A little later we see him get a job, but then MacWhirter then disappears from the narrative for 110 pages, because he has no active role in the lead up to the crime.
Agatha christie towards zero how to#
Thus, on January 11th, we meet Angus MacWhirter, having failed at an attempt at suicide, trying to work out how to piece his life together – as well as hiding from the law as suicide was illegal in those days. The next part of the book, “Open the Door and Here are the People” introduces us to the rest of the cast of the story, in the sequence in which their involvement begins – and with each section dated, in chronological order. The story begins long before that – years before sometimes – with all the causes and events that bring certain people to a certain place at a certain time on a certain day all converging towards a given spot Zero Hour.” And that is the structure of this book, gathering those threads together that lead their way towards a crime being committed. We start off with a brief prologue, dated November 19th, where old Mr Treves discusses an unrelated legal case with his colleagues and points out what he sees is a fault with crime fiction: “they begin in the wrong place! They begin with the murder. It’s narrated in the third person but still has quite a complicated structure. It gets you thinking and operating your own little grey cells, even though Hercule Poirot isn’t present to supervise you – although Superintendent Battle, on this final occasion that we have dealings with him, remembers the old man at one point and gets some sleuthing inspiration from him. Not only are you trying to identify possible motives for murder, you’re also working out who the likely victims might be as well as who is likely to have done the deed. Today, I can see that its charm and power come from all the trails that it creates in the run up to the murder taking place. I confess, that was my immature reaction to the book. In fact, you have to wait till just over halfway through the book before anyone dies. I remember reading this book as a youngster and being frustrated that there wasn’t a nice juicy murder for me to get my teeth into right from the start. They were clearly good friends anyway! Towards Zero was first serialised in the US in Collier’s Weekly in three parts in May 1944, under the title Come and Be Hanged! The book was first published in the US in June 1944 under its usual title of Towards Zero by Dodd, Mead and Company, and in the UK by Collins Crime Club in one month later. I’m not sure what the recent excesses that Christie refers to in this dedication are. Graves’ literary pillory! Your friend, Agatha Christie.” Robert Graves was, of course, a famous and successful writer, who created works such as Goodbye to All That, I Claudius, and Claudius the God. This is a story for your pleasure and not a candidate for Mr.
All I ask is that you should sternly restrain your critical faculties (doubtless, sharpened by your recent excesses in that line!) when reading it. Dear Robert, since you are kind enough to say you like my stories, I venture to dedicate this book to you. As usual, if you haven’t read the book yet, don’t worry, I promise not to tell you whodunit! After one apparently accidental death and another that’s definitely murder, Superintendent Battle, together with his nephew Inspector Leach, questions the suspects and gets to the bottom of what actually happened. Tempers flare, old flames are kindled, and old scores are settled. In which tennis star Nevile Strange takes his new wife Kay to stay with his late guardian’s widow, Lady Tressilian, when his first wife, Audrey, is also visiting.