Evil Under the Sun recap

Poirot holidays at a hotel on a small island off the Devon coast, where the guests are absorbed by the presence of Arlena Marshall, a former actress whose open flirtation with Patrick Redfern is watched by his quiet wife Christine, by Arlena's reserved husband Kenneth, and by his hostile teenage daughter Linda. One morning Arlena paddles off alone on a float and is found strangled on the beach at a nearby cove by Patrick and another guest rowing round the island. The medical evidence fixes the death within a narrow span in which nearly everyone can be accounted for. Poirot pursues oddities: a bath drawn by an unknown person, a bottle thrown from a window, a hidden cave, letters showing Arlena had been paying a man large sums, and Linda's dabbling in witchcraft, which leads the girl to attempt suicide in the belief that she caused the death. Poirot proves that Patrick and Christine Redfern killed Arlena together for her money, using Christine as a false corpse to falsify the time. Kenneth Marshall is cleared and turns to an old friend, Rosamund Darnley.

Poirot is on holiday at the Jolly Roger, a smart hotel on a small tidal island off the Devon coast. The other guests include the former actress Arlena Marshall, her reserved soldier husband Kenneth, and his sixteen-year-old daughter Linda; the handsome Patrick Redfern and his pale, quiet wife Christine; the London dress designer Rosamund Darnley, who has known Kenneth Marshall since childhood; the athletic Emily Brewster; the noisy boat owner Horace Blatt; the anecdotal Major Barry; the chattering Mrs Gardener and her silent husband; and the Reverend Stephen Lane, who is convinced that evil is at work among them. Arlena draws every eye and Patrick Redfern makes no attempt to conceal his infatuation with her; the pair meet openly and disappear together. Christine bears it without complaint and takes an interest in Linda, who is wretchedly unhappy and makes no secret of hating her stepmother. Kenneth Marshall refuses to discuss his marriage. Poirot, observing the tension, remarks that a place full of sunshine and quiet people is as likely a setting for wickedness as any dark alley.

On a hot morning Arlena leaves the hotel early, paddles away alone on a float, and is not seen again by the other guests. The rest scatter: Kenneth Marshall shuts himself in his room to type letters, Christine Redfern takes Linda to sunbathe at Gull Cove and then goes off to play tennis, Rosamund Darnley reads on the cliff, and Blatt sails. Patrick Redfern, who has been prevented from meeting Arlena, rows round the island with Emily Brewster to Pixy Cove, a small beach reachable easily only by sea. There they find Arlena lying face down on the shingle, strangled. Redfern stays with the body while Emily Brewster takes the boat for help, and the hotel is turned over to the police.

Colonel Weston, the Chief Constable, and Inspector Colgate begin the investigation with Poirot's help. The police surgeon puts the death at about a quarter to twelve, which is inconvenient for everyone, because that hour is covered. Kenneth Marshall was heard typing, Christine Redfern was with Linda and then on the tennis court, Patrick Redfern was in a boat with Emily Brewster, and the remaining guests can vouch for one another. Marshall is the obvious suspect on motive, since his wife's affair was public, but the times do not fit. A search of Arlena's room turns up letters showing that she had been giving large sums of money to a man she had been meeting secretly and who had been threatening her, and part of that money is missing.

Odd details accumulate. Somebody drew a bath at the hotel that no guest will admit to taking. A bottle was thrown out of a window overlooking the sea. There is a cave above Pixy Cove, hidden behind rocks and known to few people, showing signs of recent use. A pair of scissors and a burnt scrap of calendar are found. Poirot learns that Horace Blatt's sailing has a commercial purpose, and that Stephen Lane's preoccupation with wickedness has a history behind it. Linda Marshall is discovered to have bought candles and to have been reading about witchcraft, having made a wax image of her stepmother and destroyed it in the belief that it would do her harm. The police remain fixed on the problem of the timetable, in which no one who wanted Arlena dead could have been at Pixy Cove when she died.

Linda, convinced that she has killed her stepmother by witchcraft and terrified of what she believes she has done, takes an overdose of sleeping tablets and is found in time and saved. Her written confession is nothing of the kind, and Poirot recognises that a child's guilt has been deliberately encouraged. He turns back to the times and to the small physical facts nobody could explain: the bath, the missing money, the cave, and the exact minutes each witness has sworn to. Rather than asking who had the opportunity, he begins to ask whether the hour of death itself has been correctly established, and arranges a practical test of the morning's movements on the water and on the two beaches.

Poirot explains that Patrick and Christine Redfern murdered Arlena Marshall together and had worked the same method before on another victim. Patrick lived by attaching himself to rich women, and Arlena had been giving him large sums, half in love and half under threat. The alibis were manufactured. Christine went down to Pixy Cove in advance, her skin darkened and her face hidden by a hat, and lay on the beach as though dead, so that when Patrick rowed round with Emily Brewster as an unimpeachable witness the discovery of the body appeared to happen at a time when he could not have committed the murder. Emily Brewster went for help; Christine slipped away, washed off the false tan in a bath at the hotel, and threw the bottle from her window; and Patrick fetched Arlena out of the hidden cave, where he had persuaded her to conceal herself, strangled her, and laid her in the place the false body had occupied. Christine had also moved the hands of Linda's watch to cover her own absence, and she had fed the girl's belief in witchcraft to have a suspect ready. Blatt's smuggling and Lane's history prove irrelevant. Linda recovers, Marshall is cleared, and he and Rosamund Darnley agree to marry.

Poirot shows that Patrick and Christine Redfern committed the murder together, and that they are not the mismatched pair they appeared to be but partners who had worked the same scheme before, on a woman killed some years earlier. Patrick made a profession of courting rich women and taking their money; Arlena had been giving him large sums, believing herself in love and being quietly blackmailed as well. The timetable that protected them was manufactured. Christine went down to Pixy Cove ahead of the discovery, wearing a hat and with her white skin darkened, and lay on the beach in Arlena's place so that Patrick, rowing round with Emily Brewster as his witness, could point out a body that was still alive. While Emily went for the police, Christine slipped away and Patrick brought the real Arlena out of the cave where she had been persuaded to hide, killed her, and left her exactly where the false body had lain. Christine had also altered the time on Linda Marshall's watch to cover her own movements, and washed off the darkened skin in a bath at the hotel. Linda's wax figure and her attempt on her own life were unconnected with the crime, and she is saved and cleared of the guilt she had taken on herself. Horace Blatt's business on the island proves to be smuggling rather than murder. Kenneth Marshall is left free, and he and Rosamund Darnley come to an understanding.