User blog:Officer Candy Apple/Pure Evil Proposal - The Culprit from Towards Zero

Here comes my new Pure Evil Proposal and the second proposal of a culprit within Agatha Christie's novel. Beware, this is the preperater of one of the most elaborated schemes in Dame Christie's work. Here comes the culprit from Towards Zero.

About the Novel
Before we get into this culprit, let's talk about this novel first. Towards Zero is a detective fiction by Dame Agatha Christine, first published in 1944. The term "towards zero" is a hint towards the culprit's scheme within the novel: plotting seemly unrelated murders and incidents for one single goal until it reached "towards zero", or more precisely, towards a junction where his plan succeeded. This is the final novel featuring one of the recurring characters, Superintendent Battle, in Christie's novels, as well as the only novel where Battle serves as the main protagonist.

The novel was notably adopted into an episode of ITV's Agatha Christie's Marple, with Miss Marple superceeding the role of Battle, but the culprit and the main plot remains relatively as same as the book. And... Hercule Poirot was mentioned in one instance. The deuteragonist is Battle's nephew, Inspector James Leach.

About the Plot
The story starts with a meeting of guests in the a seaside room Gull's Point, owned by the stern Lady Camilla Tressilian, including Battle who had just solved a problem  concerning his daughter, who was coerced to take fall for a theft she didn't commit .

The major characters besides Battle include but not limited to: At the beginning of the meeting, Mr. Treves told everyone about his opinion of a serial killer may start planning many schemes all the way towards the comepletion of his goal, or in his words, "towards zero." He then told everyone a story about  a young child suspected of killing another child , with several witnesses saw the child practicing archery before the said murder occured. The child was later released and went free for a new life, with their whereabouts are unknown. Mr. Treves also claimed he would recognized that killer since the said killer had a physical feature different to others.
 * Nevile Strange (23 years old), a famous athlete who is skilled in swimming and is a famous tennis player. He is the ward of Lady Tressilian's deceased husband, and the widow's adopted son.
 * Kay Strange (23), Nevile's second and current wife, whom Lady Tressilian despised. Nevile brought his wife AND ex-wife together to the meeting.
 * Audrey Strange (23), Nevile's ex-wife.
 * Mary Aldin (mid 30s), Lady Tressilan's companion.
 * Thomas Royde: Audrey's cousin.
 * Angus MacWhirter: The book's triangonist. A formerly suicidal man who attempted to kill himself in a cliff near Lady Tressilian's house, until he was saved by Audrey and became her friend. He happened to witness the story's crime scene and became a key for Battle to solve the case.
 * Ted Latimer: A friend of Kay.
 * Mr. Treves (about 80 years old): A solicitor and friend to Lady Tressilian.

At the same night, Mr. Treves discovered that someone hanged a "out of function" sign on the door of the house's lift (elevator in American English). Unknowing that the elevator was still functioning, Mr. Treves was forced to climb upstairs but soon he died of heart attack and exhaustion because of his age and frail health. It was soon revealed to be fake, leading to one conclusion: That psychopathic child, now grown up, is hiding amongst the guests

Soon, the second death had occured when Lady Tressilian was murdered on her bed, with her maid drugged, right after Lady Tressilian had an arguement with Nevile Strange about his infidelity and marriage. Her heir would be none other than Nevile and Audrey. At first, Nevile was accused of the murder after a golf club, suspected to be the murder weapon, was discovered with Nevile's blood. However, he was soon declared of innoncence when a maid declared she saw Lady Tressilian still alive after the said arguement.

Then, the only suspect remained was Audery. Negative evidence began to surface when the bloodstained gloves of Audery was discovered, together with the real murder weapon, fashioned from the handle of a tennis racket and the metal ball from the fireplace fender in Audrey's room. Much to Battle's discomfort, Audery even admitted herself of murdering Lady Tressilian. However, Battle suspected Audery was taking fall for someone else unwillingly, just like his daughter did just days ago. Meanwhile, Angus MacWhirter came to Battle to reveal something he saw. Soon, Battle discovered the truth and then uncovered the real culprit.

Who is the Culprit?
Here comes the twist. What Angus revealed was he saw a man swimming from the sea at the same night when Lady Tressilan was murdered, before climbing up to the residence with a rope. He saw the man on the very same cliff where he once tried to take his own life a year ago. With Mary Aldin's help, Angus discovered the crucial evidence: a large damp rope in an otherwise dusty attic. Thomas also revealed the true nature behind Audrey's relationship with Nevile.

Soon after Audery's arrest, Battle managed to gather everyone on a motor launch and revealed Angus' discovery to them. The only two person that fits the condition is Nevile and Ted, but Ted can't swim. Soon, the only swimmer in the guests is the culprit.

In conclusion, Nevile Strange is the culprit.

What Have He Done?
Yeah, no doubt that Nevile is the same psychopathic child who trained himself for archery and killed another child. The physical difference that Mr. Treves had mentioned was Nevile's little finger shorter than others.

Before the specific detail about the murder, let's talk about the true nature of Nevile Strange. Nevile (or whateever he was called before his implied change of name) was a psychopathic and egotistic man ever since he was a child, who trianed himself to kill another boy, most likely to spite him, and he continued to commit murder against anyone who he believed to have wronged him.

About his marriage with Audrey... Originally, it was said that Nevile ended their marriage to pursue Kay, but instead, it was actually Audery who ended their relationship since she grew afraid of him (as revealed by Thomas). After her divorse to Nevile, Audery was supposed to marry a new husband named Adrian Royce, the brother of her cousin Thomas, but Adrian was killed in a car accident. Nevertheless, it was revealed that Nevile is actually behind this so-called accident and murdered Adrian to spite Audery.

In the meeting within Gull's Point, Nevile attempted to use this as a chance to seek vengeance against Audery for divorcing him. When he heard about Mr. Treves speaking about his dark past, Nevile was afraid that the old man would recognize him, so he hanged the lift sign that misled Mr. Treves to climb upstairs and died out of exhaustion.

The murder of Lady Tressilan was made with great care, with Nevile faking his alibi, murdered with Audery's gloves, and put the golf club in the crime scene to fake his innocence. When the suspicions arouse him faded, people will definitely suspect Audery for the murder, so that she would be hanged. Audery actually knew it was Nevile who killed Lady Tressilian, but she complied out of fear.

After being forced to confess, Nevile revealed that he was behind everything unfortunate happened to Audery and to the guests, and all he wanted was to let Audery to be hanged, spiting her for divorcing him long ago. Suffering from a nervous breakdown, Nevile ranted about how much he wanted Audrey to be hanged, and was soon arrested by Battle, broken and fazed.

By the end of novel, Battle visited Audery, now released from police custody, and said Nevile would be put on court, now a broken man who may or may not withstand his trial. Battle revealed how Audery resembled his daughter in their similar circumstances, taking fall for someone else unwittingly. He encouraged her to move on from Nevile and embrace a new life. Later, Audery had started a romantic relationship with Angus, the man who she once saved from a suicidal attempt. Now, in turn, he had saved  her .

Mitigating Factor
Nevile may have a Freudian excuse to frame Audrey for murder, since she had dumped him. However, he had killed other people, including his own stepmother, to frame Audrey and tried to left her executed on the noose. In addition, Audrey divorced him because she was afraid of him, and it showed that he never was a good husband to begin with, so that doesn't help, either. At the start of story, he seemed to share a soft spot for Kay, his second wife. Nevertheless, it was just a ruse to hide his true nature. He was actually using her as his supporter to frame Audrey, since he knew how much Kay hated Audrey, so he proposed the two women at each other's throat  to meet.

As a result, he only cares about himself, and his petty revenge, to the point of ranting it out prior to his arrest.

Heinous Standards
There're many murderers and criminals in Agatha Christie's detective fictions that are schemers, killing many people for one goal. However, Nevile is actually the pettiest of them all. Being an egotistic psychopath, Nevile's only motive is to spite the woman that divorced him (without any acknowledgement that it was HIS fault from the beginning), and to kill anyone who wronged him or posed a potential threat towards his plans, like Audrey's new husband. What is worse, he already developed such tendency when he was a child, and was willing to kill the man who might recognized him, so that he would got away from his past crime.

Verdict
So, yes, he is amongst the most evil criminals in Dame Christie's detective fiction universe.