"And Then There Were None" - and other Agatha Christie adaptations

[alycidon]

I spent a whole hour watching the first episode and instantly regretted it. So predictable. A handful of characters cast on to an island, and killed off one by one.

At least, I imagine that is what happened.

[DoctorT]

I made the mistake of watching it all. It looked promising but was unremitting garbage with an unsatisfactory ending. I read the new Ian Rankin ('Even Dogs in the Wild') over Christmas - so much better than any Agatha Christie IMO

[Ferretfancy]

A slight digression, but a few weeks before Christmas I came across a collection of detective novels by New Zealand's Queen of Crime Ngaio Marsh.

All her crime novels have appeared in omnibus editions, three to a volume, and very good they are.

I remember reading Ngaio Marsh's books many years ago when i was in my teens, and I've been pleasantly surprised to re-encounter them.
She writes very well and goes to quite a lot of trouble creating convincing characters even if some of them are distinctly eccentric! Quite often the murder does not take place until well through the book before her detective Roderick Alleyn appears on the scene. By the way, Ms Marsh insisted that his name should be pronounced Allen and not Alleen. Our detective has none of the upper class twittery of Sayers or the bogus french of Poirot, but is thoughtful and down to earth.

The books are of course very much of their period, the first published in the early 1930s in a series continuing into the 1950s. Ngaio Marsh was very involved with the development of professional theatre in New Zealand before she came to Britain, and several of the books have a stage background. Many of the characters are from the upper crust and have butlers and housemaids, but there is a refreshing absence of that automatic class snobbery and anti-semitism which stains quite a lot of fiction of the era.

In short, these are very enjoyable winter reading and don't insult the intelligence.

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

Many of the characters are from the upper crust and have butlers and housemaids, but there is a refreshing absence of that automatic class snobbery and anti-semitism which stains quite a lot of fiction of the era.

And yet Surfeit of Lamphreys and Scales of Justice display precisely that snobbery - that "crust" could never have committed the murder; it's one of (or a group of - you can't trust any of 'em) the servants. (IIRC, a fair bit of casual anti-semitism in Death at the Dolphin from the '60s - at least Christie stopped putting in these snide asides after 1945, when the Camps were exposed.)

[Ferretfancy]

And yet Surfeit of Lamphreys and Scales of Justice display precisely that snobbery - that "crust" could never have committed the murder; it's one of (or a group of - you can't trust any of 'em) the servants. (IIRC, a fair bit of casual anti-semitism in Death at the Dolphin from the '60s - at least Christie stopped putting in these snide asides after 1945, when the Camps were exposed.)

Naturally the upper class protagonists in the books mirror the social attitudes of their kind, my point really is that as narrator Ngaio Marsh does not echo them and neither does Alleyn her detective, or his assistants. This is in contrast to the likes of Dorothy L Sayers or John Buchan who drop anti-semitic comments in their narratives completely without thought.
I haven't yet read Death at the Dolphin, so I can't comment about it.

I hope you agree that the books make entertaining reading

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

Naturally the upper class protagonists in the books mirror the social attitudes of their kind, my point really is that as narrator Ngaio Marsh does not echo them

Oh, but far more than Christie or Allingham (the best of the lot for my money) it's the "lower" classes who turn out to be the murderers - this has to be authorial choice, and therefore showing Marsh's greater* social insecurity.

This is in contrast to the likes of Dorothy L Sayers or John Buchan who drop anti-semitic comments in their narratives completely without thought.

Yes - neither wrote detective fiction after the Second World War, so it would be interesting to speculate how the revelations of the Nazi Murder Camps might have influenced this thoughtlessness.

I haven't yet read Death at the Dolphin, so I can't comment about it.

Not, I think, one of her better ones.

I hope you agree that the books make entertaining reading

- Singing in the Shrouds, Off With His Head, Hand in Glove, Spinsters in Jeopardy ... all splendid stuff!

* = Edit: No; "greater social insecurity" is wrong - it's "different": Christie's working-class characters are subsidiary - adenoidal housemaids; gossipy, indulgent mothers; surly husbands. Stock, "comic" characters throughout her career.)

[Ferretfancy]

Oh, but far more than Christie or Allingham (the best of the lot for my money) it's the "lower" classes who turn out to be the murderers - this has to be authorial choice, and therefore showing Marsh's greater* social insecurity.


Yes - neither wrote detective fiction after the Second World War, so it would be interesting to speculate how the revelations of the Nazi Murder Camps might have influenced this thoughtlessness.


Not, I think, one of her better ones.


- Singing in the Shrouds, Off With His Head, Hand in Glove, Spinsters in Jeopardy ... all splendid stuff!

* = Edit: No; "greater social insecurity" is wrong - it's "different": Christie's working-class characters are subsidiary - adenoidal housemaids; gossipy, indulgent mothers; surly husbands. Stock, "comic" characters throughout her career.)

I enjoyed Spinsters in Jeopardy just a few days ago --- more than a touch of Dornford Yates I thought !