Authors from James M Cain to Patricia Highsmith show how partners in crime can really bring out the worst in each other
here is a long and robust literary tradition of the crime-solving duo. Holmes and Watson. Nick and Nora Charles. Nero Wolfe and Archie Goodwin. Peter Wimsey and Harriet Vane. As a writer it’s nice to have two protagonists, if for no other reason than to have them discuss the plot together. It works particularly well if one is smarter than their sidekick and gets to explain how all the pieces fit together.
But what about the criminal duo? Where’s Moriarty’s partner? The truth is, villainous pairs, although not unheard of, are comparatively rare. I was fairly young and very impressionable when I sawon television, a film that opens with two young men murdering an acquaintance together, then hiding the body in a chest while hosting a cocktail party. Maybe it was Rope that began my fascination with the idea that two people acting together might be deadlier than one.
There are a few murderous pairs flitting around in the Agatha Christie universe. Without giving too much away about this particular book, Poirot is on holiday in Devon, which means that someone in his orbit will die. I love Christie for many reasons but one of them is her elaborately planned murders, well displayed here. And the thing about elaborate plans is that they are easier to pull off if one has a partner.
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