|
''Ordeal by Innocence'' is a work of detective fiction by Agatha Christie and first published in the UK by the Collins Crime Club on 3 November 1958〔Chris Peers, Ralph Spurrier and Jamie Sturgeon. ''Collins Crime Club – A checklist of First Editions''. Dragonby Press (Second Edition) March 1999 (Page 15)〕 and in the US by Dodd, Mead and Company the following year.〔John Cooper and B.A. Pyke. ''Detective Fiction – the collector's guide'': Second Edition (Pages 82 and 87) Scholar Press. 1994. ISBN 0-85967-991-8〕〔(American Tribute to Agatha Christie )〕 The UK edition retailed at twelve shillings and sixpence (12/6)〔 and the US edition at $2.95.〔 It is regarded by critics as one of the best of her later works, and was also one of Christie's two favourites of her own novels, the other being ''Crooked House''. The novel is also noted for being one of Christie's darkest works, alongside such classics as ''And Then There Were None'', with a strong focus on the psychology of innocence. ==Plot summary== While serving a sentence for killing Rachel Argyle, his adoptive mother – a crime he insisted he didn't commit – Jacko Argyle dies in prison. Two years later, the man who could have supported Jacko's alibi suddenly turns up; and the family must come to terms with the fact not only that one of them is the real murderer, but also that suspicion falls upon each of them. Christie's focus in this novel is upon the psychology of innocence, as the family members struggle with their suspicions of one another. The witness, Arthur Calgary, believes that, when he clears the name of their son, the family would be grateful. He fails to realise the implications of his information. However, once he does so, he is determined to help and to protect the innocent by finding the murderer. To be able to do so, he visits the retired local doctor, Dr MacMaster, to ask him about the now-cleared murderer, Jacko Argyle. Dr MacMaster states that he was surprised when Jacko killed his mother. Not because he thought that murder was outside Jacko's 'moral range', but because he thought Jacko would be too cowardly to kill somebody himself; that, if he wanted to murder somebody, he would egg on an accomplice to do his dirty work. Dr MacMaster says "the kind of murder I'd have expected Jacko to do, if he did one, was the type where a couple of boys go out on a raid; then, when the police come after them, the Jackos say 'Biff him on the head, Bud. ''Let him have it''. Shoot him down.' They're willing for murder, ready to incite to murder, but they've not got the nerve to do murder themselves with their own hands". This description seems to be a reference to the Craig and Bentley case which had occurred in 1952. While two outsiders attempt to find the murderer, it is an insider – Philip Durrant – whose clumsy efforts to uncover the truth force the killer to kill again. Ultimately it is revealed that the murderer was indeed acting under the influence of Jacko Argyle, and that the failure of his (carefully planned) alibi was, in hindsight, an ironic stroke of fate. Jacko was not, in fact, innocent after all and had a hand in the death of his adoptive mother. The killer is revealed to be Kirsten Lindstrom, the Argyles' middle-aged housekeeper. Jacko had persuaded plain-faced Kirsten that he was in love with her, and so persuaded her to murder his adoptive mother under cover of a "foolproof" alibi in order to steal some much needed money. But once Kirsten learned that Jacko was secretly married, she decided not to confess to her role in Rachel's murder in court, even with the failure of his alibi, and abandoned Jacko to his fate. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Ordeal by Innocence」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
|