Hercule Poirot & the Greenshore Folly (2013) by Agatha Christie
(Originally written in 1954)
Mrs. Ariadne Oliver has been asked to devise a Murder Hunt for a village fete being held on the grounds of Sir George and Lady Stubbs. But as she works to put together an interesting little puzzle for the villagers, she gets the sense that something is not right and she calls upon her friend Hercule Poirot to come and check out the situation. He, too, finds discrepancies in the behavior of those staying/living at the Stubbs home. But neither of them thought that the Girl Guide who had volunteered to play the murder victim in the fete game would wind up fulfilling the part of a real corpse. Then Lady Stubbs disappears. But Poirot and the local police inspector have no success in tracking down the corpse or finding the missing woman. It isn't until another death occurs and Mrs. Oliver makes a chance remark that Poirot finally begins to see a pattern that leads him to the solution.
Greenshore Folly is a novella originally written in 1954 with the intention of donating it as a church fundraiser. But Christie decided to hold on to it and develop it further--turning it into Dead Man's Folly (published in 1954). All of the bones are there, but the full novel fleshes out characters and relationships far more than Christie was able to do in the shorter work. It was interesting to look at the story in its initial form and to see how Christie filled it in to create a full-fledge novel. Not quite as engaging as the later work, but a fine first draft. ★★★
First line: It was Miss Lemon, Poirot's efficient secretary, who took the telephone call.
Last line: "There are some things that one has to face quite alone..."
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Deaths = 5 (two strangled; one drowned; one natural; one in war)
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