Motives in Classic Crime Books

 

 A really nice tea room...

What do the following classic crime stories have in common?

 

After the Funeral by Agatha Christie

Crooked House by Agatha Christie

Three Act Tragedy by Agatha Christie (specifically the first murder)

A Shilling for Candles by Josephine Tey

Green for Danger by Christianna Brand

Dinner at Antoine’s by Frances Parkinson Keyes

Miss Pym Disposes by Josephine Tey

The Man in the Queue by Josephine Tey

Tragedy at Law by Cyril Hare

 

queuing ouside the theatre

The answer is not going to be a huge surprise if you have read the title of the post. They are all books that I consider to have notable motives for murder – notable for being unusual, or even unique, or completely unguessable or (an interesting category) apparently inadequate…

I was inspired by the wonderful Martin Edwards, a great friend to this blog – I don’t at all make claim to his abilities and knowledge, but I love the way he writes in his non-fiction surveys of crime titles, managing to be satisfying and non-spoilering at the same time, while doing proper discussions of our favourite books.

**MY USUAL POLICY ON SPOILERS applies. I don’t spoiler without warning, in this sense: I want to take the chance to write about the books, will not be naming murderers but will be mentioning other aspects of the plot. I consider this would only be a spoiler if you were in the middle of reading one of the books, or are about to start one. In that case, you might be better not continuing. Anyone else is fine.**

Back to the MOTIVES. Now I am going to make a list of sentences, which apply to the books above, but are NOT in the same order, they have been mixed up. They are not quotes from the books, they are each my invented version of a confession:

I murdered X so that a prediction I had made would turn out to be true

I wanted dancing lessons

He didn’t try hard enough to save X so I killed him

I was just practising killing

I wanted a teashop

I killed X in order to save their immortal soul, stop them going to Hell

Someone was going to get away with something, unless I took action

(I have missed two out)

 

hospitals should be places of safety - but are they?

There is much Golden Age discussion about motive – sleuths say that it all comes down to money, revenge or love in the end. Many of the above would come into that category – but in strange ways, I would suggest.

When you start looking at crime books and motives there are a few more categories that jump to mind.

Swathes of crime books would come under the heading of First Spouse Syndrome: the old relationship standing in the way of the new. Divorce perhaps impossible, or unhelpful. So you might need to kill off an early husband or wife, or someone who knows about that early connection. Or – a Christie special - maybe the original relationship was sound, and for nefarious reasons the couple pretended to have split up, so a later partner is under threat. There is also the question of somebody who feels they have a claim on the role of First Spouse, and is not going to be lightly pushed aside. (one of the books above contains this, although – in terms of the murder – not in the way you might be expecting)

I am always disappointed if the killer turns out to be just mad or just wicked – I like something a bit more. Serial killers aren’t my favourite either – though I’m always willing to consider that the many deaths are a way to hide one particular one. ‘What’s the connection with the other victims?’ gets old very quickly. There’s a book where it turns out that all the dead people were on the same jury. Well the average reader solves this 100 pages before anyone in the book. 

There is also the sub-genre of a formal or informal tontine – such a nice-sounding, gentle word. It could have been invented for murder stories really – it’s an investment scheme where a group of people put money in, and the last person alive scoops the pool. Yes exactly: why would you ever do that unless for a murder plot? They don’t really exist any more as a thing, but the word/concept is useful for a plot where someone is removing the obstacles to their own inheritance, or just generally increasing their cut of the goodies. In this post [SPOILER, but it is a book no-one is very likely to read] I hid my spoiler that this was the motive by linking to a post where it was no secret - as I said, I love the idea that I have now blogged on so many books (more than 2,300) that I can use this as a regular spoiler avoidance device.

The opposite situation might be Murder for really a very small amount of money - a favourite of mine. Fictional policemen are fond of saying knowledgeably ‘oh I’ve seen murders committed for five pounds’: but on the whole that’s not what happens in books. But the odd story where the money is small is one I find very satisfying IF the author does a good job of it – two Christies come to mind. In one of them there is an apparently worthless artefact involved: though the sums are big enough for murder, they would be a thousand times greater today – but the point is what the murderer wanted to do with the money. It’s a motive that some find wholly unconvincing, while I think the opposite. In the other there is an incredibly elaborate plot just to keep hold of some money that had come casually into someone’s possession. (It’s here on the blog, but only click if you already know, as this would obviously constitute a SPOILER)

Tey’s Miss Pym Disposes is a book that very much divides crime afficionados. I absolutely love it – there are several entries on the blog, and I wrote a chapter on it for Curtis Evan’s (Edgar-nominated) Murder in the Closet. But apart from the many major questions it raises – that ending! What was Miss Pym thinking? What is going to happen to those people? – the biggest trick Tey plays is that (and this is not a spoiler) the whole plot, and the motives, revolve round a job on offer for a young woman. The setting is a college to train physical education instructors. One of the graduating students is to be appointed a junior assistant at a posh school for girls.

those innocent girls frolicking

When you’re reading the book you are swept along in this: it is the crown jewel of jobs, and it is a coup for the whole college, and its principal, that the school is even considering taking one of their graduates for the post.

But when you think about it - it really doesn’t sound like that big a deal? All the students will get similar jobs somewhere, in maybe a slightly less highly-rated school. You imagine the life of a junior instructor is not much fun anyway (underpaid, overworked, early mornings on the cold touchline). Given the date of the book, 1946, the expectation would surely be that any beautiful sporty girl is going to get married and give up quite soon anyway. And yet – Tey persuades us that all this is vital, and well worth a murder along the way. It is quite the coup to make it seem worth more than, say, the priceless ruby at the heart of The Mystery of the Blue Train. But Tey in general seems to make a point of unusual motives…

The odd legal loophole or anomaly crops up – it’s probably easy to guess which from the top list contains such an item. There is a Dorothy L Sayers book which revolves round a change in the laws of inheritance, though the actual motive is the usual greed.

Religious reasons – doesn’t come up much, but saving the immortal soul, as mentioned above, is, I suppose, quite the prize compared with the Heart of Fire ruby, an Old Master painting, or a junior job at a school. Interestingly, there is also a Poirot short story that features immortal souls, though in a quite different way from the example above: it is the case that Hercule considers his greatest failure. (But the soul IS saved)

This post is long enough – even though we haven’t even looked at blackmailers, and the motive in Christie’s The Mirror Crack’d from Side to Side…

Now, I know that many people who read this will have automatically assigned motives to books, they will know of each example I have given, the titles will jump straight to their minds. (If I have been too obscure for anyone, and you would like to know, do email and I will tell you which book is which clothesinbooks@hotmail.co.uk ) And I think those people will have amazing additions to my list, or arguments – new motives, different examples, favourite tricks, ways in which I am wrong. Bring them on. I'd love it if you gave your own 'fake confession motive sentence' for a book you like, see if everyone else knows it.

Most of the books mentioned here have featured on the blog – you can find the posts via links, the search engine, the tags below, or the tabs at the top with lists of all the books that have ever been on the blog…

Theatre queue is from the Sam Hood Australian photos I like so much. Other pictures vaguely illustrating some of the setups.