lady with a backhanded blow . It looked like a left-handed man committed the murder. After crossing over, he swam back on the ferry and climbed back into the house on a rope. His motive was personal hatred of Audrey. In truth, Audrey was always afraid of Nevile and therefore left him for another man. This fueled Neviles' hatred so much that he wanted to see Audrey hanging (at the time of the story the UK still had the death penalty). MacWhirter accidentally found a clue and guessed the rest of the story, so Nevile openly admitted it all.
The deaths of Mr. Treves and Audrey's lover are likely to be attributed to Nevile's as well, but cannot be proven.
Audrey and MacWhirter get married and go to Chile together .
people
- Lady Tressilian, the hostess
- Mary Aldin, Lady Tressilian's companion
- Nevile Strange, a famous tennis player
- Kay Strange, his second wife
- Audrey Strange, Strange's first wife
- Edward (Ted) Latimer, Kay's friend
- Thomas Royde, Audrey's distant cousin
- Mr. Treves, lawyer and old friend of Lady Tressilian
- Andrew MacWhirter, a stranger who has tried suicide in the past
- Inspector James Leach, Battles nephew
- Superintendent Battle, who solves the case with his nephew
Superintendent Battle
Superintendent Battle is one of the few police officers in Agatha Christie's work who is able to solve his cases without one of the master detectives and who is intelligent enough. Only in With Open Cards does he determine together with Hercule Poirot , Ariadne Oliver and Colonel Race . At first glance, he seems dull and average, but he solves his cases with a criminal intelligence, experience and police routine as well as with the help of an intelligent partner in the investigation. At his last appearance he had a family here for the first time - in the form of a nephew as well as a wife and five children. In the novel On Double Tracks , published almost 20 years later, he is briefly mentioned again and informed that he will then be retired.
dedication
Christie dedicated the novel to her good friend Robert Graves , British writer and a descendant of the German historian Leopold Ranke . The learned writer and critic was their neighbor in Devon during World War II , where the two became friends. Christie appreciated his sharp mind. The dedication is unusually long and translated as follows: “Dear Robert, since you were so kind to tell me that you liked my stories, I dare to dedicate this book to you. I only ask you to strictly forego your skills as a critic (which are no doubt sharpened by your recent excesses in the field) as you read it. This is a story for your enjoyment and by no means a candidate for Mr. Graves' 'literary pillory' ”.
Play and film adaptations
In 1956 Christie himself adapted the novel for a play of the same name. In 1995 the novel was made into a film. When Agatha Christie's daughter, Rosalind Hicks, learned of the changes to the plot made during the filming - incest was built into the film plot - she, as the heir, forbade publication under the original title. The names of the characters also all had to be changed. The film eventually appeared under the title Innocent Lies and had rather mediocre success.
The novel was filmed in 2007 for the third season of the British television series Agatha Christie's Marple . In this film adaptation, Miss Marple solves the case, although she does not appear in the novel.
Important English and German language editions
- 1944, Dodd Mead and Company (New York), June 1944
- 1944, Collins Crime Club (London), July 1944
- 1946 German first edition
- 2002 new translation
Audio books
- 2003 Shortly before midnight (5 CDs): only unabridged reading. Speaker: Pure disbelief. Director: Hans Eckardt: Publishing house and studio for audio book productions, Marburg
Web links
- Towards Zero on the official Agatha Christie website
- Innocent Lies (1995) in the Internet Movie Database (English)
- Marple: Towards Zero (2007) in the Internet Movie Database (English)
Individual evidence
- ↑ American Tribute to Agatha Christie
- ↑ Chris Peers, Ralph Spurrier and Jamie Sturgeon. Collins Crime Club - A checklist of First Editions . Dragonby Press (Second Edition) March 1999 (Page 15)
- ↑ a b German first edition in the catalog of the German National Library
- ↑ a b New translation (2002) in the catalog of the German National Library
- ^ Towards Zero , official Agatha Christie website
- ↑ Audiobook (complete) in the catalog of the German National Library