"The Sleeping Murderer" by Agatha Christie, summary Automatic translate

Gwenda Reed, a young woman of twenty-one, arrives in England from New Zealand. She has recently married Giles Reed, who is due to join her later. At his suggestion, Gwenda sets out to find a house where they can settle down. Miss Marple, with her insight and knowledge of human nature, serves as a contrast to the young and impulsive Reeds. Her methodical approach to investigation, based on observation and analysis, contrasts with Gwenda’s emotional reactions and Giles’s enthusiasm.

After a short search, Gwenda finds a Victorian villa called Hillside in the seaside town of Dilmouth. The house immediately feels familiar and at home. While touring the house with Mrs. Hengrave, the current owner, Gwenda has the strange feeling that she already knows the layout of the rooms and the features of the house.

Having bought the house, Gwenda begins to decorate it. She insists on restoring the garden path in a certain place, although she cannot explain why. It later turns out that the path was indeed there before. Likewise, she intuitively knows about the existence of a walled-up door between the living room and dining room. When workmen open the locked cupboard in her room, Gwenda discovers wallpaper with a pattern of poppies and cornflowers - exactly as she had imagined for this room.

These unexplained coincidences frighten Gwenda, who begins to fear that she either has paranormal powers or is losing her mind.

Vision in the theatre

Gwenda goes to London, where she stays with her husband’s relatives, Raymond and Joan West. They invite her to the theater to see the play "The Duchess of Malfi". During the performance, hearing the phrase "Cover her face. I can’t see. She died young…", Gwenda experiences a severe shock. She sees a woman with golden hair lying dead in the hall of "Hillside", and men’s hands that look like monkey paws. She instinctively calls the murdered woman Helen.

Miss Marple, Raymond West’s aunt, helps calm Gwenda and offers a rational explanation: Gwenda probably lived in the house as a child and witnessed a real murder. Gwenda sends a letter to her aunt in New Zealand and receives confirmation: her father, Major Holiday, did indeed bring her to England after her mother’s death, remarried, and lived for a time in Dilmouth before sending his daughter to relatives in New Zealand.

The investigation begins

When Giles joins Gwenda, they decide to find out what happened all those years ago. Despite Miss Marple’s warnings, the couple begins their investigation. They learn that the house was formerly called St. Catherine’s and was rented by Gwenda’s father.

The couple places newspaper ads to try to find information about Helen Spenlove and receive a response from Dr. James Kennedy, who introduces himself as Helen’s brother. During a visit to him, Gwenda learns that she had indeed lived at Hillside with her father and his second wife, Helen. Dr. Kennedy reveals that Helen ran away with her lover less than a year after their wedding, leaving a note.

Later, Dr. Kennedy visits the Reeds and reveals disturbing information: Gwenda’s father suffered from an obsession with strangling his wife, although in reality she had escaped. He voluntarily committed himself to a psychiatric hospital, where he committed suicide two years later. Dr. Kennedy claims to have received two letters from his sister after her disappearance, confirming that she was alive.

Delving deeper into the mystery

Giles and Gwenda visit Saltmarsh House, where Gwenda’s father died. Dr. Penrose confirms Kennedy’s story and gives Gwenda her father’s diary. The entries reveal that Calvin Holiday was convinced that Helen was dead, despite all evidence to the contrary. He wrote of strange nightmares and suspected that Helen had been drugging him.

Miss Marple, meanwhile, also arrives in Dilmouth, ostensibly to improve her health, and begins her own investigation, questioning the locals.

Contradictions and hypotheses

Giles points out the inconsistencies in the story: if Calvin Holiday really did kill Helen, why did he immediately run to Dr. Kennedy to confess? And where did the body go? Why did he claim to have killed her in the bedroom if Gwenda had seen the body in the hall?

Giles hypothesizes that perhaps Holiday did attack Helen in a fit of jealousy, but only knocked her unconscious. While he was running after Dr. Kennedy, Helen regained consciousness and ran off with her lover. This would explain both the missing body and the subsequent letters.

However, Gwenda is convinced that she saw a dead woman. The couple understands that there must be another participant in this story - someone "X", whose presence has not yet been detected.

Gwenda begins to fear that her father really was the killer, while Giles believes that there are too many inconsistencies in the case and insists on continuing the investigation.

New discoveries

Miss Marple, asking locals, learns about the Fane family. Walter Fane, the son of a local lawyer, was in love with Helen even before her marriage to Holiday. She even intended to marry him, but then changed her mind.

Calvin Holiday’s diary makes it clear that he suspected his wife of infidelity and believed she was drugging him. He wrote of "another man she was afraid of."

The Reeds and Miss Marple gradually come to the conclusion that there is someone else involved in this story - a person who could have a motive for killing Helen and the ability to fabricate evidence of her escape.

Final conclusions

The investigation continues, and the heroes are faced with more and more questions. Who was this "other man" in Helen’s life? Why was Calvin Holiday so sure that he killed his wife if the body disappeared? Who sent letters on behalf of Helen after her supposed disappearance?

Miss Marple, using her experience and intuition, gradually assembles the pieces of the puzzle. She realizes that the key to the solution may lie in Helen’s past and her relationships with people in Dilmouth.

Gwenda and Giles, despite the disturbing discoveries and fear of the possible truth, decide to see the investigation through to the end. They understand that only by finding out the whole truth about the past, they will be able to live peacefully in their new home.

The story remains unfinished, leaving the reader in suspense and anticipation of the solution to the mystery of the "sleeping killer" - someone who may have committed the crime many years ago and still remains uncaught.

Psychological aspects

The novel explores the theme of memory and its unreliability. Gwenda cannot fully trust her memories due to their fragmentary nature and the fact that they relate to early childhood. Calvin Holiday also suffered from a distorted perception of reality, possibly caused by drugs or psychological trauma.

The theme of marital fidelity and jealousy runs through the novel. Calvin and Helen’s relationship appears to have been complex and tense. His suspicions of her infidelity may have been justified or paranoid - it remains unclear.

The novel also touches on the theme of guilt and its destructive impact on the psyche. Calvin Holiday was so convinced of his guilt that he chose suicide rather than live with this burden.

Agatha Christie masterfully creates an atmosphere of mystery and tension. The Hillside House becomes an almost living character in the novel, the keeper of the secrets of the past. The author skillfully intertwines the past and the present, gradually revealing fragments of the puzzle to the reader.