I read Three Act Tragedy and didn't get on with it - at first. It almost feels wrong to criticize AC, but you have to say that she ought to have re-drafted some of her books to make them tighter. I felt there was a better novel trying in there. Compare Three Act... with The Moving Finger, or Evil Under the Sun and it isn't as compact. Reading it many times, though, I can feel I see how AC saw the plot, but didn't quite write it down that way.
Plotting and scene setting weaken the success of very fine dialogue. Some key scenes take place where the reader can't experience them: the second 'episode' which is so like the first; Sir Bartholemew joshing with his manservant; the note being given to the small boy. I don't normally say it, but, for a change, televisation has the power to actually improve upon the audience's experience, by showing these key scenes with as much emphasis as all the other key scenes.
I think the perceptive author, Miss Wills, needed to say more to reveal herself where we can see her doing this. She kind of just misses the pivotal role in the drama she is supposed to be having. Her suspicions are key, we are told, but we see so little of her. Her snooping takes place of camera so to speak, and is reported to the reader. We are told she suspects much, but we need to see the evidence of this.
SPOILER ALERT
Tolly needs to be shown talking more in depth about his general beliefs so that we can understand and appreciate the impact of what these are on the motive for murder.
The worst piece of neglect to detract from a magnificent plot, is that AC has forgotten to write in a scene between Poirot and Oliver Manders after Mr Satterwaite has told young Manders that Hercule Poirot finds his presence at the house party to be suspicious. The scene must have taken place for the later action to work. The fact that Oliver is there at the end denotes that Poirot has talked to him, obviously filling him in on suspicions, and has chosen to support his suit in the love stakes. Where Poirot feels sorry for a character wronged, he is gallant and overbearing, and it would have given opportunity for lovely dialogue alluding to the evil of the crime. For sure, we can have sympathy for a hopeless marital situation, but to frame someone else - evil.
SPOILER ALERT
I think the secondary characters are problematic. The pervading impression is one of 1930s style but not of enduring psychological types which are forever with us in the form of someone or other we know. For instance, Mrs Dacres comes across based on appearance and what we know of her is disparate. She has a younger lover - but, perversely, this feminine- seeming male is not one she is supporting, but one she hopes will support finance her business. One of her salon models says she is sure Mrs Dacres still feels a lot for her husband. Confusing! Captain Dacres and Miss Milray don't really materialize as believable people.
I think a redraft on characterisation would have made this one of her best works because the main characters are sensational and very televisual. The humour is there beautifully: Egg's interview with the model - 'egging' (sorry) her on to divulge more. It is hilarious when Egg is exposing her naivety to Mr Satterwaite by talking about Oliver's communism, but then says he wants to make a lot of money. (I bet Agatha had fun drawing her character based on young people she knew.)
Setting is key, too. Evil Under the Sun, Murder at the Vicarage, The Moving Finger, Murder on the Orient Express, Death on the Nile (mostly) are all set in one place. In Three Act Tragedy, I don't really feel Cornwall when we are there, and there is too much hopping here, there, and everywhere in search of clues. You lose the ability to think about what everyone else is doing when the character being described is being active. There isn't enough interaction of everyone at the same time, but it is this interaction which really gives the reader a chance to do their own sleuthing.
I still love reading this again and again, finding more nuances every time, but I do wish for more on the true love interest which we only get a beautiful glimpse of at the very end.
Comments