Customer Reviews

Third Girl: A Hercule Poirot Mystery (Hercule Poirot Mysteries)

5 star:		(10)
4 star:		(7)
3 star:		(12)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

This book, first published in 1966, gives us a very different look at London than the wonderful novels Christie wrote in the 40's did. Poirot amongst the swinging Bohemians? Well, it happens. Christie and Poirot both changed with the times and the result is interesting, although probably not her best work.

The term "third girl" refers to a way of leasing flats, very similar to the term "roommates" in the US. One girl rents a flat, then advertises for a second and third girl to share accommodations and expenses.

Ariadne Oliver once more assists Poirot in this tale of impersonation, drugs, smuggling, forgery, blackmail, and a young girl who can't remember committing a murder.

This is a great commentary on English life in the sixties and, as always, excellent plotting and character development in the Christie tradition.

Whose work are we actually reading at this point? There were major differences in punctuation, word choices, and scene breaks between the original Collins and Dodd Mead editions of this novel. There were further differences between the Dodd Mead editions republished by Random House/Avenel and the Dodd Mead editions republished by Simon & Shuster/Pocket. There are further additions still in the recent Signet, Berkley, and Leventhal and Black editions. For every publishing house putting out her works, there seem to be a new batch of editors altering Agatha Christie's words and the sound of her voice. Here the publishers at Collins, dissatisfied with their own earlier efforts, put still more distance between author and public with a "New Ed" edition. What's the matter with these publishers? Whose voice do they think we want to hear when we sit down to a novel by Agatha Christie? And what will she sound like twenty years from now? It's frightening that her estate has failed to see the importance of guarding her words as she wrote them. Please tell me I'm not the only one here who senses that a crime has been committed.

Another classic by Agatha Christie. The setting
is very much 60's-ish, but I've never minded that
Agatha's books are set solidly in the era they are
written in.

Only bad part, it can be a bit hard to keep all the characters straight. But without many characters, it wouldn't be much of a mystery would it? Agatha does a good job of reviewing the clues in the book through, preventing you from having to keep track of them in a notebook.

Third Girl is a late Agatha Christie murder mystery novel being published in 1966. It would make a fine introduction to Christie and Poirot for someone who has never perused one of Dame Agatha's many novels.

The Plot: A young plain girl named Norma Restarick knocks on the door of Hercule Poirot's quarters one fine morning when the Belgian detective is enjoying a superb breakfast. Norma tells Poirot she believes she has murdered someone but cannot remember the heinous act. Norma lives with two other young women in a London flat.

These women are named: Claudia Reece Hollland and Frances Carey. Claudia is a well organized person who works for Norma's father who is a wealthy businessman; Frances is a socialite who works at an art gallery and pals around with beatniks. Her boyfried is David Baker whose nickname is the "Peacock." He has a record of petty crime and dresses like a Regency buck. Norma's stepmother Mary was almost poisoned to death with weed killer. A middle-aged woman in the apartment flat where the three girls live jumps out of a window. Who pushed her out of the window?

A young Doctor named Stillingfleet falls in love with Norma. He seeks to prove her innocent of murder. Poirot is ably assisted in this case by Ariadne Oliver a detective novelist who closely resembles Agatha Christie. The plot deals with drugs, forgery, false identity and murder. It is an intriguing case showing Agatha Christie could produce a top notch murder mystery into the 1960s.

I picked up this novel feeling blue one Saturday morning and read it in one day. It cheered me up as I marveled at the ability of Christie to tell a great story featuring two of my favorite of her characters: Poirot and Olvier. Marvelous fun!

Most readers agree that "Third Girl" is not one of Agatha Christie's best. Nevertheless, it is well worth reading.

The plot is clever (but with significant flaws); the characters good; the writing starts out excellent -- sharp and with Miss Christie's light-hearted, often self-depreciating humor -- but about a quarter of the way through the book it gets wordy and what humor remains seems strained.

In other Hercule Poirot books, we do not get a glimpse of his thought processes until he explains everything in the last chapter. Here we get the opportunity to see him struggling, almost dispirited, as he tries to make sense of all the information he has received. I admire Miss Christie for her willingness to experiment, but I think the result was unfortunate.

Don't concern yourself that "Third Girl" is not among the most memorable of the Hercule Poirot books. Just read and enjoy!

By the time Third Girl came out, in 1966, even the author recognized that her books were not as good as they used to be. Christie's alter ego, the scatty mystery writer Ariadne Oliver, plays a large role in Third Girl, and in one scene Mrs. Oliver addresses an imaginary publisher about her latest manuscript: "There you are, and I hope you like it! *I* don't. I think it's *lousy*!" One can imagine that Christie is addressing her reading public through Mrs. Oliver.

Nevertheless, even with Christie's powers on the wane, Third Girl is an agreeable read, a comfortable book for an afternoon spent on the couch by the fire. It begins with an idea that is most intriguing: a young woman comes to Poirot and is not sure if she has committed a murder or not. Of course, we all have to wonder, how is it possible that she does not know? There are a few twists and turns and there is also Christie's take on life in the early sixties, which is interesting in itself.

Unfortunately, Third Girl lacks the crisp writing that can be found in many of Christie's earlier books. The dialogue rambles, and both Poirot and Oliver and even some of the other characters sound like garrulous, disapproving old ladies. There may even be some holes in the plot: How did Poirot get Restarick's stationery? And why had Norma never seen the earlier portrait? Still, Third Girl is a pleasant way to spend the afternoon, especially if you're already familiar with many of her other novels. But I recommend that you don't begin with this book.

THIRD GIRL has an ending that always surprises me, andI must have read the book ten times or more, the plot if so complex I can only barely remember how it comes out. I feel the book is a greta evocation of Swinging London of the 1960s and that it should have been filmed back then, maybe with the following cast, Rita Tushingham as poor Norma Restarick; Tom Courtenay as Dr. Stillingfleet, her psychiatrist who falls in love with her; Vanessa Redgrave could have played Frances Cary; Terence Stamp could have been David Baker, the "Peacock."

I wonder if Christie ws thinking back to her own early vocal training when she gave NORMA and LOUISE their names, because of course they were famous French operas at the time Christie was studying in Paris. "Louise" was written by Charpentier, and that becomes her last name, a coincidence no one remarks about in the novel itself.

It is a book in which Christie seems to be reviewing her own astonishing career. Mrs. Oliver suggests that she might write a book in which a child commits a murder: "Not meaning to, but just by her father telling her to give her mother a drink made of pounded up box hedge," thus neatly conflating the plots of two much earlier novels from the 1950s, CROOKED HOUSE and A POCKETFUL OF RYE. I thought also the glamorous fresco painted on the living room wall of the flat where the three girls live, a harlequin leaping into space, harked back to one of Christie's famous characters, Harley Quin from THE MYSTERIOUS MR. QUIN and may have provoked Christie to think further about Quin, because as we know she was soon to return to him after not having written about him for 30 years, in THE HARLEQUIN TEA SET.

This novel, written in the 60s, is not, in my opinion, one of her best. The three stars, however, is a Christie rating. It is still better than a lot of modern mysteries out there. My main problem was the vagueness at the beginning of the book, which led to temporary confusion as to who the third girl actually was. The writer Ariadne Oliver is also a vague character (and annoying). Christie does a valiant job trying to reflect the Beatnik era and obviously did her homework on the drugs du jour. Still, the overall work lacks coherence. Like Poirot, I was well and truly stumped (much time is given to the detective's mental processes). When the ins and outs of the mystery were finally revealed, much of it seemed far-fetched. I much preferred Sleeping Murder, a Miss Marple mystery, and They Came to Baghdad.

A young woman rudely barges into Hercule Poirot's residence claiming that she may have murdered someone. Before the Belgian sleuth can gather further information, the young lady leaves opining that Poirot is too old to be of any assistance. Disturbed and unsatisfied, Poirot tracks down the young lady and finds out, first things first, what mystery needs solving and then solves it.

In many ways this book is very typical of Agatha Christie. The book relies not on action, but on gradually presenting the reader with information, including a number of blind alleys and red herrings, and then providing a rational resolution of the many facts. The setting and peopling of the book is, however, quite different from many of Christie's works. Much like Poirot in the book, it appears that Ms. Christie is trying to show her readers that older does not mean incapable of accurately observing the world. Ms. Christie drops us in 1960's London, peeking into the world of modern apartment living, avant garde art and young folks in general. Indeed, I don't recall meeting a single parson in this book. Third Girl is a fine Agatha Christie deductive mystery with a refreshing change of scenery.

I had forgotten that Hercule Poirot was solving crimes way past the between-the-wars golden age of detective fiction. Third Girl is set in swinging London of the mid-sixties - think Twiggy, Carnaby Street, etc.. The detective and the author are equally bemused by the changes in society. Hercule Poirot was eccentric back in the day, but in the 60s, with his giant waxed moustache, he's outlandish. When the Third Girl of the title looks up M. Poirot, she blurts out "You're too old!" and takes off.

Poirot, of course, prevails with the help of his friend the mystery writer Ariadne Oliver, and an extensive Rolodex including people who have more of a grip on modern problems. Still, the problems of murder are timeless and I certainly never guessed "who done it" although I at least picked up some of the clues.

If you love a classic murder mystery and want to sample a 60's period piece, you will enjoy Third Girl.