Agatha Christie--The Seven Deadly Sins

 I had never heard of this before, but recently ran across a reference to the theme of the Seven Deadly Sins in some of Agatha Christie's mystery novels.  The sins, in order of appearance are Pride, Lust, Wrath, Sloth, Envy, Gluttony and Avarice.  The novels that portray these sins are The ABC Murders, Evil Under the Sun, Five Little Pigs (Murder in Retrospect), Sparkling Cyanide (Remembered Death), A Murder Is Announced, At Bertram's Hotel, and Endless Night.

I'm not sure I agree that these particular books represent each sin attributed to it, so I'll try to remember to examine each one as I read it with that in mind.  

I guess I could agree that Pride plays an important role in The ABC Murders.  The murderer is so suffused with pride in his own abilities and a xenophobic contempt for anyone not British, that it leads him to challenge Poirot publicly to catch him and continues to taunt him throughout the book.  

The next sin, Lust, is embodied by the murder victim, a beautiful woman who will stop at nothing in the pursuit of the object of her lust in Evil Under the Sun.

Five Little Pigs is the vehicle for Wrath, although the use of poison seems unusual; you might expect Wrath to express itself with a sudden, impulsive or violent action, rather than a more calculating one such as the use of poison.  

Sloth is supposed to be the sin of Sparkling Cyanide (alternate title:  Remembered Death).  That one is kind of a stretch, although Christie does give sufficient clues to the solution.  

Envy is the deadly sin of A Murder Is Announced.  I think I can agree with this one; years of thwarted ambition could make the murderer envious of someone who was able to exercise their talents to achieve their ambitions, particularly when there is a huge amount of money at stake.

The sin At Bertram's Hotel is Gluttony, although not illustrated in quite the usual context of food that gluttony usually occurs.  

I think I stuck with Endless Night long enough to agree that it's fair to say that Avarice is the sin illustrated there.