Death in the Clouds
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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| Author | Agatha Christie |
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| Country | United Kingdom |
| Language | English |
| Series | Hercule Poirot series |
| Genre(s) | Mystery novel |
| Publisher | Collins Crime Club |
| Released | 1935 |
| Media type | Print (Hardback & Paperback) |
| ISBN | NA |
| Preceded by | Three Act Tragedy |
| Followed by | The A.B.C. Murders |
Death in the Clouds (published in 1935; also known as Death in the Air) is a novel by Agatha Christie. It is one of several of Christie's crime fiction novels to feature the Belgian detective Hercule Poirot, and Chief Inspector Japp.
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[edit] Plot Introduction
In the book, Poirot is a passenger on board a flight from Paris to Croydon. Some time before landing, one of the passengers, Madame Giselle — a moneylender — is found dead. Initially, a reaction to a wasp sting is postulated, but Poirot spies the true cause of death: a poison-tipped dart, apparently fired from a blowpipe. It becomes apparent that the victim has been murdered.
[edit] Plot Summary
Frustrated with the evident artificiality of the blowpipe: an item that could hardly have been used without being seen by another passenger, Poirot suggests that the means of delivering the dart may have been something else. Is it the flute of one passenger, or perhaps one of the ancient tubes carried by one of the two French archaeologists on board?
Poirot's focus is upon a wasp that has been seen in the compartment and which provided evidence for the original theory of the cause of death. Without explaining himself, he asks for a detailed list of the items in the possession of the passengers, and finds an incriminating clue: Norman Gale, a dentist who has seemingly never been in the area of the plane where the victim was killed, and has no apparent motive for committing the murder, had an empty matchbox and a lighter. He appears to be the killer, but how can he have committed the murder, when he was apparently in conversation with Jane Grey (the novel's effective heroine) throughout the flight? And why would he have committed the crime? And why were there two coffee-spoons in the victim's saucer?
Madame Giselle is suspected of using blackmail to ensure that her clients pay up, so any one of the passengers could either have owed her money or feared exposure. Equally, Madame Giselle had an estranged daughter who inherits her considerable estate: could one of the female passengers be this heiress? Much of the novel focuses on the pursuit of this line of enquiry, with the passengers coming under suspicion in turn. Special attention is given to Mr. Clancy, a detective novelist who enables Christie to include the same sort of parodies of her craft achieved in other novels through the character of Ariadne Oliver.
The only other suspect who proves of material significance is, however, the Countess of Horbury, whose maid has been called into the compartment during the flight where she would have had the perfect opportunity to commit the crime. When this maid is revealed to be none other than the victim's heir, Anne Morisot, it seems that she must be the murderess. But the maid was only on the flight by accident, having been asked to be there at the last moment. Moreover, the death of Anne Morisot from poison on the boat-train to Bologne leaves no clear suspect.
Poirot reveals in the denouement that Norman Gale is none other than Anne's new husband, and that his plans - almost certainly including the eventual murder of Anne herself - have been laid well in advance. He brought his dentist's jacket on board and - in the apparently innocuous moments that he has gone to the toilet - changed into this jacket in order to pose as a steward. Under the pretence of delivering a coffee-spoon to Miss Giselle he has walked up the aisle and stabbed her with the poisoned thorn. As Poirot puts it: "No one notices a steward particularly." Gale's intention had been to frame the Countess, and the blowpipe that is found behind Poirot's seat would have been found behind hers had they not switched seats at the last moment.
Not content with solving the mystery, Poirot makes a romantic match by pairing off Jane Grey with the younger of the archaeologists.
[edit] Trivia
In Chapter 12 of a later Poirot novel, Mrs McGinty's Dead (1952), Christie's alter ego, Ariadne Oliver, refers to a novel of hers in which she made a blowpipe one foot long only to be told later that they were six feet long. This was an admission of a fundamental error in the plot of Death in the Clouds.
[edit] Film, TV or theatrical adaptations
An adaptation for television starring David Suchet was broadcast in 1992 as part of the series Agatha Christie's Poirot.
