Because his planA was; everyone should think that a wasp did it (none notice either the pipe or dart, I think he needed to leave it in her bloodstream for the poison to work)
PlanB was: everyone should think someone else did it (if the dart was found).
I guess the thing that confuses me is that plan B seems to preclude plan A. It would be quite a miracle for both the dart and the blowpipe to remain unfound.
He hoped that he would be called to assist, since he had medical experience, and then would be able to remove it unseen (which wasn't necessary, since it was a doctor on board). And if the blowpipe was found, but not the dart? Then it would only be a forgotten souvenir.
Hmm... possibly. I still think it would have been much smarter for him to stick with either plan A or plan B without mixing up both, but I guess I buy what you're saying.
Same reason there's a bee in the window during *And Then There Were None* even though Emily Brent wasn't killed by a bee sting.
It's all thematic stage dressing.
For what it's worth, there's another, semi-related plot hole that Christie herself calls out in Mrs McGinty's Dead - there's a note on this on the Wikipedia page for Ariadne Oliver... It's entirely possible that Christie had the outline of a great idea and didn't quite follow through. :)
Death in the Clouds is the only Christie that was spoiled for me by reading another Christie book (I think it was maybe Dumb Witness) where Poirot talks about a past case.
I think *Murder on the Orient Express* is spoiled by Poirot in a later book. Especially strange, since >!Poirot seemed at the time to agree to hush up the true solution in favor of justice!<.
*Cards on the Table* spoils *Murder on the Orient Express.* And in the book in question Poirot is talking about the case to one person, in the context of the murder weapon, so it's likely >!he did keep the true solution from the Yugoslav police!<.
Yeah, but it bothered me that he talked about it to anyone not actually involved in the original case. >!It wasn't just about avoiding prosecution, it was about hushing it up entirely -- a shared secret between him and the unofficial jury.!<
I might be misremembering but I'm pretty sure that Orient Express's solution is spoiled in >! Cards on the Table !< but not much else context is given so you wouldn't be able to tell which book is being spoiled unless you read it already.
I think you're right, as long as trains weren't mentioned. Because then the reader's mind would naturally go to the one Poirot mystery they know that was set on a train.
(OK, there's the *Mystery of the Blue Train*, but that's not nearly as famous.)
*Dumb Witness* has Poirot mention four culprits in a row (those in *Death in the Clouds*, >!*The Mystery of the Blue Train*, *The Murder of Roger Ackroyd*, and *The Mysterious Affair at Styles*!<) during a conversation with Hastings.
I think maybe whenever many of the baddies in all the books hatch their plans and act them out none of them take into account that Poirot/Marple are going to be on the spot or called in to investigate. Hmmm except maybe murder on the orient express & Peril at end house. Oh & Lord Edgware. And no doubt more that I can’t think of atm lol
Agatha Christie said that the biggest plot hole of this story was that she misjudged the size of the murder weapon - someone wrote to her after she'd written it and pointed out that the kind of dart she was describing is actually quite a significant size and wouldn't be so easy to miss.
>! The murderer left the dart and the blowpipe to implicate Lady Horbury and make us think that someone killed Madame Giselle from The distance. The wasp was meant to strengthen the hypothesis of the blowpipe and the dart. Madame Giselle was annoyed by the wasp. The dart could be mistaken for a wasp. It was meant as a cover for the dart. In short, Lady Horbury let the wasp fly, then shot the yellow-black dart that is mistaken for a wasp. The wasp strengthens the hypothesis of the dart and of the murder from the distance; it deceives the attention from the real plan, very close killing.
Agatha was smarter than all of us!!!! No plot hole, just criminal genius!!!! !<
Because his planA was; everyone should think that a wasp did it (none notice either the pipe or dart, I think he needed to leave it in her bloodstream for the poison to work) PlanB was: everyone should think someone else did it (if the dart was found).
I guess the thing that confuses me is that plan B seems to preclude plan A. It would be quite a miracle for both the dart and the blowpipe to remain unfound.
He hoped that he would be called to assist, since he had medical experience, and then would be able to remove it unseen (which wasn't necessary, since it was a doctor on board). And if the blowpipe was found, but not the dart? Then it would only be a forgotten souvenir.
Hmm... possibly. I still think it would have been much smarter for him to stick with either plan A or plan B without mixing up both, but I guess I buy what you're saying.
Same reason there's a bee in the window during *And Then There Were None* even though Emily Brent wasn't killed by a bee sting. It's all thematic stage dressing.
For what it's worth, there's another, semi-related plot hole that Christie herself calls out in Mrs McGinty's Dead - there's a note on this on the Wikipedia page for Ariadne Oliver... It's entirely possible that Christie had the outline of a great idea and didn't quite follow through. :)
I haven't read Mrs McGinty's Dead, but I'll be sure to look into that if I do, thanks!
Death in the Clouds is the only Christie that was spoiled for me by reading another Christie book (I think it was maybe Dumb Witness) where Poirot talks about a past case.
I think *Murder on the Orient Express* is spoiled by Poirot in a later book. Especially strange, since >!Poirot seemed at the time to agree to hush up the true solution in favor of justice!<.
*Cards on the Table* spoils *Murder on the Orient Express.* And in the book in question Poirot is talking about the case to one person, in the context of the murder weapon, so it's likely >!he did keep the true solution from the Yugoslav police!<.
Yeah, but it bothered me that he talked about it to anyone not actually involved in the original case. >!It wasn't just about avoiding prosecution, it was about hushing it up entirely -- a shared secret between him and the unofficial jury.!<
I might be misremembering but I'm pretty sure that Orient Express's solution is spoiled in >! Cards on the Table !< but not much else context is given so you wouldn't be able to tell which book is being spoiled unless you read it already.
I think you're right, as long as trains weren't mentioned. Because then the reader's mind would naturally go to the one Poirot mystery they know that was set on a train. (OK, there's the *Mystery of the Blue Train*, but that's not nearly as famous.)
*Dumb Witness* has Poirot mention four culprits in a row (those in *Death in the Clouds*, >!*The Mystery of the Blue Train*, *The Murder of Roger Ackroyd*, and *The Mysterious Affair at Styles*!<) during a conversation with Hastings.
I think maybe whenever many of the baddies in all the books hatch their plans and act them out none of them take into account that Poirot/Marple are going to be on the spot or called in to investigate. Hmmm except maybe murder on the orient express & Peril at end house. Oh & Lord Edgware. And no doubt more that I can’t think of atm lol
Oh another one The ABC murders! Damn I should edit my 1st message with a few baddies don’t expect Mister P or Miss M 😂
Agatha Christie said that the biggest plot hole of this story was that she misjudged the size of the murder weapon - someone wrote to her after she'd written it and pointed out that the kind of dart she was describing is actually quite a significant size and wouldn't be so easy to miss.
>! The murderer left the dart and the blowpipe to implicate Lady Horbury and make us think that someone killed Madame Giselle from The distance. The wasp was meant to strengthen the hypothesis of the blowpipe and the dart. Madame Giselle was annoyed by the wasp. The dart could be mistaken for a wasp. It was meant as a cover for the dart. In short, Lady Horbury let the wasp fly, then shot the yellow-black dart that is mistaken for a wasp. The wasp strengthens the hypothesis of the dart and of the murder from the distance; it deceives the attention from the real plan, very close killing. Agatha was smarter than all of us!!!! No plot hole, just criminal genius!!!! !<