Death in the Clouds: a Hercule Poirot Mystery by Agatha Christie (1935) Part 1

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Passengers on the Plane

Seat 2 Madame Giselle

Seat 4 James Ryder

Seat 5 Monsieur Armand Dupont

Seat 6 Monsieur Jean Dupont

Seat 8 Daniel Clancy

Seat 9 Hercule Poirot

Seat 10 Doctor Bryant

Seat 12 Norman Gale

Seat 13 The Countess of Horbury

Seat 16 Jane Grey

Seat 17 The Hon. Venetia Kerr

"Haven't you got a very old fashioned idea of detectives?" asked Jane. "All the false beard stuff is very out of date. Nowadays detectives just sit and think out a case psychologically." - Jane Grey

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We are introduced a small selection of characters that are traveling by plane from Paris to Croydon, England. Miss Jane Grey, in Seat 16, a hair dresser returning home from visiting Le Pinet in Southern France. Norman Gale a dentist whom sat in front of her. Talking to herself we hear what happened the night before at a table she was playing at and a man let her take his winnings. The countess and Hon. Venetia Kerr sit across from her and Gale. Behind them are two gentlemen, a small egg shaped man and a man cleaning a hand held flute. Two gentlemen sat behind them, the Dupont's. Mr. Clancy a mystery writer sits across the flute gentlemen, and the seat before was Mr. Ryder and Madame Giselle. After being in the air for a while a wasp appears that few notice. And none notice the Madame Giselle is no longer living.

Mitchell the steward goes about giving tickets for items the passengers had requested on the flight. The last he addressed was Madame Giselle whom he discovered as dead. They ask if anyone is a doctor and we discover the gentlemen with the flute is a doctor, Dr. Bryant. He examines the body. The egg shaped man, Hercule Poirot mentions to the physician there is a dot on her neck. Dr. Bryant found it to be a puncture wound and she would have been deceased for about an hour. Poirot uses tweezers to pick up a small object, similar to the wasp but different colors. It was a poison dart, ones like from small African native tribes. The plane made it decent to Croydon.

Authorities arrive to investigate the body of Madame Giselle. The passengers are escorted off the plane and into a room at the airport for questioning. Dr. Bryant and Poirot are removed from the group to speak with Inspector Japp. After giving their testimonies the stewards were next for questioning as one had discovered her. The Dupont's give their account while on the plane and we learn they are quite the world traveler's and been to some remote areas. Upon speaking with Mr. Clancy we hear that he is writing a book where someone is murdered by a poison dart, and he in fact owns a poison dart and blow pipe as research. He claims he does not know where it is, as he pretty absent minded. Mr. Ryder brings up the fact that a blow pipe was found near seat 9. This was Poirot's seat, Mr. Ryder left very smugly in hopes for questioning to fall on Poirot. Poirot advises Inspector Japp to have all the passengers items they traveled with to be inspected and charted.

Everyone is called to a coroner's court to deal with the death of Madame Giselle. We learn that she had two names, Marie Morisot and Giselle. She was a wealthy business woman and kept a professional name to go by. There is a testimony given by one of her assistant's and then we hear from the coroner, Dr. James Whistler. He explained to the court that his conclusions were the same as Dr. Bryant's findings. The toxin that was found in her body was not found in any commons toxins in their list of toxicities. They had it sent out for analysis and found it to be Dispholidus typus in other words, tree snake poison from very small tribes of Africa. Upon after questioning all the passengers again about the dart, all said it was not their's. A man from the jury asked whom's seat was the blow pipe was found, of course it was Poirot's and he also mentioned that Poirot was also the one whom discovered the dart. Afterwards the jury had a verdict and the coroner rejected their theory of whom to arrest for the murder of Madame Giselle and the case remained open.

Norman Gale and Miss Jane Grey go to a nearby coffee shop to discuss the possibilities. Miss Grey admits that she thought she would murder a few of her clients as to how annoying they are. But they both denote that neither of them is the murderer of this crime. A reporter harasses them for an inside story as a passenger. After Gale runs him off they talk more about their reasoning for certain people and admit their fears and worries.

This mystery has a lot of similarities to Murder on the Orient Express which Christie published a year prior to this. The only reasoning I see for anyone to kill this woman would be her wealth, or she had burn some bridges during the course of her career. Of course we see the typical suspect, Mr. Clancy whom owns a poison dart kit for research. But time and time again we see that a murderer can use that to their advantage to frame someone else for their deed. Also intrigued at the fact that no one seemed to know this woman at all which is also a common in several of Christie's writings. But the thing that I keep being drawn back to are the professions of all the passengers. Christie chose these for a reason and to have them on a plane together leaves me a tad bewildered. A business woman, two world traveler's, mystery writer, dentist, doctor, detective, two wealthy women and a hair dresser. But they are all so unique it has me believing that there is a very distinct reason for this. Another thing she chose to use is a coroner's court. This is something that I had not heard of before reading this. This is when a coroner's office and morgue is attached to a small court room to allow easier examination of a deceased during a case. In the words of Jane Grey we may just to sit and think about this case psychologically.