Taken at the Flood by Agatha Christie #ReadChristie2024

Gordon Cloade’s family has always relied on his wealth and generosity so they are appalled when he marries an attractive widow less than half his age. Weeks later, he dies tragically in the London Blitz and his new bride, Rosaleen, inherits everything. 

Lynn Marchmont, Gordon’s niece, has just returned home after serving as a Wren during the war, and the only thing preventing her from settling down with her fiancé Rowley, a farmer, is that they’d expected his expansion to be subsidized by their uncle. Also, Lynn is oddly fascinated by Rosaleen’s brother David, very protective of his sister but disliked by all the Cloades, who rightly suspect he will interfere with any financial gifts they might be able to wheedle out of the young widow. Hercule Poirot gets drawn in by Gordon’s sister-in-law who wants him to investigate a rumor that Rosaleen’s first husband isn’t really dead. So when there is a murder, Poirot is already somewhat familiar with this family and ready to investigate.

My Impression: While I did not remember reading this somewhat complex Christie as a teen, I was certainly familiar with the quote from Julius Caesar which is the inspiration for the title:

There is a tide in the affairs of men
Which, taken at the flood, leads on to fortune.

Brutus uses this to argue that taking advantage of an opportunity at the right moment will lead to fortune and not making that move results in failure. There are various characters here who have taken advantage of situations: Rosaleen left a marriage that bored her and found a richer husband, the Cloades did not live within their means because they had a generous uncle who indulged them (well, how many people would decline such largesse?), war gave Lynn the excitement and travel of being a Wren, and David, apparently a war hero, plans to live off his sister’s inheritance. But it turns out the most daring move of all is none of the above, which Poirot reveals in a surprise ending, first soliloquizing:

“What causes crime?” Hercule Poirot demanded rhetorically. “It is a question, that. What stimulus is needed? What inbred predisposition does there have to be? Is every one capable of crime – of some crime? And what happens – that is what I have asked myself from the beginning, what happens when people who have been protected from real life – from its assaults and ravages – are suddenly deprived of that protection?”

When you put it like that, Hercule, I guess we’re all vulnerable to some stimuli! And Poirot turns out to be more sympathetic to some of those criminals than others . . . . I don’t think Miss Marple would bend any rules for criminals – does anyone recall if she does?

Taken at the Flood was the July book for ReadChristie2024.

This is book 18 for Carol’s Cloak and Dagger Challenge.

Title: Taken at the Flood, also titled There is a Tide (UK)
Publication: Morrow trade paperback, originally published in 1948
Genre: Mystery
Setting: 20th century Britain
Source: Library