Agatha Christie's Secret Notebooks

by John Curran

  In fact Rowley and Frances work independently in the novel, although without any idea of killing Rosaleen.

  Possibly button from Lena’s dress found by E.A.’s body—or does Rowley take it away. Shot heard as Anne and R and D are approaching house. Suggested that R could have laid timing fuse to cartridge

  A timing fuse to fake a gunshot, thereby confusing the time of death, is a plot device in The Murder at the Vicarage, but otherwise Christie depended only rarely on mechanical means to achieve her effects (The Murder of Roger Ackroyd being a notable exception) and, thankfully, did not start here.

  Although it is preceded by a number of rejected ideas—Nathaniel/Jeremy does not resort to blackmail and murder—the last line of the following note does reflect the reality of the novel. Major Porter, a poignant portrait, agrees, through poverty, to perjure himself but later, in a final futile attempt to regain his self-respect, kills himself:

  Cover her Face

  Nathaniel who has embezzled a lot of trust funds—wife is Rose—‘county’—shrewd—fond of him but knows his weakness—gallant and sticks to sinking ship. Says at last ‘Of course I always knew he was a crook’…Family all rather crooked—but Rose is straight—(nice!). Enoch is steady character he has come across—conversation in club inspires him to hire Enoch to sound out Lena and levy blackmail. Enoch turns screws on him—he kills Enoch—(a) tries to fasten crime on Lena—or (b) suicide—then goes to Porter—gets him to identify dead man as Underhay Porter desperately poor agrees.

  The following, while an interesting plot twist, would have been a difficult one to carry off:

  U. is alive—reads inquest—arrives at Doon—sees—Lena—falls in love with her?

  It would mean Underhay falling in love with the woman masquerading as his dead wife and, effectively, robbing his fortune.

  But the most intriguing of the ideas Christie rejected concern the book’s possible title:

  Cover her eyes face—mine eyes dazzle—she died young—outburst by David. Why?

  Exactly—why? Why would David Hunter have exclaimed these words? The quotation ‘Cover her face—mine eyes dazzle—she died young’ is from The Duchess of Malfi, and concerns the murder of a sister by a brother. Presumably David would have used it upon the death of Rosaleen—his ‘sister’? Now we understand why Cover Her Face was considered as a title. Or perhaps it was the other way round—Christie saw it as a good title, which it is, and was anxious to work it in? Whatever is the case, echoing, as it does, the critical scene in Chapter 3 of Sleeping Murder (see Chapter 7), it can be seen as further confirmation that Sleeping Murder was written later than formerly assumed.

  The Pale Horse

  6 November 1961

  And I looked, and behold a Pale Horse, And his name that sat on him was Death

  Revelation 6:8

  A list of names is found on the body of a murdered priest but what do they have in common? Is there such a thing as murder by suggestion? Are the elderly women in Much Deeping really practising black magic?

  Although written in 1960 and published the following year, The Pale Horse had an inspiration from many years earlier. Mr P was a pharmacist who, almost 50 years earlier, instructed Agatha Christie in the preparation and dispensing of drugs. One day he showed her a dark-coloured lump that he took from his pocket, explaining that it was curare and he carried it around with him because it gave him a feeling of power. As she writes in her Autobiography: ‘He struck me, in spite of his cherubic appearance, as a possibly dangerous man. His memory remained with me so long that it was still there waiting when I first conceived the idea of writing my book The Pale Horse.’

  One of the strongest titles of the last 15 years of her career, The Pale Horse has a horribly plausible plot, a very unusual poison and a genuine feeling of menace over and above the usual whodunit element. At first it seems as if Agatha Christie has changed literary tracks and is writing black magic but, as with many of her titles, what you think you see is not what you get.

  Notebook 58 has two pages of Notes on ‘Voodoo’ just before the notes for The Pale Horse. Phrases such as ‘Blood Pact—the sacrifice of a pig—snake vertebrae mingled—the asson or sacred rattle—Legba, the God who removes the barrier—Abobo, a ritual exclamation’ are all noted. The application of these researches can be seen in Chapter 6 of the novel.

  Although thallium—the murder method in The Pale Horse—was used many years earlier by her great contemporary Ngaio Marsh in her novel Final Curtain, it was Christie’s novel that gained notoriety in the UK in June 1972 when Graham Young was convicted of the murder of two workmates and the attempted murder of two more using the same poison. Both the novel and Agatha Christie were mentioned during the trial. Although Young denied having read The Pale Horse, an enterprising reporter contacted Christie to get her reaction. She explained that she had used it in the novel as it was unusual and interesting for a detective novelist, being tasteless and odourless as well as difficult to detect.

  Although the notes are scattered over five Notebooks, the basic plot was established early on, as were some of the characters. Notebook 38 contains a sketch of the opening pages although the woman is not found dead, but dies shortly after Father Gorman’s ministrations. It seems that from the beginning thallium was to be the murder method. And the coffee bar scene, with the important hair-pulling incident, appears in the novel exactly as it does here:

  The Thallium Mystery

  Start somehow with a list of names e.g.

  Sarah Montfort

  Anthony West

  Mrs. Evershed

  Lilian Beckett—

  Jaspar Handingly—All of them dead

  A woman—hospital nurse—found dead—the place ransacked—she says list—all dead

  They are all dead

  Begins—coffee bar—the girls fight—one pulls out fistful of other one’s hair

  Police? Girl is good sport—says didn’t really hurt

  The formula—paid agents—women who go round—report on medicine bottles etc.—they do several houses in neighbourhood—report on the N.H. service

  She then worked on the mechanics of the business of the ‘death broker’—a good description—as well as some of his potential ‘customers’. She did not pursue the thought of using Poirot but settled for her second possibility—‘plain’, in other words not part of a series:

  Book

  Thallium? Series of poisonings going back over years? Hair falling out only symptom in common

  Poirot?

  Plain?

  A ‘Death Broker’—you pay—the person concerned goes—by various natural causes

  Idea like killing off jury (or Ten Little Niggers?)

  No apparent connection—But there is one. What?

  The idea of the Murder Syndicate arranged by (?) Osborne—a strange dual personality—a respectable family—not a bad lot—leaves home, wild, comes back the Prodigal Son—but middle class respectability not enough for him—when Father dies—well off- opens branches in 3 districts run by his assistants—he is at other ones always—actually has a second life abroad?

  It is not entirely clear if Dr Corrigan, mentioned in the following extract as a possible partner in crime, was to have been a relation of Ginger’s, but Osborne was the villain of the piece from the start. And the outline below is accurately reflected in the published novel, although not all of the elements—Dr C is not ‘in it’ (he is a police surgeon) and Venables’ name is not on the original list—were incorporated and three ‘witches’ names were to change:

  Ideas

  (1) Ginger is Ginger Corrigan—Heiress to money?

  (a) Her would-be killer is in Fete party—man’s wife

  (b) Doc. C.[orrigan] is in it—he and Osborne? Object—to set up big research unit abroad

  (2) Osborne—a double life character—father was respectable prosperous old fashioned pharmacist—other O. ran off as boy—went on stage—impersonator

  Rough idea of how the racket is work
ed—The organisation? Double life—a chemist (shop)

  A rich man—crippled—collects silver—his name will be ‘on list’ (false)—his niece or nephew will be framed.

  Others—1st Business man—office—or meet in park

  2nd weird sisters—ritual

  3rd employed person to make enquiries as to medicines etc. by victims—Consumer research it—replacing of some medicament by thallium

  Head man Dr. C? Osbourn

  False head adam’s apple—Mr Vuillaumy [Venables] Rich eccentric

  Next:

  Samuel disbarred lawyer

  3 W[eird] Sis[ters]

  Thelma French—Sybil White (or Greek name)—Alison Wilde—cook—village witch

  Does Osborne come to Fete from Bournemouth—accosts—comes to Mark—rang up Dr. Corrigan

  or police? Saw the man—describes him—scene in chemist’s shop at Bournemouth

  One intriguing possibility for this novel was the introduction of Miss Marple. This is not as unlikely as may at first seem. The novel features quite a number of elderly women in a small village, as well as her old friend from The Moving Finger, Mrs Dane Calthrop, so Miss Marple would have felt quite at home. Christie toyed with two ideas for involving her, both very feasible—as a neighbour of one of the victims or as a great-aunt to Mark Easterbrook:

  The Pale Horse Extra notes

  Near Miss Marple one of the ‘Names’ lives

  Is ‘Mark’ Miss M’s great nephew (Raymond’s son)

  Three ‘weird’ sisters—living at the ‘Pale Horse’ formerly an inn—inside is picture framed—formerly the Inn Sign at end Mark (?) cleans it—the rider skeleton appears—Miss M gives quotation from Revelations

  Thelma Grey is owner of Pale Horse—her family came from Ireland—witchcraft—her gr-gr-gr-etc. aunt burnt as a witch (probably all lies somebody says!). She talks about witchcraft—and what it is

  Finally, Notebook 6 has an unexpected jotting:

  Pale Horse Play?

  Expresso 2 girls—Andrew startled

  That’s all—nothing more exists. It is difficult to see how the novel could have transferred successfully to the stage. Perhaps the discussion on Macbeth and its Three Witches encouraged Christie to consider an adaptation but, practical difficulties aside, it was not a suitable case for dramatisation.

  The Mirror Crack’d from Side to Side

  12 November 1962

  Out flew the web and floated wide; The mirror crack’d from side to side ‘The curse has come upon me,’ cried The Lady of Shalott.

  Tennyson, The Lady of Shalott

  What was it that film actress Marina Gregg saw in her home, Gossington Hall in St Mary Mead, that caused her to ‘freeze’, just before a murder was committed there? Further attempts on Marina’s life and three more deaths follow before Miss Marple can explain the look of doom.

  The Mirror Crack’d from Side to Side is the last of the village murder mysteries. Christie began work on this in late 1961 and by January of the following year was well advanced. But when the manuscript was submitted, in April 1962, there was a spate of concerned correspondence between her agent and publishers and at one stage it was doubtful if the book would be ready in time for the Christmas market. The early mention of German measles in the first draft was considered such a giveaway, although its complete omission was felt to be unfair, that a rewrite was called for. The first person to read it when the manuscript was received at Collins successfully predicted not only the killer but the motive also, long before the first murder was committed. And after its publication the problem rumbled on with the receipt of a letter from an angry American reader bitterly complaining about the motive and its lack of sensitivity to a tragedy in the life of the well-known actress Gene Tierney. Despite a reply from Edmund Cork to the effect that Agatha Christie knew nothing about this until long afterwards, the accusation is still resurrected from time to time.

  The first six pages of Notebook 39 contain an embarrassment of riches in the shape of plot ideas. The first page is confidently headed ‘Miss M Book’ and in the course of the following pages the plot devices of The Clocks, A Caribbean Mystery and The Mirror Crack’d from Side to Side are all sketched, along with echoes of ‘The Case of the Caretaker’ (where Dr Haydock encourages her to unravel a ‘nice’ murder) as well as a short idea—the girl and the nasty fall—that appears as a throwaway scene in Chapter 2 of The Mirror Crack’d from Side to Side:

  Dr Haydock—getting old—Miss M says can’t knit—Dr H suggest unravel—you’ve always had an interest in murder to say nothing of more than your fair share of it. Proceeds to tell her a story.

  At the Development—a girl looking over a house has a nasty fall—has man with her pushed her

  Dr H’s story—Is it story of Clocks—typist—blind woman—dead man

  Miss M with Jenny in West Indies—the frog faced Major—his gossip—glass eye—appears to be looking different direction from what he really is

  Eventually she settles on the ‘Development Murder’ (as it is referred to throughout) as her next novel and gets down to the serious plotting. This is the 71-year-old Agatha Christie still working at full creative stretch at an age when most people have retired:

  Jessica Knight—M asks her to go to chemist? Then she gets up, slips her coat on and goes for walk. The Development—entering a strange country—scraps of talk—near accident? Man and girl—looking at cottage—her fall—Heather Badcock

  Notebook 4 has the germ of the idea that is the main plot device of the book:

  The Rubella idea—Reason for crime—child has been born defective owing to one natal infection—while the ‘fan’ has grim determination not to miss meeting her idol

  And Notebook 8 develops this further with a rough sketch of the first few chapters:

  Development Murder

  Chapter I Miss Marple and Development—her walk—when old place was Protheroes—the Bantry’s—young women who remind her of various people—then a Hilda Glazebrook—one of those tiresome gushing women. Patience Considine—Actress and Film star—Hilda’s hero worship—bit about German measles—no ill effects—P’s look—as though frozen

  The contentious four words (‘bit about German measles’) appear very near the beginning of the notes, indicating Christie’s intention of playing dangerously fair with the reader. In the event she rewrote this and other similar references, and avoided mentioning German measles until very near the end of the novel.

  The bulk of the plotting of this title is in Notebook 52, although from the ease of the sequence it would seem that she already knew where she was going with it. Once the setting of Gossington Hall and its new inhabitant was decided, and the rubella idea established, the book was smoothly drafted:

  Miss M unravelling—Marina Gregg buys Bantrys old house—Mrs B in lodge

  Her husband Arthur Rossiter (?) quiet intelligent man—dark horse?

  Heather Beasly (?) in a ‘development’ house—Miss M—out walking—falls down—Heather picks her up—cup of tea—talk etc. about Marina Gregg? Story of H. going with measles etc.—Mr Beasley bank clerk? Insurance agent? House agent? School teacher?

  Encounter between M[arina] and H[eather]—husband there (Does Mrs B recount all this later to Miss M?)

  Some nonsense H said (first mention of G measles?)—Well M answered her—but there was a minute or two—and she said it quite absent-mindedly and as though she was thinking of something else—mechanically—said it so often before—but her eyes staring—over Heather’s head—as though she saw something—something terrible—at what?

  Well—staircase

  Who was coming up

  The idea of looking over the shoulder and seeing something amazing/frightening/puzzling features in a few Christie novels and in each case she comes up with a credible and completely different situation. The earliest example is in The Mysterious Affair at Styles, followed a few years later by another instance in The Man in the Brown Suit. Significant other cases in po
int are included in Appointment with Death and Death Comes as the End. Two years after The Mirror Crack’d from Side to Side, she presents us, and Miss Marple, with a similar puzzle when Major Palgrave sees something disturbing over Miss Marple’s shoulder in A Caribbean Mystery. The answer to that riddle is her most daring and original solution to the over-the-shoulder theme and may, indeed, have been inspired by the reference to Nelson in the extract below.

  A minor point about The Mirror Crack’d from Side to Side is the fact that Mrs Bantry relates all of the dramatic events of the reception back to Miss Marple. Why did Christie not arrange, under some pretext, that Miss Marple attend the party herself? This could have been easily set up and would have overcome the necessity to construe Marina’s actions as filtered through a third, and sometimes fourth, person. But perhaps this is the very reason that she did not. Miss Marple would have seen too much and too easily. As it is, the jogging of the arm and the dropping of the sleeping draught into the glass is glossed over, although in reality it would have been difficult to stage-manage. This is also one of the few examples of the use of a fictitious poison in a proprietary medicine.

  For the most part the people Christie originally listed (or versions thereof) appear in the finished book:

  Now People

  Kathleen Leila Carlyn [Margot Bence]—adopted child from slum family—mother wrote letter—then her own [Marina’s] child comes—she makes settlement on adopted children—girl and 2 boys—

  Does Lara come to board with Cherry—(a pal her sister has picked up) or working somewhere as hairdresser or as a photographer (best?)

  Ella Schwarz [Zeilinsky]—social secretary—in love with Jason

  Heather’s husband Arthur

  Mary Bates—a widow—husband dead in a rather peculiar way (car accident?)