Appointment with Death
Author: Agatha Christie
I have been working on a colossal reading challenge for the past 5 years -- Reading all of Agatha Christie's mystery novels and short stories in publication order. I'm happy to say I am almost out of the 1930's!
Appointment With Death was first published as a novel in the UK and US in 1938.
I read an old paperback copy (Dell, 1966) from my shelves and listened to an audio book (Harper Audio, 2012). The audio is narrated by Hugh Fraser. His performance is excellent, as usual. The audio is just under 6 hours long.
Once again, Hercule Poirot is on vacation in the Middle East (Just finished Death on the Nile where Poirot vacationing in Egypt has to investigate murders on board a river cruise boat). His vacation and rest are, of course, interrupted by murder and mayhem.
Agatha Christie set several Poirot books in the middle east because in real life she was traveling with her husband, Max Mallowan, who was an archeologist. Appointment with Death is set in Jerusalem and Petra.
I feel a bit sorry for Poirot. Every time he tries to take a vacation to rest, it seems fellow travelers always have to kill someone and act like idiots. Makes me wonder if the Belgian detective didn't lay awake in his hotel bed at night wishing he'd just gone to Scotland or Ireland, rather than all the way to the Middle East just to have wankers ruin his rest again.
Can you imagine having a parent so manipulative and horrible that her own children are over heard plotting to murder her? It was their bad luck that the conversation happened to be over heard by a famous detective. When the old woman ends up actually dead....possibly poisoned....it casts suspicion on all of them. I spent most of this book wondering which of them actually managed to bump the old woman off, knowing that in the end Agatha's reveal would prove me horribly wrong in my guesses. And I was right. The ending caught me by surprise as usual. Sneaky Agatha!
I had a hard time getting into this book full stop.
So many bits of dialogue annoyed me. For example, one character said he hated older women who have lost their youthful beauty....as if by getting older women somehow lose all of their usefulness. There is also a lot of crude commentary about the murder victim's weight and appearance. Although this was part of building the vibe of her being difficult, manipulative, repugnant, and basically in very ill health, it got old after a few chapters. For me, constantly pointing out that she was ugly and morbidly obese didn't really further my concept of the character, it just made me not enjoy the story.
I had a hard time liking most of the characters. The main suspects are the victim's adult children who are
completely manipulated and controlled by her. In life, none of them ever made any attempt to better themselves or change their situation. They just sit around complaining. Any of them could have gotten an education or learned a skill, so they could tell the old woman to stuff it and make their own money. But nope....they just became useless, unskilled twits instead. Add to that all the whiny white Europeans visiting a foreign county and taking verbal pot shots at other classes, races and cultures. They all acted like spoiled idiots. I had no idea who to suspect of the murder....because they all seemed too stupid to really be able to pull it off. Too bad Hercule couldn't have had them all arrested. :)
For the entire book, I kept thinking how horrible it would be to book a trip to the Middle East to see such wonderful sights.....and have the trip ruined by such irritating fellow travelers. Having to sight-see with these people would have been totally insufferable.
So far, this is my least favorite book by Agatha. The mystery was good. Pacing is spot on as usual. The investigation was interesting and the ending had its usual surprises. It's well written. But....the plot just didn't go over well with me, and I hated all of the characters (except for Hercule, of course). I do think that was the feeling that Agatha intended her readers to have (what a sorry lot of wankers!), but it made this a difficult story to finish.
My very ancient paperback version has been read for the last time and retired. I found the front cover art incredibly weird and disturbing. The book was hard to look at! I suppose that makes the strange cover art completely fitting, as I found the entire story weird and disturbing. :) The pages were yellowed from age, the paper brittle, and the spine was beginning to lose grip on the pages. I read the final page, and threw the book away.
This novel has been adapted several times.
Agatha Christie reworked the novel into a stage play in 1945. The plot and characters were majorly changed, and Hercule Poirot doesn't actually appear in the play. So....same name, radically different story. I would be interested in reading a script to learn what changes she made. I was unable to find one online....but will keep my eye out just in case!
The book was adapted for a US television show, Danger, on January 16, 1951. I was unable to find video online of this television episode. Not sure if it's lost media. I will keep searching just in case.
In 1988, Peter Ustinov starred in a movie version.
BBC Radio 4 released an audio drama based on the novel in 2001.
The television show, Poirot, has an episode based on this novel (Season 11, episode 4).
A french television show aired an episode in 2019. And, a Japanese version aired retitled as "Promise of Death."
1988 Movie: I do not like Peter Ustinov as Hercule Poirot. His appearance and mannerisms are all wrong. And the 1980s Agatha Christie movies always come off as cheesy. They definitely have a made-for-television, melodramatic feel to them. I literally groaned out loud when I read the adaptations list for this book online....not another Ustinov Poirot movie. Ugh. But......I watched it. Appointment with Death was Ustinov's sixth and last movie appearance as Poirot.
The cast is star-studded as usual - Lauren Bacall, Carrie Fisher, Hayley Mills, John Gielgud, and others. But that doesn't save the script. As usual, strange changes were made in the story line to make things obvious. One change I appreciated though was the fact that the victim was not morbidly obese or the subject of ridicule based on her appearance. She was old, cunning and horrible without being a cringe-worthy stereotype.
The choice of theme music was just odd. It sounded like the theme music from a 1980s sitcom.
That being said, it does stick at least relatively close to the important parts of the plot. And, even though I do not like Peter Ustinov as Poirot, in my opinion this was his best performance. Still not really Poirot.....but better than the other attempts.
BBC Radio Drama: I have to honestly say that I didn't listen to this episode because I really didn't like this story that much. I have listened to several of these Agatha Christie audio dramas and they are all very well done and entertaining. Appointment with Death is just under 1.5 hours. I listened to about 10 minutes of it, and it opens just like the book. The sound quality is quite good. Interested readers can find the Agatha Christie Collection of audio dramas here: https://fourble.co.uk/podcast/bbcradio7 Definitely worth a listen!! I've enjoyed every episode I've listened to! I might back track and listen to the rest of Appointment With Death at some point....just passed on it at this time.
Poirot Episode: This episode almost completely re-works the plot. Characters added and some left out. Weird melodramatic side plots are added -- abused orphans, slave traders, etc. Motivations are completely different. Huge plot centric lines from the book are completely missing. Usually Poirot sticks pretty closely to the original plots, but I can understand why they changed this one. Perhaps, the writers didn't like this story either? However, I didn't like most of the changes. Agatha Christie plots do not need editing or fundamental re-works. I can't really elaborate and avoid plot spoilers. I will just say that I would rather have an Agatha Christie plot that I didn't like very much left intact, rather than have ridiculous sweeping changes made. I didn't really like this episode.
To close, with more than 80 books to read in order to finish my challenge, there are bound to be some that I like less than others. This one just happened to the first one that I don't really like. It isn't the quality of the writing -- the writing is great, the plot is good, the pacing is perfect. The story just isn't or me.
I'm glad to be moving on. Next up? Hercule Poirot's Christmas (AKA Murder for Christmas or A Holiday for Murder)! :)
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