Independent Study Project

Comparative Study of Murder Mysteries; Agatha Christie and Sheila Radley

The novels Death of a Maiden and Appointment with Death, written by Sheila Radley and Agatha Christie, are murder mysteries describing a betrayal of trust. While both are similar in this way, it is the differences between the two novels that make the similarities remarkable. By comparing the victims, the killers, and the investigators, the differences in the novels are revealed.

The victims in the novels, Mary Gadge and Mrs. Boynton, were murdered in very different ways. Mary Gedge was drowned in Ashthorpe river in her home town of Godbold;

The girl lay face-down, arms outstretched, rushes woven among her fingers. She wore a long dress of cotton, sprigged with tiny flowers, and the hem of the dress swung and rippled round her legs with the motion of the water. Gathered flowers--enamelled buttercups, mauve lady’s smock--floated about her body and clung to her hair and her dress wherever they touched. It looked a quiet way to die.

(pg 6 Radley)

Mrs. Boynton on the other hand, died a quiet and unexplainable death. Miss. Gedge was a young woman in the prime of her life loved by everyone, while Mrs. Boynton was a grouchy old shrew whom even her family couldn’t stand. It was because of the differences between the victims that the police inspector’s investigations were completely different. In the case of Miss. Gedge inspectors Tait and Quantrill could not find any substantial evidence pointing towards a motive. Tait compared the fate of the

Page #2 young woman to that of Shakespeares’s Ophelia. Ophelia committed suicide in the play Hamlet reflecting the inspectors original view of Mary Gedge’s death. In the case of Mrs. Boynton, on the other hand inspector Poirot had numerous suspects with convincing motives.

The motives of the killers, were a lot alike. In some ways they can be both viewed as mercy killings. Miss. Gedge was killed by Jean Bloomfield who used to be Mary’s teacher. Jean killed Mary because she saw a lot of herself in Mary, and didn’t want to see Mary travel the same downward path that she did in her later years. Mrs. Boynton was put out of her misery by Lady Westholme, because of the suffering she imposed on herself and them. Mrs. Bloomfield didn’t have a reasonable motive, where as in the killing of Mrs. Boynton I can understand. She was described as a mean over powering lady who forced the lives of her children to revolve around her, “The old woman’s mouth widened into a malicious smile as she looked at Raymond.