Dumb Witness (also published in the US as Poirot Loses a Client) was May’s selection for the Agatha Christie Reading Challenge I’ve been taking part in this year. I missed last month’s because the chosen book – The Murder of Roger Ackroyd – was one I’d read before and wasn’t ready to read again – but this one was new to me and sounded very appealing.
Published in 1937, Dumb Witness is one of several Christie novels which feature her famous detective Hercule Poirot and are narrated by his friend Captain Hastings. The novel opens with the family of old Emily Arundell gathering to celebrate the Easter weekend at her home, Littlegreen House, in the fictional village of Market Basing. Emily’s dog, Bob, is excited because there are more people to play his favourite game with him – bouncing his ball from the top of the stairs to the bottom. When Emily gets up during the night and falls down the stairs, however, it’s poor Bob who gets the blame. He must have left his ball there and his mistress didn’t see it in the dark; what other explanation could there be? And yet…
Surely — surely, she must be mistaken…One often had queer fancies after an event had happened. She tried — earnestly she tried — to recall the slippery roundness of Bob’s ball under her foot…
But she could recall nothing of the kind.
Instead —
Convinced that her fall was not an accident and not Bob’s fault, Emily writes to Hercule Poirot and hints that she would like him to investigate the ‘incident of the dog’s ball’, but by the time he receives the letter it’s too late. Emily Arundell is dead, presumably of natural causes. Studying the letter she sent him, Poirot is sure that it wasn’t a natural death at all so, with Hastings by his side, he sets off for Littlegreen House to prove that Miss Arundell has been murdered.
There is certainly no shortage of suspects. Her nieces and nephew and their partners are all in need of money for various reasons and could all have had an opportunity to carry out the murder, while the person who does actually benefit financially from her death – her companion, Miss Lawson – also has to be considered. Then there are the other servants at Littlegreen House, as well as two spiritualist women who claim to have seen a halo of light around Emily Arundell’s head. With her usual skill, Christie directs our suspicions first at one character, then at another, and although I kept thinking I had identified the culprit, I didn’t manage to guess the correct solution until just before it was revealed. However, I did still pick up on one or two important clues before Poirot did, so I don’t need to feel too ashamed!
I really enjoyed this particular Poirot novel; I usually do tend to enjoy the ones narrated by Hastings and I wish there had been a few more of them. The real star of this book, though, has to be Bob the dog! Although he is presumably the ‘dumb witness’ of the title, Christie gives him a personality of his own – and even some dialogue, of a sort. It’s little touches like this that made this book so entertaining. Now I’m wondering what the June choice for the challenge will be.
She Reads Novels 
This is one of my favourite Christies (and now I want to read it again!) The Poirot-Hastings combination is perfect here, and I adore Bob (in fact I currently am fighting a craving to go out and adopt a wire haired fox terrier and call him just that!!)
Yes, Poirot and Hastings work so well together in this book. I want a dog like Bob as well!
It is so long (maybe forty years) since I read any Christie that I can’t possibly remember whodunit. I feel a winter project coming on.
Christie’s books would be perfect winter reads, so I think that sounds like a great project.
I’ve not read this one but it does sound like good fun. I’m useless at picking up clues so can never work out the solution ….
I think I’ve only read one Christie novel so far where I worked out the solution early on…and then I wished I hadn’t because it spoiled the twist.
I can understand the satisfaction of thinking you’re as brainy as the detective but yes, it does mean the ending lacks the fizz
The dumb witness sounds like a cool dog!
He is!
I have never read this one, but I remember it from a Masterpiece Mystery presentation. It would be fun to read it sometime.
It would be interesting to see how the book compares to the adaptation.
Yes. I can’t remember it well now.
This is one of my favourites – like you, I love the Hastings novels.
I always love the relationship between Poirot and Hastings. I think this has become one of my favourite Christie novels too.
I haven’t read this one but Bob the dog is certainly the star of the TV adaptation!
I haven’t seen it, but I’m pleased to hear Bob is the star of the adaptation as well as the book!
I just read this too and then watched the Masterpiece Mystery episode on DVD. They made some changes for the TV adaption; the biggest being that Poirot is on the spot for the fall down the stairs…no letter gone astray. Also, the Trip sisters have a bigger role. Check it out if you can because Bob is adorable in it. 😀
I would love to watch it, especially if Bob is as adorable as he sounds in the book. 🙂
I haven’t read this one, will go and look on my mums shelf to see if she has it or not. Could do with some Christie reading for a while.
This is a really good one. I hope your mum has it, or that you can get hold of a copy from somewhere else if not. 🙂