Okay, I admit it, I’m completely lost. I decided to try solving this mystery because the BBC adaptation was coming to Canada via Britbox this month, and I wanted to try my hand at it before watching the show. I also haven’t written a blog post in a while, and figured that going head-to-head with the Queen of Crime was the perfect way to kick off my blogging year.

Now here I am, 87% in and right before the chapter with the big reveal, and I’m absolutely at a loss. So I’m afraid my 2025 series of Agatha Christie challenges will very much likely kick off with a loss, but on the bright side, I’ve really been enjoying this book, and highly recommend it to any fan of Christie or mysteries in general.

First, it has the elements I love most in Christie’s mysteries: it features a fairly small cast of characters, all of whom have complex relationships with each other, and enough drama amongst them to fuel whatever the motive for murder will turn out to be. At its heart is tennis player Neville Strange, his ex-wife Audrey, and his current, younger wife Kay. From the start, it seems clear that Neville isn’t fully happy with the divorce; he speaks highly of Audrey’s character, expresses guilt over causing her heartbreak, and seems impatient whenever Kay complains about something. The love triangle comes to a head when Neville decides that he and Kay will visit his elderly relative Lady Tressilian (Anjelica Huston in the adaptation!), at the same time as Audrey visits her every year. Instant drama!

Added to the mix are two other men who turn the love triangle into a much more complex polygon: Thomas Royde, a childhood friend of Audrey’s who has been secretly in love with her for years, and Ted Latimer, a dashing young man who is friendly and rather flirty with Kay. Then there’s Mary Aldin, companion and distant cousin to Lady Tressilian, and of course, Lady Tressilian herself, a formidable woman (Anjelica Huston!) who stays in her bed full-time and uses a rope bell to call her maid.

One evening, a visitor, Mr Treves, tells the story about a child he knows who got away with murder (literal, cold-blooded murder) many years ago. That child would now be an adult, and Mr. Treves said they had such a distinctive physical feature that he would surely recognize them even now. Mr. Treves later returns to his hotel, finds a sign saying the lift is broken, and so climbs the stairs to his top floor room. He dies of a heart attack from the climb.

Fast forward a few days (?), and Lady Tressilian is also found dead in her bed, struck in the head with an unknown blunt object. All the evidence points to one of the characters, but of course, the case is never that simple.

I had a vague suspicion of one of the characters from the beginning, honestly for no good reason other than they made the most sense to me for the big reveal. But then they later did something that made me realize they’re actually likely innocent. And then came a flurry of new clues and mini-reveals that seem to make everything clearer to Superintendent Battle, but honestly only made me even more confused than ever. I don’t think that re-reading past chapters, or even my notes and highlights will make anything any clearer for me, mostly because I already did that and I’m still confused, LOL! So, without further ado, I’m going to lock in my answer, and see how I do!

Was I right?

Ahahahaha! No, absolutely not, not even close. I named my choice of murderer below, and a bunch of other suspects I’d discarded as suspects for various reasons. Then I make a joke about how, at this point, I wouldn’t be surprised if it was this one character I never suspected, and of course, that’s who it turned out to be. And of course, their motive makes total sense; I just didn’t see it at all.

So, well played, Dame Agatha Christie. The Queen of Crime has fooled me again. My ego would like to give myself partial credit for at least guessing the motive; I’d just assigned it to the wrong person. But, ultimately, no, I did not figure out whodunnit. So 2025 begins with Agatha Christie 1, Literary Treats 0, and a fun little mystery to kick off spring.

*** SPOILERS BELOW ***

My Verdict

I suspected Mary Aldin from the start, and after much back-and-forth, I’m going to trust my instinct and lock her in as my final guess. She’s such a quiet, mousy type that I was sure she held plenty of hidden depths. I wouldn’t be surprised at all if she were the child murderer Mr. Treves recognized; she’s had a distinctive lock of white hair ever since she was much younger, and I think her unobtrusiveness actually hides the heart of a schemer. She’s the most vocal about how much the murders stress her out, and I find that suspicious.

Part of me worries she’s innocent, because she’s the one who told Superintendent Battle about what Mr. Treves said. That wasn’t on his radar at all, and if she were indeed the child murderer, why on earth would she even call attention to it? 

As for her murdering Lady Tressilian, the lady spoke highly of her as a wonderful companion, but I sense she’s actually resentful of the role. She’d cared for her elderly and ailing father for years, and when he died, Lady Tressilian convinced her to come be her companion. I feel like she resents spending her life taking care of older adults. At one point, she wryly observes that one of the male visitors is likely wondering how old she is, and the answer is that she’s thirty-six. I think her approach to that scene reveals more about her feelings around her age than it does about the other character’s curiosity. And especially when she’s in a house surrounded by the young, beautiful, vivacious Kay who has Ted flirting heavily with her, and the ethereal, lovely Audrey, who has both Thomas and Neville fiercely devoted to her, I think Mary’s resentment over her life hit a boiling point. I think she murdered Mr. Treves to protect herself from being arrested for her childhood crime, and she murdered Lady Tressilian to secure her freedom.

Other Strong Suspects, and Why I Think They’re Innocent

For a moment, I also suspected Audrey. She started acting erratically near the end: she tried to die by suicide, said she was afraid of being hanged, and when evidence was found that led to her arrest, she reacted with relief that “at least, it was over.” 

But I think she’s really innocent, because of a throwaway chapter with Superintendent Battle’s teenage daughter confessing to a crime she didn’t actually commit. Superintendent Battle says that psychologically, she’s the type of person who can be convinced to feel guilty even if she wasn’t, and he pointed out a much more stoic classmate who he thinks is the more likely culprit. The only reason I can think of for Christie to include this chapter is to set up the reveal for Audrey’s innocence. I think Audrey is like Superintendent Battle’s daughter, and someone is manipulating her to feel guilty for something she didn’t do. How? It turns out she was the one who left Neville, not the other way around, and it was to have an affair with Thomas’ brother, who later died in a car accident. I’m betting she had something to do with the accident, and now feels guilty about that, as well as breaking Neville and Thomas’ hearts.

Kay is another viable suspect. She hates Neville and Audrey enough to frame them for murder, and earlier on, she calls herself a planner. So I can very easily believe that she orchestrated the whole drama-filled get-together, and Lady Tressilian’s murder, for revenge. I can also believe that she killed someone as a child; that murder also showed cold-hearted planning, and finally, I can see her also killing Mr. Treves or, more likely, manipulating Ted into doing so. 

My problem with her as the villain is that she’s too obvious. I think Mary is the darker horse in this competition, and therefore the more likely big reveal.

And finally, I can imagine Thomas being the killer, also as part of a revenge plot. He resented Audrey for choosing Neville, and he especially resented her for choosing his brother as an affair partner rather than him. That makes me wonder if he also resents Audrey for causing his brother’s death, or if he caused his brother’s death himself, out of jealousy and resentment. He’s also known as “True Thomas,” the “Dobbin” of the group (from William Makepeace Thackeray’s Vanity Fair). A “nice guy,” friendzoned archetype of a man, I can easily picture him hating Audrey enough to kill. Mr. Treves also describes his head as being shaped like that of a violent criminal he once knew, and while he later brushed off his comment as not-at-all serious, it’s possible he was also dropping a hint about who the child murderer actually was.

The more I outline the case against Thomas, the more I think it may actually be him. I’m going to stick with my original guess that it’s Mary, only because I think she has a stronger motive to kill Lady Tressilian, but I wouldn’t be surprised if I were wrong and it turns out to be Thomas instead.

LOL, at this point, I’m so sure it’s got to be either Mary or Thomas, that watch it turn out to be Neville instead. He’s got zero reason to kill Mr. Treves or Lady Tressilian, and he loves Audrey too much to frame her for murder, but hey, he’s so far off my radar, it would be hilarious if he were the murderer.

The Actual Verdict

Ahahahaha! It turns out to be Neville, because of course it does. The hatred and resentment towards Audrey that I’d attributed to Thomas was actually felt by Neville, and so he killed Lady Tressilian in order to frame Audrey for the murder and get her hanged.

Also, it was Ted Latimer and not Thomas Royde who had the weirdly shaped skull that reminded Mr. Treves of a criminal. Thomas’ distinctive feature was a stiff arm. Oops.

Neville’s distinctive feature, which Mr. Treves noticed and recognized as the child murderer’s, was that his left-hand little finger was shorter than his right. I think either Kay or Mary knew a bit about reading palms, and was interpreting people’s hands in front of the group, and she happened to mention Neville’s finger. Yikes.

Also, the key evidence in the end turns out to come from a Mr. MacWirther, a character who I’d totally forgotten even existed. He also ends up being Audrey’s ultimate love interest, which honestly disappoints me because he barely features in the story at all! He’s briefly mentioned at the beginning, then reappears at the end with the key evidence, and then Audrey randomly decides she wants to marry him, and also tells Superintendent Battle that Thomas is really in love with Mary but doesn’t know it yet. I don’t particularly care deeply for any romantic pairing amongst these characters, but ugh, Agatha Christie could have done so much better by not including these random endgame romances at all.