Death in the Clouds
Encyclopedia
Death in the Clouds is a work of detective fiction
by Agatha Christie
and first published in the US by Dodd, Mead and Company
on March 10 1935
under the title of Death in the Air and in UK by the Collins Crime Club
in the July of the same year under Christie's original title. The US edition retailed at $
2.00 and the UK edition at seven shillings and sixpence
(7/6). The book features the Belgian
detective
Hercule Poirot
, and Chief Inspector Japp
.
to Croydon
. Some time before landing, one of the passengers, Madame Giselle — a moneylender
— is found dead. Initially, a reaction to a wasp
sting is postulated, but Poirot spies the true cause of death: a poison-tipped dart, apparently fired from a blowgun
. It becomes apparent that the victim has been murdered.
Poirot's focus is upon a wasp that has been seen in the compartment and which provided evidence for the original theory of the cause of death. Without explaining himself, he asks for a detailed list of the items in the possession of the passengers, and finds an incriminating clue: Norman Gale, a dentist who has seemingly never been in the area of the plane where the victim was killed, and has no apparent motive for committing the murder, had an empty matchbox and a lighter. He appears to be the killer, but how can he have committed the murder, when he was apparently in conversation with Jane Grey (the novel's effective heroine) throughout the flight? And why would he have committed the crime? And why were there two coffee spoons in the victim's saucer?
Madame Giselle is suspected of using blackmail to ensure that her clients pay up, so any one of the passengers could either have owed her money or feared exposure. Equally, Madame Giselle had an estranged daughter who inherits her considerable estate: could one of the female passengers be this heiress? Much of the novel focuses on the pursuit of this line of enquiry, with the passengers coming under suspicion in turn. Special attention is given to Mr. Clancy, a detective novelist who enables Christie to include the same sort of parodies of her craft achieved in other novels through the character of Ariadne Oliver
.
The only other suspect who proves of material significance is, however, the Countess of Horbury, whose maid has been called into the compartment during the flight where she would have had the perfect opportunity to commit the crime. When this maid is revealed to be none other than the victim's heir, Anne Morisot, it seems that she must be the murderess. But the maid was only on the flight by accident, having been asked to be there at the last moment. Moreover, the death of Anne Morisot from poison on the boat-train to Boulogne leaves no clear suspect.
Poirot reveals in the denouement that Norman Gale is none other than Anne's new husband, and that his plans - almost certainly including the eventual murder of Anne herself - had been laid well in advance. He brought his dentist's jacket on board and - in the apparently innocuous moments that he had gone to the toilet - changed into this jacket in order to pose as a steward. Under the pretense of delivering a coffee spoon to Miss Giselle he had walked up the aisle and stabbed her with the poisoned thorn. As Poirot puts it: "No one notices a steward particularly." Gale's intention had been to frame the Countess, and the blowpipe that was found behind Poirot's seat would have been found behind hers had they not switched seats at the last moment.
Not content with solving the mystery, Poirot invites Mr. Clancy to the Denouncement where he gleefully allows the Novelist to see how a Real Life Detective solves a case, to both men's great enjoyment, and finally in a single stroke Poirot makes a romantic match by pairing off Jane Grey with the younger of the archaeologists.
The Times
in its main paper gave the book a second review in its issue of July 2, 1935 when they described its plot as "ingenious" and commented on the fact that Christie had evolved a method of presenting a crime in a confined space (with reference to The Mystery of the Blue Train
and Murder on the Orient Express
) which "however often employed, never loses its originality."
Isaac Anderson in The New York Times Book Review
of March 24, 1935 began his column by saying, "Murder by poisoned dart, such as primitive savages blow from blow-guns, ceased long ago to be a novelty in detective fiction, and murder in an airplane is by way of becoming almost as common as murder behind the locked doors of a library, but the combination of poisoned dart and plane is probably unique. Not that such minor matters are of the slightest consequence to the reader; the main thing is that this is an Agatha Christie story, featuring Hercule Poirot, who is, by his own admission, the world's greatest detective." He concluded, "This is a crime puzzle of the first quality, and a mighty entertaining story besides."
In The Observer
s issue of June 30, 1935 "Torquemada" (Edward Powys Mathers
) started his review by saying, "My admiration for Mrs. Christie is such that with each new book of hers I strain every mental nerve to prove that she has failed, at last, to hypnotise me. On finishing Death in the Clouds, I found that she had succeeded even more triumphantly than usual." He concluded, "I hope that some readers of this baffling case will foresee at least the false denouement. I did not even do that. Agatha Christie has recently developed two further tricks: one is, as of the juggler who keeps on dropping things, to leave a clue hanging out for several chapters, apparently unremarked by her little detective though seized on by us, and then to tuck it back again as unimportant. Another is to give us some, but by no means all, of the hidden thoughts of her characters. We readers must guard against these new dexterities. As for Poirot, it is only to him and to Cleopatra that a certain remark about age and custom is strictly applicable. But might not Inspector Japp be allowed to mellow a little, with the years, beyond the moron stage?"
An admirer of Christie, Milward Kennedy
of The Guardian
began his review of July 30, 1935 by saying, "Very few authors achieve the ideal blend of puzzle and entertainment as often does Agatha Christie." He did admit that, "Death in the Clouds may not rank with her greatest achievements, but it is far above the average detective story." He finished by saying, "Mrs. Christie provides a little gallery of thumb-nail sketches of plausible characters; she gives us all the clues and even tells us where to look for them; we ought to find the murderer by reason, but are not likely to succeed except by guesswork."
A review in the Daily Mirror of July 20, 1935 concluded, "We leave Poirot to figure it all out. He is at it and in it, with his usual brilliance, till the end."
Robert Barnard
: "Exceptionally lively specimen, with wider than usual class and type-range of suspects. Scrupulously fair, with each clue presented openly and discussed. Note Clancy the crime writer, and the superiority of French police to British (no signs of insularity here)."
was broadcast in 1992 as part of the series Agatha Christie's Poirot
. The screenplay followed the book closely with some minor changes and some characters omitted: in the adaptation there was only one archeologist, there was no doctor, Jane was a stewardess and in the end Poirot does not match Jane with young archeologist as mentioned in the novel and some other minor changes (such as in the TV Adaptation, Poirot takes Japp to Paris, whereas in the Book he takes the French Surete Detective and also in the Book most of the characters have come from Le Pinet where they have been enjoying some time at the Casino, whereas in the Adapation the characters have been at a Tennis Match in Paris.)
Also, this book is referenced in the Doctor Who
episode "The Unicorn and the Wasp
" when the Doctor shows his copy, printed in the year 5,000,000,000, to Donna as a means of explaining Christie's famous ten-day disappearance. The episode has much to do with wasps, and the Doctor insinuates that Christie forever remembered the time with them.
The book was first serialised in the US in The Saturday Evening Post
in six instalments from February 9 (Volume 207, Number 32) to March 16, 1935 (Volume 207, Number 37) under the title Death in the Air with illustrations by Frederick Mizen.
In the UK, the novel was serialised as an abridged version in the weekly Women's Pictorial magazine in six instalments from February 16 (Volume 29, Number 736) to March 23, 1935 (Volume 29, Number 741) under the title Mystery in the Air. There were no chapter divisions and all of the instalments carried illustrations by Clive Uptton.
Detective fiction
Detective fiction is a sub-genre of crime fiction and mystery fiction in which an investigator , either professional or amateur, investigates a crime, often murder.-In ancient literature:...
by Agatha Christie
Agatha Christie
Dame Agatha Christie DBE was a British crime writer of novels, short stories, and plays. She also wrote romances under the name Mary Westmacott, but she is best remembered for her 66 detective novels and 14 short story collections , and her successful West End plays.According to...
and first published in the US by Dodd, Mead and Company
Dodd, Mead and Company
Dodd, Mead and Company was one of the pioneer publishing houses of the United States, based in New York City. Under several names, the firm operated from 1839 until 1990. Its history properly began in 1870, with the retirement of its founder, Moses Woodruff Dodd. Control passed to his son Frank...
on March 10 1935
1935 in literature
The year 1935 in literature involved some significant events and new books.-Events:* June 15 - W. H. Auden enters a marriage of convenience with Erika Mann.* July 30 - Allen Lane founds Penguin Books to publish the first mass market paperbacks in Britain....
under the title of Death in the Air and in UK by the Collins Crime Club
Collins Crime Club
The Collins Crime Club was an imprint of UK book publishers William Collins & Co Ltd and ran from May 6, 1930 to April 1994. Customers registered their name and address with the club and were sent a newsletter every three months which advised them of the latest books which had been or were to be...
in the July of the same year under Christie's original title. The US edition retailed at $
Dollar sign
The dollar or peso sign is a symbol primarily used to indicate the various peso and dollar units of currency around the world.- Origin :...
2.00 and the UK edition at seven shillings and sixpence
British sixpence coin
The sixpence, known colloquially as the tanner, or half-shilling, was a British pre-decimal coin, worth six pence, or 1/40th of a pound sterling....
(7/6). The book features the Belgian
Belgium
Belgium , officially the Kingdom of Belgium, is a federal state in Western Europe. It is a founding member of the European Union and hosts the EU's headquarters, and those of several other major international organisations such as NATO.Belgium is also a member of, or affiliated to, many...
detective
Detective
A detective is an investigator, either a member of a police agency or a private person. The latter may be known as private investigators or "private eyes"...
Hercule Poirot
Hercule Poirot
Hercule Poirot is a fictional Belgian detective created by Agatha Christie. Along with Miss Marple, Poirot is one of Christie's most famous and long-lived characters, appearing in 33 novels and 51 short stories published between 1920 and 1975 and set in the same era.Poirot has been portrayed on...
, and Chief Inspector Japp
Chief Inspector Japp
Detective Chief Inspector James Japp is a fictional character who appears in several of Agatha Christie's novels featuring Hercule Poirot.-Japp in Christie's work:...
.
Plot introduction
In the book, Poirot is a passenger on board a flight from ParisParis
Paris is the capital and largest city in France, situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region...
to Croydon
Croydon Airport
Croydon Airport was an airport in South London which straddled the boundary between what are now the London boroughs of Croydon and Sutton. It was the main airport for London before it was replaced by Northolt Aerodrome, London Heathrow Airport and London Gatwick Airport...
. Some time before landing, one of the passengers, Madame Giselle — a moneylender
Moneylender
A moneylender is a person or group who offers small personal loans at high rates of interest.-See also:* Microfinance - provision of financial services to low-income individuals....
— is found dead. Initially, a reaction to a wasp
Wasp
The term wasp is typically defined as any insect of the order Hymenoptera and suborder Apocrita that is neither a bee nor an ant. Almost every pest insect species has at least one wasp species that preys upon it or parasitizes it, making wasps critically important in natural control of their...
sting is postulated, but Poirot spies the true cause of death: a poison-tipped dart, apparently fired from a blowgun
Blowgun
"Blowpipe" and "blow tube" redirect here. For other uses of the terms, see GlassblowingA blowgun is a simple weapon consisting of a small tube for firing light projectiles, or darts....
. It becomes apparent that the victim has been murdered.
Plot summary
Frustrated with the evident artificiality of the blowpipe, an item that could hardly have been used without being seen by another passenger, Poirot suggests that the means of delivering the dart may have been something else. Is it the flute of one passenger, or perhaps one of the ancient tubes carried by one of the two French archaeologists on board? Or maybe Lady Horbury's long cigarette holder?Poirot's focus is upon a wasp that has been seen in the compartment and which provided evidence for the original theory of the cause of death. Without explaining himself, he asks for a detailed list of the items in the possession of the passengers, and finds an incriminating clue: Norman Gale, a dentist who has seemingly never been in the area of the plane where the victim was killed, and has no apparent motive for committing the murder, had an empty matchbox and a lighter. He appears to be the killer, but how can he have committed the murder, when he was apparently in conversation with Jane Grey (the novel's effective heroine) throughout the flight? And why would he have committed the crime? And why were there two coffee spoons in the victim's saucer?
Madame Giselle is suspected of using blackmail to ensure that her clients pay up, so any one of the passengers could either have owed her money or feared exposure. Equally, Madame Giselle had an estranged daughter who inherits her considerable estate: could one of the female passengers be this heiress? Much of the novel focuses on the pursuit of this line of enquiry, with the passengers coming under suspicion in turn. Special attention is given to Mr. Clancy, a detective novelist who enables Christie to include the same sort of parodies of her craft achieved in other novels through the character of Ariadne Oliver
Ariadne Oliver
Ariadne Oliver is a fictional character in the novels of Agatha Christie. She is a mystery novelist and a friend of Hercule Poirot.-Profile:Mrs. Oliver often assists Poirot in his cases through her knowledge of the criminal mind. She often claims to be endowed with particular "feminine intuition,"...
.
The only other suspect who proves of material significance is, however, the Countess of Horbury, whose maid has been called into the compartment during the flight where she would have had the perfect opportunity to commit the crime. When this maid is revealed to be none other than the victim's heir, Anne Morisot, it seems that she must be the murderess. But the maid was only on the flight by accident, having been asked to be there at the last moment. Moreover, the death of Anne Morisot from poison on the boat-train to Boulogne leaves no clear suspect.
Poirot reveals in the denouement that Norman Gale is none other than Anne's new husband, and that his plans - almost certainly including the eventual murder of Anne herself - had been laid well in advance. He brought his dentist's jacket on board and - in the apparently innocuous moments that he had gone to the toilet - changed into this jacket in order to pose as a steward. Under the pretense of delivering a coffee spoon to Miss Giselle he had walked up the aisle and stabbed her with the poisoned thorn. As Poirot puts it: "No one notices a steward particularly." Gale's intention had been to frame the Countess, and the blowpipe that was found behind Poirot's seat would have been found behind hers had they not switched seats at the last moment.
Not content with solving the mystery, Poirot invites Mr. Clancy to the Denouncement where he gleefully allows the Novelist to see how a Real Life Detective solves a case, to both men's great enjoyment, and finally in a single stroke Poirot makes a romantic match by pairing off Jane Grey with the younger of the archaeologists.
Literary significance and reception
The Times Literary Supplement of July 4, 1935 summarised thus: "Any of the other nine passengers and two stewards could be suspected. And all of them were, including Clancy, the writer of detective stories, whom the author evidently enjoys making absurd. It will be a very acute reader who does not receive a complete surprise at the end."The Times
The Times
The Times is a British daily national newspaper, first published in London in 1785 under the title The Daily Universal Register . The Times and its sister paper The Sunday Times are published by Times Newspapers Limited, a subsidiary since 1981 of News International...
in its main paper gave the book a second review in its issue of July 2, 1935 when they described its plot as "ingenious" and commented on the fact that Christie had evolved a method of presenting a crime in a confined space (with reference to The Mystery of the Blue Train
The Mystery of the Blue Train
The Mystery of the Blue Train is a work of detective fiction by Agatha Christie and first published in the UK by William Collins & Sons on March 29, 1928 and in the US by Dodd, Mead and Company later in the same year. The UK edition retailed at seven shillings and sixpence and the US edition at...
and Murder on the Orient Express
Murder on the Orient Express
Murder on the Orient Express is a work of detective fiction by Agatha Christie featuring the Belgian detective Hercule Poirot.It was first published in the United Kingdom by the Collins Crime Club on January 1, 1934 and in the US by Dodd, Mead and Company later in the same year under the title of...
) which "however often employed, never loses its originality."
Isaac Anderson in The New York Times Book Review
The New York Times Book Review
The New York Times Book Review is a weekly paper-magazine supplement to The New York Times in which current non-fiction and fiction books are reviewed. It is one of the most influential and widely read book review publications in the industry. The offices are located near Times Square in New York...
of March 24, 1935 began his column by saying, "Murder by poisoned dart, such as primitive savages blow from blow-guns, ceased long ago to be a novelty in detective fiction, and murder in an airplane is by way of becoming almost as common as murder behind the locked doors of a library, but the combination of poisoned dart and plane is probably unique. Not that such minor matters are of the slightest consequence to the reader; the main thing is that this is an Agatha Christie story, featuring Hercule Poirot, who is, by his own admission, the world's greatest detective." He concluded, "This is a crime puzzle of the first quality, and a mighty entertaining story besides."
In The Observer
The Observer
The Observer is a British newspaper, published on Sundays. In the same place on the political spectrum as its daily sister paper The Guardian, which acquired it in 1993, it takes a liberal or social democratic line on most issues. It is the world's oldest Sunday newspaper.-Origins:The first issue,...
s issue of June 30, 1935 "Torquemada" (Edward Powys Mathers
Edward Powys Mathers
Edward Powys Mathers was an English translator and poet, and also a pioneer of compiling advanced cryptic crosswords....
) started his review by saying, "My admiration for Mrs. Christie is such that with each new book of hers I strain every mental nerve to prove that she has failed, at last, to hypnotise me. On finishing Death in the Clouds, I found that she had succeeded even more triumphantly than usual." He concluded, "I hope that some readers of this baffling case will foresee at least the false denouement. I did not even do that. Agatha Christie has recently developed two further tricks: one is, as of the juggler who keeps on dropping things, to leave a clue hanging out for several chapters, apparently unremarked by her little detective though seized on by us, and then to tuck it back again as unimportant. Another is to give us some, but by no means all, of the hidden thoughts of her characters. We readers must guard against these new dexterities. As for Poirot, it is only to him and to Cleopatra that a certain remark about age and custom is strictly applicable. But might not Inspector Japp be allowed to mellow a little, with the years, beyond the moron stage?"
An admirer of Christie, Milward Kennedy
Milward Kennedy
Milward Rodon Kennedy Burge was an English civil servant, journalist, crime writer and literary critic. He was educated at Winchester College and New College, Oxford. He served with British Military Intelligence in World War I and then worked for the International Labor Office and the Egyptian...
of The Guardian
The Guardian
The Guardian, formerly known as The Manchester Guardian , is a British national daily newspaper in the Berliner format...
began his review of July 30, 1935 by saying, "Very few authors achieve the ideal blend of puzzle and entertainment as often does Agatha Christie." He did admit that, "Death in the Clouds may not rank with her greatest achievements, but it is far above the average detective story." He finished by saying, "Mrs. Christie provides a little gallery of thumb-nail sketches of plausible characters; she gives us all the clues and even tells us where to look for them; we ought to find the murderer by reason, but are not likely to succeed except by guesswork."
A review in the Daily Mirror of July 20, 1935 concluded, "We leave Poirot to figure it all out. He is at it and in it, with his usual brilliance, till the end."
Robert Barnard
Robert Barnard
Robert Barnard is an English crime writer, critic and lecturer.- Life and work :Born in Essex, Barnard was educated at the Colchester Royal Grammar School and at Balliol College in Oxford....
: "Exceptionally lively specimen, with wider than usual class and type-range of suspects. Scrupulously fair, with each clue presented openly and discussed. Note Clancy the crime writer, and the superiority of French police to British (no signs of insularity here)."
Film, TV or theatrical adaptations/references
An adaptation for television starring David SuchetDavid Suchet
David Suchet, CBE, is an English actor, known for his work on British television. He is recognised for his RTS- and BPG award-winning performance as Augustus Melmotte in the 2001 British TV mini-drama The Way We Live Now, alongside Matthew Macfadyen and Paloma Baeza, and a 1991 British Academy...
was broadcast in 1992 as part of the series Agatha Christie's Poirot
Agatha Christie's Poirot
Agatha Christie's Poirot is a British television drama that has aired on ITV since 1989. It stars David Suchet as Agatha Christie's fictional detective Hercule Poirot. It was originally made by LWT and is now made by ITV Studios...
. The screenplay followed the book closely with some minor changes and some characters omitted: in the adaptation there was only one archeologist, there was no doctor, Jane was a stewardess and in the end Poirot does not match Jane with young archeologist as mentioned in the novel and some other minor changes (such as in the TV Adaptation, Poirot takes Japp to Paris, whereas in the Book he takes the French Surete Detective and also in the Book most of the characters have come from Le Pinet where they have been enjoying some time at the Casino, whereas in the Adapation the characters have been at a Tennis Match in Paris.)
Also, this book is referenced in the Doctor Who
Doctor Who
Doctor Who is a British science fiction television programme produced by the BBC. The programme depicts the adventures of a time-travelling humanoid alien known as the Doctor who explores the universe in a sentient time machine called the TARDIS that flies through time and space, whose exterior...
episode "The Unicorn and the Wasp
The Unicorn and the Wasp
"The Unicorn and the Wasp" is the 7th episode in the revised fourth series of the British science fiction television series Doctor Who, which was aired by BBC One on 17 May 2008 at 19:00. Perhaps due to its later broadcast, it received an overnight audience rating of 7.7 million, making it the...
" when the Doctor shows his copy, printed in the year 5,000,000,000, to Donna as a means of explaining Christie's famous ten-day disappearance. The episode has much to do with wasps, and the Doctor insinuates that Christie forever remembered the time with them.
Publication history
- 1935, Dodd Mead and Company (New York), March 10, 1935, Hardcover, 304 pp
- 1935, Collins Crime Club (London), July 1935, Hardcover, 256 pp
- 1946, Avon Books (New York), Paperback, (Avon number 89), 259 pp
- 1957, Fontana Books (Imprint of HarperCollinsHarperCollinsHarperCollins is a publishing company owned by News Corporation. It is the combination of the publishers William Collins, Sons and Co Ltd, a British company, and Harper & Row, an American company, itself the result of an earlier merger of Harper & Brothers and Row, Peterson & Company. The worldwide...
), Paperback, 188 pp - 1961, Popular LibraryPopular LibraryPopular Library was a New York paperback book company established in 1942 by Leo Margulies and Ned Pines, who at the time was a major pulp magazine, newspapers and magazine publishers...
(New York), Paperback, 189 pp - 1964, Pan BooksPan BooksPan Books is an imprint which first became active in the 1940s and is now part of the British-based Macmillan Publishers owned by German publishers, Georg von Holtzbrinck Publishing Group....
, Paperback (Pan number X317), 188 pp - 1967, Ulverscroft Large-print Edition, Hardcover, 219 pp
- 1973, Greenway edition of collected works (William Collins), Hardcover, 256 pp, ISBN 0-00-231187-9
- 1974, Dodd, Mead and Company (As part of the Murder on Board along with The Mystery of the Blue TrainThe Mystery of the Blue TrainThe Mystery of the Blue Train is a work of detective fiction by Agatha Christie and first published in the UK by William Collins & Sons on March 29, 1928 and in the US by Dodd, Mead and Company later in the same year. The UK edition retailed at seven shillings and sixpence and the US edition at...
and What Mrs. McGillicuddy Saw!4.50 From Paddington4.50 from PaddingtonThe article time reads: Four-fifty from Paddington. In the United Kingdom's time notation, hours and minutes may be separated by a dot rather than a colon sign...
), Hardcover, pp 601 ISBN 0-39-606992-4 - 1974, Greenway edition of collected works (Dodd Mead), Hardcover, 256 pp
- 2007, Poirot Facsimile Edition (Facsimile of 1935 UK First Edition), HarperCollins, April 2 , 2007, Hardback ISBN 0-00-723442-2
The book was first serialised in the US in The Saturday Evening Post
The Saturday Evening Post
The Saturday Evening Post is a bimonthly American magazine. It was published weekly under this title from 1897 until 1969, and quarterly and then bimonthly from 1971.-History:...
in six instalments from February 9 (Volume 207, Number 32) to March 16, 1935 (Volume 207, Number 37) under the title Death in the Air with illustrations by Frederick Mizen.
In the UK, the novel was serialised as an abridged version in the weekly Women's Pictorial magazine in six instalments from February 16 (Volume 29, Number 736) to March 23, 1935 (Volume 29, Number 741) under the title Mystery in the Air. There were no chapter divisions and all of the instalments carried illustrations by Clive Uptton.
International titles
- Chinese: 云中命案 (Death in the Clouds)
- Dutch: Moord in het vliegtuig (Murder in the aircraft)
- French: La Mort dans les nuages (Death in the Clouds)
- German: Tod in den Wolken (Death in the Clouds)
- Hungarian: Poirot gyanúba esik (Poirot Becomes a Suspect), Halál a felhők fölött (Death Over the Clouds), Halál a felhők között (Death in the Clouds)
- Italian: Delitto in cielo (Crime in the Sky), Omicidio in cielo (Homicide in the Sky)
- Russian: Смерть в облаках (=Smert' v oblakakh, Death in the Clouds)
- Spanish: Muerte en las nubes (Death in the clouds)
- Swedish: Den Flygande Döden (The Flying Death)
External links
- Death in the Clouds at the official Agatha Christie website
- wiki collection of quotations from Death in the Clouds