Den tredie pige

by Agatha Christie

Paperback, 1971

Status

Available

Call number

823.912

Library's review

England, London, ca 1965
Hercule Poirot opsøges af en ung kvinde på ca 20 år, der "måske" har slået en ihjel. Da hun ser ham, beklager hun at han er "for gammel" og går igen uden at opgive navn eller andre kontaktoplysninger. Hercule Poirot bliver nedtrykt over den behandling og sætter mr
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Goby til at finde informationer. En snak med Ariadne Oliver afslører at hun nok ved hvor pigen kommer fra men ikke hvad hun hedder. Goby og Oliver forsyner dog snart Poirot med de tilgængelige oplysninger. Poirot spørger også både kammertjeneren George og sekretæren Lemon til råds undervejs.
Tre unge har slået sig sammen om at leje en lejlighed. Frances Cary har lejet lejligheden og deler den med veninden Claudia Reece-Holland. Norma Restarick er den tredje pige i lejligheden. Ariadne Oliver opdager Norma på cafe med kæresten David Baker og tilkalder Poirot. David forlader cafeen og Ariadne følger efter ham og overlader Norma til Poirot.
David opdager Ariadne og får hende med til en lejlighed, hvor hun møder nogle af hans venner inklusive Frances. På vej væk fra lejligheden bliver hun slået ned.
Poirot søger oplysninger i nær og fjern, men undres over ikke at kunne finde et dødsfald, når nu Norma snakkede om "måske" at have slået en ihjel. Ariadne Oliver oplyser om et selvmord i en af lejligheder i det kompleks, pigerne bor i. En mrs Louise Charpentier sprang ud fra syvende sal og lidt boren fra Poirot fremskaffer en oplysning om at hun var Restaricks elskerinde på et tidspunkt. Kort efter bliver David fundet død og Norma har en kniv i hånden.
Poirot lader sig ikke narre og fastholder den tanke at Charpentier var farlig for nogen og derfra via et maleri af Restarick kommer han til den konklusion at både Andrew og Mary Restarick i virkeligheden er bedragere. Andrew hedder Robert Orwell og Mary Restarick er i virkeligheden den samme som Frances Cary. David Baker forsøgte at presse penge af dem og derfor måtte han dø.
Lægen, dr Stillingfleet, der har behandlet Norma, er blevet forelsket i hende og de gifter sig og flytter til Australien.

Et noget overindviklet plot, men ellers var det jo også for nemt?
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Publication

Forum, 1971. 1.oplag 1967, 2. oplag 1971

Description

Fiction. Mystery. Historical Fiction. HTML: In this breathtaking Agatha Christie mystery, the Third Girl sharing a London flat with two others announces to Hercule Poirot that she's a murderer and then disappears. The masterful investigator must figure out whether the missing girl is a criminal, a victim, or merely insane. Three young women share a London flat. The first is a coolly efficient secretary. The second is an artist. The third interrupts Hercule Poirot's breakfast confessing that she is a murderer�??and then promptly disappears. Slowly, Poirot learns of the rumors surrounding the mysterious third girl, her family, and her disappearance. Yet hard evidence is needed before the great detective can pronounce her guilty, innocent, or insane....… (more)

User reviews

LibraryThing member smik
Hercule Poirot has a client, a young woman, who comes to see him saying she thinks she has murdered someone. She won't sit down and shuffles on her feet, refusing to meet his eyes. And then she blurts out that he is too old and flees.

His rejection by Norma Restorick just won't leave HP alone. He
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recognises that she is in serious trouble, and pursues the case with the help of his author friend Mrs Ariadne Oliver.

The title comes from the fact that Norma is the third girl in an apartment in London.

The excellent narration by John Woodvine proves irrefutably that David Suchet isn't the only one who can "do" Hercule Poirot. Required to present the voices of a considerable range of characters, he does it very well.

THE THIRD GIRL is one of the most satisfying Agatha Christie's I've "read" recently. In fact I think I'll have to put it in my top 10. There was plenty to enjoy about it from the characters of Ariadne Oliver and HP's secretary Miss Lemon, to depiction of the "new" British society of the late 1950's, with girls going out to work, and young people experimenting with drugs. The puzzle of what was happening to Norma Restorick held my attention right to the end although I had sort of half solved it by then.

I must comment though on one place where Agatha Christie did not "play fair" with the reader. For most of the time we know what Hercule Poirot and Ariadne Oliver know, except for one instance, where he goes "off stage" as it were, and makes an arrangement with regard to Norma Restorick that we find out about only later. Ariadne Oliver becomes our mouthpiece when she reproves HP for not telling her what he's done.

Despite that, THE THIRD GIRL is an excellent read, written when Agatha Christie was 76.
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LibraryThing member nohablo
Not airtight, but still a nice zippy sleight-of-hand trick. Made all the better by Poirot's pearl-clutching at The Youngs and (rare) display of overt frustration. SHOW US MORE FLESH, MORE BLOOD, POIROT-BOT.
LibraryThing member mrtall
This very late Poirot novel isn't Christie's best. Poirot is visited by a discombombulated-looking girl who blurts out her belief that she's committed a murder, but then runs off. Poirot teams with Ariadne Oliver to track down both the girl, and the truth. The plot here wanders, and although Third
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Girl clocks in at just 220 pages or so, there's an uncomfortable amount of padding. Christie manages to tie it all together in her inimitable way, but there are so many other great Poirot novels I'd recommend this one only to Christie aficianados.
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LibraryThing member BookAngel_a
I have mixed feelings about this book. The plot was pretty complex and hard to figure out, and I was surprised by the ending, all of which I love. I enjoy most Christie novels because they are "cozy" mysteries. However, this one was not so cozy. Usually the people in her books act very differently
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from people today. They act like ladies and gentlemen, with old fashioned manners and style of dress, and are concerned about things like honor and reputation. This novel dealt with young people doing drugs, having affairs, and dressing in the grunge style, and there was a bit of espionage. So while it was entertaining, it was not much of an escape for me.
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LibraryThing member AmphipodGirl
An aging, dithering Christie, writing about an aging, dithering Poirot. She's trying to throw in all sorts of "modern" stuff -- psychiatry and drugs -- and she's out of her depth. He's stitting around and missing connections. I didn't enjoy this one much.
LibraryThing member riverwillow
Poirot's breakfast is interrupted one morning by a young girl who thinks she has committed a murder - she then runs away because Poirot is too old to understand. This book is clearly set in the early 60s with the beatnicks and the 'peacocks' and the generation gap. But Poirot, ably assisted by Mrs
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Oliver, sets out to discover just who this girl is and just who she might have murdered. Interesting plot where once again Christie explores one of her main theme of identity - to say any more would give the plot away.
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LibraryThing member Figgles
Although some of the loose ends don't bear thinking about this is an enjoyable romp through swinging London with Herculre Poirot and Ariadne Oliver. Christie is playful with putting her pre-war detective into a modern world - "you're too old" from the third girl of the title opens the novel, but by
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the end Poirots knowledge of the universality of human nature wins through. MUCH better than the butchered TV version.
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LibraryThing member mstrust
It's the mid-sixties and girls have become so independent these days. Young Norma has a flashy boyfriend her father and stepmother don't approve of, but as Norma is rarely under their roof, there isn't a lot they can do about it. Norma has moved into a London flat with two other girls, oh, and she
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has bouts of forgetfulness where she ends up in possession of a weapon of some kind or other and can't recall what has occurred. Must be all those drugs.

Christie has created a complex mystery here for Poirot, along with mystery writing friend Mrs. Oliver, to figure out. It's difficult for two reasons: no one is sure if there has been a crime committed until well into the story and this is one of the few books in which Christie doesn't give the reader pertinent information until the crime is solved. Still a good read, but hearing Poirot talking about mods or rockers and counter-culture drugs is sort of...weird?
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LibraryThing member charlie68
An average mystery but with an above average writer. A book I had actually read before but hadnt realized it.
LibraryThing member ForeignCircus
I've been a Christie fan since 8th grade and have read them all so many times that I always remember whodunit. Nevertheless, I find them a relaxing and enjoyable read when I'm taking a break from more weighty fiction.

This book features two of my favorites- Hercules Poirot and Ariadne Oliver. When a
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young girl comes to see Poirot and confesses she might have committed a murder before running out claiming he was too old to help her, Poirot is on the case. As he tracks down the identity of the girl and searches for a death that might fit the bill, Mrs. Oliver add bits and pieces of important information that help him solve the case. The final solution is one I never saw coming (the first time I read the book at least)- a very satisfying mystery indeed!
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LibraryThing member CasaBooks
Poirot !
Enough said.
Love this lil Belgian man.
Read in 2008.
LibraryThing member RubyScarlett
Not one of her best for sure, it felt so all over the place! I enjoyed, in a masochistic kind of way I suppose, the constant reminder that the profession of detective is falling into oblivion by the time she writes this (the late 60s) and that probably means that Poirot is going to have to let go
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at some point. It was interesting to think about the decline of the profession and of Poirot's reputation (nobody from the younger generation has heard of him in this book, and he's described as 'old' by a younger character) but it made me really sad. I'm not sure I want to reach the end.
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LibraryThing member smik
I knew all along that I had read THIRD GIRL more than once before.
I thought perhaps my familiarity came from seeing the TV version and wasn't too clear how that differed from the book.

And then I discovered that nearly 4 years ago I had listened to
an audio version which I had much enjoyed.

For of
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course, what sticks in the mind, is that this is the story where the girl who comes to consult Hercule Poirot tells him that he is "too old".
That really gets under his skin because he thinks his little grey cells are ageless even if his body is showing rather a lot of wear and tear.
This leads the reader into all sorts of useless calculations about how old Poirot really is. He made his first appearance in 1920 (THE MYSTERIOUS AFFAIR AT STYLES) as a retired, evacuated Belgian police detective. 40+ years on he has to be approaching 100 if not more. Charles Osborne, in an article about THIRD GIRL, suggest we are meant to see Poirot as about 80.

Despite the era change by the television producers this is a book set firmly in the Swinging Sixties. Girls are much less bound to parents and home than they used to be, as shown by these young things sharing a London flat, and living in an unsupervised fashion. So once again here is Agatha Christie reflecting social and economic change in English society.
And of course, there is a little romantic match-making by Poirot which almost escapes notice.

And is Ariadne Oliver a reflection of Christie herself? She is much younger than Christie was at the time of writing the book (76), as well as a bit more impulsive and scatter-brained than I imagine Christie to be. But she does a lot of research for her books and obviously has a fertile imagination.

Critics have written that Christie shows signs of Alzheimer's in her last novels, but I saw no signs of it here.

And this is by no means the last Poirot novel.
Christie will publish another 9 titles, by my calculation, and 4 of them will feature Hercule Poirot.
HALLOWE'EN PARTY (1969)
ELEPHANTS CAN REMEMBER (1972)
POIROT'S EARLY CASES (1974, short stories)
CURTAIN (written about 1940, published 1975)

In reality ELEPHANTS CAN REMEMBER will be the last novel she will write featuring her little Belgian sleuth, and POSTERN OF FATE (featuring Tommy and Tuppence) published in 1973 will be her last novel.
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LibraryThing member FMRox
Intriguing Christie mystery with Inspector Poirot investigating. Good plot. I liked the ending. It seems cocky Poirot got put in his place a little.
LibraryThing member JohnGrant1

I've never been much of a fan of Agatha Christie's work; this means that, unlike the case with most of her mystery-writing contemporaries, there are still quite a few of her books I haven't read. So, every once in a while, I treat myself to what would be a trip down Memory Lane were it not for the
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fact that, never having read the novel before, I don't have the memory in the first place.

Third Girl is one of the later Poirot novels; as soon as I spotted the copyright date I knew not to expect too much, in that by this stage Christie was not as fully in command of all things as once she might have been (note my polished tact), and it seems that no one at Collins, her longstanding publisher, quite had the courage to tell her so. In fact, I noted only a single out-and-out plot howler (in one chapter Poirot recalls doing something that the preceding chapter's description tells us quite explicitly he did not do) and it doesn't impact anything else in the plot so doesn't matter. I think it was in At Bertram's Hotel, another late-order Christie novel, that one of these little forgetful glitches made the triumphantly revealed solution to the mystery in fact impossible. Third Girl, mercifully, doesn't suffer that problem; what it does suffer is a solution that depends on such a staggering implausibility as to leave one dumbstruck. No one expects Golden Age mysteries to bear more than a passing resemblance to real life; but at the same time you don't expect to be asked to accept something that quite simply couldn't happen in the world. In this instance, the artifice is that a young woman -- the "third girl" of the title -- has not noticed over a period of months that one of her two flatmates, both of them supposedly about her own age, is actually her hated stepmother with a wig on.

Some of the events along the path that leads to this calamitous revelation are entertaining in a slight way, so the couple of days I spent with the book weren't entirely wasted. Hm. I'm probably just saying that because this is supposed to be the season of good will . . .
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LibraryThing member Coffeehag
This was not my favorite mystery by Agatha Christie. Poirot seemed to behave uncharacteristically, or not with his usual panache. It did have quite an interesting ending, and I was only partially correct in the conclusions I had come to by the end of the narrative.
LibraryThing member Auntie-Nanuuq
I really did like it, up until the next to last chapter when M. Poirot was sitting in his chair "thinking"... That was boring as Christie liked to confuse her readers w/ Red Herrings.

A young woman, Norma, is sharing a flat with two others, she is commonly known as "the third girl"... Her father has
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recently returned from South Africa w/ his new & younger wife, who has had mysterious bouts of gastritis whenever Norma visits.

Norma is suffering from "madness" and delusions and goes to visit M. Poirot, saying that she believes that she has committed a murder, but abruptly leaves telling M. Poirot, that he is "too old" to help her.

M. Poirot cadges an invitation to meet Norma's family via Mrs. Ariadne Oliver, who then also becomes involved in the mystery....

Added into the mix is Norma's great uncle, who is known to M. Poirot from sensitive war "business" and may be missing some very important historical documents, the Uncle's secretary, Norma's boyfriend, Norma's two flat mates, & the upstairs neighbor who has fallen from her balcony to her death.....

I caught on to a good part of the mystery & who done it. I didn't like or dislike the characters, but this was a good steady read.
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LibraryThing member ashleytylerjohn
Terrific, and a lovely break from the book before it (I put down, metaphorically, an audiobook version of Gallows Court which I did not care for, largely because of the narrator, actually, and picked up, metaphorically, an audiobook version of Third Girl with such a good narrator that I'm seeking
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out his other work—he seems to specialize in Christie).

And I'm partial to Ariadne Oliver, so anything she shows up in is an extra treat. The attempt at modernity didn't bother me (it seemed apt, for the time period—youth were certainly openly trying drugs, and dressing in their own fashions, instead of aping the look of their elders). But mostly it just flowed, and breathed, and I wondered what happened next throughout (or what had happened, it's a mystery after all)—it held my interest—I was close to the solution by the end, but had only worked out about 1/3 of it, so there were still surprising payoffs.

(I've only actually guessed fully right on a Christie novel once before, out of about 80, so even randomly you'd think I'd do better. She has wonderful misdirection).

And I'd thought I'd read every single thing she'd written (save the romances), but I'm pretty sure this was new to me. Not one character or incident tweaked a memory. So it was a delight to get to gobble up a new Christie, after so long!

(Note: 5 stars = amazing, wonderful, 4 = very good book, 3 = decent read, 2 = disappointing, 1 = awful, just awful. I'm fairly good at picking for myself so end up with a lot of 4s).
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LibraryThing member MissBrangwen
I love Poirot novels, but this one has been a chore to read. I persevered because it's my goal to read all the Agatha Christie mysteries, and I still wanted to see the solution to the case, but apart from that, it was a pain. It feels weird to give such a harsh judgement because usually I give high
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ratings - I think I'm quite selective about what I read and what I expect, and rate accordingly - but this one just had too many aspects getting on my nerves.
- Ariadne Oliver: I know many people like her, but she's just not a character I enjoy reading about. Just too much of a female caricature.
- The storytelling: It was just rambling. It was dragging most of the time, it was not coherent, and every time when I thought the pace would get better and the case would finally pick up, the next chapter was about something completely different and slowing down again. Frustrating!
- Sexism: The portrayal of women in this novel made me angry. I know that there are questionable characterizations in many Agatha Christie stories, and usually I put up with them as the Zeitgeist of their time, but this was just too much. Describing every woman who does not act as is expected of her as hysterical? To write about suicide as something unavoidable if a woman leads her life in a certain way? To write lightheartedly about mental illnesses, drugs, psychological problems, and judge every single woman very severely regarding her appearance and her manner? Not ok!
And likewise, it is mentioned several times that it's not possible to distinguish young men from women anymore because they have shoulder-length hair and wear colors now. Seriously??
- The case itself: While I thought that the original premise was interesting and new - a young woman visiting Poirot because she thinks she has murdered someone, but isn't sure of it - the development of the case and the final solution just felt like a mix of previous cases, it was rather predictable after a certain point and I felt like I had seen it all before.
The case still did interest me from time to time and there were some chapters that were a little more exciting, so that is what the one and a half stars are for. But, it's safe to say that I'm not a fan of the later Poirot novels. I really prefer the classic ones, taking place in a village or a country house. This just had too much negative energy and I'm not reading these kinds of mysteries for that.
Of course I'll go on with my project of reading all the Agatha Christies, but next time I'm reading a late one, I'll know to be a bit more cautious about what to expect from it.
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LibraryThing member leslie.98
Feb. 2021 reread:
While the basis of the plot was ingenious, Christie's comments about life in the mid-1960s England felt dated and, to be frank, somewhat of the disgruntled elder who disliked the culture & attitudes of the youth of the time. But on the plus side, I always enjoy when Ariadne Oliver
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is a major character.
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LibraryThing member witchyrichy
Third Girl by Agatha Christie comes late in the Hercule Poirot mysteries, published in 1966. I borrowed it from the library to meet the Bingo card entry for switched/stolen identities. Despite knowing the mystery hinged on that feature, I didn't figure it out. It was an interesting mystery as the
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actual murder isn't revealed until very late in the book and, even then, seems like hearsay. I think the most interesting part is that Christie features the clash between generations that was so important in the 1960s as part of the mystery itself. Poirot is his typical self and the mystery includes his sometimes-sidekick Ariadne Oliver. A good read that surprised me in the end.
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LibraryThing member leslie.98
Feb. 2021 reread:
While the basis of the plot was ingenious, Christie's comments about life in the mid-1960s England felt dated and, to be frank, somewhat of the disgruntled elder who disliked the culture & attitudes of the youth of the time. But on the plus side, I always enjoy when Ariadne Oliver
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is a major character.
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LibraryThing member troymcc
Agatha Christie's mysteries often do strange things with the plotline, and this one did too. At first, it wasn't even clear if a murder had been committed! The resolution also had some fun twists I never saw coming.
LibraryThing member delphimo
A delightful return to the antics of Hercule Poirot and his interest in love. A neurotic young girl visits Poirot and states that she may have murdered someone. The young lady, Norma Restarick, then quickly leaves Poirot’s home. Through many twists and turns, and with the aid of Ariadne Oliver,
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Poirot finds and rescues Norma. Many wicked events transpire before the mystery unfolds. What a mystery! This reader never reveals the sordid details, you must read the book yourself. Agatha Christie shines with her description of characters and setting. The ending runs the gamut of surprises and false identities, so much like Shakespeare. Of course, with Hercule Poirot, the ending always seems to highlight a romance and forthcoming marriage.
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LibraryThing member moonshineandrosefire
From the moment he meets her, the young girl strikes Hercule Poirot as peculiar. In fact, everything about her - from her tousled appearance to her perplexed stare - seems too strange; downright abnormal to him. Yet it's her vague confession to a murder she's not even entirely sure she committed
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that really throws the little Belgian detective for a loop. In all his years, Monsieur Poirot has never encountered such an unusual child.

The mystery becomes even darker and more complicated when he finds out that the odd little duck has suddenly flown the proverbial coop. What's more: No one knows where she may have gone, nor does anyone seem to care that she's missing. So, the question is: Just what's her secret? No one's talking. But Monsieur Poirot suspects that the answer is going to be a killer...

Over the past several years, I've actually read a total of eight of Agatha Christie's books - this is the fourth book that I have read in her Hercule Poirot Series. In my opinion, this was certainly an enjoyable read for me, but still incredibly intricate and confusing in parts. This perhaps wasn't Agatha Christie's best book in my opinion, but in typical Agatha Christie style; I was completely in the dark when it came to revealing the 'who-done-it' moment in the story. Overall, I would give this book a B+!
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Language

Original language

English

Original publication date

1966-11-01
1966

Physical description

191 p.; 18.4 cm

ISBN

8755300367 / 9788755300361

Local notes

Omslag: Ikke angivet
Omslaget viser en lilla ring med et billede af en pige i
Indskannet omslag - N650U - 150 dpi
Forum Krimi, Christie, bind 59
Oversat fra engelsk "Third Girl" af Poul Ib Liebe

Side 12: .. en Ofelia uden fysisk tiltrækningskraft.

Similar in this library

Pages

191

Library's rating

Rating

(524 ratings; 3.4)

DDC/MDS

823.912
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