Three Act Tragedy is a mystery novel by British writer Agatha Christie, first published in the United States by Dodd, Mead and Company in October 1934 under the title Murder in Three Acts and in the UK by the Collins Crime Club in January 1935 under Christie's original title. The US edition retailed at $2.00

Isaac Anderson in The New York Times Book Review of 7 October 1934, said that the motive was "most unusual, if not positively unique in the annals of crime. Since this is an Agatha Christie novel featuring Hercule Poirot as its leading character, it is quite unnecessary to say that it makes uncommonly good reading".

In The Observers issue of 6 January 1935, "Torquemada" (Edward Powys Mathers) said, "Her gift is pure genius, of leading the reader by the nose in a zigzag course up the garden and dropping the lead just when she wishes him to scamper to the kill. Three Act Tragedy is not among this author's best detective stories; but to say that it heads her second best is praise enough. The technique of misleadership is, as usual, superb; but, when all comes out, some of the minor threads of motive do not quite convince. Mrs Christie has, quite apart from her special gift, steadily improved and matured as a writer, from the-strange-affair-of-style to this charming and sophisticated piece of prose".

Milward Kennedy in The Guardian (29 January 1935) opened his review with, "The year has opened most satisfactorily. Mrs Christie's Three Act Tragedy is up to her best level"; he summarised the set-up of the plot but then added, "A weak (but perhaps inevitable point) is the disappearance of a butler; the reader, that is to say, is given rather too broad a hint. But the mechanics of the story are ingenious and plausible, the characters (as always with Mrs Christie) are life-like and lively. Poirot does not take the stage very often, but when he does he is in great form."

Robert Barnard commented much later that the "[s]trategy of deception here is one that by this date ought to have been familiar to Christie's readers. This is perhaps not one of the best examples of the trick, because few of the characters other than the murderer are well individualised. The social mix here is more artistic and sophisticated than is usual in Christie."

References in other works

  • Colonel Johnson alludes to the events of this story in part 3, section V of Hercule Poirot's Christmas.
  • Poirot refers to the events of this novel in The A.B.C. Murders (1936) when he and Arthur Hastings reunite after not seeing each other for several years. Poirot is telling Hastings about his experiences since retiring. He relates that he was almost "exterminated" himself recently by a murderer who was "not so much enterprising as careless".
  • In Act 3 Chapter 5 Poirot says that once he had a failure in his professional career that happened in Belgium, hinting at the story "The Chocolate Box".
  • In Act 2, Chapter 1 Poirot makes a hint to The Mysterious Affair at Styles while talking to Satterthwaite.
  • In the end of Act 2 Chapter 3, Satterthwaite tells Sir Charles Cartwright that it is not the first time that he is investigating crimes. He is just starting to tell about the events of the story "At the 'Bells and Motley'" when Sir Charles interrupts him and starts to tell his own story.
  • In Act 2, Chapter 1, Sir Charles Cartwright discusses reserving a compartment on the "Blue Train" in order to travel from France to England. This is the titular train from another Poirot mystery, The Mystery of the Blue Train, published in 1928.

Publication history

right|thumb|Dustjacket illustration of the UK First Edition (1935)

  • 1934, Dodd Mead and Company (New York), Hardback, 279 pp
  • 1935, Collins Crime Club (London), January 1935, Hardback, 256 pp
  • 1945, Avon Books (New York), Paperback, (Avon number 61), 230 pp
  • 1957, Fontana Books (Imprint of HarperCollins), Paperback, 192 pp
  • 1961, Popular Library (New York), Paperback, 175 pp
  • 1964, Pan Books, Paperback (Pan number X275), 203 pp
  • 1972, Greenway edition of collected works (William Collins), Hardcover, 253 pp,
  • 1973, Greenway edition of collected works (Dodd Mead), Hardcover, 253 pp
  • 1975, Ulverscroft Large Print Edition, Hardcover, 351 pp,
  • 2006, Poirot Facsimile Edition (Facsimile of 1935 UK First Edition), HarperCollins, 6 November 2006, Hardback

Two recent audiobook versions have been released.

  • 2003, BBC Audiobooks released an unabridged reading by Andrew Sachs.
  • 2012, HarperAudio released an unabridged reading by Hugh Fraser.

The novel's true first publication was the serialisation in the Saturday Evening Post in six instalments from 9 June (Volume 206, Number 50) to 14 July 1934 (Volume 207, Number 2) under the title Murder in Three Acts, with illustrations by John La Gatta. This novel is one of two to differ significantly in American editions (the other being The Moving Finger), both hardcover and paperback. The American edition of Three Act Tragedy changes the motive of the killer, but not so significantly as to require adjustment in other chapters of the novel.<!-- What is the difference in motive from one edition to the next? Please indicate it specifically, or this text should be dropped. -->

In 1935 the novel became Christie's first title to sell 10,000 copies in its first year.

Adaptations

Television

A 1986 television film was made under the title Murder in Three Acts, starring Peter Ustinov and Tony Curtis, which relocated the action to Acapulco, replaced the character of Satterthwaite with Hastings, and made Charles Cartwright an American movie star.

An adaptation starring David Suchet for Agatha Christie's Poirot was released as the first episode of Season 12 in 2010, with Martin Shaw as Sir Charles Cartwright, Art Malik as Sir Bartholomew Strange, Kimberley Nixon as Egg Lytton Gore, and Tom Wisdom as Oliver Manders. Ashley Pearce, who previously directed Appointment with Death and Mrs McGinty's Dead for the ITV series, also directed this. The adaptation omitted the character of Satterthwaite and changed a number of details but was generally faithful to the plot of the novel.

The novel was also adapted as a 2018 episode of the French television series Les Petits Meurtres d'Agatha Christie.

Radio

A radio production was made for BBC Radio 4 in 2002, starring John Moffatt as Poirot, Michael Cochrane as Sir Charles, George Cole as Satterthwaite, Beth Chalmers as Hermione Lytton Gore (Egg), the heroine, and Clive Merrison as Sir Bartholomew.

The production was broadcast across five weekly episodes on BBC Radio 4, and stays predominantly faithful to the novel, with only very subtle changes being made. Sir Charles travels to the South of France in order to get away from Egg, after initially believing she was in love with Oliver Manders, following a goodnight kiss between the two characters. At the end of the story, once Poirot has revealed the motive and the proof of the first wife, Sir Charles storms out of the room, in order to "choose his exit". It is implied he chooses the quicker option of suicide. A shaken and emotional Egg is then taken home by Manders, leaving Poirot and Satterthwaite to contemplate that they could have been the victims to the poison cocktail, at Sir Charles' party.

References

  • Three Act Tragedy at the official Agatha Christie website
  • Three Act Tragedy at new official Agatha Christie website