Just ahead of Episode Seventeen of The Murder on the Links, let me thank you for your many insightful comments on this latest Tale for Our Time. Listeners were very taken by last night's installment tying Hercule Poirot's latest case to the real-life murder trial of Marguerite Steinheil, lover of the President of France, the King of Cambodia and others. That's Mme Steinheil above, painted by Léon Bonnat shortly after her sexual skills proved fatal to poor President Faure. Wanda Sherratt, a First Week Founding Member of The Mark Steyn Club, considers the broader geopolitical implications of M Faure's fate:
I think the incident with M. Faure was obliquely referred to by Florence King in one of her National Review columns. It might have been inspired by Bill Clinton, but she wrote that when she was a kid, her mother one day out of the blue told her 'If a man ever asks you to do something funny to him, you tell him to go to hell.' When she asked what she meant by 'something funny' her mother snapped back 'Don't ask questions, just promise me!'
This led young Florence on a quest among her various relatives to find out just what 'something funny' was, and no one would tell her. But one day this story about M. Faure came up and her mother burst out, 'Those French! That's why we keep having to go over there to fight their wars for them! They're always doing something funny to each other, and it saps their strength!'
Her mother's sudden foray into international politics left Florence even more confused.
In tonight's episode of The Murder on the Links, M Poirot's revelations about the earlier case - albeit sans "something funny" - are, as always, causing Captain Hastings to gallop ahead:
"So it is definitely your opinion, Hastings, that Madame Daubreuil murdered M. Renauld?"
"Yes."
"Why?"
He shot the question at me with such suddenness that I was taken aback.
"Why?" I stammered. "Why? Oh, because—" I came to a stop.
Poirot nodded his head at me.
"You see, you come to a stumbling-block at once. Why should Madame Daubreuil (I shall call her that for clearness sake) murder M. Renauld? We can find no shadow of a motive. She does not benefit by his death; considered as either mistress or blackmailer she stands to lose. You cannot have a murder without a motive."
Members of The Mark Steyn Club can hear Mark read Part Seventeen of The Murder on the Links simply by clicking here and logging-in. Earlier episodes can be found here.
Speaking of which, please allow us a quick plug for our Tales of Our Time home page in its handy Netflix-style tile format. It's super-easy to pick out whatever tickles your fancy of an evening, and Timely-Talers from around the world seem to like it. If you've yet to hear any of our Tales, you can enjoy the first eight-and-a-half years' worth of audio adventures - by Conan Doyle, Kafka, Conrad, Gogol, Wodehouse, Baroness Orczy, Jack London, Jane Austen, Robert Louis Stevenson and more - by joining The Mark Steyn Club. For details on membership, see here - and, if you're seeking the perfect present for a fellow fan of classic fiction, don't forget our Steyn Club Gift Membership. Alternatively, if you'd like a book in old-fashioned book form, over at the SteynOnline bookstore there are bargains galore among our Steynamite Special offers.
Please join Mark tomorrow for Part Eighteen of The Murder on the Links.