#MyAgathaChristieYear-Part 6-‘Five Little Pigs’

Here is a welcome return to my literary she-ro, Agatha Christie, and her main man, Hercule Poirot.

It is time to stretch the ‘leetle grey cells’ and take a look at ‘Five Little Pigs‘.

*as an aside, I am now well aware this will take about 5 years at current speed to read all her work*

**aside aside-those who follow me on instagram will have seen my shamefully battered edition of this classic @booksinmyhallway. LOVE second hand books but my goodness what a story that book could tell**

About the book..

Beautiful Caroline Crale was convicted of poisoning her husband (famed artist Amyas Crale), yet there were five other suspects: Philip Blake (the stockbroker) who went to market; Meredith Blake (the amateur herbalist) who stayed at home; Elsa Greer (the three-time divorcee) who had roast beef; Cecilia Williams (the devoted governess) who had none; and Angela Warren (the disfigured sister) who cried `wee wee wee’ all the way home.

It is sixteen years later, but Hercule Poirot just can’t get that nursery rhyme out of his mind..

‘Five Little Pigs’ is available as an audio book, read by the indominatable Hugh Fraser, Christie stalwart and excellent audiobook voice artist,a graphic novel,ebook,paperback and hardback editions

This little piggy went to the market,

This little piggy stayed home,
This little piggy had roast beef,
This little piggy had none,
And this little piggy cried wee wee wee all the way home.

Agatha Christie named many of her novels after nursery rhymes, aside from being catchy and memorable, she excelled in being able to take something bright and sunhshine-y like a song and turn it into a dark and sombre reflection on the time she wrote in.

“Ah, but my dear sir, the why must never be obvious. That is the whole point.”

Some of the rhymes, when you say them out loud seem completely bizarre and nonsensical(‘Pocket full of rye’ anyone?) This novel takes a classic child’s counting game , the five chief suspects, and mixes them together. Carla mentions one of her childhood memories which remained with her before she left for Canada, was based on a smiling farmer’s wofe and her pigs.

Poirot notices how the characters resemble the nursery rhyme figures from the off.

And,as with the counting game, you close each finger as you count off the ‘piggies’, so does Poirot move through each of the individual suspects, in a case that has haunted the Crale family for nearly 2 decades.

If Caroline Crale did freely admit to the murder of her husband, why did she leave a letter to her daughter, to be opened when she was an adult, saying that she was innocent?

Carla Crale is determined to find out the truth once and for all so Poirot visits each ‘little pig’ in order to frame the justice system’s paperwork with a narrative of emotions, perceptions and character studies. In fleshing out the facts, he aims to prove once and for all, whodunnit.

It’s an intriguing case-an artist about to leave his wife for his model, the one who he is painting at the time of his death, is poisoned by someone with a knowledge of herbs. Caroline’s fingerprints are the only ones found on the bottle from Phillip’s collection, but does that firmly make her guilty?

The framework reminds me of ‘‘Cards On The Table’ ,in the way in which Poirot faces off each suspect, and changes his approach each time to get them to reveal things they overwise might not have.

The biggest mystery to me is why a woman like Caroline would marry a man like Amyas in the first place-none of their family and friends saw them as well matched and even Amyas himself told her art will always be his first love!
Without Caroline’s narration, we are left to assume that she was smitten with the idea of ‘changing’ him, or that she was happy to take a second place to his painting.

“A woman should have a certain respect for herself and not submit to humiliation”

But who can tell what lengths one might go to, when one is in love!

The whodunnit element is meant to be the hook, but the psychological profiles of characters who cannot speak for themselves-Amyas and Caroline-are what intrigue the reader and keep them turning the pages.

“Rest assured,” said Hercule Poirot. “I am the best!”

And in Poirot’s capable hands, wrongs are righted,to an extent, as 2 of the key players are dead. The suspects’ verbal and written testimony pays witness to Christie’s comsummate character building.

A reduced cast, where the only non guilty parties are Carla and Poirot, this novel stands out from many of Christie’s others as there is one central crime.

Usually there are a few deaths by which to establish a pattern of criminal behaviour. But here there is one, which keeps the focus tightly on the ‘5 Little Pigs’, and to be entirely honest, it was only about halfway through when I realised what had happened, and how.

Love, betrayal and a man’s dedication to his art at the exclusion of all else, are constructed into a narrative of vengeance, betrayal and decades spanning recriminations. Another superbly plotted crime novel of deduction and suspense in less than half the length that other authors would take to tell such a tale, I would very much recommend this book to fans of psychological crime.

About the author…

Agatha Christie is the best-selling author of all time. She wrote 66 crime novels and story collections, fourteen plays, and six novels under a pseudonym ,Mary Westmacott.

Her books have sold over a billion copies in the English language and a billion in translation. According to Index Translationum, she remains the most-translated individual author, having been translated into at least 103 languages.

She is the creator of two of the most enduring figures in crime literature-Hercule Poirot and Miss Jane Marple-and author of ‘The Mousetrap’, the longest-running play in the history of modern theatre.

Links-https://www.podbean.com/ew/dir-sgq2s-30a5a97

https://www.agathachristie.com/

Links to the other review posts-

My Agatha Christie Year Part 9-Halloween Party

My Agatha Christie Year Part 8-Lord Edgware Dies

My Agatha Christie Year Part 7-After The Funeral

My Agatha Christie Year Part 6-Five Little Pigs

My Agatha Christie Year Part 5 -Poirot Investigates

My Agatha Christie Year Part 4-Cards On the Table

My Agatha Christie Year Part 3- N Or M?

My Agatha Christie Year-Part 2-The Man In The Brown Suit

My Agatha Christie Year Part 1-Miss Marple’s Final Cases