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If It's Tuesday, There Must Be a Murder in Belgium

2009; University of Oklahoma; Volume: 83; Issue: 4 Linguagem: Inglês

10.1353/wlt.2009.0145

1945-8134

J. Madison Davis,

Crime and Detective Fiction Studies

RIMe A^YSTeRY BY J. MADISON DAVIS IF IT'S TUESDAY, THERE MUST BE A MURDER IN BELGIUM ravel is so often an element of crime fictionthat,likebal JL listics,fingerprints, and ciga retteashes on the rug, readers pretty much take itforgranted.Many tele vision and mystery novel detectives are practically Grim Reapers, with theirarrivals anywhere precipitating an immediate death. JessicaFletcher had only to step out of her cab, and the victim hit the floor faster than her luggage. A waft of theperfume in Hercule Poirot's mustache wax should have been part of thetraining forcorpse dogs. Poirot didn't even have to arrive to provoke a murder. Wheth er traveling by train (Murder on the Orient Express, 1934),plane (Death in theClouds, 1935), or ship (Death on the Nile, 1937), Poirot meant certain death to at least one of his fellow passengers. The Orient Express, a real train from Paris to Istanbul, is legendary largely due toAgatha Christie's novel, but in the longhis toryof theOrient Express, therehas never been a real murder on board. And from what I could tell,ridingon it fromVenice to Belgrade in 1988, therehad never been much glamour on it,either.The realOrient Express would never be mistaken for the luxury train that currently adver tises romance and mystery. It runs the routewith special traincars and luxurious dining. At theback ofmy car, a gnomish woman sold dubious sandwiches, and a wizened man worked theaisles with a coffeepotof mud dispensed in bathroom-sized paper cups. The nicotine coating the windows was thickenough towrite a crypticmessage implicating the most likely suspect. July-August 2009 i9 Christie had herself traveled a great deal for a woman of her gen eration, accompanying her husband on archaeological digs in theMid dle East. These trips led to Poirot's sleuthing in such places as Petra (An Appointment with Death, 1938), Egypt, andwhat isnow Iraq (Murder in Mesopotamia, 1936). Christie was, of course, taking advantage of the fascination with archaeology that followed thediscovery ofTutankha men's tomb in 1922 and the legend of mysterious deaths associated with the desecration of the boy king's resting place. Lord Carnarvon, who sponsored the dig, died "mysteri ously" of an infection soon after. Can anyone doubt it was the result of an ancient curse? Never mind that Howard Carter, who actually opened the tomb, avoided the curse until 1939, at age sixty-four, when lymphoma got him. (BorisKarloff's portrayal in The Mummy points out just how slow a 3,000-year-old guy can be at finishinghis victims.) Carrying on the theme of archaeo logical mystery has been tried by many authors. Lynda S. Robinson has a series inwhich the detective is one of Tutankhamen's subjects. The most popular isElizabeth Peters (thepseudonym of Barbara Mertz), with her series featuringEgyptolo gistAmelia Peabody in such novels as The Mummy's Case (1985) and Children of the Storm (2003). Mertz has the advantage, like Christie, of actual experience in the field, but also earned a PhD in Egyptol ogy from theUniversity ofChicago before beginning herwriting career and incorporates more specialized knowledge thanChristie did. The creepiness of Egyptian tombs is just another way, however, for a writer to exploit travel as a means to add excitement to what might be an otherwise routine bit of sleuthing. Poirot vacations in Corn wall (Perilat EndHouse, 1932) or off the coast of Devon (Evil Under the Sun, 1941) and findshimself in the middle of a case. Charlie Chan, on the other hand, although his per ambulations superficially resemble Poirot's, seems to be working in most of his travels. Despite Chan's fame,he appeared inonly sixnovels by author Earl Derr Biggers, and became popular on film and tele vision. These later dramatizations are dismaying when compared to the novels, which are well written, based loosely on legendary Hono lulu detective Chang Apana, and freeof thegeneral silliness thatper vades the later movies. The sup porting roles given to Stepin Fetchit and Mantan Moreland ("Feets don't failme now!") are agonizing today, and it is a shame theseHollywood blunders sullied the reputation of the novels. Chan in the novels is a much more interesting character. He seems restless at the...