Evil Under the Sun
Dust-jacket illustration of the first UK edition
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| Author | Agatha Christie |
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| Cover artist | Rose |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Language | English |
| Genre | Crime novel |
| Publisher | Collins Crime Club |
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Publication date
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June 1941 |
| Media type | Print (hardback & paperback) |
| Pages | 256 pp (first edition, hardback) |
| Preceded by | One, Two, Buckle My Shoe |
| Followed by | N or M? |
Evil Under the Sun is a work of detective fiction by Agatha Christie and first published in the UK by the Collins Crime Club in June 1941 and in the US by Dodd, Mead and Company in October of the same year. The UK edition retailed at seven shillings and sixpence (7/6) and the US edition at $2.00.
A quiet holiday at a secluded hotel in Devon is all that Hercule Poirot wants. Inevitably, he connects with the others on holiday. Arlena Marshall is a beautiful actress and a flirtatious young woman with many men attracted to her. She goes to the Jolly Roger Hotel with her husband and stepdaughter, Kenneth and Linda Marshall. Linda Marshall (aged 16) hates her step-mother. Arlena flirts with handsome Patrick Redfern, to the evident fury of his wife, Christine, a former schoolteacher. Also staying at the hotel are Hercule Poirot; Sir Horace Blatt, a braggart; Major Barry, a retired Anglo-Indian military officer with an endless series of stories to tell; Rosamund Darnley, an exclusive fashionable dressmaker, who had formerly been Kenneth's sweetheart; Carrie Gardener, a garrulous American tourist, and her husband, Odell; Reverend Stephen Lane; and Miss Emily Brewster, a quite athletic spinster.
Early on the morning of the murder of Arlena, alibis collect. Linda drops a parcel of candles when Christine asks her to Gull Cove. Arlena paddles to Pixy Cove obviously for a rendezvous; Poirot disbelieves her request for solitude. But both Kenneth and Patrick seek her. Finally Patrick asks Emily to join her daily row. He finds a body lying arms outstretched, face hidden by a hat, but red curls peeking out. Good at managing heights, he stays, while Emily gets the doctor, who diagnoses strangulation by powerful hands, therefore male.
Poirot and the police question the suspects. Kenneth was heard typing letters specifically responding to figures in previous mail. Linda falsely claims she was fond of her stepmother. By her watch, she and Christine went to Gull Cove at 10:30 and returned at 11:45, giving them an alibi. The Gardeners were with Poirot the entire time. Rosamund was seen reading at Sunny Ledge (above Pixy Cove) by Emily and Patrick. Rev. Lane and Major Barry went out, and Sir Horace Blatt went sailing. Christine, Rosamund, Kenneth and Mr Gardener all went to play tennis at noon. Earlier in the day, Miss Brewster was nearly hit on the head by an empty bottle tossed from one of the bedroom windows, so Poirot asks the chambermaid if she has observed a bottle missing. The chambermaid cannot tell, but did note another odd occurrence: somebody ran a bath at noon but everyone denies having done so.
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