It has always been one of my favourite Christie books :-) there's Poirot being brilliant and romantic, there are not one but two love-stories, and a very interesting case :-) written very well.
One thing I did not remember, maybe I never noticed it before, is that Cinderella is little more than 17 years old, this is what Hastings thinks seeing her for the first time, and yet they fall in love and I know that he'll marry her in later books. How old is Hastings?? I know it's a man's world, and it's the woman that has to be young and beautiful, and the man can be whatever he wants, stupid world, but still, so young!! Or maybe he was wrong and she's not all that young after all... or maybe it's Hastings that's younger than I always believed him to be.
Anyway, this is one of the best Christie books!
Poirot receives a letter from Mr Renault afraid for his life. Poirot and Hastings go and find the man already dead. Inspector Giraud (we are in France now) is described like a hound, he is full of energy and arrogance and he's the type to run around looking for clues, giving importance to little things, and completely ignoring what he can't explain or what goes against his theories.
Mrs Renaud appears calm enough when she tells her story of how two men tied her up and killed her husband, but then she screams and faints when she sees the body for the identification. I really like the way Poirot always admires strong women, and he'll have way of doing that here too.
Other characters: Jack Renaud, the son, who had a fight with his dad because of a woman: Jack wants to marry beautiful Martha but his parents are against it, because they know that her mother has a dangerous past and is now blackmailing Mr Renaud.
There's Hastings, of course, stupid as usual, but also good-hearted as usual. I would accept him much more easily if he didn't doubt Poirot every time. It's so annoying when he does that, as if Poirot had to prove himself every single time.
We also have Cinderella, a girl that Hastings meets by chance one day and then meets again unexpectedly in the proximity of the murder scene later on.
I'll try to explain the story now.
Mrs Renaud's story accuses two unknown south-American men. Shocked to see her husband's corpse, she still sticks to her story. Jack was supposed to be far away, sent on a trip by his father, but in fact he was right here. Martha is very nervous and her mother is revealed to be the same woman that many years ago was accused of having planned the murder of her husband, although a man phisically committed the crime, escaped and changed his name to Renaud!
A girl named Bella Duveen is Jack's ex girlfriend, left for Martha. Hastings thought she was his Cinderella and believed she killed Mr Durand by mistake because jealousy had made her crazy and she wanted to kill Jack. Hastings at that point did the most stupid thing: he held Poirot tightly to give her time to escape. Poirot, old romantic that he is, understands and forgives this behaviour, but I'm not sure that "after seeing her three times I love her so much I'm ready to betray my old friend and my honor swearing the false in court" is acceptable.
Anyway, Giraud arrests Jack. Martha asks for Poirot's help and of course Hastings believes her, because she's beautiful and therefore must be an angel, like in the fairytales..
To everyone's surprise, he doesn't defend himself, but he's freed when Bella comes to confess. Hastings is now surprised realizing that Bella is not Cinderella after all, but her sister. She's actually called Dulcie Duveen, and of course had tried to protect her sister, but Bella is no more guilty than Jack is. Poirot tries one of his shows with the help of Mrs Renaud. Seeing Jack and Martha together, his mother tells him he's not her son anymore and he won't have a penny of his father's fortune because he brought only misfortune in that house. Had he not treated Bella that way she would not have killed Mr Renaud! After this scene everything should be crystal clear to everyone, Hastings too, but he's quite thick and did not understand.
It was a trick because Martha heard all that, and later on that night she tried to kill her to avoid her writing the new will. It was her all along, she had killed Jack's father and tried now to kill his mother because it was for greed not love that she wanted to marry Jack. She's stopped by Cinderella :-) and she dies hitting her head during the fight. Happy ending all around. Poirot has triumphed over arrogant Giraud and Hastings' pretty girl is safe and sound, and in love with him. Poirot at the end helps Jack, telling him to go to Bella because they love each other very much. Having learned about his father's past, Jack hesitates, but Poirot tells him that he is also son of his mother, a strong and brave woman, capable of immense love and sacrifice. I like it so much when Poirot goes all romantic :-D
I didn't understand the title, though. Why "Murder on the links" ? What links??
ITA aiuto, Poirot!
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