The Murder on the Links
👤| Published | May 1923 |
| Genre | Detective Mystery |
| Publisher | The Bodley Head |
| Language | English |
| Series | Hercule Poirot #2 |
📝My Honest Review: The Murder on the Links
This is Poirot's second outing, and you can tell Christie was still finding her feet. The setup is dramatic: Poirot receives a desperate letter for help from a millionaire in France, but by the time he and Hastings arrive, the man is already dead—found face-down in a shallow grave on a golf course. As Poirot famously lectures the local police on his method:
"The movements of the crime, they are for the 'detective' of the police... For me, it is the movements of the mind!"
Now, for the "real talk." The plot is **incredibly convoluted**. It involves a murder from twenty years ago, secret identities, and a set of identical twins. It feels a bit like a soap opera script at times. Also, the rival detective, Giraud, is incredibly annoying. He spends the whole book crawling on the floor looking for physical clues just so Poirot can make fun of him. It’s a bit of a "detective trope" cliché that Christie eventually grew out of.
The most frustrating part? Hastings. He falls in love with a girl he meets on a train and spends half the book acting like a confused teenager instead of a detective's assistant. If you like romance with your murder, you might enjoy it, but for me, it just got in the way of the mystery.
⏱️ 1-Minute Summary (for busy readers)
Paul Renauld is found stabbed in the back on a new golf course in France. He had previously told Poirot his life was in danger. Suspicion falls on his son, Jack, who was arguing with his father over a girl. However, a second, identical murder occurs—this time involving a man who had already died of a heart attack.
The twist? It's a double-layered revenge plot. Paul Renauld was actually a man named Georges Conneau who escaped justice for a murder 20 years ago. His neighbor, Madame Daubreuil, was his old accomplice and was blackmailing him. Paul tried to fake his own death to escape her, but he was actually murdered by Marthe Daubreuil (the neighbor's daughter) who wanted his fortune. Poirot solves it by realizing the "stabbing" of the second body was done post-mortem to confuse the timeline.
🔹 The Critic's Report Card
| ⭐ Rating | 3.2 / 5 An okay mystery that tries a bit too hard to be clever. |
|---|---|
| 👍 What I Loved | The pitted wits between Poirot and Giraud. It's funny to see Poirot win a bet against the "modern" detective using nothing but his "little grey cells." |
| 👎 What I Didn’t Like | The coincidences. The chances of two people having the exact same secret past and meeting again in a random French town are... low. |
| 😐 Overrated or Underrated? | Underrated. It’s often skipped for the bigger titles, but it’s essential if you want to see where the Poirot/Hastings friendship really develops. |
👤 Human Take: Running from the Past
The "human" side of this book is the idea that you can't ever really outrun who you were. Paul Renauld spent twenty years building a new life, a new name, and a family, but his past walked in through the front door and destroyed everything. It’s a bit of a tragic reminder that secrets have a way of digging themselves up, especially on a golf course.
The Final Word: It’s a bit messy and over-the-top, but it has that classic Christie charm. Just be prepared for Hastings to be more "lovestruck" than "helpful."
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