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126-636: Sleeping Murder: Miss Marple's Last Case is a work of detective fiction by Agatha Christie and first published in the UK by the Collins Crime Club in October 1976 and in the US by Dodd, Mead and Company later in the same year. The UK edition retailed for £ 3.50 and the US edition for $ 7.95. The book features Miss Marple . Released posthumously, it was the last published Christie novel, although not

252-519: A climax where the titular detective protagonist Ali Khwaja presents evidence from expert witnesses in a court. Gong'an fiction ( 公案小说 , literally："case records of a public law court") is an early genre of Chinese detective fiction. Some well-known stories include the Yuan dynasty story Circle of Chalk (Chinese: 灰 闌 記 ), the Ming dynasty story collection Bao Gong An (Chinese: 包 公 案 ) and

378-401: A "plot formula that's been successful ever since, give or take a few shifting variables." Poe followed with further Auguste Dupin tales: " The Mystery of Marie Rogêt " in 1842 and " The Purloined Letter " in 1844. Poe referred to his stories as "tales of ratiocination ". In stories such as these, the primary concern of the plot is ascertaining truth, and the usual means of obtaining the truth

504-470: A Policeman . Twelve stories were then collated into a volume entitled Recollections of a Detective Police-Officer , published in London in 1856. Literary critic Catherine Ross Nickerson credits Louisa May Alcott with creating the second-oldest work of modern detective fiction, after Poe's Dupin stories, with the 1865 thriller "V.V., or Plots and Counterplots." A short story published anonymously by Alcott,

630-709: A clerk at the Edinburgh Royal Infirmary . Like Holmes, Bell was noted for drawing large conclusions from the smallest observations. A brilliant London-based "consulting detective" residing at 221B Baker Street , Holmes is famous for his intellectual prowess and is renowned for his skillful use of astute observation , deductive reasoning , and forensic skills to solve difficult cases . Conan Doyle wrote four novels and fifty-six short stories featuring Holmes, and all but four stories are narrated by Holmes's friend, assistant, and biographer, Dr. John H. Watson . The interwar period (the 1920s and 1930s)

756-399: A closed environment by one of a limited number of suspects. The most widespread subgenre of the detective novel became the whodunit (or whodunnit, short for "who done it?"). In this subgenre, great ingenuity may be exercised in narrating the crime, usually a homicide, and the subsequent investigation. This objective was to conceal the identity of the criminal from the reader until the end of

882-537: A copy of Othello , a copy of John Ferguson (a 1915 play by St. John Greer Ervine ), and a note to speak to his longtime valet, Georges. After Poirot is buried at Styles, Hastings learns that Judith has all along been in love with Dr Franklin. She will marry him and leave to do research in Africa. When Hastings speaks to Georges, he learns that Poirot wore a wig and that Poirot's reasons for employing Curtiss were vague. Four months after Poirot's death, Hastings receives

1008-460: A decline, is seen once more at the peak of her ingenuity." Coady called Captain Hastings the "densest of Dr Watsons [but]... never has the stupidity of the faithful companion-chronicler been so cunningly exploited as it is here." Coady summarised the absolute basics of the plot and the questions raised within it and then said, In providing the answers, the great illusionist of crime fiction provides

1134-529: A detective, Dr. Priestley , who specialised in elaborate technical devices. In the United States, the whodunit subgenre was adopted and extended by Rex Stout and Ellery Queen , along with others. The emphasis on formal rules during the Golden Age produced great works, albeit with highly standardized form. The most successful novels of this time included “an original and exciting plot; distinction in

1260-456: A disastrous rash action. Ironically, Hastings had unwittingly intervened in Mrs. Franklin's plan to poison her husband, by turning a revolving bookcase table while seeking a book to solve a crossword clue ( Othello again), thus swapping the cups of coffee, so Mrs Franklin poisoned herself. Poirot could not prove this. He sensed that Norton, who had been deliberately vague about whom he had seen through

1386-424: A higher tolerance for a sedative dose that would incapacitate Norton. Poirot moves the sleeping Norton back to his room using the wheelchair. Poirot could walk all along, one reason he needed a new valet who was unaware of that for this last case. Then, being the same height as Norton, he disguises himself by removing his wig and false moustache, ruffling up his grey hair, donning Norton's dressing-gown and walking with

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1512-664: A house in Dillmouth, where Helen grew up. The coincidences prove to be memories from Gwenda's stay in that house 18 years ago as a very young child. Now Gwenda ponders her frightening image and the closing words of the play: are they real memories as well? Her husband Giles arrives from New Zealand and the couple decide to pursue this mystery. Helen was raised mainly by her half brother, Dr Kennedy, now retired from practice and moved to another village. He replies to an advertisement placed by Giles seeking information about Helen. Miss Marple arranges to visit friends in Dillmouth. Miss Marple

1638-425: A large old house that feels just like home. She supervises workers in a renovation, staying in a one-time nursery room while the work progresses. She forms a definite idea for the little nursery. When the workmen open a long sealed door, she sees the very wallpaper that was in her mind. Further, a place that seems logical to her for a doorway between two rooms proves to have been one years earlier. She goes to London for

1764-404: A limp. Having Hastings establish that Norton was alive after leaving Poirot's room, Poirot shoots Norton, leaves the pistol on the table and locks the room with a duplicate key. Poirot then writes his story and ceases to take his amyl nitrite heart medicine. He cannot say it was right to commit murder, but on balance he was sure he prevented yet more instigated by Norton. His last wish for Hastings

1890-486: A long-cherished idea, and as an exit for Poirot, this is oddly perfunctory in execution. It was one of the bestselling books of 1976 . Being their last case together, mention is made of earlier cases. Hastings became involved in the first Styles investigation in 1916, at which time he was thirty years old. He married at the end of the next Poirot novel, The Murder on the Links , mentioned twice in this novel, as Hastings

2016-596: A manuscript in which Poirot explains all. X was Norton, a man who had perfected the technique of which Iago in Othello (and a character in Ervine's play) is master: applying just such psychological pressure as is needed to provoke someone to commit murder, without his victim realising what is happening. Norton had demonstrated this ability, with Colonel Luttrell, with Hastings, and Mrs Franklin. Poirot intervened with sleeping pills in Hastings' hot chocolate that night, to avert

2142-561: A mechanical birdcage, but an unputdownable swansong." Robert Barnard , in A Talent to Deceive , less favourably writes: Written in the 'forties, designed for publication after Christie's death, but in fact issued just before it. Based on an idea toyed with in Peril at End House (chapter 9) – a clever and interesting one, but needing greater subtlety in the handling than Christie's style or characterisation will allow (the characters here are in any case quite exceptionally pallid). In fact, for

2268-590: A model demonstration of reader manipulation. The seemingly artless, simplistic Christie prose is mined with deceits. Inside the old, absurd conventions of the Country House mystery she reworks the least likely person trick with a freshness rivalling the originality she displayed nearly 50 years ago in The Murder of Roger Ackroyd . For the egotistic Poirot, hero of some 40 books… it is a dazzlingly theatrical finish. 'Goodbye, cher ami', runs his final message to

2394-464: A new type of narrative style. Western detective fiction that was translated often emphasized “individuality, equality, and the importance of knowledge”, appealing to China that it was the time for opening their eyes to the rest of the world. This style began China's interest in popular crime fiction , and is what drove Cheng Xiaoqing to write his own crime fiction novel, Sherlock in Shanghai . In

2520-422: A number of ideas that have established in the genre several classic features of the 20th century detective story: Although The Moonstone is usually seen as the first detective novel, there are other contenders for the honor. A number of critics suggest that the lesser known Notting Hill Mystery (1862–63), written by the pseudonymous "Charles Felix" (later identified as Charles Warren Adams ), preceded it by

2646-478: A number of years and first used techniques that would come to define the genre. Literary critics Chris Willis and Kate Watson consider Mary Elizabeth Braddon 's first book, the even earlier The Trail of the Serpent (1861), to be the first British detective novel. The Trail of the Serpent "features an innovative detective figure, Mr. Peters, who is lower class and mute, and who is initially dismissed both by

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2772-458: A rabbit. Mrs Luttrell recovers, and the incident has a good effect on their marriage. Next, Hastings is concerned that his daughter Judith spends time with Major Allerton, a married man. While Hastings and Elizabeth are out with birdwatcher Stephen Norton, Norton appears to see something through his binoculars that disturbs him. Hastings assumes it has to do with Allerton. When his attempts to persuade Judith to give Allerton up merely antagonise her,

2898-468: A small bottle – persuades the coroner to return a verdict of suicide. Norton appears to still be concerned over what he saw days earlier when out with Hastings and Cole. Hastings advises Norton to confide in Poirot. They meet in Poirot's room. That night, Hastings is awakened by a noise and sees Norton going back into his bedroom. The next morning, Norton is found dead in his locked room with a bullet-hole in

3024-496: A toddler, once her mother died. Her father died a few years after her mother. She has memories of being on a ship, but it is clearly two ships. Miss Marple suggests that Gwenda lived in England with her father and his second wife, which proves to be the case. Her stepmother, Helen Halliday née Kennedy, met her father travelling from India back to England, where their shipboard romance led to marriage upon arrival in England. They rented

3150-562: A visit with relatives, the author Raymond West, his wife, and his aunt, Miss Jane Marple. During the play, The Duchess of Malfi , when the line "Cover her face; mine eyes dazzle; she died young" is spoken, Gwenda screams out; she saw an image of herself viewing a man saying those words strangling a blonde-haired woman named Helen. Gwenda was born in India where her father was stationed, then raised in New Zealand by her mother's sister from

3276-541: Is 'The Secret Cell', a short story published in September 1837 by William Evans Burton . It has been suggested that this story may have been known to Poe, who worked for Burton in 1839. The story was about a London policeman who solves the mystery of a kidnapped girl. Burton's fictional detective relied on practical methods such as dogged legwork, knowledge of the underworld and undercover surveillance, rather than brilliance of imagination or intellect. Detective fiction in

3402-546: Is 21 in Curtain ; he met her mother in The Murder on the Links , published 1923. Hastings himself appears to be in his fifties, since he describes a woman between 30 and 40 as "well over ten years my junior." All of this suggests a 1940s timeframe, despite this being inconsistent with Poirot's continued appearances in books taking place as late as the 1970s. A significantly later date would introduce other anachronisms, such as

3528-485: Is a celebrated Bengali detective character who first appeared in the 1965 story Feludar Goyendagiri . His full name is Pradosh Chandra Mitra, and he is often referred to affectionately as Feluda . Feluda is characterized by his keen observational skills, sharp intellect, and a flair for deduction, which he employs to solve intricate mysteries. Feluda is often accompanied by his cousin, who is also his assistant, Tapesh Ranjan Mitter (affectionately called Topshe), who serves as

3654-427: Is a complex and mysterious process combining intuitive logic, astute observation, and perspicacious inference. "Early detective stories tended to follow an investigating protagonist from the first scene to the last, making the unravelling a practical rather than emotional matter." "The Mystery of Marie Rogêt" is particularly interesting because it is a barely fictionalized account based on Poe's theory of what happened to

3780-450: Is a famous Russian writer of historical detective fiction in modern-day Russia. In the United States, detective fiction emerged in the 1920s, and flourished with stories in pulp magazines. The genre gained prominence in later decades, as the detective character was refined, and became familiar through movies. Detective fiction was also a way for authors to bring stories about various subcultures to mainstream audiences. One scholar wrote about

3906-406: Is a fictional Bengali female detective character created by Suchitra Bhattacharya . Colonel Niladri Sarkar is a fictional detective character created by Bengali novelist Syed Mustafa Siraj . Kottayam Pushpanath , a prolific writer, brought to life a vivid array of characters and mysteries. Pushpanath practiced teaching history for several years before becoming a full time writer. It

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4032-553: Is a sister of Margaret Litchfield, who confessed to the murder of their abusive father in one of the five cases. Margaret died in Broadmoor Asylum , and Elizabeth is stigmatised by the trauma. Three incidents occur in the next few days that show the imprint of X. First, Hastings and others overhear an argument between the Luttrells. Shortly afterwards, Luttrell wounds his wife with a rook rifle , saying he mistook her for

4158-535: Is described as an "' Everyman ' detective meant to challenge the detective-as-superman that Holmes represented." By the late 1920s, Al Capone and the American mafia inspired not only fear, but piqued mainstream curiosity about the American criminal underworld . Popular pulp fiction magazines like Black Mask capitalized on this, as authors such as Carrol John Daly published violent stories that focused on

4284-584: Is generally referred to as the Golden Age of Detective Fiction . During this period, a number of very popular writers emerged, including mostly British but also a notable subset of American and New Zealand writers. Female writers constituted a major portion of notable Golden Age writers. Agatha Christie , Dorothy L. Sayers , Josephine Tey , Margery Allingham , and Ngaio Marsh were particularly famous female writers of this time. Apart from Marsh (a New Zealander), they were all British. Various conventions of

4410-476: Is generated through multiple plot twists that occur as the story progressed. With these characteristics this may be considered an archetype for detective fiction. It anticipates the use of reverse chronology in modern detective fiction, where the story begins with a crime before presenting a gradual reconstruction of the past. The main difference between Ja'far ("The Three Apples") and later fictional detectives, such as Sherlock Holmes and Hercule Poirot ,

4536-528: Is investigated by Inspector Bucket of the Metropolitan police force. Numerous characters appeared on the staircase leading to Tulkinghorn's office that night, some of them in disguise, and Inspector Bucket must penetrate these mysteries to identify the murderer. Dickens also left a novel unfinished at his death, The Mystery of Edwin Drood . Dickens's protégé, Wilkie Collins (1824–1889)—sometimes called

4662-424: Is now a guest hotel under new owners, Colonel and Mrs Luttrell. The guests know each other, with this gathering initiated when Sir William Boyd-Carrington invites Dr Franklin and his wife to join him for a summer holiday stay. Hastings' daughter Judith accompanies Dr Franklin as his research assistant. The five prior murders took place in the area, among people known to this group. Elizabeth Cole tells Hastings that she

4788-753: Is now a widower. Poirot mentions that once, in Egypt, he attempted to warn a murderer before the person committed the crime. That case is the one retold in Death on the Nile . He mentions that there was another case in which he had done the same thing: almost certainly that retold in "Triangle at Rhodes" (published in Murder in the Mews in 1937). In The A.B.C. Murders , Inspector Japp says to Poirot: "Shouldn't wonder if you ended by detecting your own death;" an indication that

4914-599: Is often at the house, pulling out bindweed from the neglected garden. She finds the man who once gardened for the Kennedy family, sister and brother, who supplies several useful descriptions of events then. Miss Marple finds the cook from the Halliday household, Edith, who remembers that time well. The Hallidays were soon to move to a house in Norfolk before Helen disappeared. Helen wanted to get away. The servants presumed this

5040-493: Is one of the most iconic characters in Indian detective fiction. First appearing in the story Pother Kanta in 1932, Byomkesh, who refers to himself as a "truth-seeker" or Satyanweshi, is known for his acute observational skills and logical reasoning abilities. His adventures typically unfold against the backdrop of Calcutta , tackling a range of crimes, from intricate murder mysteries to drug trafficking, reflecting societal issues of

5166-412: Is that Ja'far has no desire to solve the case. The whodunit mystery is solved when the murderer himself confessed his crime. This in turn leads to another assignment in which Ja'far has to find the culprit who instigated the murder within three days or else be executed. Ja'far again fails to find the culprit before the deadline, but owing to chance, he discovers a key item. In the end, he manages to solve

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5292-583: Is the first major detective fiction in Persian , written by Kazim Musta'an al-Sultan (Houshi Daryan). It was first published in 1925. There was no biographical account of the author of the book for over 70 years until being identified after the book was reprinted in 2017. Edogawa Rampo is the first major Japanese modern mystery writer and the founder of the Detective Story Club in Japan . Rampo

5418-464: Is typical for Poirot the matchmaker: he suggests that Hastings should pursue Elizabeth Cole. In a review titled "The last labour of Hercules", Matthew Coady in The Guardian , on 9 October 1975, wrote that the book was both "a curiosity and a triumph". He repeated the tale of the book being written some thirty years before and then stated that "through it, Dame Agatha, whose recent work has shown

5544-653: The One Thousand and One Nights ( Arabian Nights ). In this story, a fisherman discovers a heavy, locked chest along the Tigris river, which he then sells to the Abbasid Caliph , Harun al-Rashid . When Harun breaks open the chest, he discovers the body of a young woman who has been cut into pieces. Harun then orders his vizier , Ja'far ibn Yahya , to solve the crime and to find the murderer within three days, or be executed if he fails in his assignment. Suspense

5670-628: The Conservative Jewish community of Massachusetts ; Walter Mosley , whose Easy Rawlins books are set in the African American community of 1950s Los Angeles ; and Sara Paretsky , whose V. I. Warshawski books have explored the various subcultures of Chicago . Martin Hewitt, created by British author Arthur Morrison in 1894, is one of the first examples of the modern style of fictional private detective . This character

5796-615: The Literary Inquisitions and the wars in ancient China. In traditional Chinese culture, this genre was not prestigious, and was therefore considered less worthy of preservation than works of philosophy or poetry. One of the earliest examples of detective fiction in Western literature is Voltaire 's Zadig (1748), which features a main character who performs feats of analysis. Things as They Are; or, The Adventures of Caleb Williams (1794) by William Godwin portrays

5922-474: The "grandfather of English detective fiction"—is credited with the first great mystery novel, The Woman in White . T. S. Eliot called Collins's novel The Moonstone (1868) "the first, the longest, and the best of modern English detective novels... in a genre invented by Collins and not by Poe", and Dorothy L. Sayers called it "probably the very finest detective story ever written". The Moonstone contains

6048-637: The "social school" (社会派 shakai ha ) within the genre, which emphasized social realism , described crimes in an ordinary setting and sets motives within a wider context of social injustice and political corruption. Since the 1980s, a " new orthodox school " (新本格派 shin honkaku ha ) has surfaced. It demands restoration of the classic rules of detective fiction and the use of more self-reflective elements. Famous authors of this movement include Soji Shimada , Yukito Ayatsuji , Rintaro Norizuki , Alice Arisugawa , Kaoru Kitamura and Taku Ashibe . Created by famous Bengali novelist Sharadindu Bandyopadhyay , Byomkesh

6174-463: The 18th century Di Gong An (Chinese: 狄 公 案 ) story collection. The latter was translated into English as Celebrated Cases of Judge Dee by Dutch sinologist Robert Van Gulik , who then used the style and characters to write the original Judge Dee series. The hero/detective of these novels was typically a traditional judge or similar official based on historical personages such as Judge Bao ( Bao Qingtian ) or Judge Dee ( Di Renjie ). Although

6300-526: The Detective . In short, it is difficult to establish who was the first to write the English-language detective novel, as various authors were exploring the theme simultaneously. Anna Katharine Green , in her 1878 debut The Leavenworth Case and other works, popularized the genre among middle-class readers and helped to shape the genre into its classic form as well as developed the concept of

6426-531: The English-language literature is considered to have begun in 1841 with the publication of Poe's "The Murders in the Rue Morgue", featuring "the first fictional detective, the eccentric and brilliant C. Auguste Dupin ". When the character first appeared, the word detective had not yet been used in English; however, the character's name, "Dupin", originated from the English word dupe or deception. Poe devised

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6552-606: The French television series Les Petits Meurtres d'Agatha Christie was an adaptation of this novel. It aired in 2012. The novel was adapted as a 90-minute play for BBC Radio 4 and transmitted as part of the Saturday Play strand on 8 December 2001. June Whitfield reprised her role as Miss Marple (she played Miss Marple in several radio adaptations in the 20th century). It was recorded on 10 October 2001. Adapter: Michael Bakewell Producer: Enyd Williams Cast: In

6678-481: The Golden Age were written by Agatha Christie. She produced long series of books featuring detective characters like Hercule Poirot and Miss Marple , among others. Her use of basing her stories on complex puzzles, “combined with her stereotyped characters and picturesque middle-class settings”, is credited for her success. Christie's best-known works include Murder on the Orient Express (1934), Death on

6804-553: The Nile (1937), Three Blind Mice (1950) and And Then There Were None (1939). Through China's Golden Age of crime fiction (1900–1949), translations of Western classics, and native Chinese detective fictions circulated within the country. Cheng Xiaoqing had first encountered Sir Arthur Conan Doyle 's highly popular stories as an adolescent. In the ensuing years, he played a major role in rendering them first into classical and later into vernacular Chinese . Cheng Xiaoqing's translated works from Conan Doyle introduced China to

6930-643: The Old Testament story of Susanna and the Elders (the Protestant Bible locates this story within the apocrypha ), the account told by two witnesses broke down when Daniel cross-examines them. In response, author Julian Symons has argued that "those who search for fragments of detection in the Bible and Herodotus are looking only for puzzles" and that these puzzles are not detective stories. In

7056-602: The Philip Marlowe character. James Hadley Chase wrote a few novels with private eyes as the main heroes, including Blonde's Requiem (1945), Lay Her Among the Lilies (1950), and Figure It Out for Yourself (1950). The heroes of these novels are typical private eyes, very similar to or plagiarizing Raymond Chandler's work. Curtain (novel) Curtain: Poirot's Last Case is a work of detective fiction by British writer Agatha Christie , first published in

7182-542: The Second World War. Christie could not anticipate how long she would live, nor that she would continue to write more stories about the popular detective she had come to detest (see Hercule Poirot and Miss Marple for further discussion of her views of Poirot); nor was the story rewritten to a contemporary setting at the time of its publication. Therefore it is difficult to fit the novel into a consistent chronology with her post-war stories. The exact time period of

7308-657: The UK by the Collins Crime Club in September 1975 and in the US by Dodd, Mead and Company later in the same year, selling for $ 7.95. The novel features Hercule Poirot and Arthur Hastings in their final appearances in Christie's works. It is a country house novel, with all the characters and the murder set in one house. Not only does the novel return the characters to the setting of her first, The Mysterious Affair at Styles , but it reunites Poirot and Hastings, who last appeared together in Dumb Witness in 1937. It

7434-452: The US the novel was serialised in Ladies' Home Journal in two abridged instalments from July (Volume XCIII, Number 7) to August 1976 (Volume XCIII, Number 8) with an illustration by Fred Otnes . Detective fiction Some scholars, such as R. H. Pfeiffer, have suggested that certain ancient and religious texts bear similarities to what would later be called detective fiction. In

7560-575: The adaptation remains extremely faithful to the novel. With the exception of The Mysterious Affair at Styles , set in the First World War, the rest of the ITV Poirot series are set in the 1930s, regardless of when the novels were written, or the contemporary features in each of the novels; this last story sets the year as 1949. On 19 December 2013, Barnaby Walter of The Edge listed the adaptation and Poirot's death scene at number 2 on

7686-622: The binoculars, would hint that he had seen Franklin and Judith, to implicate them in the murder of Mrs Franklin, not inadvertent suicide as it was. This explains Poirot's testimony at her inquest, to ensure the police would stop their investigation. Given his very weak heart, Poirot conceives that he must end the string of murders by killing Norton. Poirot invites Norton to his room for hot chocolate. At their meeting, he tells Norton what he suspects and his plan to execute him. Norton, arrogant and self-assured, insists on swapping cups. Anticipating this move, Poirot had drugged both cups, knowing that he had

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7812-585: The book, when the method and culprit are both revealed. According to scholars Carole Kismaric and Marvin Heiferman , "The golden age of detective fiction began with high-class amateur detectives sniffing out murderers lurking in rose gardens, down country lanes, and in picturesque villages. Many conventions of the detective-fiction genre evolved in this era, as numerous writers—from populist entertainers to respected poets—tried their hands at mystery stories." John Dickson Carr —who also wrote as Carter Dickson—used

7938-481: The case through reasoning in order to prevent his own execution. On the other hand, two other Arabian Nights stories, "The Merchant and the Thief" and "Ali Khwaja", contain two of the earliest fictional detectives , who uncover clues and present evidence to catch or convict a criminal known to the audience, with the story unfolding in normal chronology and the criminal already known to the audience. The latter involves

8064-434: The central characteristics and formal elements of the detective story, including a mystery surrounding a murder, a closed circle of suspects, and the gradual uncovering of a hidden past." One Thousand and One Nights contains several of the earliest detective stories, anticipating modern detective fiction. The oldest known example of a detective story was " The Three Apples ", one of the tales narrated by Scheherazade in

8190-449: The centre of his forehead, the key in his dressing-gown pocket and a pistol nearby. When Hastings tells Poirot that he saw Norton return to his room the previous night, Poirot says it is flimsy evidence, not having seen the face: the dressing-gown, the hair, the limp, can all be imitated. Yet there is no man in the house who could impersonate Norton, who was not tall. Poirot dies of a heart attack within hours. He leaves Hastings three clues:

8316-604: The chapters in the book. When the Hercule Poirot novel Five Little Pigs was later serialised in the US in Collier's Weekly from September to November 1941, the magazine's editing board retitled it Murder in Retrospect . This was also the title used by Christie's American publisher Dodd Mead and Company, presumably in order to capitalise on the recent US serialisation. Christie's original manuscript of Sleeping Murder

8442-461: The chief of secret service and his companions. After his death many other writers accepted Ali Imran character and wrote spy novels. Another popular spy novel writer was Ishtiaq Ahmad who wrote Inspector Jamsheed, Inspector Kamran Mirza and Shooki brother's series of spy novels. Stories about robbers and detectives were very popular in Russia since old times. A famous hero in the eighteenth century

8568-422: The crime. Christie wrote the novel in the early 1940s, during the Second World War. Partly fearing for her own survival, and wanting to have a fitting end to Poirot's series of novels, Christie had the novel locked away in a bank vault for over thirty years. In the same way, she wrote and locked away Miss Marple’s “last” case via the manuscript which was later retitled “ Sleeping Murder ”. Dame Agatha legally gave

8694-476: The detective genre were standardized during the Golden Age, and in 1929, some of them were codified by the English Catholic priest and author of detective stories Ronald Knox in his 'Decalogue' of rules for detective fiction. One of his rules was to avoid supernatural elements so that the focus remained on the mystery itself. Knox has contended that a detective story "must have as its main interest

8820-482: The detective novels of Tony Hillerman , set among the Native American population around New Mexico , "many American readers have probably gotten more insight into traditional Navajo culture from his detective stories than from any other recent books." Other notable writers who have explored regional and ethnic communities in their detective novels are Harry Kemelman , whose Rabbi Small series were set in

8946-479: The end, Gwenda leaves him and becomes engaged to a member of his company, Hugh Hornbeam. Dr Kennedy does not try to kill Gwenda and does not appear to be crazy, merely that he was in love with his sister and killed her so no one could have her. Kelvin is not taken to hospital and drugged by Dr Kennedy with datura . Instead, he is murdered when Dr Kennedy pushes him over a rocky cliff. Adapter: Stephen Churchett Director: Edward Hall Cast: The tenth episode of

9072-476: The final novel, Miss Marple lives on. This last published novel is set in 1944, but follows novels set in later years, which show Miss Marple to have aged. In Nemesis , Miss Marple does no gardening on the advice of her doctor, showing the effects of her more fragile health. In Sleeping Murder , she is frequently pulling bindweed from the neglected garden at the Reeds' home, but that may be a cover for searching for

9198-612: The first of the final series to be filmed. Hugh Fraser again returned to the role of Hastings, for the second time in Season 13 (he also appeared in Episode 2 (“The Big Four”)) after an extended absence from the series; stars such as Alice Orr-Ewing (Judith Hastings), Helen Baxendale (Elizabeth Cole), Anne Reid (Daisy Luttrell), Matthew McNulty (Major Allerton), Shaun Dingwall (Dr Franklin), Aidan McArdle (Stephen Norton) and Philip Glenister (Sir William Boyd-Carrington) were among

9324-412: The garden, at the end of the terrace, to find Helen’s body. Gwenda is in the house alone when Dr Kennedy approaches her, ready to kill her by strangling when his attempt to poison her failed. Miss Marple arrives with a container of soapy solution, which she sprays in his eyes to stop the murder attempt. Dr Kennedy had strangled his sister, saying the closing words from that play, unaware of young Gwenda at

9450-490: The genre is significant, as he represents a sophisticated blend of intellect and charm, setting a high standard for detective fiction in India. Hemendra Kumar Roy was an Indian Bengali writer noted for his contribution to the early development of the genre with his ' Jayanta-Manik ' and adventurist ' Bimal-Kumar ' stories, dealing with the exploits of Jayanta, his assistant Manik, and police inspector Sunderbabu. Mitin Masi

9576-478: The genre were women, inventing a subgenre of domestic detective fiction that flourished for several generations. These included Metta Fuller Victor 's two detective novels The Dead Letter (1867) and The Figure Eight (1869). The Dead Letter is noteworthy as the first full-length work of American crime fiction. Émile Gaboriau was a pioneer of the detective fiction genre in France. In Monsieur Lecoq (1868),

9702-584: The hapless Hastings. 'They were good days.' For addicts, everywhere, they were among the best. Two months later, Coady nominated Curtain as his Book of the Year in a column of critic's choices. He said, "No crime story of 1975 has given me more undiluted pleasure. As a critic, I welcome it, as a reminder that sheer ingenuity can still amaze." Maurice Richardson in The Observer of 5 October 1975 summed up: "One of her most highly contrived jobs, artificial as

9828-545: The historical characters may have lived in an earlier period (such as the Song or Tang dynasty ) most stories are written in the later Ming or Qing dynasty period. These novels differ from the Western tradition in several points as described by Van Gulik: Van Gulik chose Di Gong An to translate because in his view it was closer to the Western literary style and more likely to appeal to non-Chinese readers. A number of Gong An works may have been lost or destroyed during

9954-414: The idea of Curtain had already formed in the author's mind in 1935. On 6 August 1975, The New York Times published a front-page obituary of Poirot with a photograph to mark his death. Hastings also mentions "the case of Evelyn Carlisle" as he speculates over a possible hidden financial motive for X's actions, referring to Sad Cypress which centred on the revelation of money as a motivation for

10080-402: The identity of "Helen Marsden". Other changes include the deletion of some of Helen's suitors, and the addition of a travelling company of performers called The Funnybones , which Helen was performing with at the time of her death. Dr Kennedy became the half-brother of Kelvin's first wife, (whose name is changed from Megan to Claire). Gwenda has an absent fiancé, Charles, rather than a husband. At

10206-505: The initial draft of the novel was written early in 1940. Christie's notebooks are open to interpretation in hindsight; John Curran argues that Sleeping Murder was still being planned at the end of the 1940s and the beginning of the 1950s. His basis is the many changes to the title of the novel, since other authors had used her first title ideas: one of Christie's notebooks contain references to Cover Her Face (second title) under "Plans for Sept. 1947" and "Plans for Nov. 1948", suggesting she

10332-487: The last Miss Marple novel in order of writing. The story is explicitly set in 1944 but the first draft of the novel was possibly written during the Blitz in 1940. Miss Marple aids a young couple who choose to uncover events in the wife's past life, and not let sleeping murder lie. Newlywed Gwenda Reed travels ahead of her husband to find a home for them on the south coast of England. In a short time, she finds and buys Hillside,

10458-485: The last Poirot and Miss Marple novels that she penned during the Second World War in her autobiography. She writes that she had written an extra two books during the first years of the war in anticipation of being killed in the raids, as she was working in London. One was for her daughter, Rosalind Hicks , which she wrote first – a book with Hercule Poirot in it – and the other was for Max – with Miss Marple in it. She adds that these two books, after being composed, were put in

10584-478: The late 1910s, Cheng began writing detective fiction inspired by Conan Doyle's style, with Bao as the Watson-like narrator; a rare instance of such a direct appropriation from foreign fiction. Famed as the “Oriental Sherlock Holmes”, the duo Huo Sang and Bao Lang become counterparts to Doyle 's Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson characters. "Sadiq Mamquli, The Sherlock Holmes of Iran, The Sherriff of Isfahan"

10710-523: The law as protecting the murderer and destroying the innocent. Thomas Skinner Sturr 's anonymous Richmond, or stories in the life of a Bow Street officer was published in London in 1827; the Danish crime story The Rector of Veilbye by Steen Steensen Blicher was written in 1829; and the Norwegian crime novel Mordet paa Maskinbygger Roolfsen ("The Murder of Engine Maker Roolfsen") by Maurits Hansen

10836-400: The mayhem and injustice surrounding the criminals, not the circumstances behind the crime. Very often, no actual mystery even existed: the books simply revolved around justice being served to those who deserved harsh treatment, which was described in explicit detail." The overall theme these writers portrayed reflected "the changing face of America itself." In the 1930s, the private eye genre

10962-546: The mentions of hanging , which was abolished in Great Britain in 1965 . The story clearly ends Poirot's career, for he dies in the novel. Poirot's death was announced in The New York Times with a front-page obituary, a rare honour for a fictional character. The novel was adapted in 2013 starring David Suchet as Poirot. It was the final episode of the final series of Agatha Christie's Poirot , and

11088-477: The narrator of the stories and his friend Jatayu . , The trio embarks on various adventures that blend mystery with elements of Bengali culture and tradition. The stories often include a touch of humor, engaging dialogues, and philosophical musings, making them appealing to a wide audience. Ray's Feluda series not only captivated readers in literary form but also inspired numerous adaptations in film and television, showcasing Ray’s cinematic genius. Feluda’s impact on

11214-418: The necessary 'deed of gift' drawn up so her husband Max would become the owner of the unpublished Miss Marple novel. Christie eventually visited Edmund Cork's offices at 40 Fleet Street, London, on 14 October 1940 and signed the document transferring ownership of the copyright of Murder in Retrospect to her husband in consideration of what was termed her "natural love and affection for him". Christie refers to

11340-455: The novel in his list of "100 Best Crime and Mystery Books". It was one of the bestselling books of 1976 . Sleeping Murder was filmed by the BBC as a 100-minute film in the sixth adaptation (of twelve) in the series Miss Marple starring Joan Hickson as Miss Marple . It was transmitted in two 50-minute parts on Sunday, 11 January and Sunday, 18 January 1987. This adaptation is fairly true to

11466-507: The one that I would choose. It's her best for years." Robert Barnard : "Slightly somniferous mystery, written in the 'forties but published after Christie's death. Concerns a house where murder has been committed, bought (by the merest coincidence) by someone who as a child saw the body. Sounds like Ross Macdonald , and certainly doesn't read like vintage Christie. But why should an astute businesswoman hold back one of her better performances for posthumous publication?" H.R.F. Keating included

11592-523: The other cast. The programme was aired in Britain on 13 November 2013, and later on Acorn TV on 25 August 2014. The adaptation mentions only the Litchfield, Sharples, and Etherington murders. Margaret Litchfield is hanged during the opening credits, whereas in the novel she dies in an asylum. The killer is not labelled 'X' as in the novel, the purpose of the label being achieved in other ways. Otherwise,

11718-460: The play Oedipus Rex by Ancient Greek playwright Sophocles , Oedipus investigates the unsolved murder of King Laius and discovers the truth after questioning various witnesses that he himself is the culprit. Although "Oedipus's enquiry is based on supernatural, pre-rational methods that are evident in most narratives of crime until the development of Enlightenment thought in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries", this narrative has "all of

11844-529: The plot of the novel. Adapter: Ken Taylor Director: John Davies Cast: The novel was adapted to a Syrian drama series, "جريمة في الذاكرة" "Crime in the Memory" that was broadcast in 1992. The novel was adapted as a set of 4 episodes of the Japanese animated television series Agatha Christie's Great Detectives Poirot and Marple , airing in 2005. A second British television adaptation, set in 1951,

11970-464: The real-life Mary Cecilia Rogers . William Russell (1806–1876) was among the first English authors to write fictitious 'police memoirs', contributing an irregular series of stories (under the pseudonym 'Waters') to Chambers's Edinburgh Journal between 1849 and 1852. Unauthorised collections of his stories were published in New York City in 1852 and 1853, entitled The Recollections of

12096-570: The rights to the “last” Poirot novel to her daughter Rosalind and gave the rights to the “last” Miss Marple novel to her second husband Max. Dame Agatha explained to Rosalind and Max: “It will cheer you up, when you come back from the funeral, or the Memorial Service, to think that you have got a couple of books, one belonging to each of you!” Source: “Agatha Christie’s Marple: Expert on Wickedness” by Mark Aldridge The final Poirot novel that Christie wrote, Elephants Can Remember ,

12222-416: The series detective. In 1887, Arthur Conan Doyle created Sherlock Holmes , arguably the most famous of all fictional detectives. Although Sherlock Holmes is not the first fictional detective (he was influenced by Poe's Dupin and Gaboriau's Lecoq ), his name has become synonymous for the part. Conan Doyle stated that the character of Holmes was inspired by Dr. Joseph Bell , for whom Doyle had worked as

12348-414: The shoes and belt that go with it). The Reeds and Dr Kennedy agree he should write back to her to arrange a meeting at his present home. Lily never arrives. The police find Lily's body, strangled, in a copse near the train station. She came by an earlier train, but had Dr Kennedy's letter with her, for the later arrival time. Miss Marple advises Gwenda to tell the police everything. Soon, they are digging up

12474-402: The site of the victim's burial. There is a reference to a wireless set as a desired purchase by Lily, were she to receive money by responding to the newspaper notice seeking her; this reinforces the story's setting being in the 1930s, as the author intended in her final revisions (done in 1950). Christie's original manuscript of Sleeping Murder was entitled Murder in Retrospect after one of

12600-436: The stair railing above. He buried Helen in the garden. He set up her husband to think he had strangled her, but there was no body, so he was taken as insane, and died in a nursing home. His diary from that time showed him to be quite sane, but he could not explain what he had seen, his strangled wife next to him. Kennedy had first given drugs to make Halliday paranoid, and then drugged his drink so Dr Kennedy could pose him next to

12726-457: The start, from those words in the play (spoken by a brother who had just killed his sister). Agatha Christie wrote Curtain (Hercule Poirot's last mystery, which concludes the sleuth's career and life). Sleeping Murder, was written during World War II sometime during the Blitz , which took place between September 1940 and May 1941. Agatha Christie's literary correspondence files indicate that

12852-419: The story concerns a Scottish aristocrat who tries to prove that a mysterious woman has killed his fiancée and cousin. The detective on the case, Antoine Dupres, is a parody of Auguste Dupin who is less concerned with solving the crime than he is in setting up a way to reveal the solution with a dramatic flourish. Ross Nickerson notes that many of the American writers who experimented with Poe's established rules of

12978-507: The story is not specified, beyond it being summertime, but some inferences can be drawn. References to the Second World War (Hastings describes himself as "Wounded in the war that for me would always be the war—the war that was wiped out now by a second and more desperate war") place it after its end—a date as yet unknown at the time of the book's writing—and the events of The Mysterious Affair at Styles in 1916 are said to have happened "Twenty years ago and over". Also, Hastings' daughter Judith

13104-402: The strangled Helen. Then Kennedy moved her body again. The letter found with Lily was not the one she received from Kennedy; he switched it after he killed her. He knew the police would see through his scheme. He sent the nanny Leonie home to Switzerland with medicines that killed her. Miss Marple explains all this to the Reeds, the full confession from Kennedy and how they should have seen it from

13230-402: The text and its characters." Braddon's later and better-remembered work, Aurora Floyd (printed in 1863 novel form, but serialized in 1862–63 ), also features a compelling detective in the person of Detective Grimstone of Scotland Yard. Tom Taylor 's melodrama The Ticket-of-Leave Man , an adaptation of Léonard by Édouard Brisbarre and Eugène Nus, appeared in 1863, introducing Hawkshaw

13356-413: The time. Accompanied by his loyal friend and chronicler, Ajit Kumar Banerjee, the stories are written in a blend of formal and colloquial Bengali, making them accessible to a wide audience. The character's legacy continues to influence contemporary detective fiction in India, highlighting the genre's evolution and its cultural significance. Feluda , created by renowned filmmaker and author Satyajit Ray ,

13482-401: The title character is adept at disguise, a key characteristic of detectives. Gaboriau's writing is also considered to contain the first example of a detective minutely examining a crime scene for clues. Another early example of a whodunit is a subplot in the novel Bleak House (1853) by Charles Dickens . The conniving lawyer Tulkinghorn is killed in his office late one night, and the crime

13608-548: The unemotional eyes of new hero-detectives, these stories were an American phenomenon." In the late 1930s, Raymond Chandler updated the form with his private detective Philip Marlowe , who brought a more intimate voice to the detective than the more distanced "operative's report" style of Hammett's Continental Op stories. Chandler's stories were noted for their evokations of the American criminal underworld, including dark alleys and tough thugs, rich women and powerful men. Several feature and television movies have been made about

13734-419: The unravelling of a mystery; a mystery whose elements are clearly presented to the reader at an early stage in the proceedings, and whose nature is such as to arouse curiosity, a curiosity which is gratified at the end." Another common convention in Golden Age detective stories involved an outsider–sometimes a salaried investigator or a police officer, but often a gifted amateur—investigating a murder committed in

13860-586: The vaults of a bank, and were made over formally by deed of gift to her daughter and husband. The last Marple novel Christie wrote, Nemesis , was published in 1971, followed by Christie's last Poirot novel Elephants Can Remember in 1972 and then in 1973, her very last novel Postern of Fate . Aware that she would write no more novels, Christie authorised the publication of Curtain in 1975 to send off Poirot. She then arranged to have Sleeping Murder published in 1976, but she died before its publication in October of that year. By contrast to Poirot, who dies in

13986-544: The worried father plans Allerton's murder. He falls asleep while waiting to poison Allerton and is relieved he took no action when he awakes the next day. Last, Barbara Franklin, wife of Judith's employer, Dr Franklin, dies the following evening. She was poisoned with physostigmine sulphate , an extract from the Calabar bean that her husband researches. Poirot's testimony at the inquest – that Mrs Franklin had been upset and that he saw her emerge from Dr Franklin's laboratory with

14112-418: The writing, a vivid sense of place, a memorable and compelling hero and the ability to draw the reader into their comforting and highly individual world.” Agatha Christie is not only the most famous Golden Age writer, but also considered one of the most famous authors of all genres of all time. At the time of her death in 1976, “she was the best-selling novelist in history.” Many of the most popular books of

14238-414: The “puzzle” approach in his writing which was characterized by including a complex puzzle for the reader to try to unravel. He created ingenious and seemingly impossible plots and is regarded as the master of the " locked room mystery ". Two of Carr's most famous works are The Case of Constant Suicides (1941) and The Hollow Man (1935). Another author, Cecil Street —who also wrote as John Rhode—wrote of

14364-481: Was adapted for television in 2013. It is the last novel published by Christie before her death. Sleeping Murder , written during the Blitz and published posthumously, is her final published novel. Poirot suspects that a single person is involved in five previous murders. In all cases, there was another clear suspect. Four of these suspects have since died (one of them hanged ). In the case of Freda Clay, who allegedly gave her aunt an overdose of morphine , there

14490-701: Was Ivan Osipov (1718–after 1756), nicknamed Ivan Kain. Other examples of early Russian detective stories include: "Bitter Fate" (1789) by M. D. Chulkov (1743–1792), "The Finger Ring" (1831) by Yevgeny Baratynsky , "The White Ghost" (1834) by Mikhail Zagoskin , Crime and Punishment (1866) and The Brothers Karamazov (1880) by Fyodor Dostoevsky . Detective fiction in modern Russian literature with clear detective plots started with The Garin Death Ray (1926–1927) and The Black Gold (1931) by Aleksey Nikolayevich Tolstoy , Mess-Mend by Marietta Shaginyan , The Investigator's Notes by Lev Sheinin . Boris Akunin

14616-434: Was adopted wholeheartedly by American writers. One of the primary contributors to this style was Dashiell Hammett with his famous private investigator character, Sam Spade . His style of crime fiction came to be known as " hardboiled ", a genre that "usually deals with criminal activity in a modern urban environment, a world of disconnected signs and anonymous strangers." "Told in stark and sometimes elegant language through

14742-468: Was an admirer of western mystery writers. He gained his fame in the early 1920s, when he began to bring to the genre many bizarre, erotic and even fantastic elements. This is partly because of the social tension before World War II . In 1957, Seicho Matsumoto received the Mystery Writers of Japan Award for his short story The Face ( 顔 kao ). The Face and Matsumoto's subsequent works began

14868-401: Was duly retitled Cover Her Face . Following the publication of P.D. James 's début crime novel Cover Her Face in 1962, Christie became aware of the need to think up yet another title for the last Miss Marple book. She wrote to Edmund Cork on 17 July 1972, asking him to send her a copy of the unpublished Miss Marple manuscript and a copy of Max's deed of gift. So much time had passed that she

14994-465: Was from her husband, but it was not. She was mainly interested in escaping her brother. She did fall in love with Halliday, and loved his daughter. The Reeds advertise, seeking the Hallidays' former maid Lily. She writes first to Dr Kennedy, thinking he is a friend. She says that she does not believe that Helen ran off, as the clothes packed in her suitcase made no sense (taking an evening gown but not

15120-412: Was in the last 1960s that he made his literary debut with Chuvanna Manushyan . Pushpanath authored more than 350 detective novels. Ibn-e-Safi is the most popular Urdo detective fiction writer. He started writing his famous Jasoosi Dunya Series spy stories in 1952 with Col. Fareedi & Captain. Hameed as main characters. In 1955 he started writing Imran Series spy novels with Ali Imran as X2

15246-622: Was planning to re-read and revise the manuscript. Previous biographers, who did not have access to the Notebooks, state that Sleeping Murder was written in 1940. Nevertheless, support for the story being first written in 1940 is found in the correspondence files of Christie's literary agents: Christie's royalty statement for 15 March 1940 states that the secretarial agency hired by Edmund Cork to type up Murder in Retrospect (first title of manuscript) charged £19 13s. 9d. On 7 June 1940 Edmund Cork wrote to Christie advising her that he would have

15372-408: Was published in 1972 and takes place in that year, followed by Christie's last novel to be written, Postern of Fate . Finally, Christie authorised Curtain ' s removal from the vault and its subsequent publication. It was the last of her books to be published during her lifetime. Due to its earlier date of composition, Curtain makes no mention of Poirot's later cases in novels published after

15498-475: Was published in December 1839. " Das Fräulein von Scuderi " is an 1819 short story by E. T. A. Hoffmann , in which Mlle de Scudery establishes the innocence of the police's favorite suspect in the murder of a jeweller. This story is sometimes cited as the first detective story and as a direct influence on Edgar Allan Poe 's " The Murders in the Rue Morgue " (1841). Also suggested as a possible influence on Poe

15624-421: Was too little evidence to prosecute. Poirot calls on his old friend, the recently widowed Hastings, to join him at Styles Court in solving this case. Poirot alone sees the pattern of involvement. Using a wheelchair due to arthritis , and attended by his new valet Curtiss, Poirot will not share the name of the previously unsuspected person, using X instead. X is among the guests with them at Styles. The old house

15750-516: Was transmitted on 5 February 2006 as part of ITV 's Agatha Christie's Marple , starring Geraldine McEwan and Sophia Myles , as Miss Marple and Gwenda, respectively. This adaptation had numerous plot changes. The most significant change is at the end it is revealed that Gwenda's mother and stepmother were one and the same person. Claire was a jewel thief and to escape the Indian Police-Detectives, she faked her death and assumed

15876-459: Was unable to remember if the manuscript was still called Cover Her Face or She Died Young . George Thaw in the Daily Mirror of 22 October 1976 said, "Agatha Christie's last novel is very good. Sleeping Murder is the last of Miss Marple's excursions into detection. But perhaps it is her best. Agatha Christie wrote it years ago but if I was going to pick a swansong book this is certainly

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