
Trollope’s character is the awful Mrs Proudie who dies in “The Last Chronicle of Barset”. This is particularly appropriate given that Mrs Boynton is, at the very least, a tiresome old woman. Reference is made to Anthony Trollope agreeing to kill off one of his characters after overhearing his fellow passengers say that “he should kill off that tiresome old woman”. His “large grotesque turnip of a watch” first mentioned in The Murder on the Links belonged to his grandfather. Takes a “little shoe-cleaning outfit and a duster” everywhere he goes. Has been brought up to believe that “all outside air is best left outside, and that night air is especially dangerous to health”. Re-enter Hercule Poirot who promises the local authorities that he can solve the case within twenty-four hours but as each member of the family benefitted from Mrs Boynton’s death has he bitten off more than he can chew?īy interviewing all those who took in the excursion he is able to cut through the many lies that he is told to reveal a final sequence of events that is vastly different to that initially presented to him.Ī very strong book in my opinion and fits in well in with the overall high quality of Christie’s work during this period. Heart failure seems to be the likely cause until Sarah King’s estimate of the time of death contradicts Raymond’s witness statement and Dr Gerard says that a syringe and some digitoxin have been stolen from his supplies. They make the lengthy trip to Petra and it is here that Mrs Boynton is found dead one evening. Raymond and Carol wish to break free and both talk to Dr Sarah King before being forbidden from seeing her. The Boynton family are holidaying in the Middle East: Raymond, sister Carol, half-sister Ginny, brother Lennox and his wife Nadine, and step-mother Mrs Boynton, who has an unnatural control over all four siblings. It is only later that he realises they were spoken in all seriousness… Poirot overhears these words from the window of his Jerusalem hotel and assumes they are a quote from a book or a play. “You do see, don’t you, that she’s got to be killed?”
