Evil Under the Sun

Did You Know?

• The book was first serialised in the US in Collier's Weekly in eleven parts from 14 December 1940 to 22 February 1941 with illustrations by Mario Cooper.
• The character of Captain Kenneth Marshall is in his 40s and has been married to Arlena for four years.
• The hotel chambermaid is named Gladys Narracott.

Plot summary

Hercule Poirot is vacationing at a secluded hotel in Devon when he notices the attractive former actress Arlena Marshall flirting with Patrick Redfern, though both are married. One morning Arlena goes to Pixy Cove for a private meeting; Patrick Redfern and Emily Brewster later find her strangled. Poirot and Inspector Colgate interview suspects, learning that a bottle was thrown from a guest room and a chambermaid heard a bath running at noon. Poirot smells Arlena's perfume in a hidden cave. He investigates a similar strangulation of Alice Corrigan, whose husband had an alibi. After a picnic where Poirot observes reactions to heights, Arlena's stepdaughter Linda attempts suicide with sleeping pills. Poirot reveals Linda had been experimenting with voodoo and believed her spells killed her stepmother.

Literary significance and reception

Maurice Willson Disher in The Times Literary Supplement of 14 June 1941 gave a positive review, stating that the novel 'will take a lot of beating now' and praising how Christie 'casts the shadow of guilt upon first one and then another with such casual ease'. Isaac Anderson in The New York Times Book Review of 19 October 1941 found the murder 'a little too much so for credibility' but noted that 'Poirot's reasoning is flawless'. Maurice Richardson in The Observer of 8 June 1941 called it 'Best Agatha Christie since Ten Little Niggers' and described the solution as 'smashing'.

The Scotsman of 3 July 1941 spoke of 'surprising discoveries' in the solution. E.R. Punshon in The Guardian of 26 August 1941 began a eulogistic piece by asking if it was 'going too far to call Mrs. Agatha Christie one of the most remarkable writers of the day'. Robert Barnard described it as 'the classic Christie marital triangle plot' but noted it was 'possibly overingenious and slightly uncharacterised'.

References to other works

The novel’s plot originates from the short story “The Blood-Stained Pavement.” It also shares loose parallels with Christie’s “Triangle at Rhodes,” which debuted in the US in This Week magazine in February 1936 and in the UK in the Strand Magazine that May, before appearing in the collection Murder in the Mews a year later. Colonel Weston, a returning character from Peril at End House, mentions that earlier case when he first appears in Chapter 5. The minor character Mrs. Gardener, a fan of Poirot, references the Death on the Nile case in Chapter 1. The book’s title is drawn from Ecclesiastes 6:1: “There is an evil that I have seen under the sun, and it lies heavy upon humankind.”

Media adaptations

John Moffatt starred as Poirot in a 1998 five-part BBC Radio 4 adaptation directed by Enyd Williams, with a cast including Iain Glen, Fiona Fullerton, Robin Ellis, Wendy Craig, George Baker, and Joan Littlewood. The novel was adapted into a 1982 film starring Peter Ustinov as Poirot, with co-stars including Maggie Smith, Diana Rigg, Denis Quilley, Roddy McDowall, James Mason, and Sylvia Miles. A 2001 adaptation for Agatha Christie's Poirot starred David Suchet, filmed mainly at the Burgh Island Hotel, Devon. The novel was adapted as a 2019 episode of the French television series Les Petits Meurtres d'Agatha Christie. On 17 October 2007, The Adventure Company released a PC game adaptation featuring Kevin Delaney as Poirot, with Captain Hastings as the player-character.