I’m listening again! Love your videos, makes an old woman happy.❤😊
@summationgathering
13 күн бұрын
Thanks! I love compliments like this.
@coffemuse
11 ай бұрын
Man, these are all such great killer characters! I skipped Endless Night and Curtain, but the rest of it was fun to revisit. I'd forgotten how upsetting it was the first time I found out Norman Gale's true colours!
@summationgathering
11 ай бұрын
I purposely left off Endless Night from the background photos because I remembered you mentioned you hadn't read it yet.
@coffemuse
11 ай бұрын
@@summationgathering Wow, I feel honoured, thanks! 😃
@lefuetthebaron1483
9 ай бұрын
I remember guessing that he was the murderer, because of Poirot's sudden desire to make sure that Jane fell in love к at least became interested in the French archeologist guy. The moment Poirot started this matchmaking process I was like OKAY I see what you're doing here and why.
@summationgathering
9 ай бұрын
@@lefuetthebaron1483 That was the same thought I had when I first read the book. I was like "why is Poirot trying to set her up with this other guy?" Hmm...
@floraposteschild4184
11 ай бұрын
Maybe I'm wrong, but every person who engages in blackmail in Christie seems to end up dead. It makes me wonder if Christie had some personal experience with this.
@summationgathering
11 ай бұрын
I can't think of any blackmailer who made it out of the book alive either. Although this isn't unique to Christie. Other mystery writers treat blackmail as a worse crime than murder.
@kirsten2769
2 ай бұрын
It's a pretty straightforward motive for murder. Cover up the original secret and stop paying out the money.
@mrsdorough81
2 ай бұрын
I actually find Stephen Norton to be the scariest of them all, he is the one I don´t want to think about before going to sleep. 😅 Thank you for this great sumnary. 🙌
@summationgathering
2 ай бұрын
He's definitely super creepy. Honestly, like a Charles Manson-like type. Curtain was published after the Manson Family Murders but certainly written before it.
@Satine2001MR
8 ай бұрын
Thanks for breaking down, it's fun to rank them.
@JamesBrown-ij1px
9 ай бұрын
I really enjoyed this! Thank you!
@summationgathering
9 ай бұрын
Thanks!
@alidabaxter5849
21 күн бұрын
I certainly would agree that Justice Wargrave is a monstrous, egomaniac murderer. There is an Alfred Hitchcock film, The Paradine Case, in which Charles Laughton plays a judge who seems to derive sick enjoyment from sentencing a murderer to hang, and Justice Wargrave reminds me of him. But I really find Elsa Greer incredibly evil, because she not only kills a man in a particularly awful way, so that he will suffer slow paralysis until he can neither move nor breathe, but also creates a situation in which the victim's innocent wife will be blamed - so she's really killing both of them and leaving children to suffer. I also think the killers in The Body in the Library are incredibly vile. They not only kill the cheap little dancer who'd ensnared Conway Jefferson, but (and this I find truly horrific) they made up a girl guide and bleached her hair and murdered her too, in order that the two bodies would be misidentified. Agatha Christie created astoundingly cruel villains, some of whom make me shudder even today.
@summationgathering
20 күн бұрын
When we learn what happens to Pamela in The Body in the Library, it is so chilling. When they make her up as a film star and all that, it's so evil. It's cat and mouse play and cruelty through kindness.
@djhutchison
Ай бұрын
I actually think Norton was completely innocent. But I won't bore you with my pages long fan theories here. Great video!
@summationgathering
Ай бұрын
I love fan theories.
@djhutchison
Ай бұрын
@@summationgathering Well, let's see, and feel free to correct me, it's been a while since I read the story. So, the theory would be that there was only ever one killer staying at Styles: Poirot. When Poirot first meets with Hastings, he shows clippings of seemingly unrelated murders. The killers were caught or confessed shortly after the murders. According to Poirot, his suspect links the crimes as he was friends with each of the killers. Poirot proposes an ingenious killer that can influence others to commit murder. Those he influences have no idea they've been manipulated, and take full blame for the murder. How he learns of this link, or X's MO is never stated. The reason, is because Poirot created X out of whole cloth. It's all wafer thin, but Hastings buys it, and so do we. Of course we do, Hastings is us. The impossible to catch killer, with the almost supernatural abilities. The mystery of trying to figure out just who X is, and stop him before he causes another tragedy is all theatre. Why? Because Poirot doesn't know who he's going to kill yet. Poirot has to wait, and trust that something will happen to capture Hastings' imagination, giving Poirot material to work with. It doesn't matter who it is, as long as it will make sense to Hastings. Poirot isn't disappointed; Incidents such as the current owner of Styles nearly kills his wife in an accidental shooting. Then of course, there is Hastings' homicidal thoughts concerning a shady character that may have designs on Hastings' own daughter. There's plenty of material for Poirot. In the end, Poirot is satisfied he has what he needs. Then, as he details in his confession letter, he goes about murdering an innocent man. Having done the deed, Poirot returns to his room, where he dies. Now, anyone that has read the story will know, Poirot leaves an account of his interview with Mr. X, now exposed as Norton. Poirot confronts the killer with everything he knows, but Norton just admits his guilt to Poirot, and laughs in his face. He counters that it doesn't matter what Poirot knows, he has no evidence, and no way of convincing the authorities. Norton then conveniently turns his back and Poirot poison his tea, saving untold numbers of innocents from this monster. Once again, we're left with Poirot's word, and his word alone. Now we come to the point; Poirot leaves Hastings with a choice. He can burn the letter, or turn it over to the proper authorities. Hastings burns the letter in order to preserve Poirot's legacy as a champion of justice. Making Hastings, his good, faithful, upstanding friend, who always plays the game, an accomplice to murder. Christie's dislike for Poirot is well known. If this theory were true, it would play into that, with Poirot killing a stranger for no reason, and leaving Hastings to live with the knowledge of what actually happened for the rest of his life, all while thinking Poirot had done the right thing. Thoughts?
@summationgathering
Ай бұрын
@@djhutchison I have not heard that theory before. I think it has some merit to it but it doesnt explain why Poirot stops Hastings from murdering Allerton or some of Norton's actions. But we do know Christie hated Poirot and murderers. I could see it for sure.
@rebeccag8589
8 ай бұрын
I feel like Christie often has the doctor do it if there is a doctor in the book. In Cards on the Table, Ariadne Oliver, Christie's stand in, even says that it's always the doctor. I feel like that's almost a wink? Regardless, I'm wondering if she had some bad experiences with doctors or if that just worked in her plots well.
@summationgathering
8 ай бұрын
In her autobiography, Christie talks about doctors she worked with during World War I who she found more or less inept and accident prone. She details a clear influence for the killer in the Pale Horse. But in general, I think doctors make easy killers because they are privy to secrets, have access to poison and in positions of trust. You don't have to jump through many hoops to set up a crime there. But I am also certain Christie had bad experiences with doctors at some point. You can always tell when she writes sly remarks about people that she's had bad experiences.
@rebeccag8589
8 ай бұрын
@@summationgathering Thank you very much for sharing all of that! I didn't know about her experiences with doctors during World War I.
@summationgathering
8 ай бұрын
@@rebeccag8589 She has a particularly funny story about a doctor who made medications but measured wrong and she "accidentally" destroyed them so he would wind up poisoning his patients.
@rebeccag8589
8 ай бұрын
@@summationgathering Oh wow. I really need to read her autobiography. It's my on my to do list since I was about 12!
@summationgathering
7 ай бұрын
@@rebeccag8589 It's been a while for me. I actually didn't enjoy reading it because autobiographies and biographies just aren't my thing but I did love the content.
@lefuetthebaron1483
9 ай бұрын
Your top 10 is very close to my own top ten, though I'd put Jacqueline and Letty Blacklock there and maybe remove Jane Wilkinson and Wargrave. She was a bit too annoying for me, and he, well, I don't know, I just prefer murderers to have more personal motives.
@summationgathering
9 ай бұрын
I was surprised how low I placed Miss Blacklock I thought she'd be pretty high up.
@gabrielpjatak7036
5 ай бұрын
One of my favorite episodes is The labours of Hercules
@summationgathering
5 ай бұрын
I think the episode is good on its own. I don't like how they combined them all into one episode, however.
@kevinb2844
5 ай бұрын
I have enjoyed these videos and glad have found your channel. I disagree with aspects of the portrayal of Judge Wargrave, some of which you also alluded to in another enjoyable video where you made a case for the innocence of the Rogers. I would say that you have the heart of an empirical philosopher and your favorite state motto could be the Show Me state of Missouri as you question the validity of Wargrave accurately choosing victims that were guilty to varying degrees. I think Christie wants the reader to accept that all guests on the Island were guilty to varying degrees… If the character of Norton in Curtain is perceived as you mentioned as a devil-type character tempting and planting seeds in people to kill… Is Wargrave the vengeful god of our conscience wanting to punish ourselves for sins and evil acts that humans engage in-when no one else is watching? I wondered if you ranked Norton relatively lower on your list of villains because the empiricist in you unconsciously disagreed with Poirot’s assertions regarding his guilt but ranked him higher than you might have ranked him if it was Wargrave who invited him to his island of punishment-a reverse image of the garden of eden… How much different was Poirot’s engagement of vigilante justice in the killing/murdering of Norton different from Wargrave’s island of death…. ? I apologize about the rambling of thoughts… some of which came to mind as I was typing this on my phone having trouble sleeping… and is likely due in part to having watched many of your videos that are enjoyable and thought provoking. on a side note-I tried reading a Ngaio Marsh book when younger and could not get through it-maybe will see which of her books you ranked at the top and start there…. thank you for this channel.
@summationgathering
5 ай бұрын
I ranked Norton lower than Wargrave because Norton did not physically murder someone whereas Wargrave both does the Norton thing of inducing others to commit murder and murders people himself. Wargrave is also just more interesting than Norton. The difference between Poirot and Wargrave is that we have 50 plus years and 30 plus novels of Poirot, knowing his character and trusting him. We can trust Poirot is making the correct decision whereas we cannot with Wargrave who definitely acts as if he is enjoying the experience. There are, in my opinion, clearly other motives Wargrave has for doing what he does beyond simply justice. You're correct that Norton probably would be lower if he were one of the guests on Soldier Island. Now, when I made this ranking and all rankings I only go by the canon and not whatever theory I may have or extratextual information, suspicions etc. I only use the canon and I accept what Christie writes to be "the truth" of the situation. I would recommend starting Ngaio Marsh with Artists in Crime. I suspect you may have started at the beginning which is an unfortunate place to start as her earliest books are the weakest.
@kevinb2844
5 ай бұрын
@@summationgathering thank you so much for the recommendation and appreciate your viewpoints. Keep up the excellent work.
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