Hello food lovers and crime readers!   Today we have not only an Appointment with Death but also a meeting with an Admiral!  An Admiral Highball that is! As mentioned in my previous post on Manakish, there is no food mentioned in Agatha’s Appointment with Death.  There is however a mention of the cocktail called a Highball. I searched through my cocktail recipes and decided that an Admiral Highball would be my drink of choice for this book.

Why you ask?  Well…Admiral Highball sounds like he might be a character in a Golden Age murder mystery.  Or one of the potential murderers in a game of Cluedo.  “It was Admiral Highball in the boatshed with a fishing rod” sounds almost too good to be made up!  More importantly, though, the Admiral Highball contains bourbon and I thought that was a nice nod to the American Boynton family who feature in this story!

Also, welcome to the RFFMT family, the gorgeous Carmen Vaseranda!  She’ll be popping in now and again to give her verdict on fruity concoctions. She is an absolute beauty isn’t she?

Appointment with Death – The Plot

You know how sometimes you may feel your mother is a little overbearing and/or demanding?  I hear you.  But believe me.  None of our collective issues prepares us for Mrs. Boynton. She’s Flowers in the Attic level mad in her control over her family! Formerly a prison warden, Mrs. B treats her adult children like her former prisoners!  Their touring party consists of her adopted adult children Raymond, Carol, Lennox, her own daughter Ginevra, and Raymond’s wife Nadine.

They are all somewhat psychologically scarred by their years under their mother’s control – some more than others.  Then Mrs Boyton is found dead.  She was taking medication for a heart condition so was her passing from natural causes?  Or something more sinister? 

We have

• Poirot overhearing the following words through an open window on his first night in Jerusalem.  “You do see, don’t you, that’s she’s got to be killed?”
• Raymond Boynton catching feelings for Dr. Sarah King, a member of their travelling party.
• Nadine on the verge of leaving Lennox due to his mother’s control over them
• Ginevra Boyton increasingly losing hold of reality
• A number of missing hypodermic needles
• Some missing digitoxin
• A tiny mark on Mrs Boynton’s wrist.  Could it be from the prick of a needle?
• Pretty much everyone lying because they think someone they love did the evil deed

It’s a tangled tale.  Good thing we have Poirot on hand to bring the wrongdoer to justice!

Appointment With Death – The Covers

This, even if I do say so my self is an amazing collection!  Three Italian and one Vietnamese for a start!  I know I always gush over the colours but each and every one of these is amazing!

Just as quck aside, you may be wondering why both my photo above and one of these pics has a Buddha when the story is set entirely in the Middle East?  Well it’s because at least once Mrs B is described as a Buddha:

“here, like an arch priestess of some forgotten cult, like a monstrous swollen female Buddha, sat Mrs Bonyton”

But none of above covers  prepares us for the mec plus ultra of covers for Appointment for Death which is, of course, the Tom Adams cover.  Just imagine you have heard the above plot points and seen the covers that came before you.  And instead of using motifs like an older, fat woman, scenes of Jordan, or a  threatening Arab (not even remotely featured in the story but back in the day apparently no one cared about casual racism) you come up with this!

Bravo and a standing ovation for Tom Adams.  I have no idea what your cover means, it bears no relevance to the script.

But I love you for creating it!!!

And hate you for giving me nightmares because of it!  I mean what the hell is that  coming out of that woman’s head?

The Recipe – Admiral Highball

My recipe for the Admiral Highball came from The Mammoth Book of Cocktails by Paul Martin

Mr Jefferson Cope took another sip of highball and went on:

“I’d like to tell you, Dr Gerard, just a little of the Boynton family history”

Appointment with Death – Agatha Christie

Links to The Christieverse

I was able to find three references to other books in Appointment with Death:

• Colonel Race and the Shaitana murder are mentioned by Colonel Carbury (Cards on The Table)
• Nadine speaks of Poirot’s accepting the official version of the truth in the case of the Orient Express
• Miss Pierce says she read all about the ABC Case

Other Food & Drinks Mentioned in Appointment with Death

• Coffee (twice)
• Whisky Soda (twice)
• Tea (Twice)
• Soda Water

As I said at the top – not a huge amount to choose from!

Last time I posted I was heading to Darwin, later this week I am doing a two-day work trip to Adelaide.  My reading material on the flights will be next month’s selection, Murder is Easy. Adelaide is considered the weird murder capital of Australia so goodness only knows what I’ll find there!  Actually, maybe I won’t take Murder is Easy – I don’t want to give some nutter any ideas!

Have a great week!