Vijf kleine biggetjes

Inhoud

Als Carla Lemarchant bij Poirot hulp komt vragen is hij direct in haar geïnteresseerd. Wat ze hem vertelt maakt hem echter aan het schrikken: haar moeder is veroordeeld wegens moord op haar vader. Dat is gebeurd toen Clara nog maar vijf jaar was, en nu is ze éénentwintig en staat op het punt te trouwen. Ze is ervan overtuigd dat haar moeder onschuldig was en vraagt Poirot om dat - na zestien jaar - alsnog te bewijzen.

Bespreking

A stunning piece of literature

Not often the American title of an Agatha Christie novel is an improvement to the original one, but this is truly an exception: "Murder in Retrospect" nicely catches the basic idea of the novel, whereas the original title "Five Little Pigs" is somewhat tacky and might set you on the wrong foot. No, this book is not about a serial killer used a nursery rhyme as the blueprint for his crimes.

When Carla Lemarchant asks Hercule Poirot for help, she isn't referring to a crime of which the body is still warm, but talks about a murder that has taken place 16 years ago. Carla's mother was found to be the guilty one and as a result she died in prison taking the truth to her grave. But just before her death she still wrote a short letter to her daughter saying that she was not guilty. Now Carla wants Poirot to dive into history in a search for the truth.

Arguably Agatha Christie was in great form when she started plotting this intriguing mystery. Not only did she create a stunning story line, she also added some remarkably rich characterizations. Remarkably because regular readers of her oeuvre may remark that character development is surely not one of her strongest points. The more reason to call this work a piece of 'literature'.