Three Act Tragedy

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Three Act Tragedy (published in 1934), is a murder mystery novel by Agatha Christie. It features Hercule Poirot and Mr. Satterthwaite.

[Spoiler warningSpoiler warning]: Plot and/or ending details follow.

Thirteen gather for dinner at the home of a theater actor, Sir Charles Cartwright, where a local clergyman is poisoned... with apparently no motive. Poirot investigates as the case continues to take increasingly bizarre twists and turns.

The very last remark made by Poirot, at the end of the book, is very characteristic of him. When Mr.Satterthwaite exclaims that he might have been the one who got poisoned during the first round, with a naive vanity, Poirot says "It could have been worse. It could have been ME!"

Trivia

This is the one book where Satterthwaite collaborates with Poirot. He plays the detective, in a couple of other books with the help of Mr Harley Quin, with the stories bordering on the supernatural at times.

Media Adaptations

A 1986 television film was made under the title Murder in Three Acts, starring Peter Ustinov and Tony Curtis, which relocated the action to Acapulco. Mr Satterthwaite was replaced by Hastings.

An altogether superior radio production was made for the BBC in 2003, starring John Moffatt (Poirot), Beth Chalmers (Egg Lytten Gore, the heroine) and Clive Merrison (Sir Bartholomew).

Agatha Christie
Detectives: Hercule Poirot \| Miss Marple \| Tommy and Tuppence \| Ariadne Oliver \| Arthur Hastings \| Chief Inspector Japp
Novels: The Mysterious Affair at Styles \| The Secret Adversary \| Murder on the Links \| The Man in the Brown Suit \| The Secret of Chimneys \| The Murder of Roger Ackroyd \| The Big Four \| The Mystery of the Blue Train \| The Seven Dials Mystery \| The Murder at the Vicarage \| The Sittaford Mystery \| Peril at End House \| Lord Edgware Dies \| Murder on the Orient Express \| Three Act Tragedy \| Why Didn't They Ask Evans? \| Death in the Clouds \| The A.B.C. Murders \| Murder in Mesopotamia \| Cards on the Table \| Death on the Nile \| Dumb Witness \| Appointment with Death \| And Then There Were None \| Murder is Easy \| Hercule Poirot's Christmas \| Sad Cypress \| Evil Under the Sun \| N or M? \| One, Two, Buckle My Shoe \| The Body in the Library \| Five Little Pigs \| The Moving Finger \| Towards Zero \| Sparkling Cyanide \| Death Comes as the End \| The Hollow \| Taken at the Flood \| Crooked House \| A Murder is Announced \| They Came to Baghdad \| Mrs McGinty's Dead \| They Do It with Mirrors \| A Pocket Full of Rye \| After the Funeral \| Hickory Dickory Dock \| Destination Unknown \| Dead Man's Folly \| 4.50 From Paddington \| Ordeal by Innocence \| Cat Among the Pigeons \| The Pale Horse \| The Mirror Crack'd from Side to Side \| The Clocks \| A Caribbean Mystery \| At Bertram's Hotel \| Third Girl \| Endless Night \| By The Pricking of My Thumbs \| Hallowe'en Party \| Passenger to Frankfurt \| Nemesis \| Elephants Can Remember \| Postern of Fate \| Curtain \| Sleeping Murder
as Mary Westmacott: Giant's Bread \| Unfinished Portrait \| Absent in the Spring \| The Rose and the Yew Tree \| A Daughter's a Daughter \| The Burden
Short story collections: Poirot Investigates \| Partners in Crime \| The Mysterious Mr. Quin \| The Hound of Death \| The Thirteen Problems \| Parker Pyne Investigates \| The Listerdale Mystery \| Murder in the Mews \| The Regatta Mystery \| The Labours of Hercules \| Poirot's Early Cases
Plays: Akhnaton \| The Mousetrap \| Witness for the Prosecution \| Verdict \| Rule of Three \| Fiddlers Three

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