Thank you for your many kind comments on our autumn Tale for Our Time. There are seventy-three others in our extensive archive.
Our seventy-fourth, however, is The Murder on the Links, Agatha Christie's second Hercule Poirot whodunnit, published in 1923. Veronica, an Auckland Steyn Clubber, writes:
Giraud is passable enough as a 'human foxhound' and he has made a careful study of cigarette ends and matches but his great failing, as a 'modern', is that he has neglected to study history and he is therefore unable to recognize the 'links' to the past (what a clever choice of title from Dame Agatha) when they are literally staring him in the face.
As Poirot told him, crime and criminals don't change a great deal, they are unoriginal creatures of habit, but amongst the 'great' ones it is possible to discern the 'individual touch'.
If you know what to look for that is. Very hard to do for those living in the eternal present, such as Giraud.
A very pertinent Tale for our Time this one. Thanks MS :)
Indeed, Veronica - and that is a rather sharp point about the "clever choice of title": There is not a lot of golf in this yarn, but it is indubitably a murder on the links. In tonight's episode Poirot and Hastings consider the cut of one's overcoat:
"But what makes you think that letter was written to M. Renauld?"
"Why it was found in his pocket and—and—"
"And that is all!" cut in Poirot. "There was no mention of any name to show to whom the letter was addressed. We assumed it was to the dead man because it was in the pocket of his overcoat. Now, mon ami, something about that overcoat struck me as unusual. I measured it, and made the remark that he wore his overcoat very long. That remark should have given you to think."
"I thought you were just saying it for the sake of saying something," I confessed.
"Ah, quelle idée!"
If you're a member of The Mark Steyn Club you can hear Mark read Part Twenty of our serialisation of The Murder on the Links simply by clicking here and logging-in. All previous episodes can be found here.
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To become a member of The Mark Steyn Club, please click here - and don't forget our special Gift Membership, which makes a perfect birthday present. The minute you sign up you'll have access to all seventy-four Tales for Our Time, including Mark's serialisations of Nineteen Eighty-Four, The Time Machine and The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde. And please join Steyn tomorrow evening for Part Twenty-One of The Murder on the Links.