It's my first time to write my review about contents of the book 《after the funeral》in English. The book has 339 pages, but the famous detective Poirot doesn't show up until more than 100 pages which i think is a little redundant. There are so many characters in this book, for the convenience of remembering, i draw a flow chart. Subject to Agatha's style ,the ending is a surprise to readers.Not because it was him o her who killed the protagonist but because the murderer killed anthoer related character.Maybe it is the only book written by Agatha that leaves us such an impression.
The main character relationships are as follows:The whole story begins with Richard's family,which is a big family.The members include Richard Abernethie, the master of the family and he is the victim;Mortimer Abernethie,Richars's son and he is dead too;Lanscombe, the butler;Mrs Marjorie,the cook;Janet,the housemaid;Timothy Abernethie,Richard's brother and Timothy's wife Maude;Cora Lansquenet,Richard's sister;Miss Girlchrist,Cora's housemaid and companion;Susan,Richad's niece and Susan's husband Gregory Banks;George Crossfield,Richard's nephew;Rosamund,Richard's another niece and Rosamund's hunsband,Michael Shane;Mr Enthwhistle,the exceutor of Richard's will.
Here is the main plot:
The death of Richard's son whose name is Mortimer is a great shock and sorrow to Richard Abernethie who passed away shortly after. Before Richard's death,he made a will requiring the surviving members of the family divide his property equally including his niece and nephew. His old friend Mr Enthwhistle is the executor of his will.After his funeral,the whole family members sit together to chat casually. But at the time ,the deceased's sister Cora who,in other members' opinion is childish and always babbling everywhere, asked a question brusquely " if her brother is murdered?" Although the others think it is ridiculous, everyone of them think it may be true indeed.
As the executor of Richard's will, Mr Enthwhistle is fully responsible for the distribution of Richards' estate. Cora's words haunted in his mind.Just as he was about to ask Cora about that,Cora was be attacked by someone with a hatchet and killed.Until now ,everyone think it is abnormal,and Cora's death made them believe that Richard could be killed on purpose. So Mr Enthwhistle ask Poriot for help.from here on ,Poriot entered the mystery.
The first question they should figure out is why Cora said words like that after the funeral.After some inquries , Miss Gilchrist, Cora's housemaid and the only companion gave the answer. Richard called on his sister before his death and he told Cora that someone may want to poison him but it is just a guess and Cora may as well not mention these words to anyone else.What Miss Gilchrist said deepens the impression that both Richard and his sister was killed by the same one.We should consider this situation that if Cora was killed just because she had reason to believe her brother's death is unnatural in that they had a communication before Richards' death, then Miss Gilchrist, as Cora's closest companion , she should know some clues too, in that way ,Miss Gilchrist may be the next victim. Not until one day Miss Gilchrist was posioned by arsenic containing in a wedding cake given by unknown people that everyone believe Richard and his sister Cora was killed by the same people and the murderer even wanted to kill Miss Gilchrist too.But who on earth is the murderer?That is what everyone of us want to know.
At last ,Poriot gave the truth.Cora ,like her husband ,is devoted to painting ,but obviously she had no talent for it . Cora is so enthusoastic about painting and pictures that she always bought some pictures from the outside. From where she stands, all the pictures she bought is normal in that she is not rich and cann't afford to buy expensive pictures.In other words, Cora couldn't judge the value of a painting properly even when she come across a painting of real value.Miss Gilchrist's father is an artist and under the influence of her father,Miss Gilchrist had the ability to recongnize the real value of a painting. One day Cora brought a picture which Cora think is just an ordinary work home.However,when Miss Gilchrist saw the picture ,she knew instantly this painting is worth a lot of money which is enough to reopen her tea-shop,which is destroyed because of the war, so as not to be a servant any more. Poriot thought Miss Gilchrist had motive to kill Cora,but he could not be sure at the beginning.But he always believe in a truth that if you talk to a people long enough ,the people will spill the beans absolutely.Then he knew after Cora's death , Miss Gilchrist found a new job at Timothy's place.If Miss Gilchrist took a picture seriously , she would bring it with her,so Poirot arranged Mr Enthwhistle to sneak into Gilchrist's room to make sure if the same picture is there and if the picture is there,Mr Enthwhistle should take the picture to an expert in painting. Luckily all of these is just likee what Poirot thought.
Miss Gilchrist is the real murderer whom did Mrs Cora in and poisoning herself is just a cover and farce to confuse everyone. As to whether Richard's death is natural or not,the book doesn't reveal.But from the conventional point of view .it is a natural death.At the funeral, it is not the real Cora who come here ,after all everyone present hadn's seen Cora for nearly twenty years , and Miss Gilchris and Cora had lived together for such a long time that she knew how to masquerade as Cora without getting any suspicion from others. As to why the false Cora blurt out purposedly that Richard may be murdered by someone ,the reason is that Miss Gilchrist wanted to create in the minds of his relations the belief that he had been murdered and drawed attention away from the other murder from the murder of Cora Lansquenet herself. It's very genius.
This is where we should end.The plot structture is surprising, when everyone of us is racking our brains to wonder who is the murder that kill both RIchard and Cora ,and even want to murder Miss Gilchrist, Poirot come out and tell us that we are all wrong ,Richard's death is natural and Cora is murdered by Miss Gilchrist. The attack on Miss Gilchrist is a cover directed by herself.
