First Published: 1936
RATING: VERY GOOD
SPOILERS!!!
This story reminds me of Evil Under the Sun as it has a similar plot. Poirot is holidaying in Rhodes and befriends some of the other British guests. Two couples arrive on the same night. Valentine Chantry is a famous modle who has been married five times, and her present husband Tony is a brute. The other couple are Marjorie and Douglas Gold. He is a very attractive man and she is pretty but is somewhat mousy.
From the first moment Valentine’s attention goes to Douglas and she flirts shamelessly. Douglas seems taken by her as well. It is clear to everybody that Valentine is fishing for her next husband. Poirot fears that this will end badly. When Poirot talks to Marjorie Gold, he begs her to leave the island, but she says she can’t leave Douglas.
Some days later when the ladies have been on an outing, Douglas, Tony and some other men are in the bar. Tony orders a pink gin, and in that moment the ladies return, and Valentine wants to have a pink gin too, so Tony tells her to drink his. Suddenly, Valentine says that the gin tastes weird and she is feeling unwell. She collapses and dies.
Douglas is arrested when a sachet of cyanide is found in his jacket pocket. The intended victim was Tony, but when Tony offered his drink to his wife, the plan went wrong. Poirot reveals the real murderer. He tells Pamela, one of the guests, that the triangle he meant was different to the one she thought. He wasn’t worried about the triangle Tony, Douglas, Valentine – actually neither of them was interested in the woman. The triangle is Marjorie who was already in a relationship with Tony. The man never loved his wife and married her for her money. So he planned to get married to Marjorie, so they planned the murder carefully. Marjorie knew that Valentine would find Douglas interesting, and Douglas would enjoy her attention. Tony poisoned the drink, and then when Valentine started to feel sick, in the commotion he placed the poison in Douglas’s pocket. It was all planned: Valentine would die and Douglas would hang for her murder. Then Marjorie and Tony would get together and get Valentine’s money.
This was very similar to Evil under the Sun, which is one of my favourite novels.
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