After the Funeral by Agatha Christie

After the Funeral

By: Agatha Christie

Number of pages: 242 (I finished the book)

 What incident or conflict does the author use to begin the story?

At the very beginning Mr. Richard Abernethie who was the head of the Abernethie family dies. He was sick for a long time and died in his sleep. Then, all of his family arrived to his funeral. Most of them have not even met each other ever before. After the funeral the family comes together to discuss Mr. Richard Abernethie's will. Mr. Richard Abernethie was a very rich man and had a very large amount of money. According to his will all of his relatives get the same amount of money. All of them were pretty happy with the amount they got and just as they were leaving Mr. Abernethie's youngest sister, Cora Lansquenet says a very strange thing, "But he was murdured wasn't he?". Cora Lansquenet was a not very smart woman so no one really payed attention to what she said because they were all sure that Mr. Abernethie died of a natural cause.

Why do you think the author chose the beginning?

I think that the author chose this beginning to make the book mysterious right away and catch the reader's attention. 

What were some of the events that created conflict in your text? What made these things happen? Why?

The first event that lead to conflict was when Cora Lanquenet said that Mr. Richard Abernethie was murdered. The next event that created conflict was when someone murdered Cora Lansquenet the day after the funeral. After that Miss Gilchrist (Cora's companion/housekeeper) receives a strange package with two names and no last names so she didn't know who the package was from. Inside the package was a wedding cake and Miss Gilchrist eats a small piece of it. Later, in the night, Miss Gilchrist feels very bad and goes to the hospital. It is found out that the cake contained poison. After that Helen Abernethie (Richard Abernethie's sister-in-law), while phone calling Mr. Entwhistle, screams and the phone drops. She was later found unconscious.

I think that what Cora said after the funeral was what made all these events happen.   

How does the author create suspense?

The author creates suspense when all these events happen one after the other. Just as one event is almost getting solved another happens as if the murderer is trying to take the attention away from the actual murder. 

Do you like the ending of this text?Why of why not? Do you think there is more to tell? If you could change the ending of the text, what would you do? Why?

Yes, because the detective (Hercule Poirot) finds out why each of the events happened and the mystery gets solved. I think that when Hercule Poirot calls the meeting with all the relatives to tell them what he figured out about the mystery, he tells them everything. If I could change the ending I wouldn't because everything is well explained and the book is ended well not just cut off.