Death in the Clouds by Agatha Christie

"ロンドン・パリ定期航空便の中でさる高利貸の女性が急死した。スズメ蜂もいたので刺され、ショック死したかと思われたが、かたわらに吹矢の毒針が居合わせたポワローによって発見されると、事故から事件に物語は急転する。飛行機内という密室、犯人は乗客の誰か、というクリスティーさんお得意の密室殺人事件、犯人はこの中にいる！！の展開だ。1935年刊だから丁度クリスティーさんの円熟期で傑作（オリエント急行殺人事件、ABC殺人事件、ナイル川殺人事件、等）が前後していた時期で、本作品も何重にもひねった犯罪の秘密が最後に明かされてあっと息をのむ展開になっている。思いもかけない犯人なのだが、それはよいとしても、中間の展開が少し勢い不足なのと、red herringが少しやりすぎで.... 混乱してしまった恨みもあって、星一つ減です..."

"Published in 1935, this "locked room" mystery takes place in a commercial plane flying between Paris and Croydon airport. A French woman is found poisoned, and an incongruous blowpipe smeared with snake venom is found stuffed down the side of Hercule Poirot's seat. Needless to say, all is not as it seems, and where does the wasp fit in? The usual varied cast of Christie archetypes are present: the objectionable aristocrat; the earnest young man; the plucky young lady he is in love with; and so on. Also present are two French archaeologists - this was in the early years of Christie's marriage to her second husband, middle East archaeologist Max Mallowan. A Christie tour de force this, very intricately and tightly plotted, almost an exercise in analysis as much as a novel - it should be as well known as some of her others such as Murder on the Orient Express or Death on the Nile, but has only ever been adapted for the screen once, as part of the David Suchet Poirot series ...."

언제 읽었는지 또는 보았는지 기억도 없는 책이었다. 읽다 보니 익숙한 이야기라는 것을 알 수 있었다. 익숙함의 이유는 정말로 읽었을 수도 있고 아니면 비슷한 내용의 다른 작가의 작품을 보거나 읽었을 수도 있다. 추리 미스터리 장르에서 잘 이용되는 '밀실'이라는 요소가 이 작품의 중요한 부분이라 신선함이 없어 보이지만 사실 이 작품은 출판된 시대를 넘어서 상당히 재밌는 작품이다. 그리고 다른 작가들의 작품들에게도 영향을 많이 준 작품인 거 같다. 영어 문장도 읽기에 무난한 거 같다.