The Murder on the Links is a work of detective fiction by Agatha Christie, first published in the US by Dodd, Mead & Co[1][2] in March 1923, and in the UK by The Bodley Head in May of the same year.

"[4] Reviews when it was published compared Mrs Christie favourably to Arthur Conan Doyle in his Sherlock Holmes mysteries.

Poirot notes four key facts about the case: a piece of lead piping is found near the body; only three female servants were in the villa as both Renauld's son Jack and his chauffeur had been sent away; an unknown person visited the day before; and Renauld's immediate neighbour, Madame Daubreuil, had placed 200,000 francs into her bank account over recent weeks.

When Renauld's secretary, Gabriel Stonor, returns from England, he suggests blackmail, as his employer's past is a complete mystery prior to his career in South America.

Jack and his mother plan to go to South America, joined by Hastings and his Cinderella, who is revealed as Bella Duveen's twin sister Dulcie.

The review compared the methods of detection of Poirot to Sherlock Holmes and concluded favourably that the book "provides the reader with an enthralling mystery of an unusual kind".

[5] The New York Times Book Review of 25 March 1923 began, "Here is a remarkably good detective story which can be warmly commended to those who like that kind of fiction."

After detailing the set-up of the story the review continued, "The plot has peculiar complications and the reader will have to be very astute indeed if he guesses who the criminal is until the last complexity has been unravelled.

If she has not the touch of artistry which made The Speckled Band and The Hound of the Baskervilles things of real horror, she has an unusual gift of mechanical complication."

The reviewer went on to compare the novel with The Mysterious Affair at Styles, which they called "a remarkable piece of work", but warned that "it is a mistake to carry the art of bewilderment to the point of making the brain reel".

They did admit that "[n]o solution could be more surprising" and stated that the character of Poirot was "a pleasant contrast to most of his lurid competitors; and one even suspects a touch of satire in him.

"[7] Robert Barnard: "Super-complicated early whodunit, set in the northerly fringes of France so beloved of the English bankrupt.

Poirot pits his wits against a sneering sophisticate of a French policeman while Hastings lets his wander after an auburn-haired female acrobat.

[8] In a modern work of literary criticism, Christie biographer Laura Thompson writes: Murder on the Links was as different from its predecessor as that had been from Styles.

It is very French; not just in setting but in tone, which reeks of Gaston Leroux and, at times, Racine… Agatha admitted that she had written it in a "high-flown, fanciful" manner.

She had also based the book too closely upon a real-life French murder case, which gives the story a kind of non-artistic complexity.

Christie's Autobiography recounts how she objected to the illustration of the dustjacket of the UK first edition stating that it was both badly drawn and unrepresentative of the plot.

A fellow enthusiast for detective stories and to whom I am indebted for much helpful advice and criticism".Christie refers here to her first husband, Archibald Christie (1890–1962) from whom she was divorced in 1928.

Performed by an ensemble cast of six, with Poirot and Hastings played by either male or female actors, this serio-comic adaptation is scheduled to premiere in San Diego (North Coast Repertory Theatre) and at the Laguna Playhouse in 2023.

Adaptor: Anthony Horowitz Director: Andrew Grieve Cast: The second night of Meitantei Akafuji Takashi (a two-night release in December 2005) was an adaptation of The Murder on the Links.

[citation needed] The seventh episode of the second season of the French television series Les Petits Meurtres d'Agatha Christie was an adaptation of this novel.