Murder on the Links

Poirot and Hastings are on holiday in France, and a local businessman approaches Poirot with the oldest request in the trade: he fears for his life. The next day he is found stabbed on a nearby golf course, with a love letter among his possessions. The holiday is over, and the case has begun. Some men go to France for the wine. Poirot goes for the quiet, and gets neither.

The murder has the feel of a personal crime. A love letter at the scene suggests a story running under the surface of the dead man's life, and the family around him, the Renaulds, turn out to be a house of cards. Poirot works through the household and its neighbours, and the French setting gives the investigation a warmer, more excitable air than the London cases. And the golf course is an odd place for a murder, and the oddness is part of the point.

Agatha Christie and Anthony Horowitz wrote it, Andrew Grieve directed. David Suchet is Poirot and Hugh Fraser is Hastings. Diane Fletcher plays Eloise Renauld, Damien Thomas Paul Renauld, Ben Pullen Jack Renauld, Kate Fahy Bernadette Daubreuil, Sophie Linfield Marthe Daubreuil, Jacinta Mulcahy Bella Duveen, Terence Beesley Stonor and Bill Moody Giraud.

The love letter is the kind of detail Christie knew exactly what to do with, and the episode is patient with it. Murder on the Links is one of the earliest Poirot novels, and this version fits comfortably into the series, a solid, sunlit puzzle with the sea nearby and a secret at the bottom of it. The victim's fears were justified, which is the one thing the police had hoped was not true. Poirot solves it with his usual mixture of observation and good manners, and Hastings is allowed to be useful for once, which is always a treat.