Beautiful, very very nice, I liked it a lot. It doesn't happen often when there is no Poirot :-)
It starts with six people remembering facts that happened a year before, all of them thinking of Rosemary Barton that killed herself on the day of her birthday.
1 - Iris Marle is her younger sister, still under age because she's now 18. Was she jealous of her sister? Rosemary was very beautiful, full of admirers, and also very rich after a friend of her mother left her everything he had. Iris was always second, always in her shadow. Did she love her anyway? Or was she jealous because Rosemary was loved, she had everything while Iris was always in her shadow?
2 - Ruth Lessing is George's secretary, always perfect, so very efficient and intelligent. She was 23 when she started working with him, and she was 29 when last year George sent her to deal with the Viktor Drake problem, a charming little criminal always asking for money. She remembers that and thinks Yes, that's how it started, with that meeting with a man about to leave the next day. The Ruth that came back to the office was not the same that had gone out a few hours before. Why did you send me to meet that man? Can't you see how have I changed? Can't you see I'm dangerous? That one can not know what I might do at anytime?
Ruth hated Rosemary, she realized that without her she would have married George and they would have been happy together.
3 - Anthony Browne had for some time a crush for beautiful Rosemary, but then she discovered that his real name was actually Tony Morelli and that he had been to prison... Viktor had told her. Anthony tried to scare her , to make her understand that she was not to tell anyone about it, that some people would have stopped at nothing to hush her.
4 - Stephen Farraday was a young politician with a very promising carrier. Cold and ambitious, but also surprisingly shy. He had worked all his life to pursue the goal to become someone. When he had met Lady Sandra Hayle, shy as he was, daughter of the count of Kidderminster, he courted her, married her, and found in her the perfect partner he had thought she would be. Sandra was intelligent and always supported him and his work. When he met Rosemary, he felt all the passion and the desire a kid feels when he first falls in love. Stephen had never really been in love before, and this sentiment surprised him, and sent him off balance. He was obsessed with her and they became lovers, but after a few months he regained his self control and realized he had been a fool, risking everything he had for a flirt. Rosemary was a silly woman, and a possessive one. She loved him and was tired of the pretence. She told him they needed to be together forever, to get married! Stephen was terrified of what she might do, if Rosemary had talked about their affair his carrier would have been over, and if Sandra had known about it she would have left him. He could lose everything, he could lose Sandra... and all of a sudden he realized that this would have been more painful than anything else. No, he could not lose Sandra, everything but not that!
5 - Sandra Farraday loved him very much but had never shown to him how much because she thought he didn't really love her. She thought he only admired her, that he was fond of her, but she never knew how strong were his real feelings. What she knew about was his love-affair with Rosemary. She had always known, but was hoping it would end soon and he would come back to her. Sandra knew Rosemary had nothing to offer him other than her beauty, but got really scared of losing him.
6 - George Barton was Rosemary's husband. He knew she never really loved him, that she had married him because she wanted a quiet life with a man she knew adored her. George also knew that Rosemary was very fond of him, but from time to time that would not be enough for her, and she would find little stories to fill the passion that was missing. He had always accepted that, because he knew it would end, he knew that she would always come back to him. However, one day he found a letter and discovered that she was in a more serious relationship than he thought, and a ferocious jealousy got over him. He was afraid she would run away with her lover.
George now lives with Iris, still underage, and Lucilla Drake, some relative of Rosemary's mother, I think, I don't remember their connection actually. Anyway, Lucilla was Viktor's mother, and as a mother she thought he was a good boy with bad companies, and always worried about him and gave him money every time he asked for it.
During her birthday party one year ago, apparently Rosemary had taken cyonide in her drink and had died instantly. Months later George received two anonymous letters, saying that she had not committed suicide, that she had been murdered. He believes it, and starts thinking about it obsessively. He tries to investigate by himself, realizing it could only have been someone present at the party that evening. At the end he plans a birthday party for Iris: same restaurant, same guests. He wanted to find out who did it by the means of some trap, but at the end of the evening he too died of cyonide in his drink!Poisoned! The police starts thinking that maybe Rosemary was really killed one year ago, and George was killed because he had gone too close to the truth.
Stephen and Sandra now talk more to each other, they confess how much they love each other, and when questioned by the police he absolutely denied that she ever knew about Rosemary. Had she known about it, Stephen wouldn't have had a real motive anymore, but if she didn't know than he could have killed her to avoid it been known... yet Stephen doesn't want them to think she might have had a motive herself, he wants to protect her! Stephen that was so cold and rational, and now realizes how little, how helpless and lost he feels without her. Together they have strength and courage, but alone he is lost.. awww
Colonel Race works with inspector Kemp in the investigation. It's revealed that Anthony was actually one of the good guys, undercover for some police investigation concerning sabotages. He has fallen in love with Iris, so now he feels very compelled to discover the truth to clear her position.
He realizes that Iris was the intended victim, but she accidentally sat on the wrong seat, after the dance, because when her purse had fallen on the floor a waiter had put it back on the table... but not in the exact place. Going back to her table she had sat where her purse was, and George had sat next to her without thinking. They wanted to kill her for the money, of course, because after Rosemary's death, all the money went to her. It was all Ruth and Viktor's plan. The two letters had been written by Ruth so she could plan another 'suicide' without being suspected. She knew George would have talked about them with her, and she was behind all his big plan.
I don't know if such theatre was really necessary, they could have planned something at home.. but maybe they thought this way nobody could have suspected them.
First half of the book, it turned out any of them could have had a motive, but things became clear only when a sort-of witness came forward. That night George had left an empty seat he had planned to have an actress occupy it. A young actress that looked a lot like Rosemary had been hired by him to come to the restaurant and sit down at their table. She never came because someone phoned her that it had been called off... but we know it wasn't George, he was waiting for her, than who else could ever know about her? Only one person, the one person he told everything to. Only when the actress told her story I thought "Ruth!" because she was the only one that could have known about it.
It turns out that Viktor charmed her and didn't really go away when she said he had.
It's true, Agatha never said he had gone, he only said that 'Ruth said he had gone'. Oh dear Agatha. :-)
Agatha also makes her characters joke many times about "what usually happens in books while in real life it is very different" :lol:
I love this book, and I love how Agatha so often put a bit of romantic stories in her books. Here there is one of her best love stories, although it is almost a side note.
There is a new love story happening: the love between Anthony and Iris is at its start here, they are the most important characters, we might say, and the book ends with them together, and yet their story is not so involving as the one between the Farraday. Yes, they were already married, and yet their love is beautiful, their story is gripping. They're romantic and sweet. He loved her both with his head and his heart and she was crazy about him.
I love the bit when someone (Anthony? Race? not sure, someone) says that they are always "the Farradays", that nobody thinks of them as Stephen and Sandra, but always as the Farradays, as if they were a unique entity :-)
I loved those two, and was very happy that they were both innocent :-) that they stayed by each other till the end, never giving up on their love.
Ita: Giorno dei morti
Nessun commento:
Posta un commento