105 pages • 3 hours read
Agatha ChristieA modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more. For select classroom titles, we also provide Teaching Guides with discussion and quiz questions to prompt student engagement.
Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Race and Poirot examine the body of Louise Bourget, who was stabbed to death approximately an hour before. Her “dark feline face [is] convulsed, as though with surprise and fury” (307) and her hand is still clutching the corner of a thousand-franc bill.
Race and Poirot infer that Louise knew the murderer’s identity and attempted to blackmail him; while she was counting the money, he stabbed her. Poirot adds ruefully that he and Race should have realized that Louise had witnessed the murder based on her statement earlier that day (“Naturally, if I had been unable to sleep, if I had mounted the stairs, then perhaps I might have seen this assassin…” (308)). Poirot adds that the two murders suggest a killer who possesses “courage, audacity, bold execution, lightning action” (309).
Bessner examines the body and declares that the murder weapon must have been a long, thin knife, like the surgical ones he has in his cabin. Race asks whether any of Bessner’s knives are missing, and Bessner indignantly rejects the suggestion that he could have murdered Louise and then sends Poirot and Race away so that he can attend to his patient, Simon, who is still staying in Bessner’s cabin.
By Agatha Christie
A Murder Is Announced
A Murder Is Announced
Agatha Christie
And Then There Were None
And Then There Were None
Agatha Christie
A Pocket Full of Rye
A Pocket Full of Rye
Agatha Christie
Crooked House
Crooked House
Agatha Christie
Murder at the Vicarage
Murder at the Vicarage
Agatha Christie
Murder on the Orient Express
Murder on the Orient Express
Agatha Christie
Poirot Investigates
Poirot Investigates
Agatha Christie
The ABC Murders
The ABC Murders
Agatha Christie
The Mousetrap
The Mousetrap
Agatha Christie
The Murder of Roger Ackroyd
The Murder of Roger Ackroyd
Agatha Christie
The Mysterious Affair at Styles
The Mysterious Affair at Styles
Agatha Christie
The Pale Horse
The Pale Horse
Agatha Christie
Witness for the Prosecution
Witness for the Prosecution
Agatha Christie