Questions About The Hollow (Hercule Poirot, #26)

by Agatha Christie

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Answered Questions (3)

Would you say this is A locked-room mystery?

Nick Byers No, the murder takes place by a pool.

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WHY was Agatha Christie so nasty about Poirot? Maybe it's via the t.v. interpretation by David Suchet, but I find the character to be quite...the character. Ha ha. Yes, he had issues with fussiness but we all have issues if, put to paper, might drive readers to commit murder. If she was alive for me to tell, I'd say, "I like him."

Orinoco Womble (tidy bag and all) She created him far too soon, and made him far too old. In The Mysterious Affair at Styles, he is already a retired policeman, which would make him at…moreShe created him far too soon, and made him far too old. In The Mysterious Affair at Styles, he is already a retired policeman, which would make him at least 50. She got tired of him, because people were ignoring her other characters and clamoring for Poirot all the time. As an author, she began to feel he was a weight around her neck.(less)

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I'm always intrigued by the concept that the police are "common". Gudgeon underlines this point of view as he chastises a kitchen maid, saying, "The improper thing to do is to go babbling to the police. That is common." Why does Gudgeon have this attitude?

Kris Ludwinski I just finished the book and take a different view of what Gudgeon said to the servant about it being "common" to be mixed up with the police. To me, …moreI just finished the book and take a different view of what Gudgeon said to the servant about it being "common" to be mixed up with the police. To me, the clear inference here is that Gudgeon was expressing a classist opinion. My book reads, "It's common (common is printed in italics) to be mixed up with the police, and don't you forget it." A few paragraphs before that, Gudgeon had also said to this servant, "What you should not (the not was also in italics) have done...is to go babbling off to a policeman--and only a sergeant at that! Never get mixed up with the police more than you can help. It's painful enough having them in the house at all." All of this read in context of what was taking place (the ongoing police investigation, with all of their questions and prying into things) seemed clearly to me to be commenting on it being low-class to confide in the police. I read the meaning of "common" in that way, not as in it's standard practice to do so. Gudgeon was portrayed as a high-class servant, one who cared about the family's reputation and so on, and I took this whole conversation to be his scolding of this other servant for confiding in the police before or without talking to the mistress/master of the house first, and it being "common" or "low-class," not in keeping with their status to do so. (less)

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