Captain Arthur Hastings' Modern Girlfriend

In Agatha Christie's novel The Murder on the Links, Captain Arthur Hastings takes a ferry across the English Channel, then rides on a train back to London. There he returns to the apartment he shares with Hercule Poirot, the famous Belgian detective. Unlike most of his countrymen, Poirot opted to remain in England after the war. Over breakfast the next morning, Hastings and Poirot catch up, and Poirot reiterates how glad he is not to have traveled on the ship with Hastings. Even in the calmest weather, and even for an hour, Poirot finds the notion of a voyage aboard a ship unpalatable. 

In its own way, sea sickness can be as debilitating as a fear of air travel. 

After breakfast, Poirot goes through his morning mail. In it he finds a letter from France. When he opens it, he discovers it is an appeal for help from a Mr. Renauld. Even though the rich gentleman doesn't say exactly what he wants Poirot to investigate, he insists that he lives in fear of his life. Despite his dislike of sea voyages, the urgent tone of the letter convinces Poirot to travel to France and meet Mr. Renauld. And even though he's just returned from France on a business trip for the government, Hastings agrees to return, this time to help his friend with this mysterious investigation. 

When they reach Mr. Renauld's house in France, Poirot and Hastings discover that he was kidnapped. Mrs. Renauld was found in the house by a servant, bound and gagged. The police expected to receive a ransom demand from the kidnappers. Instead, the body of Mr. Renauld is discovered on the golf course adjoining his estate. It seems Mr. Renault was murdered, stabbed in the back.

I won't attempt to summarize Agatha Christie's novel for you. Nor do I wish to throw out any spoilers that might diminish your interest in the story. But as to the girl Hastings met in the first chapter, aboard the train headed toward Calais, he bumps into her the following day.

As on the train, he can't resist telling her he's investigating a murder. She declares that she's mad about murders, and sweet-talks him into showing her the scene of the crime. I like how Agatha Christie shows us how repulsive Hastings views this modern woman's interests and actions, tells himself how much he dislikes her, but can't resist acceding to her requests. Clearly she wields a power over him. For although he knows the French police will surely object, he gives her a tour of the crime scene anyway.

The TV adaptation changes a great many things about this girl Hastings meets. Agatha Christie's girl is a coarse dance hall entertainer. The girl in the TV version works as a refined, elegant singer in the hotel where Hastings and Poirot take lodgings. In the book, Higgins fights his constant attraction to her. On TV, she is instantly everything he's ever desired in a woman. In the book, his growing attraction to her is much more of a mystery in itself. On TV, it's the typical storybook romance we've seen a thousand times. In Christie's novel, Hastings doesn't even know her name until two-thirds of the way through the novel. Even then he only thinks he knows it, and Poirot must set him right as to her true identity many pages later. In TV, Hastings learns her name immediately, but tells the French police and Poirot that he doesn't. Of course, the French police may believe his story, but Hercule Poirot knows the woman's identity. For he saw how his friend Arthur Hastings gazed at her when she sang in the hotel lobby.

I found these two different versions of Arthur Hastings' romance with his modern girlfriend satisfying and enjoyable. Having watched Agatha Christie's Poirot on TV for over twenty years now, I am finding that exploring the stories as she wrote them, and comparing them to the TV versions, enhances my appreciation for both. Still, it is interesting how TV rips apart and reassembles what works in Christie's novels in order to translate her stories into a new medium. Don't you agree, mon ami?

Dragon Dave