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Appointment with Death
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Read Appointment with Death
Hercule Poirot: Book 18

Appointment with Death (1938) (edit title/settings)

by Agatha Christie (Author) (edit contributors)

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Into the valley of death...

Ahead, between the towering red cliffs of Petra, Sarah saw a cluster of tents and above them caves, hollowed out of the red rocks. She stared up at one of these which held a sitting figure. An idol? A gigantic squatting image? Her heart gave a sudden lurch of... read more

Summary edit see section history

The first part of the novel (a little over a third) is an effective psychological thriller as the family and the victim are introduced, principally through the perspective of Sarah King and Dr. Gerard, who discuss the behaviour of the family. Mrs. Boynton is sadistic and domineering, traits... read more (warning: may contain spoilers)

The first part of the novel (a little over a third) is an effective psychological thriller as the family and the victim are introduced, principally through the perspective of Sarah King and Dr. Gerard, who discuss the behaviour of the family. Mrs. Boynton is sadistic and domineering, traits that (it is suggested) may have influenced her choice of original profession: prison warden.

Sarah is attracted to Raymond Boynton, while Jefferson Cope admits to wanting to take Nadine Boynton away from her husband, Lennox Boynton, and the influence of her mother-in-law. Having been thwarted in her desire to free the young Boyntons, Sarah confronts Mrs. Boynton whose apparent reply is a strange threat: “I’ve never forgotten anything – not an action, not a name, not a face.” When the party reaches Petra, Mrs. Boynton uncharacteristically sends her family away from her for a period. Later, she is found dead with a needle puncture in her wrist.

Poirot claims that he can solve the mystery within twenty-four hours simply by interviewing the suspects. During these interviews he establishes a timeline that seems impossible: Sarah King places the time of death considerably before the times at which various of the family members claim last to have seen the victim alive. Attention is focused on a hypodermic syringe that has seemingly been stolen from Dr. Gerard’s tent and later replaced. The poison administered to the victim is believed to be digitoxin: something that she already took medicinally.

During a protracted denouement, Poirot explains how each member of the family has, in turn, discovered Mrs. Boynton to be dead and, suspecting another family member, failed to report the fact. In reality, none of the family would have needed to murder the victim with a hypodermic, since an overdose could much more effectively have been administered in her medicine. This places the suspicion on one of the outsiders.

The murderess is revealed to be Lady Westholme who, previous to her marriage, had been incarcerated in the prison in which the victim was once a warden. It was to Lady Westholme, and not to Sarah, that Mrs. Boynton had addressed that peculiar threat; the temptation to acquire a new subject to torture had been too great for her to resist. Disguised as an Arab servant she had committed the murder and then relied upon the suggestibility of Miss Pierce to lay two pieces of misdirection that had concealed her role in the murder.

Lady Westholme, eavesdropping in an adjoining room, overhears that her criminal history is about to be revealed to the world and commits suicide. The family, free at last, take up happier lives: Sarah marries Raymond; Carol marries Jefferson; and Ginevra takes up a successful career as a stage actress.

Characters edit see section history

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Quotes edit see section history

  • “I’ve never forgotten anything – not an action, not a name, not a face.”
    Mrs Boynton
  • Popular Highlights from Kindle Customers
  • It is not well, gentlemen, that a human being should die before her time has come.’
    Highlighted by 6 Kindle customers
  • ambition — the desire to succeed — to have power — leads to most ills of the human soul. If the desire is realized it leads to arrogance, violence and final satiety — and if it is denied — ah! if it is denied — let all the asylums for the insane rise up and give their testimony! They are filled with human beings who were unable to face being mediocre, insignificant, ineffective and who therefore created for themselves ways of escape from reality so as to be shut off from life itself for ever.’
    Highlighted by 5 Kindle customers
  • ‘My theory is that criminology is the easiest science in the world! One has only to let the criminal talk — sooner or later he will tell you everything.’
    Highlighted by 5 Kindle customers
  • ‘I believe at least in one of the chief tenets of the Christian faith — contentment with a lowly place.
    Highlighted by 5 Kindle customers
  • ‘I am interested in everything!’ ‘Yes,’ said Carbury. ‘That’s the only way to react to life.’
    Highlighted by 4 Kindle customers
  • The illusion that freedom is the prerogative of one’s own particular race is fairly widespread.
    Highlighted by 4 Kindle customers
  • ‘So I returned and did consider all the oppressions done beneath the sun. And there was weeping and wailing from those that were oppressed and had no comfort; for with their oppressors there was power, so that no one came to comfort them.
    Highlighted by 4 Kindle customers
  • ‘They turned me out of one place today because I had on a sleeveless dress,’ she said ruefully. ‘Apparently the Almighty doesn’t like my arms in spite of having made them.’
    Highlighted by 4 Kindle customers
  • The victim may be one of the good God’s saints — or, on the contrary — a monster of infamy. It moves me not. The fact is the same. A life — taken! I say it always — I do not approve of murder.’
    Highlighted by 3 Kindle customers
  • On the whole, you know, people tell you the truth. Because it is easier! Because it is less strain on the inventive faculties! You can tell one lie — or two lies — or three lies — or even four lies — but you cannot lie all the time. And so — the truth becomes plain.’
    Highlighted by 3 Kindle customers
Show all 11 quotes from this book

First Sentence edit see section history

"YOU do see, don't you, that she's go to be killed?"

Series & Lists edit see section history

This is book 18 of 39 in Hercule Poirot. (standard series)

Preceded by Murder in the Mews, and followed by Hercule Poirot's Christmas.

This is book 31 of 74 in Agatha Christie - Luitingh-Sijthoff pockets. (edition-based publisher list)

Preceded by The Secret Adversary , and followed by Crooked House.

Authors & Contributors edit see section history

  1. Agatha Christie (Author)

Other Contributors:

  1. H. Tromp (Translator) - Dutch translation of 'Appointment with Death'

First Edition edit see section history

Original Language: English
Publisher: Collins Crime Club
Country: Great Britain
Publication Date: May 2, 1938
ISBN: N/A
Page Count: 256

Classification edit see section history

Links to Supplemental Material edit see section history

More Books Like This edit see section history

   
  • Murder on the Orient Express
  • The A.B.C. Murders
  • The Mystery of the Blue Train
  • The Mystery of 31 New Inn
  • The Mystery of Cloomber
  • The Oxford Book of Victorian Detective Stories
  • Global Reset: A Suspense Novel
  • Death of a Cozy Writer
  • The Lady Waved Good-Bye: A Ramón Lull López Mystery
  • A Vase of Mistaken Identity
  • The Trail of the Serpent (Modern Library Classics)

Books with Additional Background Information edit see section history

   
  • Poirot: In the Orient

Books That Influenced This Book edit see section history

   
  • Cards on the Table
  • Murder on the Orient Express
  • The A.B.C. Murders
  • Hercule Poirot's Christmas
  • The Big Four

Books Influenced by This Book edit see section history

   
  • Forever England: Femininity, Literature and Conservatism Between the Wars
  • Everyman's Guide to the Mysteries of Agatha Christie
  • Winner Takes All: A Life of Sorts

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