This edition published 22nd March 2018 by Harper Collins.
Originally published in 1948.
From the cover of the book:
A few weeks after marrying an attractive young widow, Gordon Cloade is tragically killed by a bomb blast in the London blitz. Overnight, the former Mrs Underhay finds herself in sole possession of the Cloade family fortune.
Shortly afterwards, Hercule Poirot receives a visit from the dead man’s sister-in-law who claims she has been warned by ‘spirits’ that Mrs Underhay’s first husband is still alive.
Poirot has his suspicions when he is asked to find a missing person guided only by the spirit world. Yet what mystifies Poirot most is the woman’s true motive for approaching him…
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Shortly after World War II, Poirot is visited by a member of the Cloade family, who wants to employ him to investigate the truth behind a message she claims to have received from the spirit world. Her spiritual guide insists that her very wealthy brother-in-law, Gordon Cloade, who died during a bombing raid, entered into a bigamous marriage with young Rosaleen Underhay, because her first husband was still alive. If true, this would mean that his sizeable fortune would go to his impoverished family, rather than his undeserving 'widow'.
While he is unconvinced about the veracity of her statement, it does put him in mind of a conversation he heard while he was sheltering from an air raid during the Blitz. This also suggested that Gordon Cloade's wife was still married to a Mr Underhay, despite believing him to be dead - and that he might one day reappear using the name Enoch Arden. Poirot is intrigued.
The plot thickens when a man calling himself Enoch Arden arrives in the village of Warmsley Vale, where the Cloade family reside in genteel poverty, and the now extremely rich Rosaleen Cloade lives in an impressive modern house. Rosaleen shares her ivory tower with her over-protective brother, David Hunter, who has persuaded her to keep the Cloade family at arm's length - something they vehemently despise him for.
Enoch Arden has information for sale to the highest bidder, but when he is brutally murdered the truth of his identity and why he was here are very difficult to establish. The conflicting stories of the Cloades, David Hunter, and the young widow Rosaleen make this a tricky investigation for the police, but Poirot is not fooled...
Agatha Christie is well known for her dastardly twisty plots, and quite rightly so, but it often goes unremarked that these only work so well because of her skill in writing characters which such lovely depth. And this, dear readers, is a fine example of one of her mysteries that is all about what lies within the dark hearts of her characters, and how this motivates their behaviour.
Here, Christie sets a young widow and her charismatic brother, now living the kind of life-style they could never have imagined, against the grasping and indignant family of Gordon Cloade. This makes for fertile ground in the murder stakes, and more than one death will be under investigation before the tale is is over.
The cast is quite delicious, comprising Gordon's eccentric and disgruntled nearest and dearest - brothers, sister, sister-in-laws, niece, and nephew. They are all united in their hatred of David Hunter, and the wish that Rosaleen should expire, and their varying beliefs of what counts as fair in love and war make them all great suspects for murder. While Rosaleen herself seems emotionally vulnerable and weighed down by unknown troubles, her devil-may-care brother makes a likely candidate as a killer too - particularly given his propensity for snubbing his nose at authority, and inserting himself in the romantic affairs of Gordon's restless niece, ex-Wren Lynn Marchmont and staid nephew, farmer Rowley Cloade, who have an engagement of longstanding.
The twists and turns come thick and fast in this story, driven by deception and the revealing 'psychologies' of the characters that Poirot ferrets out to the bemusement of the police, and their motivations are not just fuelled by their love of money, but also very much by the post-war setting, which I really enjoyed. This is true of so many of the characters in the story, but particularly pertinent when of comes to David 'bad boy' Hunter, who has the perfect personality for wartime heroics, but is greatly at odds with peacetime life; the tightly-bound Rowley Cloade, who has an enormous chip on his shoulder about not having fought for his country; and flighty Lynn Marchmont, who has seen excitement during the war, and longs for the dangerous arms of David, rather than the boring stay-at-home Rowley. Christie shows real insight in delving into how time and place affects these characters alongside powerful emotions, and the wealth of social history she explores is wonderful.
This is my first time reading Taken at the Flood and I loved everything about it, apart from the decision making of Lynn Marchmont in the dying throes of the story, which was a bit bizarre to my mind - it is one of the fascinating things about this book that make it one you can really get your teeth into though. Lots to talk about!
Taken at the Flood was my July choice for #ReadChristie2024, as a book written by her during the 1940s/1950s and I listened to the excellent audio book narrated by my favourite, Hugh Fraser.
Next up, the 1950s scorcher A Murder is Announced, featuring Miss Marple!
Taken at the Flood is available to buy now in multiple formats.
About the author:
Agatha Christie is known throughout the world as the Queen of Crime. Her books have sold over a billion copies in English with another billion in over 70 foreign languages. She is the most widely published author of all time and in any language, outsold only by the Bible and Shakespeare. She is the author of 80 crime novels and short story collections, 20 plays, and six novels written under the name of Mary Westmacott.
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