It then moves on to Superintendent Battle whose daughter has confessed to pilfering at school, even though she hadn’t stolen anything.
… Yes everything planned – everyone’s reaction foretold and allowed for, the good and evil in everybody played upon and brought into harmony with one evil design.īut the story begins with Angus MacWhirter recovering in hospital after a failed attempt at suicide, assured by a nurse that the mere fact of his existence could be of great importance, perhaps even save someone’s life one day. The idea presupposes that there is an inevitability – that once events have been set in motion then the outcome is determined.Īnd in line with this idea, an unnamed person is seen planning a murder:
Mr Treves, a retired lawyer puts forward the idea that murder is not the beginning of a detective story, but the end, that murder is the culmination of causes and events that bring together certain people, converging towards a certain place and time, towards the Zero Hour – ‘ towards zero’. It begins with a prologue in which a group of lawyers discuss a recent case at the Old Bailey. How gratifying to see Agatha Christie keeping the flag of the old classic who-dun-it so triumphantly flying!” Poirot is absent physically, but his influence guides the sensitive inspector past the wiles of the carefully planted house party, and with its tortuous double bluff this might well have been a Poirot case. “The new Agatha Christie has a deliciously prolonged and elaborate build-up, urbane and cosy like a good cigar and red leather slippers. It was received well at the time reviewed in the 6 August 1944 issue of The Observer: This is a story for your pleasure and not a candidate for Mr Graves’ literary pillory!” All I ask is that you sternly restrain your critical faculties (doubtless sharpened by your recent excesses in that line!) when reading it. ‘Dear Robert, Since you are kind enough to say you like my stories, I venture to dedicate this book to you. Agatha Christie dedicated this book to Robert Graves, author of I Claudius, who was her neighbour in Devon during the Second World War and the two had become friends. Towards Zero, first published in 1944 (my copy is a 1972 impression), is an intricately plotted murder mystery featuring Superintendent Battle, the last of the five novels he appears in.
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