The Murder on the Links
A grave beside a French golf course and a past that would not stay buried.
The Murder on the Links is a Hercule Poirot novel by Agatha Christie, first published in the US in March 1923 and in the UK by The Bodley Head in May of the same year. It is the second novel featuring Poirot and Arthur Hastings and takes place in northern France, where Poirot has a hostile competitor in Monsieur Giraud of the Paris Sûreté.
Quick Facts
- Author
- Agatha Christie
- Country
- United Kingdom
- Language
- English
- Series
- Hercule Poirot
- Genre
- Crime novel
- Publisher
- The Bodley Head
- Released
- 1923
- Format
- Print (hardcover & paperback)
Lore & Background
Poirot and Hastings travel to Merlinville-sur-Mer to meet Paul Renauld, who has asked for their help, only to learn that he has been found stabbed in the back in a newly dug grave beside a golf course. His wife, Eloise, claims masked men took him away. Poirot finds that the case closely resembles one from 22 years earlier, in which Georges Conneau and his lover, Madame Beroldy, conspired to kill her husband - and Madame Beroldy is now Renauld's neighbour, Madame Daubreuil.
Reader's Guide
Renauld was really Georges Conneau. Blackmailed by Madame Daubreuil, he planned to stage his own death using the body of a tramp who had died on his grounds, but Marthe Daubreuil followed him and stabbed him after he had dug the grave. The book is also notable for a subplot in which Hastings falls in love.
More in Cases & Stories
Elsewhere in Hercule Poirot
Spotted an error? Know more?
Reader corrections go straight into our review queue. Suggest an edit · How this site is sourced