A Murder in Five Acts: an original mystery game

 A Murder in Five Acts is a storytelling game for ideally 4 or more players, one of whom will take on the role of Narrator and another will assume the duties of a Recorder.  All of the creative elements of the game are provided by the imagination of the players.  As a result, it is helpful, but not required, for the players to have some familiarity with the genre of Golden Age mysteries such as those written by Agatha Christie.  It is from her works that all the conventions and structure are taken.

The Murder is structured into five Acts, resembling the form of a play.  Within each Act will be several Rounds, where the narrator will ask a question of the group and each player will take a turn to provide an answer, or part of the answer.  Players are encouraged to work with other players previous contributions to build a more creative and cohesive narrative.

The Set Up:  

The players sit in a circle, for example around a table.  The players will choose a classic Christie character and develop it through the questions that the narrator asks them to consider. Each player is given a small pad and pen to write down their own personal answers. The Recorder has a larger sheet for reporting on the general outlines of the story. The Narrator starts the rounds by asking the question for that round and eliciting the answer for everyone to hear.  The Narrator and Recorder will also play a character.

A Token is used to identify the player where the round begins.  This Token should be suitable for the mystery story being told, such as a scarab beetle, a letter opener, a goblet, or a candlestick.  In addition it can be helpful for the Narrator to have access to a d20 die to roll when a random number is required.

Finally, it is also appropriate for each player to have a small shot glass or sherry glass with wine to be sipped at the beginning of each Act. 

General Standing Rules for the game

1.  There are no wrong answers.  The wilder the better.

2.  Short and Sweet.  Answers should generally be directly relevant to the game play.  There is no need to spend long minutes agonizing over the perfect answer. 

2.  Support, don't Squash.  Subsequent answers should support others stories that have already been introduced.  Introducing elements that directly contradict something already stated is considered to be "Squashing" and is considered bad form.  If there are any emergent or inadvertent contradictions introduced into the play, it is part of the narrative for the players to reconcile them before the story is complete.

 Gameplay:  

The Narrator and the Recorder administers the setup, and the Talisman is placed in the hands of the player to the Narrator's right.  That person will be given the chance to respond to the question for that round first, and then the person to their right will offer an answer and so on around the circle counter-clockwise.  When the round is over, the Talisman will pass to the next player on the right, again proceeding counter-clockwise around the circle.  That new holder of the token will have the chance to provide the first answer on the next round.

Typically, the question will be asked and a few minutes will be allowed to lapse while the player consider their answers and write them down on the detective's notebook in front of them.  After a few minutes, the Narrator will call for the answer and follow the order established by the token.  The players should refrain from just calling out their responses, but should wait for the order to reach them.

Act 1 

Round 1:  Introductions The narrator will read the first three character types from Agatha Christie's cast of characters. for the first player.  Then read the next three characters from the list for the next player and so on around the circle. The players must choose the answers for the following and write them down in their detectives notebook:

• Choose one of the types
• Give the character a name
• Write down one thing about that character that is common knowledge 

After 5 minutes, following the order set by the token, each player introduces their character 

Round 2: Connections.  Now that all the characters have been introduced, choose one other character that your character has some kind of ongoing interaction with.  It could be a family relationship (child, parent, spouse), business partner or co-worker, old army buddy, former patient. This is not a secret association but one that could be identified with a reasonable amount of research.  (Secrets will be uncovered later).

Round 3:  Aura.  Determine for your own character what kind of Aura they have.  Are they good or evil or morally gray, sunny or gloomy, bright or dark or shadowy.

Act 2

Round 4:  The House.  The Narrator outlines a few basic parameters for where the story will take place.  It could be a remote country house on the river, or a stern wheeler traveling the Mississippi.  Then each player will contribute one detail of the house to complete the setting.

Round 5a:  Setting.  The narrator asks each player to think of a number between 1 and 12.  The recorder records all the numbers as they are returned and determines the average.  That average is multiplied by 10 and added to 1900 to decide the year in which the mystery is set.  (for example.  the average of five numbers is 6, so the story is set in the 1960s.)

Round 5b: The Older Time:  The narrator asks each player to think of a number between 1 and 20.  The average is the number of years prior to the current time when an ominous event happened.  

Round 6: The Ominous Event. This is something tragic that everybody knows about but no one talks about.  Examples from Christie:  10 years ago two little girls were kidnapped and never seen in the village again; 2 years ago the cruel old lady was murdered and one of her sons was executed for it; last year the colonel received a poisoned pen letter and committed suicide. The current events must relate to this ominous event in some way.  Each player takes a turn to describe what the ominous event was.

Act 3

Set Up:  The narrator rolls a d20 randomly and uses the number to select an unused character from the Cast of Characters.  If the exact one is being used by a player, use the next one closest to it.  The narrator reads out the character and provides one pivotal detail to their arrival that evening.  Maybe the lawyer brings an important document, but he doesn't say what it is.  Maybe the Doctor has an important vial of medicine carefully packed in a traveling case, but again no details are provided;  Maybe a former maid or cook or other domestic staff shows up carefully clutching an album of old photos, but she doesn't let anyone look inside; the Vicar arrives bringing a historic and holy relic made of gold but only offers the barest glimpse of it:  the specialist engineer arrives with a rolled document case rumored to contain design plans for the newest fighter aircraft.

The next morning, the narrator tells everyone, that character has been murdered.

Round 7: The First Murder. Each player contributes one detail about the murder.  This can include the room where they were murdered, the murder weapon, any other clues about the murder scene, and what happened to the actual item that they were seen with when they arrived.

Round 8: The Secret.  Each player reveals one secret that another character knows about them, or that their character knows about someone else.  Ideally, this secret should involve the Older Time or the murder victim.

Act 4

Round 9:  The Confession.  Each player should tell us why their character is the murderer.  Tell us how it was done, using the clues provided in Round 7, and tell us why, incorporating all the details you've created and referencing the Older Time as well as the current time period. 

Act 5

Round 10:  What Really Happened.  Together, all the players have to do their best to reconcile all the differing stories into one coherent narrative, incorporating the design of the house, the ominous events of the Older Time, and the secrets and relationships of all the characters.  One or more of the characters can be identified as the real murderers. 

Agatha Christie: Ordeal by Innocence (Geraldine McEwan)

 Synopsis

 

Cast of Characters

1.  The Energetic Young Woman.  Gwenda, Miss Marple's friend .  She came to the house as a secretary for Leo, and then in a fairy-tale romance after Rachel died, she fell in love with Leo and they were set to be married.  Tragically, she was murdered

2.  The Efficient Professional.  Without stretching things too far, there is a sense that Gwenda was the Efficient Professional during her early life as Leo's secretary.

 3.5  The Cloud-headed Girl.   Hester.  "Who is the weakest in this family, Miss Marple?" "Mother had been bullying her for years"  "Animals don't have money, do they?" - Hester as she teeters on the edge of the dock.  She literally has no mooring.

5.  The Lawyer.  Bobby,  The man of finance who takes care of the estate.  but like all such people in this position of trust, he has squandered the family fortune badly and is reduced to selling the family's silver to make up his shortfalls.

7.  The Specialist.   Mr Croker, the private detective who discovered Philip's womanizing

8.  The Policeman.   Inspector Huish

9.  The Temptrix.  Jacko's wife, Maureen.  She is one of Christie's classic characters, but subverted.  We expect her to be common and a gold digger, and yet she was a normal person, faithful wife, and abused by her husband.

10.  The Rake.  Mr. Philip Durant the pilot.  The private investigator Mother Rachel hired was easily able to find information about numerous infidelities.  It is suggested that even from the wheelchair, Philip was pushing a relationship with the young Hester.

11. The Rival.  Jacko.  "Women had a thing for him.  He could play them like a piano."  It wasn't that Jacko was  a rival to the Rake, or even any one person.  He was emblematic of the trouble and irresponsibility that the family suffered from.

12. The Mirror.   The two twins, Bobby and Jacko.  Where one is a gambler and an irresponsible wastrel, the other is a financial man in London, even though they were both brought up in identical circumstances.  And yet, according to Miss Marple, "It seems to me that the twins, Bobby and Jacko, were more alike than anybody realized."

13.  The Loving/Lonely Wife.  Mrs Durant, who knew about her husband's philandering, and now is forced to take care of him since he's been confined to a wheelchair by polio

14.  The Housekeeper  Kirstin Lindstrom.  "I am the eyes of this house.  I see what I'm not supposed to see."  Miss Marple: "Who considers herself to be the real mother of these children?  The one who gave them the sort of unconditional love they were so badly short of?"

17.  The Cantankerous Old Woman/ Cruel Old Man.   The Mother, Rachel Argyle.  Outwardly she appears to be a loving mother who adopted five children over the course of her life.  Inwardly, she was a terrible mother, and ruled her children's lives with an iron fist.  Many of them grew up to be less than satisfactory and deeply unhappy because of her cruelty.

18.  The Dubious Man from India - The Overseas Connection.  Dr. Calgary (named after a city in Canada).  He was Jocko's alibi but the next day sailed for the arctic on a two year expedition.  He only arrived recently with the news about Jocko

3.  The Batty Eccentric.  

4.  The Doctor.  

6.  The Vicar.  

15.  The Maid.  

16.  The Daughter.  

19.  The Politician.  

20.   The Industrialist.

21.  The Social Outcast.

22.  The Shopkeeper.  

A. The Time Gap.  Two years ago, the fateful argument and the mothers murder took place.  Ever since that event, the family has been living in unease and suspicion.  At that time, Jacko's alibi, the scientist, had left for a two-year expedition to the arctic, symbolically putting a freeze on all the happenings of the household.  When he returned, his actions set all the misery to begin to thaw and all the emotions were still raw and undimmed by time.

B.  The Ominous Event.  Rachel Argyle, the mother of the house of adoptees was murdered.  After a short investigation and speedy trial, Jocko was executed for the murder.  

C. The Obscure Relationship. Although legally brother and sister, Mickey and Tina Argyle were carrying on a relationship in secret in a room they had taken in town.  Because both were adopted from different families, there was technically nothing immoral about their affair.

D. The Convoluted Will.  There is no mention of a will, but the mother Rachel left all her money in a Trust, to be administered by Bobby Argyle.  All the family funds were tied up in this trust, and Bobby's unwillingness to disburse it led to considerable consternation among parts of the family.  It also perpetuated the situation where the family was locked together, unable to move on and live separate lives.

E.  The House.  In a classic Christie confined space, the house named Sunny Point is located on an island.  The only access is by small rowboats that the family are accustomed to plying across the water.  However, during the thunderstorms common to the area the crossing can be difficult. 

 

Agatha Christie: At Bertram's Hotel (Geraldine McEwan)

 Summary

 Miss Marple comes to stay at a prestigious London hotel, Bertram's.  Also at the hotel are the highly recognizable Lady Bess Sedgewick and her daughter Elvira Blake.  Bess has been adventuring all over the world since the end of the war (WWII) and was rumored to have played a prominent part in the intelligence service during the conflict.  Her daughter has been kept at a finishing school, ostensibly to stay safely out of the way, but it has caused Elvira to feel neglected and abandoned by her mother.  It's clear that Elvira and Bess are not on the best of terms. The two are in London to hear the reading of the will for Sir Richard Blake, Elvira's father, who has been presumed dead for the past seven years and now can be legally declared deceased for the purposes of executing the will.

Also at the hotel is Selina Hazy, Miss Marple's old friend and a distant relation of Sir Richard, from whom she hopes to receive a small bequest.  Selina has a very expensive necklace from her mother, which she  keeps in the safe in her room.  As she tells Marple, it is the last thing of value that she owns.

That evening one of the hotel maids, Tilly, was strangled on the roof.  Another maid, and Tilly's friend, Jane Cooper suspects that the murder investigation isn't being handled with the proper diligence by Inspector Larry Bird.  She enlists Miss Marple's help, and the two notice that the hat found with Tilly's body doesn't seem to match the rest of her attire.  Jane is certain that the hat is not Tilly's.

Also staying at the hotel are an assortment of characters:  Canon Pennyfather the curate, Mr. Mutti the hat designer, and Mr. Malinowski, the latter two both mysterious Germans.  

As the will-reading approaches, Bess Sedgewick snags the lawyer, Mr. Curtain, who has been given control of Sir Blake's estate while he has been missing over the past seven years.  Bess has become aware of some irregular proceedings with the accounts and demands to see them.  Curtain seems visibly nervous at the prospect. 

Jane and Miss Marple peruse Tilly's diary and on the night of her murder she wrote, "123 money received."   Marple gives Tilly an assignment to snoop around the hotel in her guise as maid.  She starts with Mickey and we find that he's an artist who's work prominently figures a woman in a red cloak.  He has set up his easel is in a utility room where he can hear conversations through the duct work.  He overhears people speaking in German and snippets about travel papers and South America.  Mickey tells Inspector Bird and wonders if there are Nazis present.  

The next evening, the event occurs.  While all the guests are in the dining room for dinner, someone floods the bath of the room above, shorting out the lights below and driving everyone into the lobby where they have a clear view of the street outside.  They observe while Bess Sedgewick approaches the front door of the hotel, only to be driven back by a gunshot.  Momentarily startled, Bess pauses in the street and the doorman Mickey comes to her rescue.  No sooner does he reach her than he is shot in the back by the unseen gunman, and he collapses to the pavement.  The woman in the street draws her own gun and returns fire to the figure in the window, but it is revealed that this woman is not Bess but her daughter Elvira.

Inspector Bird races to the room where the shot supposedly came from but he finds it bolted from the inside and when broken open the room is empty.  

Returning to her room after the kerfuffle has died down, Selina Hazy discovers that the necklace she left in the safe has disappeared.

What Really Happened

There are four mysteries that Miss Marple resolves, over the course of this story.  

The most straightforward is that of the missing necklace.  The answer is that the twins are expert jewel thieves and safe-crackers.  While one of the twins pretended to be both brothers, giving them both an alibi, the other brother was up in Selina's room, picking the lock on the door and cracking the safe.

Second, the artwork on the walls of the Bertram's Hotel as well as Mr. Curtains office were ostensibly copies and reproductions of great works of art.  In reality, these were the original paintings.  Mr Humphries, the hotel manager, and Mr Curtain were running a scheme whereby former Nazis fleeing the post-war trials for war-crimes would use Blake Air to travel from Germany into London to stay at Bertrams.  From there, fake travel documents would be created to allow them to travel onward to South America.  

As payment for this clandestine service, the German officials would bring with them priceless works of art, appropriated from German museums and the family estates around Berlin.  These would be put on display at the hotel and wealthy prospective buyers would come and stay to pick out their selection and arrange payment to Mr Curtain.  

One such wealthy buyer was revealed to be Amelia Walker, who was discovered with a painting hidden in her piano.  Canon Pennyfather was not English at all, but was one of the escaping Nazis who supplied a painting as payment for services.  Ladislaus Malinowski, who pretended to be a former Nazi, was in fact Jewish and an escapee from the concentration camps.  He was now employed to hunt down fleeing war criminals, and with Mr. Mutti, was on the trail of Pennyfather.  They succeeded in exposing the false Canon.

Mr. Curtain, the lawyer for Richard Blake's estate, was not only an art thief but also an embezzler.  Blake had entrusted to him his vast fortune to be held in trust for his wife and daughter.  However, Curtain had taken the money to use for himself, hoping that no one would ever go over the books and be able to recognize his misdeeds.  Fortunately, Bess caught him as he was attempting to burn critical documents, and his shady bookkeeping was discovered. 

Bess Sedgewick, the former wife of Sir Richard Blake, was once previously married to the head doorman, Mickey Gorman.   Bess was married when she was sixteen and ran off to northern Ireland to live a wild life with him.  It was Bess who was the red-cloaked figure in Mickey's paintings.  Eventually, she was forced by her wealthy family to leave her impoverished husband and move on to more suitable matches.   

Her secret was that when they separated she did not formally seek a divorce or annulment, thinking that her wild escapade in Ireland could be forgotten.  As a result however, her many subsequent marriages were, in reality, not valid.  Her inheritance in the will was dependent on her being the wife of Richard Blake, and if that was called into question, she could not legally inherit anything.  Consequently, she could pass nothing on to her daughter.

Elvira Blake was aware of the story of her mother's adventure with Mickey Gorman.  She suspected that Mickey was actually her father, and not Richard Blake.  If that were true, as with her mother, Elvira would inherit nothing based on the terms of the will.  She thought that Mickey was in the hotel to blackmail her mother over this information, and she could not risk that it might be made public.  This was the motivation that drove Elvira to kill Mickey Gorman by luring him out into the street with the help of her friend Bridget.

It was actually Elvira who killed Tilly on the roof of the hotel.  Tilly had befriended Mickey Gorman and during their chats while Gorman was painting, he revealed that he was married to Bess Sedgewick.  Tilly used that information to blackmail Elvira, which was why she was able to afford expensive jewelry.  As the reading of the will approached, Elvira again felt that she could not risk the information becoming public.

 

Joan Hickson Version 

The Joan Hickson version had a smaller cast and fewer plot points.  The plotline of the twins who were jewel thieves was entirely omitted, as was Mr. Mutti and Amelia Walker, the jazz singer.  Bess Sedgewick was a less sympathetic character, while her daughter was possibly more likeable, and the lawyer was not a corrupt embezzler.  The hotel is again at the heart of a criminal syndicate, but this time it isn't a ring of art thieves, but a more general gang of criminals who rob trains and transport the money out of the country, with Bess Sedgewick as the mastermind at its head.

This version introduced an awkward uncle for Elvira.  All the plot lines were less vivid, and more inclined to fade into the background.  Miss Marple, took a slightly more direct hand in the uncovering of the mystery 

Cast of Characters

1.  The Energetic Young Woman.  Miss Jane Cooper, a maid at the Bertram's Hotel and friend to the victim.  She worked closely with Miss Marple to unravel the mystery.

2.  The Efficient Professional. Bess Sedgewick  Wife of Lord Richard Blake and mother of Elvira Blake.  Hero during the war.  Adventurer and doer of daring exploits.  It is she who has always managed Elvira's life, leading to feelings of both restriction and neglect.

3.  The Batty Eccentric.  Selina Hazy, a upper class but penurious friend of Miss Marple 

 3.5  The Cloud-headed Girl.   Bridget Milford , Elvira's friend, afflicted by polio at a young age so that she has lost the use of her right arm and hand.  Wracked with guilt over her friend, Elvira is very attentive, but overshadows Bridget in all social interactions. 

5.  The Lawyer.  Mr. Curtain, the crooked manager of Lord Blake's funds

6.  The Vicar.  Canon Pennyfather.  He turned out to be a false cleric who was actually a Nazi escapee in disguise.

7.  The Specialist.    Ladislaus Malinowski, race car driver, a Nazi hunter who tracks down war criminals. He is pivotal in uncovering the role of Bertram's Hotel in smuggling Germans to Argentina.

8.  The Policeman.   Inspector Bird, an intelligent young man who was hardened by his experiences during the war

9.  The Temptrix.  In her past, Lady Bess Sedgewick had been married multiple times.  The first was at sixteen when she ran away with Mickey Gorman her family's Irish groom.  Later, the story mentions Lord Coniston, then John Sedgwick and finally Lord Richard Blake.  The latter marriages were not valid in the eyes of the law, since she was never formally divorced from Gorman, but she was convinced that this early marriage wasn't legally binding. Amelia Walker, the jazz singer, says that Bess took her husband "and she didn't give him back."

10.  The Rake.   To a greater or lesser extent Ladislaus Malinowski is presented as a cassanova who has successfully seduced both Bess Sedgewick and her daughter, Elvira.  In the McEwan version, this role is greatly subdued and Ladislaus agrees to stop pursuing Elvira at Bess's request out of respect for their work together.  In the Joan Hickson version, he defies Bess's protest.

11. The Rival.  Mickey Gorman, the head doorman, Husband of Lady Bess Sedgewick when she was very young but he was ultimately abandoned and Bess later married the immensely wealthy Richard Blake.  Mickey appeared in London years later hoping to possibly rekindle a relationship with Bess, but he felt he had to wait until his rival, Blake, was legally declared dead.

12. The Mirror.   Mother Bess Sedgewick and Daughter Elvira Blake are mirrors of each other.  While Bess was a patriot during the war, her neglect of her daughter made Elvira bitter, though no less decisive in her actions.

Jane Cooper is presented as a Mirror of Jane Marple, someone who "notices things" and is very effective in sorting out the details of the mystery.  The two work together, with Miss Cooper intrepidly investigating on her own. At least initially, the two have similar relationships with Inspector Bird, who first dismisses them but then learns to rely on their insights. 

13.  The Loving/Lonely Wife.  While married to Mickey Gorman, Bess was happy to remain the dutiful wife in the remote Irish village of Ballygowan.  When her family found a way to break up the marriage, she left Mickey but turned to a rebellious life.

14.  The Housekeeper The hotel manager  Mr Humphries

15.  The Maid. Jane Cooper, Tilly Rice, the hotel maids.

16.  The Daughter.  Elvira remembers a time when her father Richard Blake would bring her to live in the Bertram Hotel as a young girl. "Just like when I was little, and Daddy took me for a stroll." There, she learned all its secret passages and back stairs.

18.   The Industrialist.  Sir Richard Blake.  Owner of Bertram's Hotel.  Now deceased.

20.  The Dubious Man from India - The Overseas Connection.  Mr Woody Mutti.  In this case, the overseas connection is with Germany and Mr. Mutti is posing as a hat maker.  His family's art was stolen during the war and he assists Malinowski in tracking down the thieves.

21.  The Social Outcast.  Amelia Walker is a celebrated Jazz singer from America and she is also African-American.  Her undoubted talent falls short of respectability for the traditional Bertram's Hotel, as the hotel manager bluntly tells her.  Amelia is the buyer of the stolen art.

The Twins.  Jack and Joel Britten, Jewel Thieves

A. The Time Gap.  Both Elvira and Miss Marple remember visiting Bertram's Hotel when they were young girls.  Also, see the ominous event below.

B.  The Ominous Event.  Bess ran off with Mickey and married him in Ireland, altering her life forever.  Her failure to obtain a divorce precipitated the disastrous events of the story.

C. The Obscure Relationship. The Lady Bess Sedgewick is still married to the doorman Mickey Gorman.

D. The Convoluted Will.  While the will seems straightforward it does stipulate that the proceeds go to Blake's wife and daughter.  It is the suspicion that their relationships might not be valid that motivates the murders.

E.  The House. The eponymous Bertram's Hotel.  

 Not Used:

4.  The Doctor.   

17.  The Cantankerous Old Woman/ Cruel Old Man.    

19.  The Politician.   

22.  The Shopkeeper.   

 

Questions.

At the beginning of the story, we see Bess receive a threatening letter with the word "DIE" on it.  The envelope is pushed under her hotel room door, and she looks down the hallway in surprise as if to see who delivered it.  However, at the reveal, we learn that Bess is writing these letters to herself, to throw any suspicion off of herself.  

Tilly wrote in her diary, "123 money received."  Initially, we surmised that this referred to the room number of the person who was being blackmailed.  That turned out not to be the case, and no further explanation was offered.

Bringing Christie's work to the Screen

 A good deal of consternation is expressed by the way that Agatha Christie's novels are brought to the small and silver screens.    For some, only a faithful and exact replication is acceptable, while for others even the shadow of the published novel is sufficient.

Here, we make distinctions between three forms:

The Dramatization.  This is a completely faithful rendering of the characters, events, settings, and themes present in the book.  For some, this is the only worthy exercise and all others are mere shadows.  

The challenge here is that in order to meet the constraints of a 90 minute film, not everything can be included that was present in a 300 page novel.  Certain compromises are always required, including dropping certain characters, or at least the backstory of those characters.  Often, entire scenes must be left out for the sake of time.  At heart, however, the fundamental story is present and left unchanged.

The Adaptation.  This gives the screenwriter far more opportunities to alter the basic components of the story.  While the outline of the story may remain intact, the film can entirely change characters, and merge several into one.  It may modify names, motivations, and may even go so far as to change the identity of the murderer.

This approach offers a distinct advantage:  adaptations are often better told than a faithful dramatization of the same story.  The dramatization may become bogged down in including every detail, while the adaptation maintains a brisk pace.  At the same time, the adaptation may add complexity to the narrative, providing a more direct connection between the murderer and victim, or between the murderer and the past.

An adaptation can bring with it the possibility of a surprise for the viewer, who may already be familiar with the book.  It can highlight elements or connections that transforms the nature of the characters and their interactions.  For example, what if two functionally similar characters were actually the same character?  What if the two rivals knew each other from before during their time in the army?  What if this young man and that older woman were actually mother and son? Once the writer establishes that connection, all other relationships can also be re-examined.

The argument is that rather than improving upon Christie's story, this version offers a different interpretation.  Again, it is not aimed at improving the original, but rather at presenting a slightly different twist, a different version, of the story on the screen.  The work is not replacing the original, but adding to the existing library. 

The Homage.  Some stories diverge so significantly from their nominal source material that they are functionally entirely new works.  While they may share similar characters or even use the same names, their motivations, themes, and plot may be completely original, even extending to the title itself.

For example, the setting might shift dramatically from a lonely house on the moor to a high-rise apartment on the 30th floor with a broken elevator.  Such transformations are familiar to any theatergoer watching a modern adaptation of Shakespeare.  

When comparing an original Agatha Christie novel to a modern film adaptation, one might find only the faintest similarities, yet the new work should still adhere to Christie's conventions and assumptions.  When this happens in the context of Sherlock Holmes stories, it is referred to as a pastiche.  The benefit of this approach is that it allows the possibility for new Agatha Christie-inspired stories to enter the library, if not the canon, of golden age mysteries.  Being guided by the master storyteller that Christie was can bring a satisfying structure to works that might otherwise be unremarkable.

Agatha Christie: The Sittaford Mystery (Geraldine McEwan) 2006

Summary

The story opens on two archaeologists working in an Egyptian tomb, using dangerous explosives to blow open a vault of treasures.  One of these is revealed to be naval captain Clive Trevelyan.  Twenty five years later, we jump to Trevelyan closeted with the Prime Minister, being chosen as his successor.  This man of action is at the height of his political popularity and influence.

He is accompanied in London, however, by his nephew James Pearson, who is a notorious libertine and drunkard.  James has received a letter stating that Clive will disinherit him unless he changes his way, but Trevelyan denies writing the letter.  James is soon to wed society darling Emily Trefusis .

Traveling by train to his country estate, Sittaford House, Trevelyan is met by Miss Marple and they continue on to the village of Exhampton where both Clive and Miss Marple's nephew live. The area is blanketed by a tremendous snow storm, giving the entire story a closed-in feel.  Jane is asked to stay at Clive's estate because of the snow. 

Back in London, Jim Pearson is meeting his his fiance Emily, but he's had too much to drink and collapses from excess.  Emily takes him home, aided by a helpful young man named Charles Burnaby.  The next morning, Charles visits to find that James has left to find his Uncle in Exhampton and Emily wishes to follow.  He volunteers to drive her down, claiming that he is a friend whom she doesn't remember. 

Trevelyan appears to be putting his affairs in order, including dictating memoirs that bring to his mind a ghostly young woman whom he protests will not "let me rest!"  We meet John Enderby, Clive's personal assistant and political manager who manages the estate at Exhampton with the aid of a traditionally-attired Egyptian, Ahmed Ghali. 

The next night, however, Capt Trevelyan books a room at the local hotel, The Three Crowns, under the name Frank Arewell, and drives off.  James Pearson, the ne'er-do-well adoptee, arrives at the estate looking for Clive, and follows him to the inn.  Also at the inn are Mrs Willet and her daughter Violet, along with an American businessman and his personal physician.  Mrs Percehouse and Mr Garfield make up the rest of the residents for the evening.

After dinner, they decide upon a mock seance using an Oujia board, and Trevelyan is predicted to die. Up at the house, they receive a similar warning in that the candy sent for Clive was eaten by the hawk who died as a result.  Enderby decides he must travel to the Inn, through the snow, to warn Trevelyan.  Charles follows after, but the two arrive at the inn to find that Trevelyan has already been murdered, stabbed through the heart.   

Enderby decides to take charge of the investigation until the police arrive, and after a brief scuffle imprisons James Pearson in the larder.  After several rounds of investigation, a few key elements are revealed:

• Violet Willett produces a marriage certificate showing that she was secretly married to Trevelyan just a few days before.  She is now the widow and sole heir of the Trevelyan's fortune.   
• Two tickets were found in Mr Trevelyan's room, bound for Argentina. 

• Mr. Zimmerman had gotten into a dubious business deal with Trevelyan over manufacturing faulty munitions during the war, a fault which Zimmerman blames solely on Treveylan, who was apparently attempting to dodge blame.  However, Zimmerman was listening to a football game on the radio during the evening, aided by his physician on the roof holding an antenna.  
• The physician is found dead the next morning, lying next to James in the larder. 
• The cook escaped in the night with Mrs Willett,  

 

What Really Happened

Clive Trevelyan drove to the Three Crowns with the intention of meeting his new wife, Violet (nee Willett) Trevelyan.  His plan was to leave with her on their honeymoon using the tickets to Buenos Aires, possibly never to return.  

The rumors of Trevelyan's stained past are all true.  Miss Percehouse was the wife of the archaeologist that Clive double-crossed and murdered in Egypt, and she had connected with Ahmed Ghali to exact vengeance on Trevelyan.  Their plan was to poison the candy that was Trevelyan's favorite, but it was accidentally intercepted by the hawk and so everyone was warned.  

It was also true that Trevelyan was responsible for the manufacturing defects that caused the death of servicemen during the war.  It is partly because this story is about to come out in the next few days that Trevelyan is set to flee the country, leaving Zimmerman to face all the consequences alone.  The psuedonym he registered under is abbreviated as F. Arewell, Clive's little joke bidding everyone "Farewell."

While in Egypt in his younger days, Trevelyan fell in love with a young nurse named Violet.  He promised to marry her, but when she became pregnant he abandoned both Violet and her baby.  Her family was disgraced and disowned her and she died a few years later in an Egyptian slum, having given birth to a boy named Charles. This is the ghostly women that will not let him rest.

The boy survived and grew to be a young man, living on the streets and eventually making his way to England with the express purpose of taking revenge on his father, a man he never knew but who was responsible for ruining his mother.  That boy was Charles Burnaby.

Charles found a way to get close to Trevelyan, blackmailing Emily Trefusis with the threat of publishing news that would be damaging to her family.  While up at the house, when John Enderby set out through the snow for the two hour trek to warn Trevelyan about the attempt on his life, Charles left as well.  Instead of walking, however, Charles used skis to quickly cover the ground in half an hour.  He went to Trevelyan's room and murdered him.  Then he went back outside to find Enderby and pretend to catch up with him, as if he had been walking the whole time. This established his alibi for the time Trevelyan was murdered, since he was supposed to be walking through the snow after Enderby.

During the night when the doctor was on the roof with the radio antenna, Dr. Burt saw Charles arriving on skis.  He attempted to blackmail Charles with this information but was instead killed himself.

Also present that evening was the suspicious cook, who was not actually a cook.  Instead, he was the prisoner who had escaped from Dartmoor prison.  The innkeeper, Stanley Kirkwood was a distant cousin and had taken him in to shield him from the police.  Mrs Willett was also in on this scheme, having visited Harold Wells/Archie Stone on her many bird watching trips onto the moor and fell in love with his helpless plight.  The two made arrangements for his escape, leaving clothes and supplies in a "missing" knapsack.  They attempted to flee in the night, being completely innocent of the murder of Trevelyan.

 

Cast of Characters:

1.  The Energetic Young Woman.  Emily Trefusis.  She is the driving force behind the investigation to find Trevelyan's killer. It is her journey to Exhampton, following he fiance, that sets in motion the murder.

2.  The Efficient Professional.  John Enderby is introduced as Trevelyan's political agent, a high level personal assistant who is used to dealing with the Prime Minister as well as the neighbor.

3.  The Batty Eccentric.   Elizabeth Percehouse.  The wife of the archaeologist whom Trevelyan murdered to claim his credit and his proceeds from the discovery in Egypt.

 3.5  The Cloud-headed Girl.   Violet Willett.  Suppressed and crushed by her critical and domineering mother, she appears to fade into the scenery with her "beigeness".  

4.  The Doctor.  Dr. Ambrose Burt, struck off the medical register for professional misconduct.  He is reduced to being the private physician of the American industrialist, who abuses him with menial tasks.

7.  The Specialist.   Donald Garfield, Whitehall vetter of the potential Prime Minister Trevelyan.  He plays only a very minor part of the story.  

8.  The Policeman.  John Enderby, a corporal of Captain Trevelyan during the war, takes on the responsibility of becoming the official presence since no policeman is available.

9.  The Temptrix.  This is definitely subdued, but Emily Trefusis is presented as someone who enjoys dalliances with many men, some of which she takes too far.  For example, she was engaged to marry Marple's nephew Raymond West but broke it off, breaking his heart so that he fled to France according to Miss Marple.  She left Raymond in preference to James Pearson, social bad boy, but having known Charles for barely an evening is now ready to throw that off in favor of Charles.  In her defense, however, she remains loyal to James and tries to prove his innocence throughout the story, seemingly turning over a new leaf.

10.  The Rake.  James Pearson, a drunken wastrel engaged to the lovely Emily Trefusis.  He is the "nephew" and adopted heir of the wealthy Clive Trevelyan, but actually the orphaned son of the gardener and housemaid.  Given Clive's past, James is possibly treated, out of guilt, as the son that Trevelyan abandoned to the Cairo slums.

11. The Rival.  Charles Burnaby, the journalist who falls for Emily, even though she is already engaged to James.

12. The Mirror.   Clive Trevelyan and Charles Burnaby, the father and the son, become mirrors for each other.  Outwardly charming and successful, apparently morally upright and honest, but actually a snake underneath. Both very clever, according to Miss Marple.  Both accomplished liars.  Both capable of multiple murders.

From another angle, James Pearson and Charles Burnaby are also mirrors, but inverted.  Both orphans, but while James had every advantage, Charles had nothing.  James turned into a drunken lout and Charles, at least outwardly, seems to have matured into a responsible adult. 

Superficially, the two Violets, one from Trevelyan's past and one in the present. Two young women, innocent but with full potential, both with relatives on the scene.   Both were in love with him, and liaised with him all too briefly before being abandoned, one by Clive's hubris, and the other by Clive's murder.

13.  The Loving/Lonely Wife.  In the past, Violet was the hopeful fiancee to Clive Trevelyan, and bore him a son though he abandoned them both.

14.  The Housekeeper. Stanley Kirkwood is the proprietor of the local inn where everything happens.  In the book, he is a lawyer, checking a different box, but here he is assigning rooms, carrying bags, and serving dinner.

17.  The Cantankerous Old Woman/ Cruel Old Man.   Mrs. Evadne Willett.  Constantly berating her daughter, Violet.  (A willett is a species of sandpiper and Evadne is fond of birdwatching)

18.   The Industrialist.  Mr. Martin Zimmerman, the American businessman, involved with Trevelyan in war contracts.  Manufacturing of faulty munitions led to the death of service men during the war.

19.  The Politician.  Clive Trevelyan.  Next in line to become Prime Minister, preferred by Winston Churchill and at the apogee of his career as a public figure.

20.  The Dubious Man from India - The Overseas Connection.  Ahmed Ghali, an Egyptian working for the Trevelyan estate, and who has secretly vowed to kill Trevelyan.  In desecrating an ancient tomb, Trevelyan had taken a valuable artifact, the Scorpion, which Ghali believed should have been left undisturbed. Ghali, who is depicted as a man of honor, feels that Trevelyan's actions were sacrilegious and led to his own misfortune. Consequently, Ghali seeks retribution by murdering Trevelyan.

21.  The Social Outcast.   Harold Wells, Prisoner # 46329.  An inmate of Dartmoor prison has been reported loose on the moor, having escaped from his cell.  It is revealed that he is secretly the husband/boyfirend of Evadne Willett. He gains momentary refuge with his cousin, Mr. Kirkwood, who keeps him on at the inn as the cook under the alias of Archie Stone. 

 

Unused: 

5.  The Lawyer.  

6.  The Vicar. 

15.  The Maid.  If John Enderby is Clive's personal assistant, then Ahmed Ghali fills the function of the maid; taking care of Miss Marple at the big house, lighting fires, preparing rooms, giving Jane access to Trevelyan's memoirs. One of Christie's brushes with "the Butler did it."

16.  The Daughter.  

22.  The Shopkeeper.  

A. The Time Gap.  Twenty years ago, Mr Trevelyan was in Egypt, working on an archaeological dig.  There, he fathered a son which he later abandoned along with the child's mother.  He also murdered his digging partner to take all the credit for the finds.  Eventually, both those evil acts came back to haunt him, ultimately leading to his death.

B.  The Ominous Event.  The events in Egypt appear to haunt Trevelyan and not leave him a moment's peace.  It is as though a curse hangs over him, represented by the Egyptian scorpion.  Throughout the story, references are made to Clive's memories, and they seem to trouble him more and more.  Because of those actions, he realizes that he can never be prime minister, a position for which he is favored.  Instead, he chooses to run away to Argentina and leave behind his position, his friends, and his accolades.

C. The Obscure Relationship.  Our charming journalist and unreliable narrator is actually the son of Clive Trevelyan though he claims to have no connection to him.

D. The Convoluted Will.  Trevelyan's original will left everything to his wastrel adoptee, James Pearson.  He even claims that he didn't change it, when pressed by James.  But in reality, he had changed it and left his entire estate to his new bride, Violet.

E.  The House.  Sittaford House, for which the book is named.  Though actually most of the action seems to take place in the inn at Exhampton, The Three Crowns Hotel, and not at the House.

 

Agatha Christie: The Moving Finger (Geraldine McEwan)

Brother and sister Jerry and Joanna Burton seek a refuge to recuperate after a motorcycle accident that left him with two broken legs.  In this interpretation, the accident was self inflicted due to his post war psychological trauma.  This brings them to the peaceful village of Lymstock, but a village that is embroiled in a series of "poison pen" letters that has everybody on edge.  The story opens with the Colonel Appleton  committing suicide after having received such a letter and it is the talk of the town when the pair are invited around for tea and introductions.

(Joan Hickson's version has Jerry as a test pilot whose experimental plane crash landed.  It doesn't include the incident with Colonel Appleton.) 

With the initial introductions over, Mrs Symmington is next discovered murdered  A note, "I can't go on", is found on torn note paper beside her hand, and a poisoned pen letter in the fire grate.  Joanna and Jerry ask Meghan to come stay with them to take away the shock of her mother's death and while staying there a more serious relationship began to develop with Jerry.

Inspector Graves identifies the typewriter used to type the envelopes that the poisoned pen letters are sent in, one found in the Women's Institute and donated by Mr Symmington.   Meanwhile, Mrs Partridge and the maid Agnes have set up a chat for the afternoon, because something doesn't appear quite right to Agnes, but in the end Agnes doesn't show up. Meghan discovers the body of Agnes the next day, this time obviously murdered, no poison pen nonsense.  On the night when Mrs Symmington died, the two maids were supposed to be out, but Agnes came back early (due to a quarrel with her boyfriend).  Apparently, she knew something

By lying in wait, the Inspector observed Aimee Griffith type another envelope on the marked typewriter and arrests Aimee, but Marple doesn't believe she is the murderer.  Instead, she conspires with Megan to attempt to blackmail Megan's stepfather.  Falling for the bait, Mr Symmington drugs and attempts to murder Megan that evening but Marple springs the trap and he is detained by the police.

 

What Really Happened.

There were two authors of the poisoned pen letters, neither was working with the other.  The first was Aimee Griffith, the doctor's sister, who had done a similar thing in Wales where they lived previously.  It was she who wrote that letter to Colonel Appleton, prompting his suicide. That was a genuine event.

The other author, however, was Mr Symmington.  He was using the confusion of the poisoned pen kerfuffle as a cover for killing his own wife.  Taking the idea that the letters would lead to someone actually committing suicide, he wrote several of his own, spreading them about town. Then, he planted one on his wife, after killing her with real poison in her medicine.  

His hope was that the other letter writer would be blamed, as Aimee almost was. It became apparent that the Maid Agnes had actually been home when the letter to his wife was supposed to have been delivered, but she knew that no one had come by the house that day.  So how was this foul letter delivered to the Victim?  It could only have been planted by her master, Richard.   Mr Symmington knew that she would eventually reveal that detail, and so she had to be silenced, which he did with ruthless efficiency.

The motive for all this evil was that Mr. Symmington had fallen in love with his boy's governess, the young and beautiful Elsa Holland.  He simply wanted to be rid of his wife to be able to marry Elsa. 

 

Cast of Characters 

1.  The Energetic Young Woman.  Joanna Burton.  Taking her wayward and obviously troubled brother in hand, determined that he should make a full recovery.

2.  The Efficient Professional.  Aimee is Dr Griffith's sister and manages his medical practice, as well as looks with censure on the moral failings of the village residents.  She also runs the local Brownie troup.

3.  The Batty Eccentric.  While the Reverend Caleb Calthrop is the vicar, he also communicates almost entirely in Latin and is clearly pictured as so otherworldly that he's of no earthly good.  "A being more remote from every day life, I've yet to encounter." as Mr Pye puts it.

 3.5  The Cloud-headed Girl.   Megan Hunter, though an adult of 20 presents herself as if she were 12.  She is socially awkward, rides a bicycle as if she were a child, crashing into people and jumping on beds.  Her father was a criminal who was sent to jail and her mother re-married.

4.  The Doctor.  Doctor Owen Griffith is the local doctor taking care of Jerry's leg injuries, and also enamored with Joanna.

5.  The Lawyer.  Mr. Richard "Dickie" Symmington, the local solicitor.  

6.  The Vicar.  Caleb Calthrop is the actual vicar of the village.

8.  The Policeman.  Inspector Graves.  Soon to be fast friends with Miss Marple.

9.  The Temptrix.  The Symmington's nanny/ governess Miss Elsa Holland.  She, herself, is not overtly flirty, but she attracts the attention of several of the men in the story, including Jerry and, of course, Mr Symmington

10.  The Rake and 11. The Rival.  Both Jerry and Richard are enchanted by the youth and appearance of Elsa Holland, the unwitting Temptrix of the piece.  At the same time, both men house the unfortunate Megan Hunter under their roofs as well.  Ultimately, Jerry behaves honorably to both, and Richard behaves dishonorably to both.

12. The Mirror.  Unexpectedly, we find that Dr Griffith is living with his sister Aimee.  They form a very interesting parallel with Jerry and Joanna, also brother and sister.

13.  The Loving/Lonely Wife.  While Caleb is the batty cleric, his wife Maud Dane-Calthrop is presented as clear-headed and effective in mitigating her husband's eccentricities.  His ministry, and no doubt the parish, would come to absolute ruin without her to guide it.  As Mr. Pye says, "She's not your average vicar's wife. Everyone is ever so slightly afraid of her."

14.  The Housekeeper   Miss Partridge

15.  The Maid.  Agnes, the maid for the Symmingtons.

16.  The Daughter.  The classic Daughter is young, less than 12 years old and there is no appropriately aged character here.  However, Megan is a type of Daughter, having arrested her development at the age when her father was sent to prison, which was about 10 years ago.  If you think of her as an eight year old, many of her behaviors are much more consistent.

17.  The Cantankerous Old Woman/ Cruel Old Man.   Mrs Barton, whom the Burtons rented the cottage from when they came to Lymstock.  We spend the early part of the story with her fretting about having to rent her house out, and to quietly resenting Jerry and Joanna.

21.  The Social Outcast.  Mr Pye is a delightful character but obviously presented as outwardly gay, even flirting with Jerry when they stopped by for tea.  He says, "no more hole and corner for me", always living in the shadows, and how he wishes he could come out of them.  "They'll just think you're a little queer." he says of Joanna's stylish makup. "And what, I ask, is wrong with that?"

A. The Time Gap. Very little of a time gap occurs, in that the Colonel's suicide happened only a few days prior to the Burton's arrival in the village.

B.  The Ominous Event.  The event in this case is the suicide of Colonel Appleton.  True to form, this was a catalyzing event that everyone in the village was talking about, and it was something that provoked even more gossip and rumor.  Of course, it also created an atmosphere that fostered a double murder.

C. The Obscure Relationship.

D. The Convoluted Will. 

E.  The House.  Jerry and Joanna Burton come to the village to stay in a house named "The Furze".  It is an odd name for a house, since a furze is a bush covered entirely by thorns and so is very unpleasant.  Its homonym, 'The Firs" would be a more suitable and expected name for an estate.  I think this was an intentional joke on Christie's part.

 

Questions:

This mystery seems to be lacking in the intricacy and clever plotting for which Christie is so justly famous.  It appears that she has substituted the My Fair Lady romance between Jerry and Megan for her usual plot twists and 11th hour revelations.  

The reader is supposed to be captivated by the many villagers who could be the potential letter writer.  For example, Christie points to Mrs. Barton, who own the house where the book was found from which the letters were cut.  And yet, she completely lacks any motive at all for slandering her neighbors.  The awkward Megan and the gossipy Mrs Symmington are possible suspects as well, but they are eliminated almost immediately by the sympathetic romance and by being murdered.

Ms Griffith is credibly presented as a potential suspect.  For example, she could have poisoned the sedatives that she prepared for the murder victim, and she is given a motive, albeit a weak one, in that she supposedly loved Mr Symmington.  However, the motive is never developed, since we never see her and Mr Symmington together for any meaningful exchange of feelings.  And her interactions are muddled by those a of a similar character, Mrs Guch, Mr Symmington's secretary who seems equally devoted to him, and interacts with him every day.  

The other problem of plotting is that Mr Symmington, the murderer, is presented as having concocted the plot for a pre-meditated murder months in advance, typing addresses on letters and then donating the typewriter to the Women's Institute, but then when there is the slightest question about what Maid Agnes saw on her day off, he resorts to a brutal blow to the back of the head and stuffing her in a closet. When the first complication arises, he has no contingency plan in place. And it is this murder that convicts him more than the one he really needed.  We should have expected that the coldly calculating solicitor would have more presence of mind than that.  

Mr Symmington's motive is, perhaps, the least satisfying of any the possible suspects.  A young nanny has come to take care of his boys and he has no other thought than to murder his wife, the mother of his children, and then attempt some sort of romance with her.  What did he expect would have been the outcome of such a dalliance, since he had no indications of any sort of reciprocity from poor Elsa herself?  Again, the calculating solicitor becomes the foolish romantic and also maniacal lunatic with no other character development to justify it.   

Agatha Christie: Sleeping Murder (Geraldine McEwan)

The Setup

Gwenda Halliday, born in India to English parents but now an orphan, is traveling to England for the first time to set up a house for her wealthy fiance who has remained behind in India.  She is met at the dock by Hugh Hornbeam, an employee of her fiance's company, who accompanies her throughout the story.  Gwenda, guided by "instinct," travels to Dillmouth and buys a house there, Hillside, to begin renovations.  During the process she becomes convinced that she has been in the house before, despite never having traveled to England, and that she witnessed someone being murdered.  Hugh calls in Mrs Marple, and they begin to investigate.

In researching the prior owners of Hillside, Gwenda and Hugh discover that the house was once owned by Kelvin Halliday, Gwenda's father.  For her part, Marple was able to locate Mrs Pagett, the housekeeper at Hillside in 1934, who immediately recognizes "darling Gwynnie" from when she was a little girl.  From there, the details of her father's residence in Dillmouth begin to come out.  Kelvin was involved with a performing troupe called the Funnybones, and fell in love with one of the cast, Helen Marsden.  

The two made arrangements to be married, but when the day came, Helen was absent, apparently having run away to London and sent a postcard not to look for her.  Gwenda's father died shortly after, and she was sent back to India to be raised by an aunt, while the rest of the cast, along with Helen's brother, Dr Kennedy were left to get on with their lives.   However, Gwenda's resurfaced memory of the murder has called into question the official recounting of events.  Miss Marple and the team decide to investigate further.

The team advertised for the housemaid, Lily, who had been present along with Mrs Pagett at Hillside.  She answered the advertisement and was coming to town to tell all she could remember.  She missed the meeting, however, and it was soon discovered that she had been murdered walking along the pathway from the train station.  Clearly, the murderer from all those years ago was still present and active, desperate that nothing more from those events be revealed. 

What Really Happened

The bombshell revelation concerns Gwenda's mother, Claire, who was supposed to have died in a car crash in India, with her devastated father dying only a few years later.  However, we learn that the crash was staged, and her mother was not injured at all.  Instead, she faked her death and immigrated to England with the intention of meeting up with Kelvin Halliday, her husband.  While in England, she changed her name to Helen Marsden and joined the Funnybones cast.  Helen and Claire, Gwenda's mother, were the same person.   

With this level of planning and commitment underway, it is unthinkable that Claire would leave Halliday with nothing more than a postcard.  However, the police handwriting expert examined the card and a note thought to be written by Helen on the back of a photograph given to Dr James Kennedy, her brother.  The expert confirmed that the two writing samples were written by the same hand. 

Further, we learn that Claire/Helen was worried about someone finding out about her.  We all thought it was the strange Indian man seen in town but in reality she was worried about her brother, Dr Kennedy, from whose inappropriate and jealous attentions she had fled years earlier, seeking refuge in India.  Now that she was back in England, Kennedy had tracked her down and was outraged to find that she was soon to be married and pass permanently beyond his control.

It was Dr. Kennedy who strangled Helen at Hillside, while little Gwynnie watched through the banister railing.  Later, he pushed Kelvin Halliday off the cliff to his death. Lily was supposed to be out of the house, it being the maid's day off, but she returned early and observed James around the house that evening.  While she didn't see the actual murder, she would have remembered Kennedy being present and therefore needed to be silenced.

What then of the postcard, confirmed by the police expert to be written by Helen?  In actuality, both the postcard, and the reference sample on the photograph were written by James Kennedy, deliberately to mislead.

 

The Cast of Characters

1.  The Doctor.  Doctor Kennedy, the brother of Helen Marsden and the murderer.

2.  The Energetic Young Woman. Gwenda Halliday, our protagonist.  Undaunted in the face of coming to England for the first time, after having lived all her life in India.  Facing the task of traveling, buying a house and setting it up, and then solving the murder of her own parents.

Interestingly, the same role is played by Gwenda's mother, Claire Halliday, who took much the same trip as her daughter, preceding her husband to England from India. 

3.  The Batty Eccentric.  Many of the Funnybones cast are presented as picturesque, but in particular Evie Ballentyne, with her tap-dancing xylophone performance and drug habit is an example.

6.  The Housekeeper.  Mrs Pagett is the obvious choice, not only housekeeper and cook for Kelvin Hallady in the earlier time, but also for Gwenda, 18 years later

6.5.   The Maid.  Lily, the house maid who saw more than she should, even though she didn't know it, and was murdered for her troubles.

7.   The Industrialist.   Gwenda's prospective husband is only tangentially referenced, but he is the classic money bags that is funding her trip to England, paying for the house she buys and arranging for her assistant

8.  The Legal Mind.  The local solicitor, Dickie Fane, steps in to provide the history of the house, Hillside.

10.  The Rake.  Kelvin Halliday sweeps into Dillmouth and commands the presence of the public beauty, Helen Marsden.  In this case, it is carefully subverted because Halliday is already married to Helen.

In the same vein, the members of the performing cast are described as a complicated web of overlapping relationships, with dubious parentage.  Dickie Fane was having a relationship with Janet Erskine and fathered a son, despite her being married to Richard Erskine. 

11. The Rival.  The aforementioned Richard Erskine

12.  The Daughter. Gwynnie.  Gwenda when she was a little girl and whom Mrs Pagett remembered.  The early part of the story is full of Gwenda's memories of the house when she was young.  It was Gwynnie who lived in the nursery, saw the cornflower wallpaper, went through the boarded up door, and observed the murder through the banister railing and not over it.

15.  The Dubious Man from India - The Overseas Connection.   The man from India is seen in town the night Helen Marsden is murdered.  True to form, Claire is running from an unfortunate past.  He has come to track her down as a potential thief of certain jewels that Helen had stolen.

20. The Shopkeeper.  Miss Marple begins her investigation in the crafting shop where she buys wool for knitting and inquires about the "girls in service" at the old Hillside manor.  This shopkeeper remembered that time and Mrs Pagett, who was the former housekeeper.  As usual, the shopkeeper is an invaluable source of information about the people of the town.

21. The Mirror  Helen Marsden and Claire Halliday are mirrors of each other, until it is revealed that they are the same person.  Similarly, Gwenda Halliday and Claire Halliday are mirrors of each other having similarly adventurous lives, orphaned and independent pasts, pioneer trips to England from India, preceding their husbands

22.  The Policeman.   Miss Marple finds the protection of Chief Inspector Arthur Primer who is in charge of the actual investigation.

Tropes

A. The Time Gap.  A classic time gap of 18 years divided between when Gwenda was a little girl, and now a mature young woman

B.  The Ominous Event.  The time when Helen was murdered, Kelvin Halliday was murdered, and Gwynnie sent away.  The Funnybones also had its last performance and was broken up, with each going their separate ways.

 C. The Obscure Relationship. The obscure relationship is discovered when Helen and Claire are revealed to be the same person.  Therefore, Gwenda is not only the daughter of Claire, but also the daughter of Helen. What's interesting here is that all the stories that Gwenda learned about Helen Marsden were as someone who was simply another woman that her father admired, an uninterested third party.  With the new revelation, Gwenda realizes that all those stories were about her own mother.  Here was an entirely new group of people who knew her mother much better than she did.

E.  The House.  In this case, Hillside plays a key role in bringing the murder out into the light, prompting Helen's memories with its renovation.

 Commentary

This is one of the classic Christie mysteries, with nearly all the components present.  This includes the vital Time Gap and the India Connection.

The story is really told in two modes.  The first includes Gwenda and uncovering her past using clues provided by the house and starting us on the long investigation.  The second is when we spend a lot of time on the Funnybones and the weird eccentricities and romantic connections among the cast; what they all did that night, how absurd they were in their performances, their ambitions and enthusiasms.  

Of the two, I found the shift of focus to the Funnybones to be by far the least interesting.  I didn't care at all about their lives and their struggles.  And in the end, their comings and goings didn't materially contribute to the unfolding of the plot in any way.  It was all an elaborate red herring.  The only thing that really mattered was Helen and Kelvin Halliday and the brother James.  Everything else was set dressing.