MElle

Currently reading Agatha Christie’s Ordeal by Innocence.

 

“It’s not the guilty who matter. It’s the innocent.”

 

“If you think it over, you know, that’s always the interesting part of any murder. What the person was like who was murdered.”

 

“Beneficence does things to people. Ties ‘em up in knots. We all know what human nature’s like. Do a chap a good turn and you feel kindly towards him. You like him. But the chap who’s had the good turn done to him, does he feel so kindly to you? Does he really like you? He ought to, of course, but does he?”

 

I’m about a third of the way into the book. What shocks me the most so far is the (supposed) murder motive. I won’t give it away here, but it has to do with the quote above.

 

I learn my life’s lessons from the oddest books. Freakonomics taught me about incentives. Agatha Christie’s books taught me about the ease of murder…and the ease of cheating… That it’s hardest to commit the first murder. Subsequent murders become easier. Doesn’t this apply to cheating as well? That to a cheater, the first act of infidelity is the hardest but the guilt eventually subsides. Hence, a cheater will always be a cheater?!