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The victim in Hercule Poirot's Christmas is found deranged in blood
赫丘勒·白罗的圣诞节中的受害者尸体在血泊中被发现
the murder scene is very untypical for her.
凶案现场完全不同于她的典型风格
Absolutely dripping with it.
绝对不是一个流派
But this turns out eventually just to be
然而渐渐显露出来的是
another instance of her customary trickiness.
这只是她的另一种惯常的诡计
That blood isn't at all what it first seems to be.
血完全不是起初看起来那样
And in fact the plot turns out to depend not on bloodshed,
事实上情节最终不是依靠流血
but it's upon blood lines on ancestry and the parentage.
而是血缘血统上的线索
Well bamboozling the readers' expectations is of course
让读者大感意外的无疑是
the main aim of Agatha Christie's writing.
阿加莎·克里斯蒂作品的主要目的
And also of a lots of others Golden Age writers as well.
同样，很多黄金时代的作家也是如此
With Agatha Christie's books,
阿加莎·克里斯蒂的书
I mean I think she is absolutely
我想说我认为她绝对是
she is unrivaled as an ingenious deviser of who done it.
寻凶手法上有着无比的独创性的创作者
It's very very hard to guess who the murderer is going to be
在阿加莎·克里斯蒂的小说中实在很难猜出
in Agatha Christies' novels.
谁才是凶手
And that was partly because in many cases
很多时候一部分原因在于
she hadn't the faintest idea herself as she was writing the book.
她写作的时候完全没有方案
Fairly recently her notebooks were published
最近她的记事本得以出版
and they are extraordinary.
它们非同一般
They were scribbled down into like cheap jotters
它们潦草得好像便宜的便签本
exercise books and so on.
就像练习本这样
Her ideas for plot and things are all jumbled up with
她对情节的构思以一种令人不安的方式
telephone messages and recipes in a way that is a bit disconcerting.
和电话留言记录，烹饪法等杂乱地混在一起
You know because you find things like trying strychnine in mouthwash
你懂的，因为你会发现诸如漱口水里掺士的宁
or prussic acid in smelling salt question mark.
或是在问号上发现嗅盐中掺氢氰酸
And then buy asparagus for tea.
然后买龙须菜当茶喝
So the other thing is very very surprisingly
另一件非常非常惊人的事
very surprisingly to me is that
对我来说非常惊人的事
she would often would be half way through a novel
是她往往小说写到一半
before she decided who the killer was.
心中都还没有决定凶手是谁
And I think that turned out to be terrific strength
我觉得这结果反而成了了不起的强项
because that's why you keep thinking
因为这使你不停思考
is it this person? is that person? is another person?
是这个人吗?那个人吗?还是另一个人?
She hadn't decided either you know.
连她自己都还没拿定主意呢
So you go along with that.
你只能被她牵着鼻子走
And of course she is an absolute mistress of
当然她绝对擅长于描写
fiendish cunning plotting.
邪恶而狡猾的情节
She must have used just about every possible plot per mutation
她在每个转折点肯定都用了一切可能的情节
and means of misleading her readers.
还有各种误导读者的手段
In her books the murderer may turn out to be the narrator,
在她的书中凶手最终可能是叙述者
the person who was apparently intended as the victim,
一个明显被当做被害者的家伙
the investigating policeman, even a child.
调查案件的警员，甚至可能是个孩子
In one novel, all of the suspects committed the murder together.
在一部小说中所有的嫌烦共同犯下罪行
In others, characters you barely notice
另一些小说中，你几乎注意不到元凶
because they seem not much more than walk on paths
因为他们看上去就是个路人
are actually killers.
却是真凶
So Agatha Christie sometimes sniffed for that
阿加莎·克里斯蒂有时能够嗅到这些
for producing characters who seem stereotype.
塑造看上去毫无新意的人物
But in fact I think that can be a very useful device for her purposes
但是我想这或许是她达到目的的有力武器
because the reader's mind eye glides over these characters
因为读者的思绪里忽略了这些人物
without paying too much attention to them.
没有关注他们
Because they seem just like just some stock figure in the background.
因为他们就像是背景里的群众演员
Until Poirot or Miss Marple showed,
直到白罗或是马普尔小姐出现
they have got hidden murderers depth.
他们才发现深深隐藏的凶手
