Death in the Clouds
Author: Agatha Christie
Death in the Clouds was first published in the UK in March 1935. It was published as Death in the Air in the United States in July 1935. The story was first serialized in magazines in both countries and later came out in novel format. So many of Christie's works were first published in magazines in serial form. Oh what I wouldn't give to see a copy of any of those magazines!! I'd love to see the formatting, the illustrations and even the accompanying advertisements, and the rest of the articles, etc. Someday!!
As is my habit during my trip through Christie's writing in publication order, I listened to an audio book of Death in the Clouds (Harper Audio 2012) while reading a paperback copy of Death in the Air (Berkley 1986) to see if there were any differences. I didn't notice many changes and most were minor. For example, in Death in the Clouds, the poison used in the murder was named as hydrocyanic acid and in my old paperback copy of Death in the Air, the poison was called Prussic acid. Two names for the same chemical, but not sure why the change was made. I did some reading on the subject and discovered that the poison is also called cyanide - a term I was much more familiar with. Ah, the morbid and scary things Christie lovers have in their search history!
The basics: Hercule Poirot is a passenger on an airplane along with several other people. As the flight prepares for landing, it is discovered that a passenger is dead, a suspicious small puncture wound in her neck. It is of course murder....and Poirot must discover which of the 10 other passengers is the killer.
I enjoyed this story immensely! This is the first time I have read this book. I've had the old paperback on
my shelf with my piles of Christie novels for years, but never read this one. So glad I did! Very enjoyable Poirot mystery. Can you even imagine being on a flight....just as the plane gets ready to land, you discover someone on board killed another passenger? Yikes! I've been on some crappy flights before -- but never one that bad!
There have been several adaptations of this story. It was adapted for an episode of Christie's Poirot in 1992 and in episodes 36-39 of the anime-style animated series Agatha Christie's Great Detectives Poirot and Marple in 2005. Plus, BBC Radio 4 did a radio dramatization of the story in 2003. And, as usual, I hunted up all 3 adaptations and watched/listened to them all!
Agatha Christie's Poirot: (S4, ep2. 102 minutes) I watched this episode on BritBox (which requires a subscription), but it is available other places like YouTube if you search. I love David Suchet as Hercule Poirot! This episode changes a few things to make it more dramatic and paced for television, but the story is basically intact. Enjoyed it!
Agatha Christie's Great Detectives Poirot and Marple, Episodes 36-39 (English subtitles version) - This animated version of the story sticks pretty close to the mystery portion of the book. Some characters are added and some are changed in small ways, like Inspector Japp is renamed as Inspector Sharpe (for obvious reasons), and Jane Marple and Hercule Poirot know each other. Mostly the changes were to allow the show to combine stories featuring both detectives and add in some anime touches like a niece who has a cute pet duck, while condensing things to fit into four 30-minute episodes. I found the episodes on YouTube. Here's a link to the first one: https://youtu.be/WSqrxZtBkjo?si=2iz-_SpfmBSG1H2e I found all four episodes by searching a bit on YouTube. I really enjoyed this version. It made some very minor changes and the theme song had absolutely nothing to do with the topic, but it was very entertaining to watch! I'm going to watch more episodes as I read my way through the rest of Christie's stories. I had no idea this show even existed!
BBC Radio 4 audio Drama: Broadcast in 2003. John Moffat voices Hercule Poirot. This audio drama condenses the plot down to just about 1.5 hours, and does a relatively good job of it. The voice actors are wonderful, as is usual in this series. You can enjoy all of these BBC radio productions at:https://fourble.co.uk/podcast/bbcradio7
Bonus: There is a really cool reference to Death in the Clouds in the Doctor Who episode "The Unicorn and the Wasp," (Season 4, episode 7) at the end of the episode. :) The episode is completely awesome for any Agatha fan. And, for me, the best part is the book reference at the end! All of the seasons of the newest series are on Max for streaming, or I'm sure you could hunt them up elsewhere. Definitely lovely watching!
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