The Murder on the Links
Dustjacket illustration of the first British edition.
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| Author | Agatha Christie |
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| Country | United Kingdom |
| Language | English |
| Genre | Crime novel |
| Publisher | The Bodley Head |
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Publication date
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1923 |
| Media type | Print (hardcover & paperback) |
| Pages | 298 first edition hardcover |
| Preceded by | The Secret Adversary |
| Followed by | Poirot Investigates |
The Murder on the Links is a work of detective fiction by Agatha Christie, first published in the UK by The Bodley Head in May 1923 and in the US by Dodd, Mead & Co in the same year. It features Hercule Poirot and Arthur Hastings. The UK edition retailed at seven shillings and sixpence (7/6) and the US edition at $1.75.
The story takes place in northern France, giving Poirot a hostile competitor from the Paris Sûreté. Poirot's long memory for past or similar crimes proves useful in resolving the crimes. The book is notable for a subplot in which Hastings falls in love, a development "greatly desired on Agatha's part... parcelling off Hastings to wedded bliss in the Argentine."
Reviews when it was published compared Mrs Christie favourably to Arthur Conan Doyle in his Sherlock Holmes mysteries. Remarking on Poirot, still a new character, one reviewer said he was "a pleasant contrast to most of his lurid competitors; and one even suspects a touch of satire in him."
Captain Hastings has breakfast in the flat that he shares with Poirot in London. Poirot receives an extraordinary letter: "For God's sake, come!" writes Monsieur Paul Renauld. Directly, Poirot and Hastings go to Renauld's home, the Villa Genevieve in Merlinville-sur-Mer on the north coast of France. Near the villa, they are watched by a beautiful girl with "anxious eyes". At the gates, the police tell them that Renauld has been murdered this morning.
The couple were attacked in their rooms at 2:00 am by two men. Madame Renauld was tied up and her husband taken away. Entry to the house was through the open front door. Renauld's body was found, stabbed in the back, in a newly-dug open grave on the edge of an adjacent golf course, undergoing construction. Renauld had sent his son Jack away on business to South America; given the chauffeur a holiday; his secretary, Gabriel Stoner, remains in England, leaving three female servants in the house.
One servant reports that neighbour Madame Daubreuil visited M. Renauld after Madame Renauld had retired for the night. She is the mother of Marthe, the girl with the "anxious eyes". Another servant says it was an unknown woman who came the day before, whom Renauld urged to "leave now". There is a smashed watch at the scene, a long piece of lead pipe, a love letter signed by "Bella", the fragment of a check with the name "Duveen", and the murder weapon, a letter opener used as a dagger. One upper storey window could be accessed by a tree; Poirot considers the matter of footprints in the flower beds near the tree the most important of the clues. After telling her story, the widow inspects the body to identify it. She collapses with grief at the sight of her dead husband.
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