Agatha Christie: Murder in the Making: More Stories and Secrets From Her Notebooks (28 page)

Mrs. Gordon, old friend of Miss Marple at Ritz – asks her to come. Same age but Mrs. Gordon all dolled up etc. – vague curious woman. Worried about Loulou – married that man – all efficiency and eye glasses. Fuss over young man who attacked him – said he was his father – had previously said to several people that Churchill was his father.

Mirrors

Miss M summoned by rich friend (at school together in Italy? France?). 2 sisters – both married a good deal Mrs. B and Mrs. E. Former vague but shrewd – knows how to manage men – with Louie, Mrs. E. men know how to manage
her
. She is committed to this cultural scheme – by first husband. 2nd selfish artist. She has various children by first husband; by second – selfish pansy young man
[and]
by third. E. is hard headed character, accountant. A big trust (by D) – E. is one of principal trustees – others being old lawyer – old Cabinet Minister – later dead lawyer replaced by son – C
[abinet]
M
[inister]
replaced by Dr’s son, young man – has come to college – taken and accepted by E.

People in Mirrors

Carrie Louise – friend of Gulbrandsen

Lewis Serrocold

Emma Westingham
[Mildred Strete]
– daughter – plain – married Canon W. now a widow come home)

Gina – daughter of Gulbrandsen’s adopted daughter, Joy, who married unsatisfactory Italian Count, name of San Severiano – daughter back to Gulbrandsen

Walter – her young American husband – good war record – but obscure origin

Edgar – a psychiatric ‘case’ young research worker? Or secretary? a bastard and a little insane

Dr. Maverick – Resident physician under Sir Willoughby Goddard leading psychiatrist

Jeremy Faber
[Stephen Restarick]
– Stepson of Carrie Louise by second husband ‘bad Larry Faber’, a scenic designer in love with Gina

‘Jolly’ Bellamy
[Bellever]
– a Carlo
[Carlo Fisher, Christie’s devoted secretary and friend]
, devoted to Carrie Louise – or is she?

Christian Gulbrandsen

The arrival of Miss Marple and her introduction to the inhabitants of Stonygates is sketched in Notebook 17:

Miss M arrives – met at station by Edgar – introduces himself – his statement – Winston
[Churchill]
is his father – C
[arrie]
L
[ouise]
– charming greeting. They see Gina out of window – with handsome dark man. ‘What a handsome couple’ says Miss M – C-L looks disturbed – not her husband – Mike – gives acting classes to boys – gets up plays etc.

Telegram from Christian

Mike or Wally to Miss M about Edgar being Montgomery’s son. Talk about Edgar – illegitimate of course – served a short prison sentence

Earlier in the same Notebook, and while Lance and Percival were still possible characters in
They Do It with Mirrors
, she sketched the following scenes, remarkable for their similarity to the all-important scene in the published version:

Procedure

P. asks Renee to come into room – study – they start quarrelling – not married etc. Conversation continues – her voice high and clear, he goes out by window, kills father and comes back. She stabs him – shoots him etc.

Or

Same with two brothers – violent quarrel. P’s voice heard first, then L’s – L’s continues – then P. knocked out. ‘Oh God, I think I’ve killed him’

In Notebook 43 Christie outlines the events of Chapter 7 iii with only minor differences – in the published version Dr Maverick leaves before the quarrel and returns after the shooting; and it is Miss Bellever who discovers the body.

After dinner, Gulbrandsen goes to his room – ‘I have some typing to do.’ Lewis takes medicine away from Louise – powder – calc. Aspirin – for arthritis – moment of strain. Te
l[ephone]
– Jolly goes – ‘Alexis has arrived at station – can we send a car.’ Lewis goes to his room – Edgar comes through window – ‘My father’ – makes scene. Goes into Lewis’s room – shuts door behind him, locks it – voices raised. Ought to break down door – Carrie Louise very calm ‘Oh, no dear, Edgar would never harm Lewis.’

Maverick says very important not to apply force – Maverick goes. Jolly rather violent about it – leaves hall. Then – ‘You didn’t know I had a revolver’ – presently sound of shot – somebody screams – no, not here – it’s outside – far away. Edgar shouting – things falling over. Then, shot inside room – Edgar calling out – ‘I didn’t mean it, I didn’t mean to.’

‘Open this door’ – Edgar unbolts it – Lewis shot not shot – missed, two holes in parapet. Then Edgar breaks down. Lewis asks Stephen to fetch Gulbrandsen or ask him for some figures. They go – Gulbrandsen shot. Then Alexis walks in.

A page of Notebook 43 is headed with a straightforward question. The possibilities are then considered, with those characters ostensibly in the clear and those still under suspicion listed separately. But as we – and the police – discover, things are not always as they seem:

Who could have shot Christian Gulbrandsen

Miss Bellever

Alexis

Gina

Stephen

Clear Gina and Stephen – off

Lewis

Edgar

Dr. Maverick

Carrie Louise

Miss Marple

And the clue of the typewriter letter is drafted later on the same page:

Bottom bit left in typewriter – or just left

Dear David

You are my oldest friend. Beg you will come here to advise us on a very grave situation that has arisen. The person to be considered and shielded is father’s wife Carrie-Louise. Briefly I have reason to believe . . .

As usual, Christie sketched ideas that never went further than the Notebook, and the following page had a few interesting ones. In the extract below, E is Lewis Serrocold of the novel; none of this sketch is used, apart from the clever adaptation of the well-known phrase, ‘Abandon hope all ye that enter here.’ Note also the possibility of using Abney (see
After the Funeral
) as a setting.:

Scene Abney

E’s a fanatic about delinquent children – they take them

‘Recover hope all ye that enter here’
[Chapter 5]

Secret training school for thieves and embezzlers. Director E. – under David clever master with forged credentials

C. Gulbrandsen finds out about it and goes to police – then says he made a mistake. Then shot. Police suggest young man Walters – a bit balmy – someone tells him E is his father – incites him to attack him – so as to help as cover – they do it with mirrors

After the Funeral

18 May 1953

At the family reunion following the funeral of Richard Abernethie, Cora Lansquenet makes an unguarded remark about his death – ‘But he was murdered, wasn’t he?’ When she is savagely murdered the following day it would seem that her suspicions were justified.

After the Funeral
appeared in the USA, as
Funerals Are Fatal
, two months before its UK publication and in both countries book publication was preceded by an earlier serialisation.
After the Funeral
is typical Christie territory – an extended family in a large country house, and the death of a wealthy patriarch with impecunious relatives waiting for the reading of the will. That family is also her most complicated, resulting in the inclusion of a family tree.

The book’s dedication reads ‘For James in memory of happy days at Abney.’ ‘James’ was Christie’s brother-in-law James Watts, the husband of her sister Madge. They lived in Abney, a vast Victorian house built in the Gothic style, exactly as Enderby Hall is described on the first page of the novel. It was to Abney that Christie retired in 1926 to recover from the trauma of her disappearance. The house is also mentioned in the Author’s Foreword to
The Adventure of the Christmas Pudding
: ‘Abney Hall had everything! The garden boasted a waterfall, a stream and a tunnel under the drive!’ In Chapter 23 of
After the Funeral
Rosamund has a conversation with Poirot seated by such a waterfall in the garden.

There is a reference to
Lord Edgware Dies
in Chapter 12, and the same chapter also contains two (coincidental) references, in the space of four pages, to a
Destination Unknown
(the following year’s book). The distinctiveness and recognisability of backs is discussed in Chapter 16 and this would also feature in
4.50 from Paddington
. And the attempted murder of Helen Abernethie, overheard down a phone line, in Chapter 20 has distinct similarities to the actual murder of Donald Ross 20 years earlier in
Lord Edgware Dies
, and to that of Patricia Lane in
Hickory Dickory Dock
, two years later.

The death of Cora is one of Christie’s most brutal and bloody murders, rivalling those of Simeon Lee in
Hercule Poirot’s Christmas
and Miss Sainsbury Seale in
One, Two, Buckle my Shoe
. But, unlike the murders in these novels, the reason for the savagery of the killing in
After the Funeral
is not justified by the plot and it is difficult to understand why this method was adopted by the killer or, indeed, by Christie. There is never any question about the identity of the corpse as there was in
One, Two, Buckle my Shoe
and there is no subterfuge about the time of death as there was in
Hercule Poirot’s Christmas
. Stabbing or any other blunt instrument would have met the killer’s requirement.

After the Funeral
also includes one of Christie’s most daring examples of telling readers the truth and defying them to interpret it correctly. At the end of Chapter 3 we fondly imagine we are sharing the thoughts of Cora Lansquenet but, on closer examination, her name is never mentioned. The description of ‘a lady in wispy mourning’ applies equally well to her impersonator. Although the thoughts we share are perfectly believable as those of a sister in mourning, they are also capable of a more sinister interpretation when we later realise whose thoughts they actually are. This subterfuge is shared in an equally daring, and yet perfectly truthful, manner in Chapter 2 of
Sparkling Cyanide
.

Notebook 53 contains all of the notes for
After the Funeral
and they are more organised than many. They alternate with those for
A Pocket Full of Rye
, published later the same year. Along with the title, the basic plot appears on the first page of notes exactly as it does in the novel, with no crossings out or alternatives. The only point to change is that the ‘somebody’ who speculates about the murder of Richard is, in fact, ‘Cora’.

Throughout the notes it would seem that the plotting of this book went smoothly. Apart from one major deviation – the quick-change impersonation of housekeeper and householder – the notes accurately reflect the entire plot of the book. They proceed chronologically and there is very little deleting or revising or listing of alternatives. And, interestingly, there is no earlier brief jotting with the seed of the idea that was later to bloom into this novel. The encapsulation of the plot on the first page of Notebook 53 even includes the name of the artist of the concealed painting that provides the motive for the appallingly brutal murder.

The underlying misdirection of
After the Funeral
also featured in the previous year’s novel,
They Do It with Mirrors
.

After the Funeral

Family returning from cemetery – a meal – deceased younger sister – not been seen for many years or at all by his grandchildren etc. – Cora Lansquenet – (Somebody says – of course – he was murdered) Cora L murdered the next day. Really the CL of funeral is not CL – CL is already dead
[actually drugged]
. Companion kills C – Why? Contents of house are left to her including a picture? A Vermeer – she paints it over with another

As usual, one of the elements to change was the names:

The family tree (with a few question marks) of the Abernethies from
After the Funeral
, one of the most complicated families in all of Christie.

Characters

Cora Lansquenet – youngest
daughter
sister of old
Mrs
Mr Dent (like James). Married a rather feckless painter – lived abroad a lot

Pam and husband (actor)

Jean – Leo’s widow (2nd wife?)

Judy and Greg (photographer)

Andrea – (Miles’s wife) he doesn’t come – too delicate

George – (Laura’s son) in City

A look at the family tree shows minor differences in the eventual make-up of the Abernethies. Leo’s wife becomes Helen and the ‘2nd wife’ idea was discarded; Andrea and Miles, the hypochondriac, become Maud and Timothy; Pam becomes Rosamund with an actor husband, Michael Shane; and Judy becomes Susan, while Greg has a change of profession to chemist’s assistant. Although the comment ‘like James’ (Christie’s brother-in-law) appears after Mr Dent (the forerunner of Richard Abernethie), there is nothing to show that the character was, in fact, anything like James Watts.