The Affair of the Second Goldfish by Ariadne Oliver

Title: The Affair of the Second Goldfish 

Author: Ariadne Oliver

Publisher: Not known 

Source book: Cards on the Table by Agatha Christie 

Mrs Ariadne Oliver is a successful mystery writer and friend of Hercule Poirot. Mrs Oliver’s detective Sven Hjerson is Finnish, and a vegetarian. She often finds him an annoying character because she knows nothing about Finland and why on earth did she decide her detective should be a Finn in the first place. I suspect she also finds his vegetarianism irritating.

Apparently Agatha Christie sometimes got very fed up with Hercule Poirot too. She found him insufferable. A detestable, bombastic, tiresome, ego-centric little creep apparently. She advised young writers to be very careful about the characters they might create in case they get stuck with them for a very long time. Obviously Ariadne Oliver didn’t follow her advice.

The Affair of the Second Goldfish appears in Cards on the Table and Mrs McGinty’s Dead. Also mentioned in Cards on the Table are The Lotus Murder, The Clue of the Candle Wax, The Body in the Library before Agatha Christie used it as a title for a Miss Marple story, and The Death in the Drainpipe.

Mrs McGinty’s Dead also mentions The Cat it was That Died, and Death of a Debutante.

The Woman in the Wood is based on Mrs Oliver’s experiences in, and is mentioned in, Dead Man’s Folly.

And finally, The Dying Goldfish is mentioned in The Hallowe’en Party.

Images borrowed from the internet