The Hollow
From Free net encyclopedia
The Hollow (published in 1946) is a detective fiction novel written by Agatha Christie. It features detective Hercule Poirot.
Lady Angkatell, intrigued by the criminal mind, has invited Hercule Poirot to her estate - The Hollow - for a weekend house party. The Belgian detective's arrival at the Hollow is met with an elaborate tableau he believes to be for his amusement: a Harley Street doctor, John Christow, lies in a pool of red paint; his timid wife, Gerda, stands over his body with a gun while the other guests look suitably shocked. But this is no charade. The paint is blood and the corpse is real. However, the gun in Gerda's hand is not the one that killed the doctor, turning a pleasant country weekend into one of Poirot's most baffling cases, where everyone has a good reason to murder Christow.
Christie - who often admitted that she did not like Poirot, a fact parodied by her recurring novelist character Ariadne Oliver - particularly disliked his appearance in this novel. His late arrival, jarring given the established atmosphere, led her to claim in her autobiography that she "ruined [the novel] by the introduction of Poirot."
Adaptations
- Christie adapted the play for the stage in 1951 but omitted Poirot.
- In 2004 the novel was filmed as a television movie featuring David Suchet as Poirot and Megan Dodds as Henrietta Savernake.
Template:Agatha Christiefr:Le Vallon ja:ホロー荘の殺人 pl:Niedziela na wsi pt:The Hollow