白马酒馆 (1961)

《灰马酒店》（英语：The Pale Horse）是英国作家阿加莎·克里斯蒂所著的推理小说，于1961年11月6日出版。

情节简介

一位病重的妇女戴维斯太太临死前向戈曼神父忏悔，透露了一些秘密与人名，戈曼神父将人名全部抄下，未料在返家途中惨遭杀害。警方在神父的鞋子中找到了那份名单，经逐一调查，发现名单上的人几乎都因种种疾病而去世。

另一方面，历史学家伊斯特也对此案感兴趣，他听闻住在马奇迪平村“灰马”房子的三名女巫懂得远距杀人的巫术，便怀疑她们涉及此案。于是伊斯特随即与年轻女孩金洁联手对此展开调查，最终发现之前那些被认为是“自然死亡”的死者其实是死于铊中毒。而警方也发现药房老板奥斯本先生才是幕后主谋，也是亲手杀死戈曼神父的凶手。

创作灵感

《灰马酒店》有部分灵感来自于早年曾指导克里斯蒂配药的药剂师，克里斯蒂于其自传中表示：“虽然他有一个天使的外表，我却觉得他是一个危险人物。他的印象在我记忆中保持了很久。因此当我初次想到要写我那本《灰马酒店》时，他这个人的印象仍然在等待我。”

相关影响

1972年6月，法庭在审理葛拉汉·杨使用铊毒害数人的案件时牵扯到了克里斯蒂的《灰马酒店》小说，葛拉汉·杨否认曾读过该部小说。当时有记者访问克里斯蒂，克里斯蒂说铊对推理小说家而言是“既特殊又有趣的用物”，因为它并无味道、很难被察觉到。

1976年，一位伦敦护士因读过《灰马酒店》，而正确辨识出她照顾的一位来自卡达的婴儿是铊中毒，使医生能够及时改变治疗方法、成功挽救该婴儿的性命。

改编作品

被改编为电视剧《马普尔小姐探案》第五季的第一集，其主角变成了马普尔小姐。

2020年BBC改编为迷你电视剧《The Pale Horse》亦翻译为灰马酒店。

The Pale Horse is a mystery novel by British writer Agatha Christie, first published in the UK by the Collins Crime Club on 6 November 1961, and in the US by Dodd, Mead and Company the following year. The UK edition retailed at fifteen shillings (15/- = 75p) and the US edition at $3.75. The novel features her novelist detective Ariadne Oliver as a minor character, and reflects in tone the supernatural novels of Dennis Wheatley who was then at the height of his popularity. The Pale Horse is mentioned in Revelation 6:8, where it is ridden by Death.

Plot introduction

A dying woman, Mrs Davis, gives her last confession to Father Gorman, a Roman Catholic priest, but along with her confession she gives him a list of names and a terrible secret. Before he can take action, however, he is struck dead in the fog. As the police begin to investigate, a young hero begins to piece together evidence that sets him upon a converging path.

Plot summary

In the following summary, events are not given in strict narrative order.

Mark Easterbrook, the central character of the book and its principal narrator, sees a fight between two girls in a Chelsea coffee bar, during which one pulls out some of the other's hair at the roots. Soon afterwards, he finds out that one of the girls, Thomasina Tuckerton, has died. At dinner with a friend, a woman named Poppy Stirling mentions something called the Pale Horse that arranges deaths, but is suddenly scared at having mentioned it and will say no more.

When Mark encounters the police surgeon, Corrigan, he learns of the list of surnames found in the shoe of a murdered priest called Father Gorman. The list includes the names Corrigan, Tuckerton and Hesketh-Dubois (the same name as Mark's godmother who has recently died of what appear to be natural causes). He begins to fear that the list contains the names of those who are dead or are shortly to die.

When Mark goes to a village fete, organised by his cousin, at Much Deeping, with the famous mystery writer, Ariadne Oliver, he hears about a house which has been converted from an old inn called the Pale Horse. The house is inhabited by three modern "witches", led by Thyrza Grey. Visiting houses in the area, he meets Mr Venables, a man who uses a wheelchair and has no apparent explanation for his substantial wealth.

Mark also visits the Pale Horse, and Thyrza Grey discusses with him the ability to kill at a distance, which she claims to have developed. In retrospect, it seems to Mark that she has been outlining to him a service that she would be willing to provide. As part of the police investigation, a witness, Zachariah Osborne, describes a man seen following Father Gorman shortly before the murder. Later, Osborne tells the police that he has seen the same man in a wheelchair. Even though he finds out that the man, Venables, is crippled by polio, and is incapable of standing due to the atrophy of his legs, Osborne remains certain of his identification and suggests that Venables could have faked his disability.

Mark's girlfriend, Hermia, does not take his growing fears seriously and he becomes disaffected with her. He does, however, receive support from Ariadne Oliver, and from a vicar's wife, Dane Calthrop, who wants him to stop whatever evil might be taking place. Mark also makes an ally of Katherine "Ginger" Corrigan, a girl whom he has met in the area, and who successfully draws Poppy out about the Pale Horse organisation. Ginger obtains from Poppy an address in Birmingham, where Mark meets Mr Bradley, a disbarred lawyer, who outlines the means by which the Pale Horse functions without breaking the law – that Bradley bets someone will die within a certain period of time and the client bets otherwise. If the person in question does die within that time, the client must pay. (One client who refused fell in front of an oncoming train and was killed).