Five Little Pigs


Five Little Pigs is a work of detective fiction by British writer Agatha Christie, first published in the US by Dodd, Mead and Company in May 1942 under the title of Murder in Retrospect and in UK by the Collins Crime Club in January 1943 although some sources state that publication occurred in November 1942. The UK first edition carries a copyright date of 1942 and retailed at eight shillings while the US edition was priced at $2.00.
The book features Hercule Poirot. Five Little Pigs is unusual in the way that the same events are retold from the viewpoints of five people present on the day of the murder sixteen years earlier.
The novel was received positively at the time of publication. The "author's uncanny skill. The answer to the riddle is brilliant." and its "smashing last-minute showdown...well up to the standard" sum up the reactions of two reviewers. Another said the author presented a "very pretty problem for the ingenious reader" and felt that the clue to the solution was "completely satisfying". Later reviewers used stronger terms of praise, of "the-murder-in-the-past plot" as being the best of Christie's use of that device, and "All in all, it is a beautifully tailored book, rich and satisfying" and possibly her best novel. The solution of the mystery was "not only immediately convincing but satisfying as well, and even moving in its inevitability and its bleakness."

Plot

Sixteen years after Caroline Crale is convicted for the murder of her husband Amyas, her daughter Carla Lemarchant approaches Hercule Poirot. In the meeting, Carla claims her mother was innocent, and told her so in the letter she received at age 21, from her mother. She fears that her fiancé will leave her if the truth behind the murder is not found. Poirot agrees to her request and begins researching the case. He learns that on the day of the murder, there were five other people at the Crales' home, whom he dubs "the five little pigs" — Phillip Blake, a stockbroker; Meredith Blake, Phillip's brother and an amateur chemist; Angela Warren, Caroline's much younger half-sister; Cecilia Williams, Angela's governess, and Elsa Greer, a young woman who is the subject of Amyas's latest painting. The police investigation discovered that Amyas was poisoned by coniine, found in a glass from which he had drunk cold beer. The poison had been stolen from Meredith's lab by Caroline, who confessed to stealing it because she planned to use it to commit suicide.
As the police learned Caroline had provided the bottle of cold beer, they determined she was the murderer. Her motive was believed to be her husband’s plan to divorce her and marry Elsa, his latest mistress. He had had mistresses before but never left Caroline. Interviewing each of the five other suspects, Poirot notes that none of them have an obvious motive: the Blake brothers have differing views about Caroline; Elsa recalls overhearing an argument between Caroline and Amyas, in which he swore he would divorce his wife and she made a bitter remark of "you and your women" in response; Amyas was about to send Angela away, based on a remark heard by the Blake brothers; Meredith recalled seeing Amyas give his painting a "malevolent glare"; Cecilia witnessed Caroline wiping the beer bottle of fingerprints while waiting by Amyas's body. Angela is the only one to believe her sister is innocent.
Assembling the suspects together, along with Carla and her fiancé, Poirot reveals that Caroline was innocent, yet chose not to defend herself in court because she believed Angela had committed the murder. His investigation revealed that Angela had been angry with Amyas, and was planning a prank, unaware of the tensions between her sister and Amyas. Angela had handled the beer bottle, but added nothing to it, as her sister had stopped her. Caroline took that bottle of beer to bring to her husband.
When she later found her husband dead, Caroline assumed her sister had added something to the bottle, and acted to take the blame away from her sister. When the police charged Caroline with murder, she did not fight for herself, suspecting no other guilty party. Caroline saw this as a way to atone for her own action in childhood against her sister, when she had thrown a paperweight at the little girl, which left her blind in one eye and scarred down the left side of her face. Poirot saw Caroline’s action of wiping off the bottle as proving that she was not guilty. Caroline assumed the poison was in the bottle when it was in the drinking glass per the police's findings. Poirot then reveals that Angela had been in Meredith's lab to steal some valerian to use as part of that prank that never happened.
Poirot states that the murderer was Elsa Greer. Elsa took his promise to marry her seriously, unaware Amyas spoke to keep her only until the painting was done. Upon hearing Amyas reassuring his wife that he was not leaving her, and was in the same category as his previous mistresses, Elsa felt betrayed and wanted him dead. When Caroline and Amyas spoke later, misheard in part by the Blake brothers, his remark was about his plans to send Elsa away when the painting was finished. Elsa had seen Caroline take the coniine in Meredith's lab; Elsa took it from Caroline’s room under the pretence of fetching a cardigan, and then used it in a glass of warm beer she gave Amyas; his remark of "everything tastes foul today" revealed to Poirot that Amyas must have drunk something before the cold beer Caroline brought, which had tasted foul, and that was the warm beer given him by Elsa. As he painted, Amyas did not know he had been poisoned until he began to grow weaker, at which point he knew; the painting itself and the "malevolent glare" noticed by Meredith revealed that Amyas knew that it was Elsa.
Poirot's explanation solves the case to the satisfaction of Carla and her fiancé. Then Elsa speaks alone with Poirot. Although the chances of getting a pardon or a conviction are slim with circumstantial evidence, Poirot plans to present his findings to the police. Elsa confirms the measure of her defeat, as she felt that Amyas and Caroline had escaped together, leaving her own life to be empty.

Characters

The "Five Little Pigs":
Author and critic Maurice Willson Disher's review in The Times Literary Supplement of 16 January 1943 concluded, "No crime enthusiast will object that the story of how the painter died has to be told many times, for this, even if it creates an interest which is more problem than plot, demonstrates the author's uncanny skill. The answer to the riddle is brilliant."
Maurice Richardson reviewed the novel in the 10 January 1943 issue of The Observer, writing: "Despite only five suspects, Mrs Christie, as usual, puts a ring through the reader's nose and leads him to one of her smashing last-minute showdowns. This is well up to the standard of her middle Poirot period. No more need be said."
J D Beresford in The Guardian's 20 January 1943 review, wrote: "...Christie never fails us, and her Five Little Pigs presents a very pretty problem for the ingenious reader". He concluded that the clue as to who had committed the crime was "completely satisfying".
Robert Barnard has strong praise for this novel and its plot. He remarked that it was "The-murder-in-the-past plot on its first and best appearance – accept no later substitutes. Presentation more intricate than usual, characterization more subtle." His judgment was that "All in all, it is a beautifully tailored book, rich and satisfying. The present writer would be willing to chance his arm and say that this is the best Christie of all."
Charles Osborne praised this novel, saying that "The solution of the mystery in Five Little Pigs is not only immediately convincing but satisfying as well, and even moving in its inevitability and its bleakness."

Adaptations

1960 play

In 1960, Christie adapted the book into a play, Go Back for Murder, but edited Poirot out of the story. His function in the story is filled by a young lawyer, Justin Fogg, son of the lawyer who led Caroline Crale's defence. During the course of the play, it is revealed that Carla's fiancé is an obnoxious American who is strongly against her revisiting the case, and in the end, she leaves him for Fogg. Go Back for Murder previewed in Edinburgh, Scotland. It later came to London's Duchess Theatre on March 23, 1960, but it lasted for only thirty-seven performances.
Go Back for Murder was included in the 1978 Christie play collection, The Mousetrap and Other Plays.

Television

Five Little Pigs was adapted for radio and broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in 1994, featuring John Moffatt as Poirot.

Publication history

The novel was first serialized in the US in Collier's Weekly in ten installments from 20 September to 22 November 1941 as Murder in Retrospect with illustrations by Mario Cooper.