Honoria Waynflete is the sole antagonist of Agatha Christie's 1939 mystery novel Murder is Easy. She's an old lady, who was once Gordon's fiance, but they divorced, when Honoria's canary was murdered.
Biography[]
When a former policeman named Luke learns that serial murders are happening in the town of Wychwood, he decides to investigate them. In the city he meets a woman named Honoria Waynflete. She seems like a typical spinster and sweet old lady who always has something to talk about (somewhat similar to Lavinia Pinkerton, with whom Luke recently communicated and who was hit and killed by a car). She is a volunteer librarian at the library where one of the murders took place (a local teenager was pushed out of a window). Also, it was for her that the maid, who is another of the murdered victims, worked for her. Honoria herself is quite courteous with Luke. She, as if by chance, tells him that she was once engaged to a local rich man named Lord Gordon Whitfield (more precisely, then he was still an ordinary person). However, they separated many years ago. When Luke explains to Honoria that he is a private detective investigating a series of murders and not writing a book, as he previously claimed, she claims that she knows who the killer is, but does not want to say, so as not to harm the person if he is innocent. However, she insists on accompanying Luke when he goes to Gordon, with whom they are temporarily living. There, Luke and Honoria witness Gordon's argument with his driver, Rivers. Rivers got drunk and then got behind the wheel, and with a girl. Instead of admitting his guilt, Rivers begins to insult Gordon, much to Luke's apparent disapproval. Luke soon discovers Rivers killed (a stone ornament in the shape of a pineapple allegedly fell on him). Soon Luke begins to suspect Gordon (he began to pose as the Lord God, as he claimed that everyone who was rude to him died). He decides to leave Bridget (a local girl who used to date Gordon but then fell in love with Luke) with Honoria. However, she does not believe that Gordon could be a criminal. And soon she turns out to be right. The killer all this time was Honoria herself. Gordon once dated her, but left her. She wanted revenge on Gordon. Killing him would be too trivial, so she decided to frame him. She killed people with whom he had scandals, and whose deaths no one would especially regret, in order to make him guilty of their murders, so that he would be executed or sent to a mental hospital. Now she wants to kill Bridget with Gordon's knife, but she is stopped by Luke who arrives in time, who (like Bridget) realized who the real killer was. Honoria is later arrested.
Personality[]
Although Honoria appears to be a sweet old lady, she is actually a monster in human skin. She killed seven people just to frame Gordon, who left her after she killed the canary. She wanted him to suffer, although it was she who initially started this conflict. She's clearly crazy. She is also trying to kill Bridget, who did nothing wrong to her, and if Bridget had not been trained (in terms of sports) and had not figured out Honoria, and Luke had not arrived in time and also had not figured out Honoria, Bridget would already be dead, and Gordon would have received punishment for crimes he did not commit.
Victims[]
- Canary (Animal) - Neck snapped by Honoria Waynflete prior to the main event, mentioned.
- Lydia Horton - Poisoned when she ate grapes that had been laced with garden spray by Honoria Waynflete prior to the main events, mentioned.
- Harry Carter - Drowned in a river by Honoria Waynflete prior to the main events, mentioned.
- Tommy Pierce - Pushed out of a window by Honoria Waynflete prior to the events, mentioned.
- Dr. Clarence Humbleby - Died of blood poisoning after Honoria Waynflete intentionally stabbed him in the hand with scissors and wrapped his wound with a dirty bandage prior to the main events, mentioned.
- Lavinia Fullerton - Pushed in front of an oncoming car by Honoria Waynflete.
- Amy Gibbs - Overdosed on heroin when Honoria Waynflete drugged her tea.
- Rivers - Crushed by Honoria Waynflete with a stone sculpture.
Trivia[]
- She can be considered as a foil to Bridget. Both date with Gordon, but later divorce with him. But while Bridget does it peacefully, Honoria wants to get revenge on him (although she's herself to blame, as she was the one to kill the bird). Bridget sincerely loves Luke, Honoria mostly uses him as a tool. If Bridget hadn't been a kind young lady and hadn't divorced Gordon peacefully, she'd have became someone like Honoria.
- She is somewhat similar to Yahmose from Death comes as the end. Both kill 7 people out of revenge and try to kill a young lady, but are prevented by this lady's boyfriend. But Yahmose gets killed by Hori and Honoria doesn't get killed by Luke. Another difference is that Yahmose is is brother of Renisenb, whom he tries to kill, and Honoria is unrelated to Bridget.
- She also shares similarities with Josephine Leonides from The Crooked House, as they both pretend to investigate the crimes, but it turns out that they are murderers themselves. But Josephine is a child, and Honoria is an elderly woman. And Josephine is killed, but Honoria isn't.
- She also shares similarities with Nevile Strange, as she kills people to frame someone.
 Villains(Non-Poirot & Non-Marple) | |
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Tommy and Tuppence Beresford And Then There Were None Other Mystery Stories Adaptational, Homage & Non-Canonical | |