He is back and in tremendous form. Hercule Poirot, with his exquisite moustache, impeccable command over the language and grey cells ticking away, is all set to make a comeback, this time in Sophie Hannah’s Monogram Murders. While the Agatha Christie Estate says his resurrection was only a matter of time, Hannah still thinks it’s her wild dream! What is it then that has made this famous Belgian so sought after for a second comingIJ Deebashree Mohanty delves deep into the lure of Poirot to tell you that, if handled well, he still has the capability to set the bookshelves on fire
A woman rushes into the cafe, clearly in distress. Poirot asks if he can help, she replies: “ …it’s too late. I am already dead, you see, or I shall be soon. I can’t hide forever.’’ Then she learns that Poirot has connections in the Scotland Yard, she begs him: “Promise me this: If I am found dead, you’ll tell your friend the policeman not to look for my killer.… Oh, please let no one open their mouths! This crime must never be solved.’’
— Excerpts from the Monogram Murders by Sophie Hannah
The set-up is classic Agatha Christie — a stately hotel, three guests, two women and a man, in three rooms each murdered about the same time, left in an identical position, formally laid out on the floor, each with a monogrammed cufflink in his or her mouth. The case falls to a young Scotland Yard detective, Edward Catchpool, who befriended Poirot when the two shared lodging at some point. Catchpool is writer Sophie Hannah’s invention and he assumes the narrator’s role, otherwise essayed by Captain Arthur Hastings in the Poirot novels.
In the Monogram Murders, as the woman ran away from the cafe, Poirot will come to dwell on her words “let no one open their mouths’’ and will be convinced that Jennie (the woman) and the hotel murders are connected. He will be taking over the case, 39 years after Hercule Poirot made his presence felt in a Christie book for the last time.
Though this is not the first time that a popular fiction character has been resurrected for ‘greater good’ with the baton of authorial works being passed on to only a handful of writers, Briton Sophie Hannah is happy to join this select club now.
“I am a Poirot purist and a Christie purist. I didn’t want to bring him back in the pages just because there is a need to. I wanted to do so because I wanted to,” Hannah said from Cambridge.
Hannah, who is 42 and lives in Cambridge with her husband and two children, was hooked on to Agatha Christie since her childhood, when her father, Marxist political theorist Norman Geras, brought home The Body in the library (1942). Hannah was 12 then. She read the book, thought it was amazing and became obsessed with reading everything Christie. Though her father was more interested in cricket books, he indulged in his daughter’s fancy and by the time she was 14, Hannah had read all of Christie. “With this encyclopaedic knowledge about the way Christie wrote and the Poirot she created, I think I can do a satisfactory work with the novel,” she declares all these years later.
Hannah had been toying over the solution to a mystery but could not fit it into any of her modern crime thrillers. Her agent suggested that she should write a Poirot novel and weave the mystery into that. The idea clicked with her. “I knew it was far fetched and something the Estate wouldn’t buy. But I was excited about it nonetheless. The mystery would have to be set in 1929 (between Christie’s 6th and 7th book) to make it plausible,” she recalls. On the other hand, Hilary Strong, Managing Director of Acorn Productions who manages the Agatha Christie Estate, said from london that it was destiny that was getting Poirot back into the case.
“We did not go looking for a writer. But exactly the same time that Mathew Prichard, Mathew’s family and I started to talk about this being the right time to think about a new book based on Agatha Christie’s characters, Sophie’s agent suggested to our publisher Harper Collins that she would be a good person to write one. Sophie had had a really clever idea. The family and I invited her in, with Harper Collins, to pitch it to us. Not only did we love the idea, but it became very clear that in Sophie we had found a super fan who would be a wonderful ambassador for Agatha Christie and her books,” Strong said. She added that although the TV and films that have been produced over the last 39 years have done a wonderful job of ensuring that Poirot will never be forgotten, to see him living once again in the pages of a new mystery is something that fans will enjoy.
In comics and books, death is certainly not the end in publishing, especially where popular characters are concerned. The most popular example being that of Sherlock Holmes. He was killed off and famously brought back to life as writer Arthur Conan Doyle had no option but to give in to public demands.
“In our world, writers, too, can linger after their demise if there are unpublished works to be spruced up for sale. There are five new books by JD Salinger (he died years ago). These books were started by Salinger but were spruced up later by another writer. That’s not new. But it is impossible to make the dead author write an original story from the scratch. So, publishers are happy to let living authors continue the work of a dead one.
“English novelist Sebastian Faulks, tried his hands at both Ian Fleming’s James Bond (Devil May Care, 2008) and PG Wodehouse’s Bertie and Jeeves (Jeeves and The Wedding Bells, 2013). Jeffery Deaver and William Boyd have penned 007 novels, while British novelist Anthony Horowitz published a well-received Sherlock Holmes novel, The House of Silk, in 2011 and has a sequel Moriarty coming soon,” Author S Sudarshan known for his crime thriller Where The Devil Rests (1998), says.
He adds that Hannah’s bringing back Poirot was on expected lines but she should tread carefully. “Chritie’s Poirot is dangerous property. Sophie cannot divulge away from the Poirot way of life, nor can she copy the tone of Christie. Monogram Murders is going to be an exciting read not just because of the mystery itself but also because of the way it is treated by the ‘new author’,” he said. Strong, however, is focused on the novel and says there is nothing wrong in reviving old characters for the readers.
“As MD of a company that makes TV drama and feature films besides managing publishing rights to Agatha Christie’s books, I believe my job is to tell wonderful stories. Whether that means creating new characters or reviving old ones, is not really the point; the point is to create something truly engaging that entertains and enthrals. Also, Agatha Christie’s detectives are the most distinctive, smart and beloved detectives of all time, so it is natural to want to create new adventures for them. We are also working on a remake of Murder on the Orient Express as a feature film with Fox,” she says.
With over 1 lakh tweets from Poirot fans the world over, some expressing anguish that Hannah may not be able to do justice to Poirot, the writer has her job cut out. “There are always going to be people to say if it’s not Christie writing Poirot then it doesn’t count. But Poirot was such a personality that you really can’t go wrong with him in any context,” Delhi-based writer Sachin Dua, known for his work in Triple Murders In The Taj, says.
Hannah clarifies that she has made sure not to tamper with the character at all. In fact, she says Poirot is as a finicky fan would like him to be. He is true to form, interspersing his speech with common French words and phrases, referring to himself in the third person and condescending to the English language, like before. For instance, in Hannah’s novel, Catchpool says: “That’s marvellous, Poirot. A man and two women are murdered, and it’s my job to sort it out, but I’m jolly pleased that Jennie, whoever she is, didn’t slip up in her use of the English language!’’
The only character that Hannah has used in her book is Poirot. “Captain Hastings, Miss lemon and Inspector Japp do not appear in the book and narrator Inspector Catchpool is Sophie’s invention. The book is in Sophie’s style; she never set out to emulate Agatha Christie; But in Poirot, we believe she has succeeded in remaining truthful to Agatha Christie’s Poirot foibles and all!,” Strong stresses.
The novel which released this September in parts of US has received a very warm welcome. “At this point, we are 13th in the US hardback fiction bestseller list, 5th in the UK and in the top 20 in most countries in which the Monogram Murders has been published. In Belgium, we are No 2. As this indicates, Agatha Christie remains hugely popular all over the world and because of that, there have been scepticism on what we were trying to do,” he says.
Although the book is yet to see light of day in India, it has created a buzz in the subcontinent. With Indian fans and writers waiting to lay their hands on it. “Christie’s Poirot was something I could read even when I was suffering from flu. It is meant for all ages and across genders. I was sceptical that Hannah’s Poirot would not be like that but after having seen the excitement around this novel, I can’t hardly wait!,” a 23-year-old Poirot fans says awaiting the release of the book in India.
‘Best stories have a great mystery’
Sophie Hannah, 42, lives in Cambridge with her husband and two children and says she was hooked on to Agatha Christie since childhood. She tells Deebashree Mohanty that, for her, mystery is the crux of everything. Excerpts from the interview
You are bringing Poirot back after 39 long years. What was the biggest challenge and how did you overcome thatIJ
The biggest challenge was to come up with an ingenious plot. Poirot's main superpower — I think of him as a superhero — is his uncanny intelligence and so I had to come up with a mystery so fiendishly complex and puzzling that only Poirot could solve it. I also wanted it to be high-concept and unpredictable — two traits Agatha Christie's stories are known for.
Monogram Murders is narrated by Catchpool. How did you construct this new character and whyIJ
Poirot novels have a distinctive tone that comes from the narrator. So, Arthur Hastings, for instance, brings in a particular style to the stories he narrates. I knew that I wouldn't be able to emulate Christie's writing style, so I invented Catchpool who isn't in any of her books, to be the narrator of mine. That offers readers an authentic and sensible explanation for my Poirot novel having a different voice to Christie's.
Why do you prefer the crime genreIJ
I firmly believe that the best stories have a good mystery at their heart. I'm interested in thrillers, especially crime thrillers. For anything to be thrilling, I think there has to be an unfolding mystery that grips readers and makes them desperate to find out the truth.
You said in a recent interview that the agenda is to write about the kind of things we should all be more aware of. Please elaborate.
I was referring to how strange people's minds can be. Mostly, we go about our business assuming that people want to be happy, or to fit in with social convention. However, I think that human psychology is much more complex than that. People are strange; they have thoughts they don't admit to; their thoughts don't fit with their behaviour. They don't fit into our standard models of rationality.
Is there another Poirot novel coming upIJ
At the moment there are no plans for further Poirot novels, but who knowsIJ It's not up to me though, it's a matter for Agatha Christie's Estate to decide. I, meanwhile, will continue to write crime novels as I have been doing for the past decade.
What’s in Poirot that made you bring him backIJ
I've loved Agatha Christie's books since I was 12. By the time I was 14, I'd read them all and Poirot was my hero. When her Estate was considering a continuation novel I happened to be in the right place at the right time.
Given a chance, what other legendary characters would you want to revive in your novels and whyIJ
None. I couldn't have written a continuation novel for any other writer but Agatha Christie, because she's such a big influence on me.
Her idea of what the perfect crime novel should consist of imprinted itself on my mind when I was very young, and so writing a continuation novel starring Poirot felt possible for me because ‘the Christie blueprint' was already in my writerly DNA. And now that I've written Poirot, I couldn't write Miss Marple — Poirot might get jealous!
What do you think of Agatha Christie as an authorIJ
She is amazing. She introduced me to crime fiction and made me fall in love with it. Her plot lines have a startling sense of balance that is exceptionally rare. They're also more imaginatively inventive than anyone else's stories. And her psychological insight is superb, as is her elegant, compelling prose style.
Have you read any Indian writerIJ
I have read and loved books by Vikram Seth and Arundhati Roy.
What are you reading right now and what has been your all-time favouriteIJ
I love Ruth Rendell, Iris Murdoch and Tana French. I have lots of all-time favourite writers who vary depending on how I'm thinking about things. Right now, I'm reading a brilliant American thriller called The Kind Worth Killing by Peter Swanson.
Crime was out of the picture until the birth of your daughter. Is that trueIJ
When my daughter was born, nearly 12 years ago, I started thinking about how similar the babies looked in hospital and that gave me the idea for a plot which became my first crime thriller, little Face.
I'd also been told that, in order to write successful crime fiction, one needs to have suffered first! It took me five days to have my daughter — five days of agonising labour pains! So, I decided that was more than enough pain and suffering and amply qualified me to write an emotionally gruelling psychological thriller!