Death in the Clouds

Plot introduction

In the book, Poirot is a passenger on board a flight from Paris to Croydon. Some time before landing, one of the passengers, Madame Giselle – a wealthy French moneylender – is found dead. Initially, a reaction to a wasp sting is postulated, but Poirot spies found the true cause of death: a poison-tipped dart, apparently fired from a blowgun. It becomes apparent that the victim has been murdered.

Plot summary

Frustrated with the evident artificiality of the blowpipe, an item that could hardly have been used without being seen by another passenger, Poirot suggests that the means of delivering the dart may have been something else. Is it the flute of one passenger, or perhaps one of the ancient tubes carried by one of the two French archaeologists (father and son) on board? Or maybe Lady Horbury's long cigarette holder? Why were there two coffee spoons in the victim's saucer?

Poirot's focus is upon a wasp that has been seen in the compartment and which provided evidence for the original theory of the cause of death. Without explaining himself, he asks for a detailed list of the items in the possession of the passengers, and finds an incriminating clue, but does not specify to which passenger the clue pertains, although he expresses considerable surprise. Madame Giselle is suspected of using blackmail to ensure her clients paid up, so any of the passengers could either have owed her money or feared exposure. Equally, Madame Giselle had an estranged daughter who will inherit her considerable estate: could one of the female passengers be this heiress? Much of the novel focuses on the pursuit of this line of inquiry, with the passengers all coming under suspicion in turn. Special attention is given to Mr Clancy, a detective novelist who enables Christie to include the same sort of parodies of her craft achieved in other novels through the character of Ariadne Oliver.

The only other suspect who proves of material significance is, however, the Countess of Horbury, a woman from the lower classes who married well. She was one of Madame Giselle's debtors and her wealthy husband has cut her off. The countess' maid has been called into the compartment during the flight where she would have had the perfect opportunity to commit the crime. When this maid is revealed to be none other than the victim's daughter and heir, Anne Morisot, it seems she must be the murderess. But the maid was only on the flight by accident, having been asked to be there at the last moment. Moreover, the death of Anne Morisot from poison on the boat-train to Boulogne leaves no clear suspect.

Poirot reveals in the dénouement that dentist Norman Gale, heretofore seen as a sympathetic protagonist with a crush on the novel's ingenue heroine, Jane Grey, is none other than Anne's new husband. Gale's plans – almost certainly including the eventual murder of Anne herself – had been laid well in advance. Gale brought his dentist's jacket on board—the item which had made Poirot suspicious earlier when reviewing the passengers' list of onboard possessions. In the apparently innocuous moments when he apparently went to the water closet, he actually changed into this jacket to pose as a steward. Under the pretense of delivering a coffee spoon to Miss Giselle he had walked up the aisle and stabbed her with the poisoned thorn. As Poirot puts it: "No one notices a steward particularly." Gale's intention had been to frame the Countess, and the blowpipe found behind Poirot's seat would have been found behind hers had they not switched seats at the last moment. Poirot invites Mr Clancy to the dénouement where he gleefully allows the novelist to see how a real-life detective solves a case, to both men's great enjoyment. Finally, in a single stroke Poirot makes a romantic match by pairing off Jane Grey with the younger archaeologist, who has fallen in love with her.

Literary significance and reception

The Times Literary Supplement of 4 July 1935 summarised thus: "Any of the other nine passengers and two stewards could be suspected. And all of them were, including Clancy, the writer of detective stories, whom the author evidently enjoys making absurd. It will be a very acute reader who does not receive a complete surprise at the end."

The Times in its main paper gave the book a second review in its issue of 2 July 1935 when they described its plot as "ingenious" and commented on the fact that Christie had evolved a method of presenting a crime in a confined space (with reference to The Mystery of the Blue Train and Murder on the Orient Express) which "however often employed, never loses its originality."

Isaac Anderson in The New York Times Book Review of 24 March 1935 began his column, "Murder by poisoned dart, such as primitive savages blow from blow-guns, ceased long ago to be a novelty in detective fiction, and murder in an airplane is by way of becoming almost as common as murder behind the locked doors of a library, but the combination of poisoned dart and plane is probably unique. Not that such minor matters are of the slightest consequence to the reader; the main thing is that this is an Agatha Christie story, featuring Hercule Poirot, who is, by his own admission, the world's greatest detective." He concluded, "This is a crime puzzle of the first quality, and a mighty entertaining story besides."

In The Observer's issue of 30 June 1935, "Torquemada" (Edward Powys Mathers) started his review, "My admiration for Mrs. Christie is such that with each new book of hers I strain every mental nerve to prove that she has failed, at last, to hypnotise me. On finishing Death in the Clouds, I found that she had succeeded even more triumphantly than usual." He concluded, "I hope that some readers of this baffling case will foresee at least the false denouement. I did not even do that. Agatha Christie has recently developed two further tricks: one is, as of the juggler who keeps on dropping things, to leave a clue hanging out for several chapters, apparently unremarked by her little detective though seized on by us, and then to tuck it back again as unimportant. Another is to give us some, but by no means all, of the hidden thoughts of her characters. We readers must guard against these new dexterities. As for Poirot, it is only to him and to Cleopatra that a certain remark about age and custom is strictly applicable. But might not Inspector Japp be allowed to mellow a little, with the years, beyond the moron stage?"

An admirer of Christie, Milward Kennedy of The Guardian began his review of 30 July 1935, "Very few authors achieve the ideal blend of puzzle and entertainment as often does Agatha Christie." He did admit that, "Death in the Clouds may not rank with her greatest achievements, but it is far above the average detective story." He finished by saying, "Mrs Christie provides a little gallery of thumb-nail sketches of plausible characters; she gives us all the clues and even tells us where to look for them; we ought to find the murderer by reason, but are not likely to succeed except by guesswork."

A review in the Daily Mirror of 20 July 1935 concluded, "We leave Poirot to figure it all out. He is at it and in it, with his usual brilliance, till the end."

Robert Barnard: "Exceptionally lively specimen, with wider than usual class and type-range of suspects. Scrupulously fair, with each clue presented openly and discussed. Note Clancy the crime writer, and the superiority of French police to British (no signs of insularity here)."

Television

An adaptation for the ITV series Agatha Christie's Poirot, was broadcast in 1992, starring David Suchet as Poirot. While keeping faithful to the plot, a number of minor changes were made:

Radio

The novel was adapted for radio by BBC Radio 4, featuring John Moffatt as Poirot, Philp Jackson as Chief Inspector Japp (as in the episode of the same name for Agatha Christie's Poirot), Geoffrey Whitehead as Monsieur Fournier and Teresa Gallagher as Jane Grey.

In popular culture

Publication history

The book was first serialised in the US in The Saturday Evening Post in six instalments from 9 February (Volume 207, Number 32) to 16 March 1935 (Volume 207, Number 37) under the title Death in the Air with illustrations by Frederick Mizen.

In the UK, the novel was serialised as an abridged version in the weekly Women's Pictorial magazine in six instalments from 16 February (Volume 29, Number 736) to 23 March 1935 (Volume 29, Number 741) under the title Mystery in the Air. There were no chapter divisions and all of the instalments carried illustrations by Clive Uptton.