5/5 stars
Terrific!
Out of the few Christies that I’ve read, Five Little Pigs happens to be my personal favorite. The reason why I find it so fascinating is, that once you peel away its many layers, it is a love story in its purest form. And to quote Christie in Death on the Nile (another one of my favorites), “Love can be a very frightening thing. That is why the greatest love stories are tragedies.”
Caroline Crale goes to prison for life for killing Amyas Crale, her cheating husband and painter extraordinaire. Sixteen years later, she passes away. On coming of age, her daughter receives a posthumous letter, where Caroline states her innocence. The daughter approaches Poirot and hires him to investigate the past. Poirot agrees and visits the five principal witnesses to obtain their recollection of the murder and the events leading up to it. From these five distinct accounts of reality, Poirot exercises his keen understanding of human behavior, exorcises the past and, reconstructs the truth.
Sample this excerpt.
‘I just know quite simply that Caro couldn’t have killed anyone.’
Angela touched her damaged cheek.
‘You see this? You’ve probably heard about it?’ Poirot nodded.
‘Caroline did that. That’s why I’m sure — I know — that she didn’t do murder.’
Caroline was susceptible to fits of violence in childhood. In an insane fit of sibling jealousy, she half-blinded her step-sister, Angela, with a paperweight. In her trial, this incident from her childhood was used as an argument by the prosecution. They said, “if you could injure a child to the point of blinding her for life, you’re equally capable of poisoning an unfaithful husband.”
But to Angela, this was proof of Caroline’s innocence. As Caroline is quoted as saying- “To know you have permanently injured another human being is the heaviest burden anyone could have to bear”, Angela’s existence was a daily reminder to Caroline of the perils of committing acts of violence. More than that, she was aware of the impact such acts could have on one’s conscience. Thus, as per Angela’s logic, she could never have killed her husband.
Such examples of human behavior are not limited to pages of fiction novels, they are rooted in real life. Children from broken families ache for deep & loving relationships, kids from humble beginnings dream of unending riches while men (and women) who have tasted heartrending failure constantly strive for success.
I once dated someone who was a product of a broken marriage. This woman, who was perfect in every way, admitted to not wanting to have kids. Her logic was, that coming from a broken marriage she wasn’t sure if she could be a good mother. My words to her were, the fact that she had seen a broken marriage from close quarters and seeing how it had affected her, she would make every attempt to shield her kids from harm, thus making her, in fact, great mother.
But, I digress.
As the story builds up to a crescendo and the identity of the murderer is revealed, Poirot gives his client what he was hired for — the story of her mother’s innocence. The ending could have been better if reactions of all characters to the reveal were recorded but I don’t want to expect more from a story which is near perfect already.
In the end, all I would say is that if you need to get your reading mojo back, pick this up and experience the magic of a well-crafted story.
Trivia: The “victim” of Five Little Pigs, Amyas Crale has the same initials as Agatha Christie’s cheating first husband, Archibald Christie. In December 1926, after quarreling with her husband over his cheating ways, Agatha left home and went missing, reappearing ten days later at a hotel, living under the false identity of a “Mrs.Tressa Neele” (the surname of her husband’s lover).
This review was published on Goodreads. Re-published here for greater reach.
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