Last, Barbara Franklin, wife of Judith's employer, Dr Franklin, dies the following evening. He falls asleep while waiting to poison Allerton, relieved he took no action when he awakes the next day. When his attempts to persuade Judith to give Allerton up merely antagonise her, the worried father plans Allerton's murder. Hastings assumes it has to do with Allerton. While Hastings and Elizabeth are out with birdwatcher Stephen Norton, Norton sees something through his binoculars that disturbs him.

Next, Hastings is concerned that his daughter Judith spends time with Major Allerton, a married man. Mrs Luttrell recovers, and the incident has a good effect on their marriage. Shortly afterwards, Luttrell wounds his wife with a rook rifle, saying he mistook her for a rabbit. First, Hastings and others overhear an argument between the Luttrells. Three incidents occur in the next few days, showing the imprint of X. Margaret has died in Broadmoor Asylum and Elizabeth is stigmatised by the trauma. The five prior murders took place in the area, among people known to this group.Įlizabeth Cole tells Hastings that she is a sister of Margaret Litchfield, who confessed to the murder of their father in one of the five cases. The guests know each other, with this gathering initiated when Sir William Boyd-Carrington invites the Franklins to join him for a summer holiday stay.

The old house is a guest hotel under new owners, Colonel and Mrs Luttrell. X is among the guests at Styles Court with them. Poirot, using a wheelchair due to arthritis, and attended by his new valet Curtiss, will not share the name of the previously unsuspected person, using X instead. Poirot alone sees the pattern of involvement. Poirot calls on his old friend, the recently widowed Hastings, to join him in solving this case. Four of these suspects have since died (one of them hanged) in the case of Freda Clay, who allegedly gave her aunt an overdose of morphine, there was too little evidence to prosecute. Sleeping Murder, published posthumously, is her final novel.Ī specific person is unsuspected of involvement in five murders by both the police and family of the victims. It is the last novel published by Christie before her death. Not only does the novel return the characters to the setting of her first, The Mysterious Affair at Styles, but it reunites Poirot and Hastings, who last appeared together in Dumb Witness in 1937. It is a country house novel, with all the characters and the murder set in one house. The novel features Hercule Poirot and Arthur Hastings in their final appearances in Christie's works. Curtain: Poirot's Last Case is a work of detective fiction by British writer Agatha Christie, first published in the UK by the Collins Crime Club in September 1975 and in the US by Dodd, Mead and Company later in the same year, selling for $7.95.

Hercule poirot curtain