1. Agatha Christie

When I read Agatha Christie's novels, I felt quite simply, and that was "enjoyment". You can drop the search for meaning and go straight to the story. She won't let you down, there will be a mysterious death, and then, the suspense must have an answer. It's like Poirot waiting for a case in his office, and eventually a case will come to his door. You don't have to think about it, is there really so many murders? Because this has nothing to do with reality, you have already unloaded the weapon of reality criticism, and your body and mind are relaxed, just waiting to hear the story. However, when I had to study it in detail afterwards, I found that the people in the story were clearly the faces of life, and the plot was also based on daily reasoning, which you and I could all understand. On the contrary, it is the reality that attempts to go beyond consensus, such as a few spy stories, that have a less shocking effect. Therefore, these fascinating stories are actually confined to reality and ask for materials within the scope of life. Therefore, if you examine the story of Agatha Christie, you will find that the elements of the story are very simple, nothing more than fighting for inheritance, deceiving history, swindling money, and revenge. And then derive blackmail, extinguishment, and concealment. As for the characters, it is always a family, a boarding house, a cruise ship, or a passenger train, or even just a party and a banquet. This can also be seen in the relatively small society and the family character of female writers. It is these brief elements that make up so many stories. This reminds me of another skill of women, that is, the skill of weaving - bamboo needles, wool balls, weaving methods, which can produce endless patterns. Miss Marple, the old country woman, never left her hand for wool, and it was probably Agatha Christie's work. This is also like a kind of child's game, tie a cotton thread to the end, stretch it out, pick out a pattern, and then pick it by the other party to form a second pattern, two people pick it over, pick it over. If you are a smart child, you can pick out an infinite number of patterns, while if you are a stupid child, you can pick up a mess in a few rounds. Agatha Christie is the clever picker. She used a number of conditions to construct a large number of murders, and the clues were intricate, like weaving and picking up beautiful warp and weft tissues. These lines and structures are made of everyday life, and the concreteness of this material overlays the abstract structural patterns and gives them an intelligible and sympathetic reality, while the abstraction of the inner structure separates them from reality and separates them into another life.

Agatha Christie's novels are very much like fairy tales for adults, and I think children are attracted to fairy tales because they have enough imagination to believe that the elves are real. The knowledge and understanding that adults have accumulated in their experience occupy the space of imagination and exclude the conditions of trust, so the elves withdraw from the adult world. However, like the after-effects of incomplete evolution, adults still retain curiosity about unusual events. Now, Agatha Christie tells one bizarre story after another with people and events that are recognized in the adult world — and there is nothing more exciting than a murder. She is responsible for giving us convincing explanations for every detail of the bizarre story, as Poirot said in "The Mystery of the Tomb", "The perfect answer must explain everything clearly". Agatha Christie was able to explain everything clearly. Moreover, she is not seeking to be incisive, but pragmatic, as I just said, if Agatha Christie wants to tell a story that is beyond common sense, such as espionage, "Hidden Murder", "Criminal Gang", "The Guest of Sansusi", etc., whether it is a crime or a detection, the reasons based on it are all hanging, and it is obvious that it is not her strong point. I think Miss Marple's case best captures the nature of Agatha Christie's story, which she says in "Evil in a Quiet Town": "Living in the country all year round, one can see all kinds of humanity." The thread that Agatha Christie weaves to her story is that she has "all kinds of humanity", and that is the humanity that can be seen in "living in the country all year round". Because Miss Marple firmly believes in one thing: "All human beings are connected". It can be seen from this that Agatha Christie's crimes are all based on ordinary human nature, and there is no deformed psychology of modern crimes. For example, in "The Invisible Devil" (Taipei Xinyu Publishing House) written by Ruth Landelle, a British contemporary mystery novelist, the old criminal who attacked a blonde young woman on a dark narrow street, when he found a model with the same image in the basement of his apartment, he turned his attack to this rubber man, because the basement also has a dark, narrow space, which can make him accumulate excitement as he gradually approaches the subject. Unfortunately, the rubber mannequin was burned by a child during the game, and a series of murders began on the ground. Here, murder becomes a bizarre fetish, and being a murderer is more like a sick person. Agatha Christie's murder has conventional reasons, and the suspense is set up and solved without going beyond the scope of universal human nature, and it must be answered thoroughly, that is, "explained clearly". In The Mystery of the Female Corpse in the Library, Miss Marple said, "Victorians know more about human nature", which is an old-fashioned concept of human nature, empiricist, but very effective. For example, in "Witness to a Homicide," Miss Marple said, "One of my great strengths is that I know Mrs. Elspeth McClekaddy...... "Mrs. Elspeth McCloaky is not a fanciful person, so she says she saw a murder, and it may have actually happened." For example, in "The Mystery of the Female Corpse in the Library", in Colonel Bantry's antique study, there is a fancy-dressed female corpse, forming an "unreal" picture, while Miss Marple looks at the female corpse for a long time and whispers, "She is very young", she pays attention to the personal factor; in "The Mystery of the Apartment", she points out that "in real life, the obvious is real"; in "Belated Revenge", she once again says: "The most obvious person who commits crime", and in "The Strange Case of Cliff Cottage", Nick Miss Buckley was plotted again and again, and again and again to save the day, but in the end it was her cousin Miss Maggie Buckley who was murdered, and the great detective Poirot used a lot of "gray cells" to finally understand this simple truth: "I see that in fact only one thing happened, and that is that Maggie Buckley was killed"! So, don't underestimate Miss Marple's epistemology, it seems, she is getting older, but it doesn't weaken her persuasiveness.

If Miss Marple encapsulates Agatha Christie's understanding of individual people, Poirot shows Agatha Christie's holistic conception of things, and he marks Agatha Christie's level of intelligence. Poirot, unlike Miss Marple, starts with concreteness and looks at abstraction. He believes that everything has an external form relative to the internal nature, and the external deformation may often mean the transformation of the content. In the novella "The Mirror of the Dead", he draws his attention to how "uncomfortable" the posture of the suicidal person is, that is, the deceased may be in harmony with another nature of death. Poirot pays special attention to the ordering of things, and when the sorting is complete, the truth is revealed. In "Tragedy on the Nile", he said: "We know a lot, but the logic is not coherent", which means that the order cannot be sorted out. Here, Agatha Christie embodies a highly logical mind, just like the thunder and lightning patterns and fish-shaped patterns on primitive clay pots, which means that she has the ability to generalize concrete impressions into abstract forms, and her thinking has undergone essential progress. Therefore, in Agatha Christie's novels, under the vivid human plot, there is actually a pattern form on the network, and this pattern changes in an orderly manner, evolving the specific human material into various forms. Poirot likes to describe his reasoning as a "jigsaw puzzle," and in Sins in the Sun, he describes his labor to Mrs. Gardner, who is playing a jigsaw puzzle: "You have to put all the pieces together. The final product, like a mosaic, contains a variety of colors and patterns, and each oddly shaped piece must be placed in its own place. Sometimes, the illusion occurs that there is a piece that is "supposed to be part of the blanket by color, but is instead used to form the tail of a black cat." As is often the case, Poirot holds a fragment in his hand, which seems to have nothing to do with the whole event, but it is this fragment that "puts it in its place" and the truth is revealed. For example, in "The Death of a Cleaning Lady", the first thing that catches Poirot's attention is that Mrs. MacInty, an old woman who never writes letters, goes to buy a bottle of ink, in "Card in a Card", in a bridge game, Dr. Roberts inexplicably calls out "Grand Slam", and in "Dumb Witness", Bob the dog is away all night while his toy ball is on the stairs......

This fragment falls off from the facts, and finally returns to the facts, "finally in place", restoring the whole picture of the facts, and it is still a concrete life. It's like a little story about puzzles, a little boy put together a puzzle of a world map, and he put it together with unexpected speed, but it turned out that he put it together the other way around, and the reverse side was a picture of his father. What I want to prove with this story is that on the outside of the logical form, there is still an active human face.

In the case presided over by Miss Marple, there is actually a hidden form, but her form is more of a state of life, such as the "ballad" - "The Legend of Rye", Miss Marple realizes that there is a pattern hidden in this case, that is, the ballad: "Sing a song called sixpence, a bag of rye, twenty-four black thrushes baked in a pie, the pie is all open, the birds sing, what a beautiful dish for the king to taste!" The king was counting the gold coins in the bookkeeper, the queen was eating bread and honey in the drawing-room, and the maid was drying clothes in the garden, when a little bird flew and took her nose. "This is the pattern of crime that Miss Marple deciphers, more human than Poirot's.

"The Exploits of Hercule" is a collection of twelve stories, and Agatha Christie's sense of form is evident. Hercule Poirot chatted with Dr. Burton, a member of the Academy of All Souls, about the topic of names, and Dr. Burton meant to be careful when naming children, because it often backfired, and he knew a child named after the goddess Diana, who had already weighed two hundred and forty pounds at a young age. Poirot's name, Hercule, is the same name as the Greek god Hercules, the child of the main god Zeus, known for his twelve great deeds. Poirot wants to correct Dr. Burton's preconceptions and make a name for himself, and decides to select twelve fine cases, each of which must correspond to Hercules' great achievements. As a result, there are a total of twelve stories, such as "The Lion of Nemea", "The Hydra of Lear", "The Deer of Arcadia", and "The Boar of Ermantos", each of which has a corresponding pattern. For example, "The Golden Apple of Herthperides", in Greek mythology, is about Hercule's struggle with Atlas, who carries the sky on his back. Hercules took the sky from Atlas's back and asked Atlas to steal the golden apple, but after Atlas stole the golden apple, he was unwilling to take back the heavy sky, so Hercule planned to make Atlas carry the sky again and picked up the golden apple himself. Agatha Christie exchanged the golden apple for a golden cup, which, in addition to its illustrious history, was also very delicate in its own right, with an apple tree carved on it, and hung with an emerald apple, which was taken away by an international thief gang at the moment when it was transferred from the hands of a marquis to a financial tycoon, and eventually, of course, it was found by Poirot.

Agatha Christie's detective novels are shrouded in a layer of mystery on top of the strict abstract forms and vivid concrete situations—in "The Mysterious Villa", the newlywed Gwenda Reid is looking for a home for their little family, and when she sees the Victorian cottage, she suddenly recognizes that this is the house she wants, everything is familiar and familiar to her, even as she can imagine, which is quickly and terrifyingly confirmed. She imagined that there was a closet in the bedroom, and sure enough, there was one, and she imagined that the closet should be a pasted wallpaper of small poppies and cornflowers, and indeed it was a pasted wallpaper of small poppies and cornflowers...... In "The Gate of Destiny," Mrs. Thomas Beresford tidies up her new home and finds deliberately crossed out letters in the collection of books left by the old owner, which are spelled together in a complete sentence: "Mary Jordan did not die of natural causes." The murderer is one of us, and I think I know who it is. This almost has a "Wuthering Heights" meaning. For example, in "The Mystery of Staffort", he played a spirit table game, summoned an elf named "Ada", and brought a message that Colonel Trivelian was murdered, and the fact was that Colonel Trivelian was murdered. There is a thriller air from Gothic novels, which will never evolve into a painful tragedy like "Wuthering Heights", but just enough to arouse excitement and show the benevolent temperament of women. Agatha Christie also has a penchant for the mysterious, which is shared by most women. This comes from a kind of inheritance of female ancestors, who live without leaving home, giving birth to fantasies of curiosity and fear of the world. The ghosts and spirits mostly live in closed rooms, carrying the family emblem and admonitions, trying to make moral teachings about various phenomena. The twelve short stories in "Dead Dogs" are mostly supernatural stories. There are also two supernatural stories in the short story collection "Miss Marple Detective", one of which is called "The Tailor's Doll", which is not only magical, but also very moving. The women in the tailor's shop, who no one remembers when, came to Miss Alicia Coombe's tailor's shop in London, and the women in the tailor's shop felt uncomfortable as she lay on the velvet chair, matching the furnishings in the room, and with its laid-back attitude, "it seemed as if she were the master of the place." I don't know how to start again, but it sat at the desk in the fitting room, as if writing a letter. The women were so distracted by it that their memory became very poor, they could not find anything, they could not concentrate on their work, and the cleaning lady was reluctant to come and clean because she felt that the atmosphere was strange and ominous. At last, it angered Miss Alicia Coombe, who threw it out of the window and into the road, where it was picked up by a little girl, who hugged the doll and said, "I tell you, I love her, and this is what she wants, and she wants to be loved." The horror of this supernatural story is handled quite subtly, and by the way, the doll is also one of the important props in the supernatural novel, but here, it is reversed, escaping from evil and entering a lyrical ending. Another supernatural story in "Miss Marple's Detective", "The Mysterious Mirror", has a more eerie atmosphere, a stronger thriller effect, and a more complex plot. It is narrated in the first person, "I" am staying in a friend's guest room, and through the mirror, I see a door open in the wall behind me, and a horrific scene is playing out in the door - my friend's beautiful sister Sylvia is strangled by the throat by a man with a scar on the left side of his face that makes him look vicious. "I" told Sylvia about the vision, and Sylvia broke off the engagement because her fiancé, like the man in the mirror, had a scar on the left side of his face. Later, Sylvia and "I" got married, but "I" was actually a narrow-minded person, once, jealousy attacked, strangled Sylvia's neck, at this moment, "I" saw the illusion from the mirror many years ago, the man with a scar on the left side of his face was "me", because of the reflection of the mirror, the scar on the left side of the face was actually on the right face, and "I" was scratched by a bullet on the right side of the face during the war. The end of this horror story is that "I" let go of my hand in shock, recognized the "demon" in my heart, and from then on I was in harmony with my wife, never doubting each other. The mystical prophecy eventually becomes a moral warning, which can be reversed in time so that good intentions can be promoted. This is also about the upbringing of Victorian women, who have a natural taboo against evil, and can't bear to embarrass people, especially decent people, so sharp conflicts are turned into danger under their compassionate hearts.

Agatha Christie's novels, after brutal murders and careful detections, always lead to a happy ending, in the words of Miss Marple in "Crime in a Quiet Town": "Everything ended in the best possible way". Most of the murderers are despicable by nature, and they are bound to commit crimes, and they are justified in their punishment, such as the sinister Dr. Ridler in "Mystery of the Tomb", Mr. Franklin Clark in "Murder in the ABC", and Norman Gale, the dentist in "Strange Case in the Clouds". Or it's the humble characters, with them or not, the world will not be affected, such as the criminal Nurse Hopkins in "A Lunch at H Manor", Miss Gilchrist in "After the Funeral", Miss Anne Meredith in "Card in Card" - she is not the criminal of this murder, but she is a hidden repeat offender, Poirot once used a little trick to test her, this test is very much Hans Christian Andersen's "Princess Pea" The meaning is to let her help choose a few products from the high-end stockings to give away, and when she chooses, there will be two pairs of stockings on the table - this is in line with her female companion's background, and of course, her personal character, so she can be safely allowed to sin. In "After the Funeral", the female companion Miss Gilchrist killed someone in order to realize her long-cherished wish to open a small teahouse, and people even cruelly tried to find Miss Gilchrist happy, saying that she was insane in prison and was excitedly planning to open a teahouse, which was called "Lilac Bush". And the stories of those suffocating criminals, who come from good families, have good identities, and have understandable criminal circumstances, especially women, are often mournful, and Agatha Christie always makes them commit suicide by drugs, both to avoid the humiliation of trial and to have a gesture of self-redemption. For example, in "The Empty House", the gentle wife Gerda, loves her husband to the point of worship, in "The Dumb Witness", for example, in "The Dumb Witness", the mother who wants to give her precious child a good life, such as Miss Nick Buckley, who tries to buy her cousin's property to save the family business in "The Strange Case of Cliff Heights", or like "Belated Revenge", the unfortunate actress Marina Greg is arranged by Mr. Ladd, who loves her, to sleep painlessly, and "The Murder of Roger Aykroyd" Dr. James finished his criminal account and was ready to take sleeping pills, and he finally wrote, "Sleeping pills? This is a poetic and just punishment", and in "The Mystery of the Old House", Mrs. Friart's murder plan to shelter her son, who was always bad material and had nothing to say in order to regain the lost Manor of Nasse, but the mother was still the daughter of this glorious old family, and she calmly said in the face of Poirot, who came to accuse her, "Thank you for coming here and telling me about it." Now you're leaving, aren't you?There are some things that a man has to do alone...... "Although no punishment is specified, at least Mrs. Friart's dignity has been maintained." As for those who are innocently frightened and suffering, Agatha Christie must make amends, and this compensation is basically a good marriage and a good background, such as the innocent Miss Gray in "The Strange Case in the Clouds", who began a relationship with the promising archaeologist Jean DuPont through Poirot's matchmaking, and Miss Sheila in "The Mystery of the Clock", which finally proves that she was born in a legal marriage, and her parents are respected members of the state government, and she also has a good relationship with the high-ranking agent Mr. Colin. There are some prejudices here, but there is also a realistic attitude towards life, just like "Jane Eyre", Jane Eyre finally got a small inheritance, and then went to stay with Rochester, even if it is a love between two hearts, it still needs to have as equal conditions as possible to ensure perfection. Obviously, the people of that era did not like to deviate too much from the norm, everything had to be appropriate, in short, not too outrageous. This can be seen in "A Lunch at H Manor", where Mary, the adopted daughter of Gerrard, an old servant of H Manor, is under the care of the mistress Mrs. Welman, who turns out to be Mrs. Wellman's illegitimate daughter, Poirot speculates: "There is no doubt that she will take proper care of Mary Gerrard, but she will not leave all the family property to Mary." She wants her illegitimate daughter to live outside of high society circles. This conservatism is not responsible for social criticism, but its honest expression gives the stories a suave attitude.

2. Poirot

At the beginning of this chapter, I would like to state that the source of the material I have read and used here is the Complete Works of Agatha Christie, first printed by Guizhou People's Publishing House in October 1998. This is the largest collection of Agatha Christie's Chinese works so far, according to the statistics in the "Translator's Foreword" of the "Autobiography of Agatha Christie", Agatha Christie wrote "more than 80 novels, more than 100 short stories, and 17 plays" in her lifetime. But I still have to admit that my reading is limited, so my analysis is only within a limited scope, and ignorance and bias are inevitable. In this collection, there are a total of 67 novels, 11 short and medium stories, a total of 114 articles, and two non-fiction essays, one is "Love in Syria" and the other is "The Autobiography of Agatha Christie". Of these, there are 32 novels and 40 short stories solved by Poirot, almost half of them, and he is of course the first actor of Agatha Christie, and I will make a portrait of Poirot with the facts I know.

Apparently, Poirot made his debut in The Mysterious Case of Stiles. It was during the war that he and his Belgian compatriots, seven men in all, took refuge in the English countryside of Styles, where they were cared for by Mrs. Inglethorpe, the owner of Styles Manor. His image is somewhat comical: small, but with a majestic expression, a round head, often tilted to one side, a thick black mustache on his upper lip, and excessively neat clothes, "if there is a little dust on his clothes, it will be more painful than a bullet wound". These basic traits will continue to be strengthened in the following appearances: his mustache gradually tilts to the sides, his shoes are shiny, and he loves sweet and greasy food...... And, obviously, the affluence of living in peace had led him to develop these habits towards luxury, and he had become an old playboy. In the eyes of the British, the peoples of the Low Countries are undoubtedly hillbillies, and a woman like Poirot who is meticulous in everything is ultimately nothing more than a glamorous hillbilly. But this initial ridiculous impression will be reversed in the end of every event, and he magically solves one mystery after another, always proving to be all right, and the dwarf becomes an elf. In the Autobiography of Agatha Christie, Agatha Christie says that the character "Poirot" came from the Belgian refugees in the parish where she lived at that time, during the First World War. She doesn't seem to have a good impression of these refugees, who are suspicious, complaining, withdrawn, and have an eccentric way of life. Agatha Christie used "Poirot" on a whim, but she didn't expect him to exist for decades. The characteristics chosen at the beginning have been used, and have not hindered his actions, and have derived more details for him. In addition to the general personality of "shrewd, neat, and capable", I think it is very important - "always tidying things up, liking everything in pairs, square", what a high talent this will develop into in the coming days!

In The Mysterious Case of Stiles, Poirot appears during his reunion with Captain Hastings. Captain Hastings, the storyteller, is also making his debut, and this pair, apparently from the Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson, has become a classic pairing: a shrewd detective with a not-so-savvy companion who, thanks to their friendship, has the privilege of participating in the investigation and coming up with some crooked ideas in order to accept the taunts and ** of his friends, and to speak his true opinion by the way. This onlooker is the most enviable, he does not miss the excitement from beginning to end, he receives the exciting scenes, but he is not responsible for solving problems and delivering answers, he is in fact the representative and embodiment of our readers. From Captain Hastings, we learn that Poirot was "one of the most famous members of the Belgian Police Service" before he came to England, and that he had "made a name for himself by successfully solving some of the most bizarre cases". When Mrs. Inglethorpe, the owner of Stiles Manor, dies in a mysterious way, Poirot meets Detective Japp of Scotland Yard, who comes to investigate, and the two old acquaintances reminisce about a forged document in Brussels in 1904. Thus, we have a basic understanding of the origin of Poirot. At this time, Poirot still had the habits of a policeman, he carried a "small briefcase", was active frequently, crawling all over the scene, "he jumped from one place to another with agility like a grasshopper", and found six suspicious points in one go, which really looked a bit like the policeman he later ridiculed as a "hound". For example, the young and arrogant prosecutor Mr. Giraud in "Suspicion of the Golf Course", "prostrate on all fours", finds a cigarette butt and a match. Of course, he still shows a difference in thinking, saying that "everything needs to be arranged precisely in the right place", which will increasingly become the way he handles cases. His attention will be more and more focused on phenomena and their relationships, that is, on structures, trying to organize scattered things, which requires more use of the brain than of action. In fact, he would later encounter some long-standing backlogs, in which case all the evidence would disappear and his memory would become unreliable, and he would only use his own brain, "little gray cells", to think, think! In "The Strange Bell Case", Poirot even stayed at home, relying only on the conditions provided by others, to carry out pure reasoning. At this time, his appearance is more exquisite, his style is calm, and his attitude is not a little arrogant. And in "The Mysterious Case of Styles", Poirot did not get rid of the police body, perhaps, because he was under the fence, he was extraordinarily attentive, and his actions were inevitably a little trivial. In "Tragedy in Three Acts", Poirot is slightly famous, but among the arrogant and prejudiced English gentlemen, he is still disdainful, and the wording is quite disrespectful when he talks about it. At the reception of Sir Charles Cartwright at the "Crow's Nest", the host could scarcely remember such a guest, and when he was reminded of it, he could not help laughing: "This gentleman does not seem to be a man who would be popular, this fellow is the most stubborn man I have ever met, a ghost elf." He even called him a "dwarf" and "a brilliant dwarf, of course." In the end, this "outstanding dwarf" became Charles Cartwright's nemesis. When Poirot revealed that he had hidden his wife in a psychiatric hospital so that he could marry a new love, and then murdered the talkative insider, Sir Charles Cartwright spat out three words to Poirot: "!" and the contempt was reduced to ashes in a fit of rage. When Poirot questions Sir step by step, the narrator uses the following description: "Hercule Poirot, the petty bourgeoisie, looks up at the aristocracy", which can be seen as an identification of Poirot's identity. At this point, Poirot's origin is roughly clear.

However, there are two short-lived characters that make me see the shadow of Poirot, who seem to be Poirot's predecessors, or variants. I would like to point out here that my descriptions are not based on the order in which Agatha Christie wrote, partly because I do not have access to this information, and secondly because I do not think that the order of writing is the only basis, because the imagination is so lively and vivid, and there are many unexpected things, and we sometimes have to abandon the original intention of the writer and focus on the result. There are three short story collections in the "Complete Works": "Thrilling Romance", "Mysterious Mr. Quinn", and "Mysterious Third Man", the first one is about a Mr. Parker Pine, and the last two are about Mr. Quinn. Mr. Parker Pine was brought on the stage by an ad that said, "Are you happy? If the answer is 'no,' then come to 17 Richmond Street and let Mr. Parker Pine help you." In terms of image, Mr. Parker Pyne - "he was a big man, but not fat, he had a big bald head, and a pair of small eyes that glistened through thick lenses", which was not very distinctive, but what was strange was his attitude, "just seeing Mr. Parker Pine made people feel a lot more comfortable". This does not look like Poirot, but who knows? The man who came to him, because of his hope, had already had a good impression in advance, and Poirot was not originally wise and understanding? Mr. Parker Pine explained his business to one of his employers, Major Wilbraham, and said, "You see, I have been collating all kinds of data for thirty-five years in a ** agency. Now that I'm retired, I suddenly think of an unprecedented use for the experience I've accumulated." Mr. Parker Pyne's office had a female secretary who had the same name as the one in Poirot's later office, Miss Lemmon. And, it is true, that Poirot's friend, the detective novelist Mrs. Oliver, was also in and out of the room, and lived in the top room of Mr. Parker Pine's office, and she was "a member of Mr. Pine's team." Here there are all sorts of problems, but Mr. Parker Pine's solution is whimsical—Mrs. Parkington's problem is that her husband is having an affair, Mr. Parker Pine's response is that Mrs. Parkington also has a romance, Mr. Reginald's wife is divorced, and Parker Pyne's problem is that Mrs. Parkington is also a romance. Mr. Pyne had surrounded Mr. Reginald with passionate marriageable women, and the petty civil servant Roberts regretted that he had nothing to commemorate in his life, so it so happened that Mr. Burnington's problem was how to send a confidential blueprint to the League of Nations in Geneva, and what to do with Mrs. Abner Dunmer, who had too much money to live a simple life...... There are also murders, such as "Murder on the Nile", which is also a trip on the Nile, and it is also a wealthy wife, who is plotted by her husband, and she is also a husband who is aggrieved, and it can be seen as the prototype of the later glorious "Tragedy on the Nile".

This is Mr. Parker Pine, and there is a Mr. Harry Quinn. IN ONE OF THE SHORT STORIES OF "THE MYSTERIOUS THIRD PARTY", "THE COLORFUL TEA SET", A NOTE IS MADE FOR THE NAME "HARLEQUIN" - "THE ORIGINAL HARLEQUIN, WHICH MEANS A WITTY CHARACTER WITH A SHAVED HEAD, A MASK, A VARIEGATED CLOTHES, AND A WOODEN SWORD IN ITALIAN, ENGLISH, ETC., COMEDY CHARACTERS IN COMEDY OR PANTOMIME." In "Colorful Tea Set", Mr. Quinn appears in the Colorful Cafe, the window of the café is a stained glass window with the atmosphere of a church, and the sun shines in, which puts on a floral coat for Mr. Quinn, just like the kind of comedic character that Fang just said. This is the background of every appearance of Mr. Quinn, who always has stained glass behind him, and the effect is that "he looks colorful", and sometimes, "the fire casts a shadow on his face, giving the impression of a mask". When he emerges from this vision and reveals his true form, you see a tall, thin, dark-skinned man. He always appears out of nowhere, as if falling from the sky, and when he arrives, strange events occur, most of which are related to crime, which is reminiscent of Poirot. It seems that wherever Poirot is, there will be crime, and he always encounters crime unexpectedly, in his own words, "Wherever I go, there will always be something that reminds me of crime" ("Death Date"), and it is like a wish, and sure enough, crime happens. Mr. Quinn's explanation is even more mysterious, and in "The Mysterious Mr. Quinn", he says to Mr. Suttthwaite: "I must warn you to watch out for the harlequin show. It's extinct today – but it's still worth noting, I assure you. Its symbolism is not easy to understand - but the eternal is always eternal" - and they are both somewhat like prophets, Mr. Quinn is an ancient face, and Poirot is a modern man. Mr. Suttthwaite, another mysterious figure, must be present in the presence of Mr. Suttthwaite where Mr. Quinn came. Mr. Suttthwaite was a shriveled old man of sixty-two, "and his whole life was, so to speak, sitting in the front row of the main hall of the theatre and watching a different human drama play out before him." He has always been in the role of a bystander. "He has a natural aptitude for viewing, he instinctively knows when every plot in every play is about to take place, and it is at the moment when his instinct reaches its peak that he meets Mr. Quinn – which takes place in the first chapter of "The Mysterious Mr. Quinn", "The Arrival of Mr. Quinn" It was a high-class New Year's party, and the guests were mostly nobles with titles and of high rank, but Mr. Suttthwaite was uneasy, and he clearly felt that a gloomy air was gradually permeating the splendid mansion, and then a storm arose, so that Mr. Quinn, a passer-by whose car had broken down, entered the drawing-room. Something unusual happened, a suicide case many years ago - it was this suicide that suppressed the atmosphere of the party - under the prompting of Mr. Quinn, step by step unveiled the curtain and deduced the truth. Mr. Suttthwaite realized: "It was Mr. Quinn who planned the play — giving the actors a hint of when they should be on the stage. He holds the string at the heart of the mystery play, directing the puppets. This is the eternal "harlequin play" that Mr. Quinn reminds Mr. Suttthwaite, and he is the leading character in the colorful clothes. After that, the two of them got into each other. It was always the case, when Mr. Suttthwaite was feeling uneasy, Mr. Quinn came. He doesn't tell Mr. Suttthwaite anything, but, "He has the ability to show you what you've always known from a completely different perspective." "For example, in Gestures in the Air, Mrs. Barnaby is shot dead, the court convicts the young Martin Wilder, and Mr. Suttthwaite is upset again, and Mr. Quinn suggests that he travel to Canada and look for Louisa Bullard, a maid who has been there shortly after the crime. Mr. Suttthwaite had a conversation with Louisa Bullard and had nothing to gain, but Mr. Quinn drew his attention to Louisa's remark when the gun rang out—"a train passed by, and its white smoke rose in the air to form a great hand"—which illustrates the exact time of the shooting, which is proved to be unreliable by the absence of the deceased's husband, Mr. Barnaby. In this way, Mr. Quinn seemed to be an inspiration, and as soon as he came, Mr. Suttthwaite's mind immediately lit up. At their fifth meeting, Mr. Quinn said that his friend had changed – "then you were content to watch the drama that life had laid before you." Now – you want to participate – go to the show. "Mr. Suttthwaite began to intervene in life, or rather into life, and play the role with Mr. Quinn, who is he playing? Could it be Poirot!

Mr. Suttthwaite once shared the stage with Poirot in Tragedy in Three Acts. The novel begins with "Mr. Suttthwaite sitting on the terrace of the 'Crow's Nest' and watching the owner, Sir Charles Cartwright, climb the path from the seashore." Somehow the scene was a bit bleak, he still maintained the posture of a bystander, and he was looking down. His image has not changed, he is still a small man with a thin hunchback, but his identity is more specific - "he is a patron of art and theater". As in the period of "Mysterious Mr. Quinn", the people, specifically, the guests of the party that night, were interested and secretly looked at each other. However, when the turmoil arises, it is not Mr. Quinn who is present, but Poirot. Mr. Suttthwaite is still a thinking character, he sees a lot, hears a lot, thinks a lot, and even points out to Poirot: "You have noticed an important clue", but he is at a loss, and it turns out that Poirot solves the case. Mr. Suttthwaite has a melancholy look on the face of a utopian, which gives the whole narrative a sad tone. I like him very much, and I think he is a bit like the "superfluous person" in the Russian nineteen ****, diligent in thought, lazy in action, and compassionate to the world, slightly eliminating some Victorian conservative fashion, and adding a romantic atmosphere. However, Mr. Suttthwaite caught a glimpse of Poirot's story and quickly withdrew. Alternatively, we can assume that Mr. Quinn and Mr. Suttthwaite have finally become one and have retired.

For example, the Greek gods have a genealogy, and I would like to give Hercules the same name Hercules a genealogy, but as a foreigner, his kinship is no longer verifiable, and the rest is only social relations. The first one, I think, should be the aforementioned Captain Hastings. Of the cases that Poirot presided over, there were seven major cases and twenty-two minor cases, and Captain Hastings accompanied him and served as the narrator. As mentioned earlier, it was Captain Hastings who brought Poirot on the field, in "The Mysterious Case of Stiles," or in Styles, and Captain Hastings sent Poirot away—"this is where he lived when he first came to this country." Finally, he will rest here in peace. In this way, we knew Poirot even before we knew him, and when Poirot disappeared, he was still in sight, he was Poirot's most loyal friend in the country. In The Mysterious Case of Stiles, Captain Hastings has just returned from being wounded in the front, and in the short story "The Mystery of the Prom", the location of the wounded is described in more detail, "Wounded in the Battle of the Somme". After recovering from his injuries, he was given a month's leave of absence to live for a while at the invitation of an old friend at his father's and now his stepmother's estate. Mrs. Inglethorpe, the stepmother of an old friend, was the victim of a murder that followed. At the town's post office, Captain Hastings and Poirot collide head-on, and the two can't help but be ecstatic. Later, at one point, retired Captain Hastings and Poirot shared an apartment in London and lived together, and as a result, they were involved in many exciting cases.

Captain Hastings, an old-fashioned English gentleman with Belgian Detective Poirot, was often shy and could not resist complaining: "I think we stand out here, especially you, Poirot, are a complete foreigner." You know, in the eyes of the British, almost all "foreigners" are undesirable, even though Poirot explained to him: "My clothes are made by English tailors", to no avail. Poirot's penchant for sweets, bells and whistles, and an exaggerated mustache all irritated his nerves. Some of Poirot's actions directly challenge his moral concept: lying, eavesdropping, and even blackmailing suspects - because Poirot often solves cases without evidence, and in order to get a suspect to confess, he has to devise a little trick, such as a fabricated fingerprint, which makes Captain Hastings shocked. But underneath his reserved gentlemanly demeanor, there is actually a pure heart. In The Murder of Roger Aykroyd, Poirot describes Captain Hastings, who was far away in Argentina at this time, to Dr. James Shepard: "He was sometimes stupid and frightening, but he was very affectionate to me. You know, I even miss his clumsy actions, his innocent words, his honest expression. It is this innocent nature that enables the English, who have this rule, to overcome their prejudices and be attracted to the Belgian Poirot. At Stiles, he discussed with his friends his plans for retirement, saying that he wanted to be a detective because he had met a man in Belgium: "He's a wonderful, little man, and he likes to say that detective work is purely a matter of method." My ideology is built on that. Of course, I took his thinking a step further. He didn't dare to say this big thing in front of Poirot, I don't know what kind of ridicule it would incur, and even sometimes, Poirot began to compliment him, and he was ready to take the blow. In "Record of Human Nature", Poirot enthusiastically expresses his dependence on Captain Hastings, and his sincerity bewilders the self-aware Captain Hastings, and he listens with infinite emotion, but Poirot's words are getting farther and farther away from expectations. Poirot's exact words are as follows: "When a criminal sets out to commit a crime, his first step is to deceive." Who is he going to deceive? In his mind, the people he is looking for are normal people. ...... I can think of you as a mirror in your mind of what the criminal wants me to believe. This is very useful and very informative. This, of course, disappointed Captain Hastings, who returned to his old self-humility and inevitably thought, "My real purpose is to be with him, so that he may have someone to show off." Commenting on Captain Hastings' "talent," Poirot also told Dr. James Shepard in The Murder of Roger Aykroyd: "He had a knack for discovering the truth without even realizing it—and of course, he didn't even notice it." Sometimes he would say something very stupid, and through these stupid things I could find out the truth!" I should admit that Poirot's words were not full of ridicule, but there was some sincerity. Captain Hastings, who is so pure, so pure that he is not in harmony with all evil, is therefore able to provide Poirot with counter-evidence.

Captain Hastings' warmth always drove him out of the confines of the English gentleman and towards girls of different social classes. In "The Mysterious Case of Stiles", he fell in love with Miss Cynthia Murdoch, the nurse girl who lived on the manor, and he liked the color of her hair, the color of her skin, her youthful energy, her kindness, and, in fact, pity for her loneliness. He bravely took her little hand and said, "Marry me, Cynthia." The answer he received was "Don't be stupid!" His amorous attitude will inevitably cover his eyes and make it impossible to see the facts. In "The Adventures of the Star of the West", he sees a beautiful lady walking on the street outside the window, with three men and a woman watching behind her, and seeing that she is in danger, Poirot arrives in time and tells her: "That's Miss Mary Marville, a famous movie star, and she is followed by a group of admirers who know her." In "Suspicion of the Golf Course", he and Poirot rushed to the place of the incident, passing a small dilapidated house on the way, and there was a young girl standing at the door, with a fairy-like appearance and posture, which was a bit of a "Cinderella" mood, and he couldn't help but exclaim, saying that he saw a goddess. Poirot's reply: "All I see is a girl with anxious eyes." The result, of course, was Poirot, and the "goddess" was murderous. But as fate would have it, here Captain Hastings married a real Cinderella, and that was Miss Bella Duvien, an actor in a caravan troupe who performed song and dance juggling under the stage name "Dulcie Bella Doll". This is a far cry, but it does not prevent them from living happily together, with a group of children, a boy serving in the navy, a farm in Argentina, and a daughter Grace married to a military man stationed in India. His youngest daughter, Judith, who received a Bachelor of Science degree and served as the secretary of a Ph.D. in tropical disease research, walked with him into the final story, "The Curtain". At this time, his wife, the "Dulcisbella Doll" of the year, had gone to heaven alone, leaving him alone. Time passed, Styles became more, he also got old, no longer like when he was younger, the future was in sight, but, everything was in the past. He could only hold on to the one thing at hand, and that was Judith. He almost became a murderer for Judith's sake, but Poirot saved him. Poirot, his old friend, with the last of his wisdom, repaid Hastings' loyalty.

The second place on Poirot's social relations list, I thought it was the detective novelist Mrs. Ariardon Oliver. Mrs. Oliver was a celebrity, the kind of person who recognized her everywhere she went, and asked her to sign it. I didn't see her, I thought it was mysterious, but once I got closer, I was attracted to her. For example, in "A Card in a Card", her admirer, Miss Roda, comes to her studio and sees that the walls are covered with tropical wallpapers, and there is a typewriter on the old dining table, and there is typing paper all over the place. There is always a bag full of apples next to her, which she will also forget, and it will roll all over the place. To Rhoda's greatest surprise, Mrs. Oliver nonchalantly reveals to her the inside story of the detective novel: "You see, I'm working, but my Finnish detective has confused himself. Well, he made a convincing judgment on a plate of French broad beans...... But I suddenly remembered that the French broad beans were already out of season during the Mechareb Festival. Then Roda had afternoon tea with Mrs. Oliver, unsweetened and milked espresso and piping hot toast, the classic taste of Biboirot, but also the taste of women, understanding the essence of food. She had known Poirot for a long time, and as I mentioned earlier, she was in Mr. Parker Pine's office, and I suspect that was the beginning of her acquaintance with Poirot, when she and Mr. Parker Pine were on the same "work force." In "The Shadow of Old Sins", Poirot admits with reservations that "they have shared many experiences and experiments together", which is also an explanation for the work partner. Poirot valued her, even, a little dependently. He relied not on the mirror role of a "normal person" like Captain Hastings, but on the intuition of women. Although Mrs. Oliver tried her best to use her imagination to assist Poirot, in Poirot's opinion, her overactive imagination was always getting further and further away from the truth - "her ideas were conceived by her brain, and it is difficult to say the facts", Poirot said cautiously. Mrs. Oliver was often tempted to act in the face of murder, but in Poirot's view, it would only put her in danger and would not help. What Poirot wants is "intuition", an intuition in a hazy state. This kind of intuition, strangely, does not stand up to scrutiny, and once scrutinized, it immediately deviates from the truth. For example, in "Card in Card", Mrs. Oliver came up and decided that the murderer was Dr. Roberts, and after the discussion and analysis between Poirot and the police commissioner, she resolutely gave up her opinion and reversed herself: "I never thought it was him, never thought." He's too obvious. "But, at the end of the day, it's Dr. Roberts. This instinct wanders so much that when the real murder happens, it doesn't realize it. In "The Death of a Cleaning Lady", when Robin kills his so-called adoptive mother, Mrs. Upward, Mrs. Oliver sits in the car outside the door - "I don't feel it at all!" Poirot can't be serious about a woman, of course, he just mutters in a low voice, "Your woman's intuition is off that day...... For example, in "A Card in a Card", before the game begins, Mrs. Oliver suddenly says, "An angel is passing over our heads." I didn't cross my feet - it must be a black angel!" Sure enough, Mr. Shetana was stabbed to death at the table. In "Apartment Girl", when she walks into a block of alleys that are intertwined like cobwebs, she suddenly feels like she has walked into a jungle, with prying eyes hidden in the bushes, and sure enough, she is hit on the head and knows nothing. In "The Lost Mansion", after she planned the "killing game" at the garden party, she felt that "something was wrong here" and immediately summoned Poirot, and sure enough, the girl who played the dead corpse died—Poirot, who respects reality, sometimes has to admit, "although she is confused...... But she can suddenly realize the true meaning of things from time to time. ”

Except for the two old acquaintances, Captain Hastings and Mrs. Oliver, the rest of Poirot's social connections are all from the police business. Chief Constable of Scotland Yard in London, Mr. Jap, Superintendent of Police, Superintendent of Constable, Superintendent of Spence, Superintendent Morton, Superintendent of Raglan...... Although it was an official relationship, I also had a friendship later. There is also one person who must be mentioned, that is, the secretary of Poirot's office, Miss Lemmon, a level-headed old virgin and an archivist, who is working on the creation of a new archival system, patented in her name, which has a programming nature in the era before the invention of computers. In her eyes, any strange case is just a file, and it is important to put it in a reasonable position so that it can be checked and compared. Only a person with such a character can face so many crimes calmly. But didn't even Miss Lemmon have a gaffe once? Her sister, Miss Lemmon, had a sister who surprised Poirot, who seemed to have been born for work and had no personal life, but of course she could have a sister, her sister, Mrs. Hubbard, was working as a caretaker in an international student dormitory, and something strange was going on there. Poirot asks Miss Lemmon to invite her sister, Mrs. Hubbard, to have afternoon tea with them in the office, and Poirot has another business, "Murder in a Foreign Student Dormitory".

Coming to Styles again and looking back on that glorious past is very bleak. At this time, Poirot was old and ill, and he told Captain Hastings with a strange expression that he had come to "pursue a murderer". Then he pulled out a pile of newspaper clippings, and there were five murders of a different nature, in different places, different classes, and with different motives—Poirot deduced that all five, if not more, murders were committed by one man, and for the time being called X—this X had no motive, or was not at the scene, but each one succeeded. How strange it was! Hastings was a little unrecognizable of his old friend, but wasn't Hastings himself a little strange? He was anxious, and he was always arguing with his daughter Judith, and everything around him was annoying: Mrs. Franklin, who was sick and crooked, Mr. Franklin, who was only concerned with his work, and Major Allerton was so frivolous, but Mrs. Lertrell was infatuated with him, and once, when he saw Judith kissing Colonel Allerton, he planned to murder him...... It's a sad scene, things are out of control, and Porot can't seem to be trusted, where is the X he is after? This X, a substance similar to a certain touch enzyme, stimulates the potential criminal factor in the mind of everyone, in order to eliminate immunity in a way. So, sometimes, a good person, like someone as benevolent by nature as Hastings, can also be murderous. But Poirot would never lose, he finally found him, and executed him with his own hands, and then he executed himself with his own hands - "I'd rather give myself into God's hands." He may punish, or he may forgive, may it come soon!" he wrote in his last words to Hastings, which was the end of many of his noble murderers.

The name of this novel is "The Curtain", and I thought it should actually be - curtain call.