The Alphabet in Crime Fiction: Agatha Christie’s Third Girl

The Alphabet in Crime Fiction community meme is stopping for “T” at the moment. As always, a warm “thank you” to our tour leader Kerrie at Mysteries in Paradise. While everyone’s sitting down at the table and getting ready to enjoy an afternoon break, I’ll share my contribution to this week’s criminal collection – Agatha Christie’s Third Girl, published in the U.K. in 1966 and in the U.S. in 1967.

The novel begins with an unusual encounter. A young woman asks to see Poirot and although it’s early in the day, he agrees to see her. In a rather disjointed way, the woman tells Poirot that she thinks she may have committed a murder. Poirot begins to ask her a few questions, but before he gets very far, she hastily changes her mind and leaves without even giving her name. Just afterwards, Poirot receives a telephone call from his friend, detective novelist Ariadne Oliver, who’s calling on a completely unrelated matter. Because they’re friends, Poirot tells Oliver about what happened, and it turns out that she actually met the young woman at a cocktail party and although she’d forgotten about it, it was Oliver who sent her to Poirot. Together, Poirot and Oliver establish that the woman’s name is Norma Restarick, and that she’s the daughter of successful business magnate Andrew Restarick and the step-daughter of Restarick’s second wife Mary.

Now that they know who Norma is, Poirot and Oliver begin to find out a little more about her. She works for an interior decorator and lives in a London flat she shares with Claudia Reece-Holland, a secretary/assistant, and Frances Cary, an artist. Norma is what’s usually known in “rent-speak” as a “the third girl,” who has the smallest space in the flat, and pays the least rent. Although she’s not painfully shy, neither is Norma flamboyant nor given to dramatic displays. In fact, as a former teacher says, she’s

“…a perfectly ordinary girl.”

Norma does have an unhappy home history, though. When she was small, her father left her and her mother for another woman. After that, she lived with her mother until her mother’s death. Recently, Andrew Restarick and his new wife have returned to England and tried to establish a relationship with Norma, but it hasn’t been successful. Despite this unhappiness, though, Norma doesn’t seem the type of young woman who would make up a story about having possibly killed someone just to get attention.

Poirot and Oliver begin to ask around and investigate to see whether there has been a murder or at least an unusual death that might have involved Norma. But then, Norma disappears. What started as an odd request seems to have turned into something much more deadly, and the two sleuths will have to work quickly to prevent another death. In the end, they discover some ugly hidden secrets that someone will do anything – including murder – to hide.

One of the intriguing elements in this novel is the slowly-evolving picture we get of Norma Restarick’s character. Christie actually uses an interesting approach to helping readers get to know her. We start by knowing almost nothing about Norma, but her character unfolds – even as she herself has disappeared – through what the two sleuths learn about her from her father, her step-mother, her room-mates, her boyfriend and a former teacher, among others.

Another element that permeates this novel is Christie’s look at the era in which this novel takes place. Many people think of Agatha Christie as a Golden Age writer, and rightfully so. But she wrote many novels after World War II, and as the great social changes of more modern decades took place, she had an eye for them. This novel takes place in the late 1960’s, and Christie shows us that era. Here, for instance, is Poirot’s first impression of Norma:

“She wore what were presumably the chosen clothes of her generation – black high leather boots, white open-work woolen stockings of doubtful cleanliness, a skimpy skirt and a long and sloppy pullover of heavy wool. Anyone of Poirot’s age and generation would have had only one desire – to drop the girl into a bath as soon as possible.”

Christie also makes reference to drugs, modern art, less structured supervision of young women, and other aspects of life in London during that time and gives readers a real look at what that period was like. What’s interesting, too, is that she uses the characters of older people such as Poirot and Oliver to set up a generational conflict that adds an engaging layer to the story.

The mystery itself is also intriguing. In true Christie fashion, several things and people in this novel are not what they seem to be and the reader has to pay attention to figure out the mystery. On one hand, Christie does “play fair” with the reader and there are some interesting hints throughout the novel as to what has happened to Norma and what the truth is about the murder she thinks she committed. On the other, there are “red herrings” and twists in the plot, and the solution isn’t apparent.

One of the most effective (for me, anyway) elements in this novel is the delightful character of Ariadne Oliver. She may be overly imaginative at times, but she’s bright, courageous and can think “on her feet.” At one point, for instance, she wants to visit the flat where Norma Restarick lives, but doesn’t want to give too much away. So she makes up a plausible story about having promised Norma a book. At another point, she makes up another story about leaving her engagement book behind in the flat when she needs to gain entrance again. She also gets a vital clue to the case, and is instrumental in giving Poirot the information he needs to solve it. She also adds a touch of humour to the novel although she’s not a ridiculous character. Here, for instance, is an imaginary conversation she has with her publisher as she packages up her latest manuscript to send away:

“‘There you are,’ said Mrs. Oliver, addressing the empty air and conjuring up an imaginary publisher. ‘There you are, and I hope you like it! I don’t. I think it’s lousy! I don’t believe you know whether anything I write is good or bad. Anyway, I warned you. I told you it was frightful. You said, ‘Oh, no, no. I don’t believe that for a moment.’’

‘You just wait and see,’ said Mrs. Oliver vengefully. ‘You just wait and see.’”

Shortly after that conversation, Mrs. Oliver goes off on a sleuthing expedition and ends up following Norma Restarick’s boyfriend David Baker. In the process, she’s attacked and ends up in hospital. It’s there that we also see the enduring friendship between her and Poirot. Poirot is very distressed that his friend has been hurt and in his reaction (and hers), we get a welcome look at a friendship that’s spanned several decades. That friendship is clear in other places in the novel and adds much to the story.

An interesting mystery that takes place against a well-drawn late-1960’s backdrop, Third Girl offers a solid look at the character of a young woman who’s in a situation that’s more than she should have to handle. It also gives readers a most enjoyable serving-up of the character of Ariadne Oliver. But what’s your view? Have you read Third Girl? If you have, what elements do you see in it?