This month’s book that I’m reading for the #readchristie2023 challenge is Easy To Kill, also known by its original British title, Murder is Easy.
Celebrating the Queen of Crime’s Birthday
Since September is Agatha Christie’s birth month, I thought I do something different in this post. I also have another post planned later this month for the #britishcrimeclassic challenge that will talk about one of my favorite detectives.
In this post, I’ll be listing some of the tropes/plot devices that Christie uses in this book. I took reference from this, this, and this. By the way, I went down the rabbit hole while researching this topic. I’m not going to do a deep-dive this time, but I’ll file it away as a future project.
In addition, I’ll also be giving my impressions of the different book covers available for this book.
Heads up! This is going to be a long post and not entirely spoiler-free. Look away if you don’t want to get clued on on what happens.
Plot Devices and Tropes
1. (Creepy) Red Herrings
The road to a good Christie mystery is paved with red herrings. True to form, there were several red herrings in the story. One Red Herring tried to drum up some superstitious reasoning to explain the recent spate of deaths in Wychwood (it’s not a very convincing Red Herring in my opinion).
This silly red herring is:
Mr. Ellsworthy and his chicken-sacrificing party.
He was out tonight, and he came in with blood on his hands, capering and prancing and mad – drunk with the homicidal maniac’s exultation.
Chapter 17
2. A God Am I
One of the characters suffers under the disturbing delusion that the hand of Providence has taken vengeance for all the wrongs done to him by the victims. This person takes the incidences as a given – of course these deaths are a natural consequence of the victims’ horrible actions against them.
This character is:
Lord Gordon Easterfield
It’s remarkable – absolutely remarkable, the way that a righteous man’s enemies are struck down! Look at yesterday. That fellow abuses me; even goes so far as to try to raise his hand against me. And what happens? Where is he today? Dead! Struck down by divine wrath!
Chapter 18
Yes, they all died. Amazing isn’t it?
Chapter 18
3. The Least Likely Suspect
This is a classic mystery plot device; the murderer is the last person you’d think it would be. Ironically, if you’re a fan of mystery literature, you’d start to suspect all the unlikely characters from the get-go.
Like in many of Christie’s stories, the criminal in this story comes from a good family, respectable, and on the surface, sane. It’s only when the final confrontation happens that you’d understand the motive behind the crimes and how simple it was for this person to arrange the deaths.
This murderous character is:
Ms. Honoria Waynflete
But of course I was always safe, because I never had any motive, and you can’t suspect anyone of murder if there isn’t a motive.
Chapter 22
…is, I am sure, a very wicked woman! Oh, I see you don’t believe me! No one believed Lavinia Fullerton either.
Chapter 23
Oh, God, am I quite mad? It isn’t possible, what I’m thinking. Surely it isn’t possible; it wouldn’t make sense.
Chapter 23
4. Make it Look Like an Accident
Ah, the old Murders as Accidents ploy. This is an old standby of murder mysteries, along with The Alibi, Fake Death, or Clock Discrepancy. Even recent criminal cases have drawn inspiration from the classics in painting a murder to look like an accident. This would only work if an accident can also plausibly explain the cause of the deaths and it seems to have worked for the criminal in this case.
What were the murders dressed up as accidents?
A drunken man was pushed into a pond to drown, a naughty boy was pushed off the window ledge, hat paint was substituted for cough medicine, an old woman was shoved in front of a rushing car, arsenic in the tea while nursing a sick woman, accidentally cutting the doctor’s finger and wrapping it with infected bandage
…it was so easy to arrange for an accident!
Chapter 22
5. Motive Rant
This is the moment in the story where the villain of the piece goes on and on about what pushed them over the cliff. Instead of just getting on with the deed at hand, the villain is compelled to explain the motive behind their actions.
The Motive Rant can be directed towards the detective, a bystander (or several), or a future victim. In this story, the murderer unloads her feelings and motivations to a victim and reveals the decades-old motive to the whole mystery.
Who ranted to who and where?
The villainess, Ms. Waynflete, explained her murderous plot to Bridget, while the two were alone in the woods. Ms. Waynflete was preparing to kill Bridget with the knife she hid in the parcel of old clothes she was carrying.
She must play for time – yes, and she must make the woman talk…It ought not to be difficult – not really. Because she must want to talk, oh so badly – and the only person she could ever talk to was someone…who was going to be silenced forever.
Chapter 22
…might be a homicidal maniac, but she was also something much more common than that. She was a human being who wanted to talk about herself.
Chapter 22
Book Covers
There are plenty of book covers that exist for this book. It’s unsurprising given that there’s been a lot of reprinting over the years. Apart from the cover in the featured image of this post, I’ve selected some that stood out to me.
#1 An Old Goat
This is the cover of the book that I originally read and owned. I was so intrigued by the description of the eyes – like a goat’s – that I kept going back to look at the cover and getting creeped out in the process.
How like a goat she is! A goat’s always been an evil symbol. I see why now.
Chapter 22
Her eyes were light and staring, with queer, elongated pupils.
Chapter 22
#2 Cat’s Meow
I like this cover because it had a cat in it. A black cat that looks like mine and one that I miss so much. That’s it.
Oh, ok. There is a cat in the book called Wonky Pooh that played a role in one of the murders. He didn’t murder anyone, just to be clear, but with a cat, you never know.
That’s a very handsome cat. Have you had him long?
chapter 5
#3 Hand in Glove
This is the cover of the book that I currently have at home. As you can see, the bird is still there but is fortunately alive in this iteration.
There’s also a picture of a gloved hand. Any self-respecting murderer would go for gloves to avoid leaving prints, hence the inclusion in the cover.
O why do you walk through the fields in gloves? Yes, why? Why gloves? Of course! Of course! The whole things so beautifully planned!
Chapter 22
#4 To Kill a (mocking)Bird
This is my favorite cover that I found for this book. If you disregard the dead bird, the bottle of poison (or is that blood?), and the hairy spider, the color combination is so bright and cheerful.
He told me there was something about a bird – a bird whose neck was wrung.
chapter 19
