Agatha Christie's 'The Pale Horse' Jettisons Plot For Black Magic

When Agatha Christie's Poirot finally finished its run in 2013, it was a watershed moment, as British TV struggled to figure out how to continue to tap into one of its most celebrated (and prolific) writers, following the conclusion of such a genre-defining series. The eventual decision was to go with Sarah Phelps, writer of such adaptations as The Casual Vacancy by J.K. Rowling, and literary-themed shows like Dickensian. The Pale Horse is Phelp's fourth turn with Christie, following 2016's The Witness for the Prosecution, 2018's Ordeal by Innocence and last year's The A.B.C. Murders. And like her previous works, it takes Christie in new directions, using the story less as a mandate and more as a jumping-off point.

Except for The A.B.C. Murders, Phelps has stayed away from any of Christie's familiars. (And her take on Poirot last year was quite different than any seen before.) The Pale Horse follows this trend. It's one of Christie's lesser adapted puzzlebox creations, one that technically doesn't have a professional detective outside the policeman assigned to the case, Inspector Lejeune. In the novel, most of the legwork is done by a historian who gets caught up in the case, Mark Easterbrook. Easterbrook accidentally witnesses the death of one of the victims and then finds himself involved when a list of names is located in the shoe of a recently deceased priest includes his godmother, who also recently passed.

What made The Pale Horse one of Christie's more notable works is that Easterbrook is helped along by Christie herself, in avatar form as Ariadne Oliver. Early on, he visits this celebrated mystery writer for advice. Oliver is the one who points him not just in the direction of the inn known as the Pale Horse, but also toward the "three modern witches" who run the place, and whose Dark Arts may hold the key to all these deaths. She also champions Mark along whenever he seems to be in danger of faltering on his quest.