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- Agatha Christie: A Holiday For Murder (Notes)
-
- Part 1, Chapter 1.
- A man called Stephen gets off a train and he is set on
- doing something that he has planned to do for a long time.
- The man is from Africa because he said that he felt
- homesick.
- Was three days before Christmas.
- Uses words like Drab
- Saw a beautiful girl sitting on the train. She looked out of
- place.
- Part 1, Chapter 2.
- Pilar, the girl narrates.
- She was also set to do something.
- She saw a good looking man in the corridor. He walked in
- to talk to her.
- Gave what both people are thinking while they are talking
- to one another.
- They talked about how much they hated England.
- Pilar came from Spain.
- A war was on at the time.
- She told a story of when her driver was killed by a bomb:
- she did not seem to care! (P5)
- He told her about Africa and a story of when he was a kid.
- Part 1, Chapter 3.
- A bunch of people talking about their father. They talk of
- how much they hate him, and how they want to break their
- chains.
- Lydia had a garden with a number of scenes that she had
- made the garden to look like.
- One of the scenes was the Dead Sea.
- Butler had been at the house for forty years.
-
- Part 1, Chapter 4.
- Two, David and Hilda, talking about the manÆs mother and
- how she was humiliated by his father with his affairs that he
- boasted about.
- The mother was not able to devorce because of the times.
- blames his father for his mothersÆ death.
- He had not seen his father since he started college because
- of a dispute between what he wanted to do and what his
- father wanted him to do.
- Part 1, Chapter 5.
- George Lee and his wife are talking about his fatherÆs great
- wealth. ôA millionaire twice over, I believe.ö (George:P17)
- Made his money from mining South African Diamonds.
- GeorgesÆ sister died a year before the time of the book.
- Harry is the brother who went travelling the world, and
- often sent messages to wire him money. He usually got
- money from his father even though he had a huge fight with
- his father before he left because his father wanted him to do
- something with his life.
- Part 1, Chapter 6.
- The old man and Lydia talking about the two mysterious
- people that were supposed to show up the next day.
- The person was Pilar, who is his grandaughter.
- Harry was the other person who was supposed to arrive the
- next day.
- Part 2, Chapter 1.
- Everyone surprised to see Harry Lee
- Throughoutt Book - Reference to fathers appairs with
- other women.
- Harry surprised to find all family there
- George was a member of Parliament
- When Alfred walked in they stared at each other.
- Part 2, Chapter 2.
- Simeon talking of his regrets of cheating on his wife.
- Pilar believes strongly in God and praying.
- Talks about men being more powerful than men Pilar: ôIf I
- were a man i would be like that, too.ö (P31).
- Impressed his Granddaughter with uncut diamonds just to
- prove to her that he is rich.
- Part 2, Chapter 3.
- David and Hilda in a sitting room.
- David talking about a memory of his mother reading books
- to him in that room when he was a child.
- Part 2, Chapter 4.
- A man that the Doorman had met a long time ago came to
- the door and gave him a letter for Simeon.
- The doorman could not remember who the man was.
- Part 2, Chapter 5.
- The man turned out to be the son of an old partner of
- Simeons
- The man came from South Africa.
- Part 3, Chapter 1.
- Harry and Simeon talking about the problem of HarrysÆ
- presence there.
- The main problem was AlfredÆs. His brother.
- The old man has a surprise for the rest of the family before
- lunch.
- Part 3, Chapter 2.
- The family walks into the room and the old man is talking
- on the telephone to a lawyer. He is talking about making up a
- new will after Christmas.
- The old man talks about lowering the allowance of George
- in order to pay for the rising costs of maintaining the house.
- The old man called his dead wife a louse and then said that
- she transmitted it onto her children.
- The children started yelling at their father and he told them
- all to get out.
- The old man later stated that watching his whole family get
- mad under his joke was fun.
- Hilda said that she was afraid for Simeon.
- Part 3, Chapter 3.
- Tressilian, the butler, is the narrator.
- Two of the servants talking and when one said that the
- police had shown up at the house, the Valet dropped his cup
- of tea and started to perspire. He became at ease when he
- found out that it was only to collect for the childrenÆs
- orphanage.
- At dinner all of the family, except for the man from South
- Africa, was quiet. They only talked in spurts.
- David was nervous and knocked over his glass of wine.
- David played the ôDead Marchö on the piano after dinner
- and the butler thought it was strange.
- Above him he heard china crashing and furniture falling
- over.
- Harry and The South African, Mr. Farr, were already there
- after they ran upstairs to find that the door to the old manÆs
- room was locked.
- There was a ring at the door.
- They broke the door down with a wooden bench.
- Furniture was broken, china shattered. There was
- definitely a struggle in the room.
- Simeon was laying in a pool of blood, the rug beside him
- had caught fire.
- Part 3, Chapter 4.
- The door bell rang again. They opened up the door to find
- the police chief at the door.
- The chief took charge and made everyone leave the room
- and made them not touch anything.
- Pilar picked something up and was reluctant to give it back. She
- played ôDumbö.
- It was a piece of rubber and wood. The Superintendent put them
- into a bag and placed the bag into his pocket.
- Part 3, Chapter 5.
- This chapter starts off with Colonel Johnson and Hercule Poirot
- talking about different poisoning murders and how they used to be
- ôun-Englishö.
- The Colonel said that there was less likely to be murders during
- the Christmas season than any other time of the year.
- The men were talking about Christmas and then the phone rang
- and it was a case of murder. (Ironic)
- The Colonel thought that the old man was not very liked in the
- community.
- But the case will still cause a big stirr.
- The colonel asked Poirot if he would like to come along on the
- case.
- Poirot said that he would only assist the Superintendent and not
- take over the case.
- Part 3, Chapter 6.
- The men were at the house and started to look for clues.
- Poirot was famous in the area for solving a case of nicotine
- poisoning a few years before.
- Mr. LeeÆs throat was slit, jugular vein severed.
- Mr. Lee had phoned the Superintendent earlier in the afternoon
- and told him to go to Mr. LeeÆs house. The old man told the Super.
- that the house had been robbed of many uncut diamonds. The old
- man thought that the diamonds may be a practicle joke played by
- someone in the house. The old man told the Super to return in a
- hour and that the old man would have the case solved. The Super
- returned in an hour and the old man was dead.
- Part 3, Chapter 7.
- Part 1, Chapter 7.
- Part 1, Chapter 7.
-