When I was listening to the BBC adaptation of Agatha Christie’s Poirot novel Appointment with Death, I was certain I knew the solution, from reading the book years ago. However, I was completely and utterly wrong: I must have been thinking of some other book. I don’t recommend it, listening to one mystery while trying to fit the solution to another mystery over it.
The actual mystery, as presented in the adaptation, strikes me as decent but not great. The setup: Mrs. Boynton is an evil tyrant who takes pleasure in torturing her children with their imprisonment. Hercule Poirot overhears one of her chidren saying, “You do see, don’t you, that she’s got to be killed?”, and as expected in a mystery novel, some time later she turns up dead. (In the ancient city of Petra, where they’re on holiday; I might see if the novel has more description.) The solving of the mystery, to me, teeters on the edge of farce; the solution is just a touch pat. Then again, maybe I’m being too hard on it because it was so very much not what I was expecting.
(I wish I knew what book I was thinking of. Here’s what the solution I had in mind (rot13): gur ivpgvz pbzvggrq fhvpvqr nf n svany jnl bs pnhfvat cnva sbe gubfr nebhaq ure. I really thought it was a Chrisite novel; does anyone know it?)
Delurking (I found this blog through a discussion on Scalzi’s blog).
The solution you had in mind was the solution to the stage play that Christie adapted from the novel. I like the play’s solution a lot better than the novel’s. I think Poirot gets written out of the play, which was also an improvement.
creepygirl: Oh, thank you, I *have* read the play, that must have been what I was thinking of. What a relief.
I will have to look again at the play now and see how it manages some of the logistics that would have been a bit difficult in the setup as the radio adaptation had it.