| “ | Do you feel redeemed, monsieur? Does this atone for the death of Lucinda? Because that was a bit of a mess, wasn't it? I heard you say the words, Poirot, promising to protect her. You, the poor man's Hercules. So vain, so ineffably smug, and you failed. | „ |
| ~ Alice mocking Poirot over his guilt about Lucinda's death, in Agatha Christie's Poirot. |
Dr. Alice Cunnningham is one of the main antagonists in Agatha Christie's 1947 Hercule Poirot short story collection The Labours of Hercules. She served as the main antagonist of the original version of "The Capture of Cerebus", its twelfth and final story.
She was the future daughter-in-law of Countess Vera Rosakoff and secretly a drug dealer who was in league with Paul Varesco in his drug and jewel smuggling.
She was portrayed by Eleanor Tomlinson in Agatha Christie's Poirot.
In the story[]
In Agatha Christie's Poirot[]
Alice Cunningham is also the main antagonist of the story collections' 2013 adaptation in Agatha Christie's Poirot, which served as a composite adaptation that merged elements from twelve stories into one, mainly adapting the storylines from "The Arcadian Deer", "The Erymanthian Boar", "The Stymphalean Birds", "The Girdle of Hippolyta" and "The Capture of Cerberus".
In this adpatation, she is the own daughter of the Countess instead of the daughter-in-law. She is also the true identity of Marrascaud, the killer from "The Erymanthian Boar", of which it served as the core of the adaptation.
Gustav the waiter, who is the original story's Marrascaud, served as one of her accomplices. She is both a thief and a serial killer who stole a series of paintings that described Hercules finishing his twelve Labours. In the process, Marrascaud killed an innocent girl, Lucinda LeMesurier, whom Poirot had sworn to protect. The case haunted him for three months before the main story began.
After Poirot's denouement that revealed her true identity, Alice attempted to resist, but was interrupted when the police broke in. She was taken away by the police alongside her partners, but before she left, she bitterly mocked Poirot over his failure of saving Lucinda's life.
After Alice was taken away, the Countess pleadged to Poirot to spare Alice, but Poirot refused. The Countess then decided to give herself in to the police so that she could be together with her daughter.
