October's Book of the Month - The Pale Horse
Tuppence
City of London, United Kingdom
When an elderly priest is murdered, the killer searches the victim so roughly that his already ragged cassock is torn in the process. What was the killer looking for? And what had a dying woman confided to the priest on her death bed only hours earlier?
Mark Easterbrook and his sidekick Ginger Corrigan are determined to find out. Maybe the three women who run The Pale Horse public house, and who are rumoured to practice the ‘Dark Arts’, can provide some answers?
This month we delve into one of Agatha Christie’s darkest stories, The Pale Horse. The story, published in the UK in 1961, reflects a supernatural tone which is only really evident in a few of Christie’s novels. In The Pale Horse three “witches” claim to possess the power to curse people to death, but as the plot thickens it appears that all is not as it seems.
When Agatha Christie wrote this story she had in her mind a man that she had met almost fifty years earlier. The man in question was pharmacist Mr P who instructed Christie in the preparation and dispensing of drugs during the First World War. Leave your thoughts and questions about The Pale Horse here.
Comments
for one, Letitia Blacklock who killed her friend Dora Bunner, Amy Murgatroyd and attempted to kill Mitzi.
Agatha Christie wrote stories in her prime that involved the supernatural but the tone of it was different and not as dark as it was in The Pale Horse so it's possible that if this story was written at an earlier point in time the supernatural aspect would have been lighter, perhaps?
Do you like Mrs. Oliver being in a book without Poirot?
You mentioned the novels based on supernatural events earlier in her carrier.
I suppose I forgot about the Sittaford Mystery's supernatural element. I really like that novel, as well, and there are a plethora of suspects, from what I gather of reading it. I suppose it is different from the Pale Horse as the wonder and the mysticism of the supernatural in the former novel is not apparent in the Pale Horse, as Christie seems to view it in this novel negatively instead of fun you could have at a dinner party. Some of the characters in the Pale Horse believe it is fun and games, but eventually those characters are the most at danger later in the novel. And in the real world in that time, the 1960s, People didn't palm read as much, but it was popular in the 20s and 30s. By the 60s, people were more invested in horoscopes I believe.
If the Pale Horse was written earlier in her career, even if it was her plan to make the Pale Horse itself (spoiler) with evil intentions (end spoiler), they may more have been seen as games, perhaps, and everyone underestimated them and thought it was unreal and played with fate, unlike how in the actual novel characters are taking it seriously.
I still ill love the novel the way it is though!
I'll make a point of remembering to avoid the "@" with you or anybody else who asks me not to use it. Thanks again for writing– I want to make sure that everybody is treated respectfully on these boards.
I know no offence was meant and I appreciate the fact you apologise although I can't honestly say I understand your reason, I would myself respond to anyone who wrote something if I felt I could bring something to the party as it were and wouldn't need them to put @ before my post, Would you like me to put @ before all posts where I put your name? I will either try remember to or try not to address my posts to you.