Book Club

Poirot Stories

Poirot is Agatha Christie's most famous and popular detective.  No doubt he would agree that he deserves that accolade!

Here is the place to discuss all of his stories in detail with other fans.  The most insightful comments will be added to the Stories pages.  But remember to beware spoilers!

If you can't find your favourite Poirot story here, don't worry - we'll be adding them all soon.

Warning: These discussions may contain spoilers!

After the Funeral

Moderator1 09 Nov 09 at 11:34 a.m. GMT

Cora has been murdered and it just might have something to do with the fact that she blurted out at her brother's funeral the previous day, "But he was murdered, wasn't he?"  The family's lawyer, out of his depth, asks Poirot to infiltrate the family and see if he can spot which one of them could be a very nasty killer. 

Is this one of Christie's most clever plots?  Is it still relevant in today's forensic age?  Could only a truly mad person, as the murderer turns out to be, wait for such a long time for the right moment to strike?

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45 replies

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go_leafs_nation 09 Nov 09 at 12:54 p.m. GMT

The Margaret Rutherford film based on this amazing book was a huge disappointment as a mystery, but was an excellent comedy. I think this is one of Christie's best plots. There's so much to it, I wrote a series of journals on it for school, and got a rather high mark. I probably have them stashed away somewhere still...

Tommy_A_Jones 11 Nov 09 at 4:31 p.m. GMT

I think it is a great alternative to Sci-fi, Sport or Reality Television or the remake of MOTOE or many of the GM adapts or DSs COTT

MissQuin 21 Dec 09 at 8:36 p.m. GMT

Spoilers: The murderer has to be one of Christies maddest. I did guess there ws a connection with the paintings to the murders. But somehow I didnt guess who it was.  Isnt this one of the last house/family murders in the Poirot series? Apart from Curtian, which was I think, written earlier. The ones after are set in a youth hostel, garden fetes, boarding schools etc.

GKCfan 22 Dec 09 at 12:02 a.m. GMT

There are a few more house/family murders.  After the Funeral is from 1953.  Others are:

•A Pocket Full of Rye (1953, Miss Marple)

•4:50 From Paddington (1957, Miss Marple)

•Ordeal by Innocence (1958, No recurring detective)

So yes, it's the last of the Poirot "family" novels before 1975's Curtain, which as you rightly pointed out was written during the 1940's.

Attica76 04 Jan 10 at 4:27 p.m. GMT

This is one of my favourites; I love the way the characters are fleshed out and how all the family members are made suspicious. Although I think it's a bit of a stretch to think nobody recognized her later, even if they didn't bother to look at "a mere domestic".   

Rubyy321 10 Jan 10 at 9:20 p.m. GMT

This is indeed a great read, and sorry if i spoil but when Cora turned out not to be  the real Cora that suprised me a great deal! I do agree with Attica76's comment it does sound a little fishy...

go_leafs_nation 14 Jan 10 at 1:17 p.m. GMT

This is, I believe, one of Dame Agatha's finest novels. One of its greatest levels of success is the sheer brutality of the crime, the character of the victim, and the melancholy. I'll discuss these briefly (as I have little time).

Aunt Cora was a simple-minded woman. She was a fool who liked to talk, and yet somehow often ended up disclosing embarassing secrets through her complete innocence, such as when she remarked that the maid had been getting very fat lately. It's a character that can amuse the reader, and certainly isn't a candidate for murder. Her remark on the day of the funeral may be greeted with a smile. The sheer brutality of the axe murder keeps the reader going on. This is a slow book, but because of the inoffensive person Cora was and the brutal way she was murdered, the reader really wants to see justice done, and have the killer carted off to the hung.

The melancholy, as England seems to decay in front of the reader... Huge estates that had been in the family for generations had to be auctioned off because they could no longer be afforded, for instance. The Victorian tradition of keeping the curtains drawn until after the funeral has left the house shows up- the butler, Lanscombe, who faithfully has served the family all his life thinks about his tenure there... These are very effective bits.

Sahara 27 Jan 10 at 11:39 a.m. GMT

This is one of the best plots by Christie. Totally shocking at the end at the big reveal - one of those endings you would never guess till the very end. It somehow reminds me of Murder on the Orient Express... the way all the characters all appear suspicious after a little digging, a very enexpected ending that seems rather unrealistic, but fantastic all the same. Brilliant!

Lone_Wolf 14 Feb 10 at 7:24 a.m. GMT

I liked the theme of nostalgia in that novel. Despite being less then 20 years old, I'm prone to nostalgic fits. That's why I actually found the murderer slightly sympathetic in a way.

Yunakitty 06 Aug 10 at 8:36 a.m. GMT

I haven't seen this in a TV adaptation yet, but I have a feeling it will be rather ridiculous, with "Cora" and Miss Gilchrist being played by the same actress.  There are some ideas that work so well in print but not with living breathing people, especially with a camera fixed on them as they talk.  In a play or real life you might not notice that two people are the same, but in a TV adaptation it leaps to the eye.  I was watching Poirot on PBS with my family last week, and there were two different episodes where this was clear - Affair at the Victory Ball and Hunter's Lodge.  My grandmother and I are both big AC fans so we watched quietly, but my aunt, who's never read a one, spotted it right away.  "Oh, that's the friend in the first guy's costume... his face is so much wider, you can see that even with the mask."  And then, "Why is his wife pretending to be the housekeeper?"  Even with great makeup and acting, it leapt to her eye.

Though, it *is* possible - when I went home to see my family, my father cried out as we walked into Walmart and went over to the check out aisle to happily greet someone named "Eddie".  I glanced over, didn't recognize the person, assumed it was some old friend of my dad's, and I went on with my shopping.  Then the next day at my great grandmother's house that man was there again... it was my great uncle Eddie who I hadn't seen in 14 years.  I did not recognize him at all even though I can spot him in old photographs in a second.  So I could see it being possible... just very very risky for Miss Gilchrist to do. 

...to be continued

Yunakitty 06 Aug 10 at 8:36 a.m. GMT

If I had been her (well first off I wouldn't have killed anyone) I never would have attempted the fakery.  Maybe something with a telephone, calling different family members as her and expressing naively that she thought Richard was murdered, then dying quietly of an overdose.  Or man, just steal the freaking picture.  Cora was a dingbat, Miss Gilchrist could hide it and claim it had been stolen, then resign later and go sell it or something.  I don't often argue with the logic  in AC's stories, but this is one I have trouble swallowing.  Too much rigamorale (going into the wolf's den in disguise, violent murder, many many lies, self-poisoning, and attempted murder) for a very simple aim (to get a painting.)

GKCfan 06 Aug 10 at 9 a.m. GMT

I think there was more to the killer's motive than mere profit.

I think that the killer was embittered from going from being an independent woman with her own business to being a paid drudge.  I think she'd wanted to kill her employer for making her do all sorts of tasks that she felt were beneath her, so revenge (and madness, remember that she became totally unhinged) were also motives.

Lone_Wolf 06 Aug 10 at 10:14 a.m. GMT

To me, the motive had more to do with not only a desire for independence, abut also nostalgia and the desire to return to good ol' happy times.

Yunakitty 08 Aug 10 at 12:35 a.m. GMT

Ooh, thank you, that makes more sense.  I didn't really think about the insanity part.  And the revenge for treating her like a servant.  Thanks for pointing that out!

Miss_Eylesbarrow 10 Aug 10 at 9:27 a.m. GMT

Of course, without all the rigmarole we wouldn't have had the story, Yunakitty!  I feel that sometimes we just have to suspend our disbelief at some twist in the plot and go with it.  It is fiction after-all.  Oh and it does say at the end of the book that after the arrest the killer became completely unhinged so I think that he/she was already somewhat crazy, just hiding it well

MissQuin 10 Aug 10 at 10:21 a.m. GMT

 I can believe that a seeminglly harmless middle aged woman, can turn out to be a raving lunatic. There are people like that. I think the tea shop idea was a complete obsession that took over her life. Killing someone with an axe is a more violent method of murder thatn usual. The plan when plotted by someone who isn't sane, but is cunning seems logicale enough to me.

MissQuin 10 Aug 10 at 11:30 a.m. GMT

spoiler warniing in the above post!!

xrysoula 20 Aug 10 at 11:49 a.m. GMT

The story is indeed a rather unbelievable one, but I too think that the insanity of the murderer offers an adequate explanation of all of her acts. It very much reminded me of Murder Is Easy, whereas I hadn 't liked that book as much as I liked  After The Funeral.

Although the murder that takes place in the latter is amongst the most brutal in AC 's novels, somehow you can 't help feeling some sort of compassion for the person who comitted it, for all her wasted life and her shuttered dreams, which after all were so simple, so humble...so human.And that 's just something only a unique, inimitable writer like Dame Agatha could accomplish.

Miss_Eylesbarrow 23 Aug 10 at 1:46 p.m. GMT

Spoiler warning************************

Sorry Xrysoula, I can't agree with you there.  I think the murderer is one crazy old biddy who deserves to be hanged.  I can't feel any sympathy for her at all.  To my mind she's a most unsymapthetic character all the way through the book.  I agree that she is a masterful creation by our beloved Dame, but as for wasted life and shattered dreams? Pah!  (hope we are still friends??).

xrysoula 23 Aug 10 at 7:31 p.m. GMT

Of course Miss Eylesbarrow, no need to ask about that! That 's what this site is all about, isn 't it? Exchanging opinions! I find it so interesting and exciting, and even more so because I 've never done it before!

I certainly don 't expect everyone to agree with me. Moreover, sometimes, what I 'm writing about a certain matter does not represent my personal belief, I 'm just trying to shed some light from a different aspect (although that is not the case in my reply above).