Agatha Christie: Murder in the Making: More Stories and Secrets From Her Notebooks (20 page)

Notebook 35 has more about Carl and the foreign woman as well as the first mention of the death of the child’s mother, although nothing more about the subterfuge around that aspect of the plot. And it is in this Notebook that Christie gives her solution; unlike other books she does not seem to have considered any other names for the two killer spies.

Possible plots

T and T established – Carl immediate object of suspicion – unhappy – nervy – he and Margaret Parotta – Mrs P – sinister. Tommy and Col Lessing – play golf together – Col tells him something suspicious about someone (Mrs P?) also very much against German boy.

Tup meets foreign looking woman hanging round

Tup has letters – from her ‘sons’ – leaves them in drawers – they have been tampered with.

Child kidnapped – found alive – woman dead – documents planted on her

Information thus sent is true to inspire confidence – Col. L
[Haydock]
and Mrs Milly
Turnbull
Saunders
[Sprott]
are N and M

Notebook 62 lists a few more scenes. Scene B appears in the book despite its deletion in the notes:

A. Tommy – supper Haydock – discovery – hit on head – imprisoned [9 ii]

B.
Deb and young man – about mothers Leamouth
[10 iv]

C. Tup finds Tommy disappeared. Mrs B says never came back last night. Rung up a day later – young man says all right – not to worry. Penny plain and Tuppence coloured – Deborah – Derek
[10 iii and 11 iii]

And this short final extract from the same Notebook encapsulates quite an amount of plot, although in such cryptic style that it would be impossible to make sense of it – especially the final phrase – as it stands:

The kidnapping of Betty – Mrs Sprott shoots Polish woman – with revolver taken from Mrs Keefe’s drawer – arrest of Karl – incriminating papers – initials ink on bootlaces

An accusation often levelled against Christie’s writing is that it never mirrors reality and is set in ‘Christie-time’. This adventure of the Beresfords is very much rooted in reality and features the war as part of the plot more than any other title. It is also sobering to remember that when she wrote this book the war still had five years to run.
N or M?
has a lot of clever touches and the interplay between Tommy and Tuppence remains as entertaining as it was on their two previous appearances. Sadly, it was the last we were to read of Tommy and Tuppence until
By the Pricking of my Thumbs
, over 25 years later.

The Body in the Library

11 May 1942

When the body of a glamorous blonde is found on Mrs Bantry’s library rug in Gossington Hall, she decides to call in the local expert in murder – Miss Marple. Together they go to the Majestic Hotel where Ruby Keene was last seen alive. And then a second body is found . . .

As explained above, the writing of
The Body in the Library
was done in parallel with that of
N or M?
. Thus the two very dissimilar novels, one a classical whodunit, the other a wartime thriller, would remain fresh. If indeed they were both written together, it was during 1940, as
N or M?
, the first to see print, appeared as a serial in the USA in March 1941.
The Body in the Library
was serialised in the USA in May/June 1941 and published as a novel there in February 1942. It is probable that
N or M?
was completed before
The Body in the Library
as the timescale for Basil Blake’s injuries (mentioned in Chapter 16 ii) in the Blitz, which began in September 1940, would seem to place the completion of the Marple title well into 1941.

There are references to Miss Marple’s previous successes. In Chapter 1 iv she mentions that her ‘little successes have been mostly theoretical’, an allusion to
The Thirteen Problems
, the last time she had featured in a Christie title. A few pages later Inspector Slack ruefully recalls his earlier encounter with the elderly sleuth in
The Murder at the Vicarage
; and Mrs Bantry reminds Miss Marple (as if she needed it) that the earlier murder had occurred next door to her. Sir Henry Clithering recalls her perspicuity in ‘Death by Drowning’, the last of
The Thirteen Problems
, in Chapter 8.

Unusually for Christie, the social reaction to the discovery of a body in Colonel Bantry’s library is remarked upon. Playful at first, with exaggerated reports circulating in St Mary Mead in Chapter 4, more serious discussion ensues in Chapter 8 ii when Miss Marple considers the potential long-term effect of social ostracism. Some years earlier in
Death in the Clouds
Poirot had questioned Jane Grey and Norman Gale about the practical effects on their lives, and businesses, of involvement in a murder, but he was considering motive and not social reaction.

The main plot device of this novel – the interchangeability of bodies – is very similar to that of the previous year’s
Evil under the Sun
. In that novel, in order to establish an alibi a live body masquerades as a dead one; in
The Body in the Library
one dead body is intentionally misidentified as another, again in order to establish an alibi. This sort of ploy was available to detective fiction only in the days before DNA evidence and the enormous strides in forensic medicine. Despite its light-hearted beginning there is a genuinely dark heart to
The Body in the Library
, with its use of a totally innocent schoolgirl as a ‘decoy’ body, chosen solely on the basis of her similarity to the ‘real’ corpse, Ruby Keene. This is the earliest example in Christie’s oeuvre of the murder of a child (apart from the almost incidental murder of Tommy Pierce in
Murder is Easy
) and unlike later examples –
Dead Man’s Folly
and
Hallowe’en Party
– the victim is cold-bloodedly selected and murdered solely to provide a corpse.

Notes for this novel are contained in six Notebooks, the bulk of them in Notebook 62. The plot variations are minimal, leading to the conclusion that Christie had sketched the book mentally before she began serious work on it. And in her
Autobiography
, she admits that she had been thinking about the plot for ‘some time’. One note, in Notebook 35, is however at strange variance with the finished novel; the ‘disabled’ reference could have inspired Conway Jefferson, but otherwise the only similarity is ‘Killed somewhere else?’

Body in Library

Man? Disabled? Sign of power? No name on clothes

Inhaling Prussic acid vapour (glucose) Manager of a disinfecting process. Killed somewhere else?

An earlier draft, from Notebook 13, outlines the basic plot device – the switch of the bodies and the misidentification – but many of the surrounding details are different. Oddly, one of the conspirators in this first draft is Ruby Keene, the victim in the published novel. At this stage in the planning there is no mention of Conway Jefferson, who provides the motive, and his extended family, which provides most of the suspects. The Girl Guide, the buttons, the bleached blonde – all these plot elements are in place, though as yet the background is not filled in:

Body in Library

Mrs. B – awaiting housemaid etc. – telephone to Miss Marple. Peroxide blonde connected with young Paul Emery
[Basil Blake]
– rude young man who has fallen out with Bantry and who had a platinum blonde down to stay (scandal). Paul is member of set in London – real murderer has it in for him – dumped body on him – Paul takes it up to Bantry’s house or real blonde girl knew Paul’s blonde girl and about cottage – so decoyed Winnie there (with key from friend). Body is really Girl Guide decoyed by Mavis who pretends she has film face. She and man make her up after she is dead. Paul proves he was in London at party at 11 pm. Really arrives home about 3 – finds dead girl – is a bit tight – thinks we’ll push her onto old Bantry.

Now –
why
?

Idea is that Mavis de Winter, night club dancer, is dead.

Say: Ruby Keene, Mavis de Winters, were friendly in Paris – come over here – live separately
or
share flat. Ruby Keen goes to the police – her friend disappeared – went off with man. She identifies body as Mavis – Mavis was fond of Mr Saunders. Mr. S has alibi because he was seen with Mavis
after
certain time. Later
Body of
Mavis is killed and burnt in car – girl guides uniform found.

Why variants

Idea being to kill Ruby Treves

This is followed by a bizarre variation, presumably taking the name Ruby as inspiration:

A. Is Ruby Rajah’s friend?

He gave her superb jewels – young man – Ivor Rudd – attractive – bad lot – takes her to England – tells her there’s been an accident – girl guide dead – fakes body – drives it down to Paul Seton’s. Later identifies it as Ruby’s body – later takes Ruby out in car and sets fire to it – girl guide buttons and badge found

Notebook 31 is headed confidently on the first page and followed by a list of characters to which I have added the probable names from the book. Then the main timetable is sketched, with a further paragraph filling in some of the details:

The Body in the Library

People

Mavis Carr
[Ruby Keene]

Laurette King
[Josie Turner]

Mark Tanderly
[Mark Gaskell]

Hugo Carmody – legs taken off in last War – very rich
[Conway Jefferson]

Step children  Jessica Clunes

 Stephen Clunes

 Edward

Man (Mark or Steve) takes her
[Mavis]
to Paul’s cottage. Leaves her there – carefully asks way or draws attention to car? Body left there at (say) 9.30 – Mavis seen alive last at 9.15 in hotel. Both girls had drink. W
[innie]
doped at 6.30 or 7. Pansied up after being killed at 9 pm – driven ½ hours drive by Mark 9.
30
to 10 – Mavis in hotel 9 to 10 – goes upstairs at 10 (killed). Mark dancing 10–12. Body in empty bedroom –
[body]
taken out and put in car between 12 and 1 – covered with rug. Driven off early morning – set on fire (time fuse) in wood. Mavis last seen 10 pm – did not come on and dance – car found missing, later found abandoned in St. Loo.

One of the dangers inherent in writing two books at the same time is shown in the extract below from Notebook 35, which has another possible sketch of the plot. The plot summary includes a Milly Sprott, who is actually one of the characters from
N or M?
. Presumably she was to be the Girl Guide character, as the list of characters that follows includes a Winnie Sprott. This extract may be the very first musings on the book.

Body in the Library    Suggestions

Body immature – yellow bleached hair – extravagant make-up – (really girl guide – lost –
or a VAD
– adenoidy). Suggestion is
actress
– handbag with clippings of theatrical news – revue – chorus – foreign artist. Body planted on young artist who has had row with Col B – (in war – military service etc.) and who has had blonde girl friend down. He plants her on Col B with help of real blonde friend. She can turn up later alive and well. Does girl in London come down and identify dead girl as Queenie Race. Really QR is alive – later Queenie killed and body dressed in Guide’s clothes.

Why was Milly Sprott killed – she saw too much – or overheard it? She is identified by Ruby – Ruby is accomplice of villain

Body L
[ibrary]

Calling the Bantry etc.

Platinum blonde – everything points to young Jordan

Body

Blonde girl

Young Jordan’s friend

Winnie Sprott – girl guide

Mrs Clements – Brunette

Ruby Quinton – actress

Identified by
best fr
sister or friend or gentleman friend

Why?

Real Ruby engineers whole story – she – young man – life insurance?

Notebook 62 lists individual chapters and although the chapter headings do not tally, the material covered is as it appears in the novel. The names too are mostly retained, although Col. Melrose becomes Melchett, and Michael Revere and Janetta transform into Basil Blake and Dinah Lee:

The Body in the Library

Chapter I

Mrs B housemaid etc. Miss Marple comes up and sees body

Chapter II

Col Melrose – his attitude to Col B – Michael Revere and his blonde. Col M goes down there – M
[ichael]
in very bad temper – got down after party. Arrival of Janetta
[‘his blonde’]

Chapter III

Melrose in his office – Inspector Slack – missing people. Who came down by train the night before? Lot of people at station. Bantrys – Mrs B went to bed early – Col B out at meeting of local Conservative Association

Chapter IV

Arrival of Josie – she is taken to the hall – sees body – Oh Ruby all right. Story begins to come out – Conway Jefferson – Mrs Bantry knows him

Chapter V

At hotel – Jefferson – Adelaide – Mark – Raymond (the pro) – evidence about girl

Chapter VI

Mrs B finds Jefferson – old friend – Miss M with her

Chapter VII

Adelaide and Miss M and Mrs B – Josie and Raymond

In the middle of these listings Christie sketches what she refers to as the ‘real sequence’, the mechanics of the murder plot, as well as a list of the characters. The deletions suggest that she amended this afterwards to reflect the eventual choices:

Real sequence – Winnie King leaves rally 6.30 – goes with Josie to hotel – drugged in tea – put in empty bedroom. After dinner 9.30 Mark takes girl to car and drives her to bungalow (Friday night). Strangles her 10 and puts her in – drives back – Ruby is on view 10 to 10.30 – then killed with veronal or chloral – put in room by Josie’s. 5 am – Mark and Josie take her down to car – (pinched from small house in street . . . young man’s car)
Josie
Mark drives her out to wood – leaving trail of petrol – gets away – walks back – arrives in time for breakfast or his bathe?