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!

Dead Man's Folly

Jemma 07 Sep 09 at 7:42 a.m. GMT

A fête in a country house garden makes a wonderful setting for mischief to happen.  But when Ariadne Oliver, who has been asked by Sir George and Lady Stubbs to organize a murder hunt, gets a feeling that something much nastier is going to happen, she just has to call on Hercule Poirot to come and help.  When her worst fears come true and young Marlene Tucker is found dead in the boathouse Poirot begins to view the assembled house party in a different light.  With a further murder and a missing person to complicate things, this case is a real puzzle for Poirot.

However, when Poirot does get to the bottom of things does his kind heart come to the fore again?  Would another chapter have seen justice better served or was Christie right to end the book in the way she did?

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mumbojumbo 24 Jan 12 at 10:41 a.m. GMT

I just finished it. Though certainly not one of Christie's best works, I still found it very fun to read. I was wondering, were the others able to predict the ending? (SPOILERS ALERT).

I did get Christie's hints (the old man saying that there always be Folliats in the estate, the dead body in the sea, how Hattie is not as stupid as she likes to look) and also assumed that she had the hikers tresspassing there for a reason so my idea was that the person posing as Hattie was actually Ms Folliat's daughter (lost/illegitimate offspring are quite common in AC books) who replaced the original Hattie when she died/was killed so that she could take her place, then she married George and got him to buy the house they used to own. So I thought that the fake Hattie and Ms Folliat had actually killed the girl who had discovered the truth and was blackmailing them and then fake Hattie disappeared as a hiker so that her cousin would not recognise her. It never occured to me that George could actually be the Folliat in the house, i guess it is because they said that he was much older than Hattie I also took it that he was too old to be Folliat's son as well.

So what was your guess on the murderer?

Eirini_violin 23 Apr 11 at 7:58 p.m. GMT

I finish it!!!It's perfect!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!I love it!!!

Eirini_violin 21 Apr 11 at 10:18 a.m. GMT

Now I'm reading this book!!!I'm in the middle but I love it!!! I'm sorry for my English but I'm from Greece!!!

nudityandgramophones 24 Mar 11 at 8:32 p.m. GMT

I love this book, and also the made-for TV Ustinov film. I saw the film before I read the book, and was impressed by how eerie the book is. The film is largely played for laughs, I feel-the strong dynamic between Poirot and Mrs. Folliot is lost in the typical ending with assembled characters. I do love the Eddie South character, though-Etienne De Sousa is a bit dull.

Mr_Graves 17 Jan 11 at 9:26 p.m. GMT

Ha ha, very good Lone Wolf! If she couldn't murder children she hated, why not in a work of fiction instead?

I found myself a little disappointed with this book. The presence of Mrs Oliver was, as always, enjoyable, and the idea of a Murder Hunt where the supposed victim is actually killed is classic Christie, but overall it is somewhat dull. The characters are tiresome because they are such cliches, and they do the most predictable things. I grant you, the solution is pretty good, but the story is flat and I did not enjoy it as much as I'd have liked to. 

Lone_Wolf 04 Nov 10 at 4:45 p.m. GMT

Maybe that was Christie's subconscious way of voicing her frustrations with the younger generation?

ChristieFanBlogger 04 Nov 10 at 1:46 p.m. GMT

I read this and Halloween back to back and am a little depressed at blackmailing kids being murdered.  Yikes!

Pongo 08 Sep 10 at 3:18 a.m. GMT

SPOILERS

xrysoula, well said!  To me, Mrs. Folliat made this book really good.  She is one of the strongest characters in the AC universe.  I completely agree that the ending of the book is perfect. 

xrysoula 07 Sep 10 at 4:53 p.m. GMT

SPOILERS!

I agree, Pongo. Mrs. Folliat is one of my very favourite AC characters and I think she represents all that AC viewed as a "real lady". Even though she has lost her husband, her child, her estate, she has been forced to become an accessory to murder by her own son, yet, in the eyes of the reader, never does she lose her integrity and respectfulness.She alone is enough to make the book whorthwhile, as well as its ending, which I consider nothing less than perfect. I believe I 've mentioned in a previous post of mine that Mrs. Folliat 's character is Agatha Christie 's comment on the crimes that can be concealed in the mother 's heart.  

Pongo 06 Sep 10 at 4:22 a.m. GMT

continued from previous post.

SPOILERS

And, then, there is, what I think is, the best bit of this novel: the character of Mrs. Folliat.  She is a great Christie creation, and I think up there as being one of the best characters in all of Christie. 

She is mysterious, and in fact, she holds the key to the entire mystery.  She is sympathetic in that her plight is one where she has, to some extent, not only lost her previous social status but also her family.  And, yet, there is no denying that she is the true "mastermind" of the underlying plot.  The final chapter between her and Poirot ranks up there as being among some of the best of Christie's writing.  It is no wonder that AC decided to end the book there; I mean, after all, any follow-up with George Stubbs would have been anti-climactic. 

Pongo 06 Sep 10 at 4:18 a.m. GMT

SPOILERS!!!!!!!!

Although I am not a great fan of this book because, ultimately, I thought that there were too many characters and the narrative felt unfocused, I will say that there are some truly great elements here. 

The book had the potential for being a great late Christie.  It had a "crime in the past" theme coulped with the conceit of a murder hunt game and all that such a conceit implies (such as art versus life, the literary versus the real, the playful turning deadly serious, etc.).  There is also a nice working of the themes of post-war England, the rise of the nouveau riche, the fall of the old upper classes, the nature of identity and the War.  It feels very much like a continuation of an exploration of themes found in the great A Murder is Announced. 

What is more, there is also the sense that the Christie world is becoming a dark place, where young girls are not only victims but they can also be blackmailers.  This is a really complex feeling being engendered in the reader I think.  Unlike, say, how we felt when reading other Christie books where a young, sympathetic girl is the victim, Marlene's moral character is unsettlingly ambiguous. 

MissQuin 01 Jul 10 at 3:50 p.m. GMT

Bundle summed up Dead Man's Folley more eleoqently than I can. But overall I harly remmeber it. I know I didn't enjoy reading it. I did find the characters rather bland and the solution weak.

xrysoula 30 Jun 10 at 3:13 p.m. GMT

GKCfan

Has anyone heard the BBC radio adaptation of this book?  I thought it added an interesting twist at the end. I'd always taken Mrs. Folliat's final line as a statement that she's preparing for her son's arrest, but in the radio adaptation, Mrs. Folliat shoots herself right after Poirot leaves her house.  That is another interpretation of her request that Poirot leave her.  What do you all think of this twist?

Well, believe it or not, that 's what I thought too when I read the book!That mrs Folliat is asking Poirot to leave in order to kill herself.So that there will be no more Folliats...

miss_adventure 01 Apr 10 at 7:29 p.m. GMT

Hi all

Having been to Greenway last summer, I had to re-read Dead Man's Folly having remembered it as one of my favourites. Like others here I really love the concept of the murder within the murder games, but, again like others, I found the ending to be abrupt in the extreme, feeling like I'd been kicked out of the book prematurely. Fabulous setting though.

But, like jonesyfan, I could find absolutely no reference to Mrs Stubbs telling Miss Brewis to take the tray of food to Marlene at all before the inspector mentions it. This bothered me a lot and I kept checking back again and again to make sure I hadn't missed it - we weren't shown Mrs Stubbs doing this at the time, and Miss Brewis doesn't mention it in the interview with the inspector. Given it was such an important plot point, it seems very odd to miss it out.

If anyone can let me know if and where this happens in the book I would be very grateful! Or if I have a dodgy copy...

aquaflute 01 Feb 10 at 3:28 a.m. GMT

I personally liked this novel but was a little disappointed because the ending was a little weak. It's too short to say the least. The only character that had a good wrap up was Mrs. Forlliat. Other characters (including Mrs. Oliver) were no where to be seen!

But this is one of the books where I have absolutely no idea who did it until the end. I did suspect the husband but never the wife. So yes it's a team play but IMO one of the best team plays written by AC (at least much better than Evil Under the Sun).

Attica76 03 Jan 10 at 3:10 p.m. GMT

This is one of my favourites, and one of the reasons is the setting, as 3rdGirl mentioned. When reading it, I saw it as clearly as if it were real and often wished I could be in that wonderful place.

As for the other pros, I agree that Mrs Oliver was great here, and I found it particularly funny that she came up with some of the real reasons for the crime(s) when being questioned by the policeman after Marlene's murder

But I agree with Bundle that it's a bit far-fetched about the Italian woman playing two parts, especially considering that as Lady Stubbs, she always wore elaborate clothes and makeup (and it must have taken a lot of time to take off/put on with or without the servants' help).

Other than that, it's a great book I always enjoy rereading.

biggles_aristide 30 Dec 09 at 9:32 p.m. GMT

Yes I agree that we have seen the senario where a couple is the guilty party. I thought that it was good to have George Stubbs as the murderer because he was a suspect that you really didn't dwell on much. I actually don't remember, but did anyone in this novel ever mention the possibility of him doing away with his wife? I think that if a Agatha Christie book is good.....there will never be anything wrong with it. But if there is one thing that is just silly.....many other things are to

Bundle_ 29 Dec 09 at 10:57 p.m. GMT

Thank you for your comment and taking the time to read it, sjoerdbol! And Welcome to the AC site!

sjoerdbol 29 Dec 09 at 9:22 p.m. GMT

I think you've summarized it well! Nicely done, pros and cons.

Bundle_ 29 Dec 09 at 5:40 p.m. GMT

Now for the cons :-(. I hate doing this but there are a few things that bothered me.

• As I've mentioned before: AC played fair. Just a few clues are the fact the title is Dead Man's Folly which indicates Mrs. Folliat's supposedly dead son, who happens to build a Folly where the original Hattie is buried. And when Poirot noticed a malicious stare in Lady Stubbs eyes for a single moment which was strange considering the popular opinion was that she was simple minded. And Mrs. Oliver's story for the Murder Hunt closely resembling what was actually going on. There were other hints as well but I won't get into that.

• But what I am a little dissappointed at w/ the book is that just because the clues were given to us, it doesn't make it right.

What I mean by that is - is that I think making the murderer George Stubbs a.k.a James Folliat, and Lady Stubbs a.k.a the Italian staying at the Hostel was the easy route. Yet another male and female murdering team! I think we've read about that scenario enough times!

And even though the clues were right there, some things logically don't add up like the fact that Poirot said himself that they could exclude George Stubbs from being the murderer because he was seen at the Fete all day; okay so he didn't kill Marlene Tucker at the Fete but this statement makes one think that he couldn't possibly be the murderer then or involved w/ the dissappearance of his wife.

And it is kind of mind boggling to think that the Italian woman posing as Lady Stubbs could go back and forth constantly to the Hostel and Nasse house! Many characters live a double a life in mystery books but to run back and forth like that ,even for a criminal, it seems a little far fetched and exaggerted.

Bundle_ 29 Dec 09 at 5:33 p.m. GMT

I finished reading this book yesterday, and I want to start off by mentioning what I think the positives are in this book. (This will be a long post but I do have a point if you please read on)

• I found that the characters were all unique, and interesting, and there was an amazing realness about them.

• AC depicted the scenery so vividly that you almost feel like you're there. I could picture exactly what Nasse house looked like on the outside as well as the inside.

• Ms. Oliver's whims and fancies and notions are particularly entertaining and amusing to read - she brings so much color to the book.

• It was interesting to "see" Poirot involved w/ the preparations of a Fete as well as experiencing all the excitement surrounding it: I think we see another side of him in this book as he seems much more relaxed as well as being more physicaly fit than I thought he would be: he climbed up and down steep paths, and often took a walk on the large grounds. I was impressed :-)

• I think AC had fun w/ this book because in parts it was preyty comical and witty; it's evident when she describes Ms. Oliver's outrageous hair do's and flashy outfits and her dialogue w/ the other characters too, and her character Alec Legge said quite a few funny things, and I noticed that this book had her detectives running around more to find clues than her other Poirot books do.

• You were always kept guessing as to why anyone would want to kill Marlene Tucker, and where Lady Stubbs has dissappeared to. It was 2 mysteries that happened at the same time!

• Overall it was a "fun" journey through the book. And tt's rather hard to explain but AC is a master at conveying words in such an interesting and easy going way.

• AC did play fair. Lots of clues were given to the reader!

Tommy_A_Jones 26 Dec 09 at 1:10 p.m. GMT

I have heard bits of the Radio Adaptation and seen the film, like MR playing MM, I don't think we are supposed to take the PU versions of Dead Man's Folly and Thirteen At Dinner seriously and out of the 2 I prefer Dead Man's Folly.

sjoerdbol 26 Dec 09 at 1:01 p.m. GMT

That Jonathan Cecil is NOT Hastings. In thirteen at dinner, he just followes Peter Ustinov, who is a great actor, and says really nothing.

Hugh Fraser with his: " I Say," is a much better Hastings. He has a  vision, ideas. Jonathan Cecil plays him like an empty following charachter who followes Poirot wherever he goes.

Puffinjill 08 Dec 09 at 7:06 a.m. GMT

It's one I've not heard, GKCfan. Interesting interpretation and it's one way for Mrs Folliat to deal with the scandal about to descend on her family. But I had her marked down as a woman willing to stand up to trouble by facing it, no matter how dreadful it might be. I think she would see shooting herself as the weak way out. She is worn out by keeping her awful secret but she would still see she has a duty to stand firm in the face of anything that tarnishes her family name. But I can see the appeal of a more dramatic end to those producing the Radio adaptation. I'll have to see if I can get hold of a copy.

GKCfan 08 Dec 09 at 2:52 a.m. GMT

Has anyone heard the BBC radio adaptation of this book?  I thought it added an interesting twist at the end. I'd always taken Mrs. Folliat's final line as a statement that she's preparing for her son's arrest, but in the radio adaptation, Mrs. Folliat shoots herself right after Poirot leaves her house.  That is another interpretation of her request that Poirot leave her.  What do you all think of this twist?

jonesyfan 07 Dec 09 at 8:18 p.m. GMT

I just read this book and i absolutely cannot find anywhere in the book where Miss Brewis ever said that Mrs. Stubbs asked her to take the tray of food down to the boathouse.  Am i missing it somewhere in the book (before Inspector Bland claims she said it) or is it a hole in the plot??

Tommy_A_Jones 21 Nov 09 at 3:28 p.m. GMT

I recently looked again and it said Jonathan Cecil was born in Britain, I must have looked up someone else the first time.

Tommy_A_Jones 07 Oct 09 at 4:55 p.m. GMT

The Actor's name is John Cecil, IMDB says he was born in America, personally I think he grins as if he is one of ACs pretty young thing's on a Caper.

go_leafs_nation 07 Oct 09 at 11:33 a.m. GMT

I initially liked Dead Man's Folly, but when rereading it, I discovered that its success lay in one thing: Mrs. Oliver. The book would've been far worse without her. Jean Stapleton, by the way, did a surprisingly good job in a rather poor adaptation as Mrs. Oliver.

Hugh Fraser really is Hastings. I despise the actor they chose for the Ustinov films. Like I mentioned, he walks around wearing a ridiculous smile as if someone had just told him a dirty joke, and bumbles around like an idiot. Fraser, although his character still does bumble around, is the far better actor for many reasons. He particularly captures well Hastings' 'very English' charm.

3rdGirl 06 Oct 09 at 10:51 a.m. GMT

I haven't seen any of the Ustinov versions of Poirot, only the Suchet ones so my vision of Hastings is Hugh Fraser. To be honest I found most of the characters in Dead Man's Folly awful as I outlined above, so hence my inclination to add Hastings. I think the reason he was left out was that he really wasn't appearing in the Poirot books by the time Ms Oliver was putting in regular appearances. He'd long gone to South America.

I'm still a bit bemused by how the entire book just ended abruptly as well.

Tommy_A_Jones 05 Oct 09 at 3:42 p.m. GMT

Surely Colonel Race is Poirot's greatest weakness, Putting Hastings in DMF is not the Biggest Misdemeanour in the world but I agree DMF is one of the books without Hastings where not having him doesn't ruin the book.

go_leafs_nation 04 Oct 09 at 12:02 a.m. GMT

I can't believe what I'm hearing! Hastings was the Ustinov's version greatest weakness. He basically walked around, stared blankly, and wore a ridiculous smile on his face, as if someone had just told him a dirty joke which he'd love to share with Poirot, but knows he shouldn't. Hastings just doesn't belong in Dead Man's Folly. There's a reason why he was left out.

3rdGirl 03 Oct 09 at 11:22 p.m. GMT

I think Hastings could be inserted quite easily in this, it would have been interesting for him and Ms Oliver to meet!

Tommy_A_Jones 03 Oct 09 at 3:34 p.m. GMT

Hi 3rd Girl, No David Suchet hasn't done DMF yet, I agree about Zoe Wannemaker, The Peter |Ustinov Version added Hastings which I personally liked.

3rdGirl 02 Oct 09 at 9:42 a.m. GMT

It is definitely difficult to enjoy the books if all of the characters are unsympathetic. I'd be interested to see the film of it as I'm certain that they have not done a version of this with Suchet as yet, but they should as they have such an excellent Ariadne Oliver in Zoe Wannamaker.

 I've not read Halloween Party as yet.

I do think that in DMF it was a rather abrupt ending which may also have detracted from my enjoyment. It all sort of 'folded up' didn't it?

Tommy_A_Jones 29 Sep 09 at 3:08 p.m. GMT

Hi 3rd Girl, the Ustinov version was on recently which m,ade me remember when I read it, I don't think it was one of my favourites but I am now thinking I will definitelky read it again when I have read the others but I might re-read Halloween Party first as I can't remember that one as much.

Like you I enjoyed the premis and since seeing the Film again I have thoughht of an Idea I might write for my personal enjoyment.

3rdGirl 27 Sep 09 at 10:05 p.m. GMT

I just re-read this book as it was one of the Septembr Book Club books and whilst I enjoyed it the first time, I wasn't too keen on it the second time as I really did not like any of the characters at all with the exception of Poirot, Ariadne Oliver and Inspector Bland.

The Stubb's were annoying, eveyone staying (The Legge's, Miss Brevis, Captain Warburton and the architect) with them unsympathetic and Marlene's family shrewish and horrible. I actually like Etienne De Sousa which is funny because I'm sure I wasn't supposed to. Mrs Folliatt left me cold as well.

I did enjoy the premis of the murder mystery inside a murder mystery, and I also enjoyed the setting along the riverside in Devon as well. I think Ms Christie used the setting very effectively in this book.

StevenClayton 15 Sep 09 at 11:45 p.m. GMT

I loved this book....I love the idea of a murder inside a murder game! 

Read more about this story: Dead Man's Folly