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Who Killed Milton Krest?
Dragonpol
https://thebondologistblog.blogspot.com
No, film-only fans, the answer is not Franz Sanchez. :D
I'm referring of course to the murder of Milton Krest in Ian Fleming's short story 'The Hildebrand Rarity' (1960). We the readers know that the murder suspect is either the deceased's wife Liz Krest or Fidele Barbey. Bond has difficulty in working out whodunit and so does the reader. There is probably no definitive answer to this question but it is a fascinating one to pose anyway.
To my mind there is a stronger prima facie case against Liz Krest as her husband was strangled first with 'The Corrector' stingray tail that he had illegally fashioned into a whip. This seems like a symbolic revenge, before the fish was stuffed into his mouth.
It's an open-ended story of course and one could make a case for both Liz Krest and Fidele Barbey being the culprit. With perhaps 'Octopussy' aside, it represents Ian Fleming's only real foray into the realm of crime/whodunit fiction, of which the spy story is an offshoot of course.
Those are my views, but I'd be very interested to know what others think about who is culpable for the homicide of Milton Krest. It's likely that there is no right or wrong answer, but I could be wrong of course.
I'm referring of course to the murder of Milton Krest in Ian Fleming's short story 'The Hildebrand Rarity' (1960). We the readers know that the murder suspect is either the deceased's wife Liz Krest or Fidele Barbey. Bond has difficulty in working out whodunit and so does the reader. There is probably no definitive answer to this question but it is a fascinating one to pose anyway.
To my mind there is a stronger prima facie case against Liz Krest as her husband was strangled first with 'The Corrector' stingray tail that he had illegally fashioned into a whip. This seems like a symbolic revenge, before the fish was stuffed into his mouth.
It's an open-ended story of course and one could make a case for both Liz Krest and Fidele Barbey being the culprit. With perhaps 'Octopussy' aside, it represents Ian Fleming's only real foray into the realm of crime/whodunit fiction, of which the spy story is an offshoot of course.
Those are my views, but I'd be very interested to know what others think about who is culpable for the homicide of Milton Krest. It's likely that there is no right or wrong answer, but I could be wrong of course.
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Comments
Deftly written, as I don't think any of us would have reported her or even accused her.
Some things best left alone....
Does anyone else want to give their opinion on this one? :)
Yes, thank you @Birdleson. I think that that is exactly it. Fleming wanted to keep the ending ambiguous and as I said in the OP, open-ended. It's a bit of a curious ending to a crime story, as Kingsley Amis noted in The James Bond Dossier (1965) that one can't call it a secret service story.
Bond didn't fancy choking on an exotic fish I'd wager. Sensible man.
Yes, I know, but it was enough to put Bond off. Can't say that I blame the man!
I do too, but I draw the line at murder. It's still illegal in my country.
Could you clarify - the American TV detective or the Fleming character?
Ah good point... the American TV detective.
Yes, thought so. I'm a big fan. It's 'Columbo' just to clarify.
Not to worry. Loads of people make the same mistake!
It was justified self defense after years of abuse. She would have got away with Manslaughter. I can see how Bond was put off though. Rogers Bond would have stayed. ....he slept with Mayday!
Oh, so Ian Fleming actually wrote the very first 'Young Bond' story. How quaint. ;)
Yes, and I'm actually very opposed to that. Ian Fleming's Moonraker is the best of all the Bond novels and I'd be loath to give it up the way that Pearson breezily does in his 1973 fictional biography of Bond. Pearson says the whole thing was dreamt up by British Intelligence as a cover operation in order to Pearson guided some of the decisions in the continuations - James Suzuki in Raymond Benson's 'Blast from the Past' (1996), Bond's uncle Bruce in John Gardner's Role of Honour (1984).
Nope. That was Agatha Christie. Everybody know that.
Yes, I knew that, but 'Young Bond' was my point here.
I actually found that story, 'The Rajah's Emerald', in an old short story anthology in my house in 2002 before I ever read of it elsewhere.
I was thinking about starting a thread about this one, or maybe more about the links between Agatha Christie and James Bond (she is mentioned in OHMSS and of course many actors from the Bond movies played in adaptations of Christie's novels).
Back on topic, I tend to say Liz did it, but I would not be completely certain. The victim in the story is more important than the identity of the murderer. In a way, it is an anti-whodunit. We don't know for sure who did it, we don't really care. There is this gross, vulgar, lewd, evil man who dies and gets punished for his crimes through his contrapasso . And that is all that matter. The story also has a beautifully ambiguous moral: murder is justifiable... or is it? Actually I say we don't care about who did it... But can the murder be more moral depending of who murdered Milton Krest?
I loved Pearson's Bond biography but I wasn't really happy about what he did regarding the whole Moonraker affair. I lived with it though seeing the rest of the bio was outstanding.
Is there anyone here who prefers the Fleming short stories to the novels by the same author? I wouldn't go so far as to say they're better than the books but they are bloody good - taut, down to earth, imaginative thrillers. THR is probably my favourite.
I wouldn't go that far, or rather it depends of which novels and short stories, but I'd say some short stories are more daring and complex than some if not most of Fleming's novels. I said in another thread that Ian Fleming is the Beethoven of spy fiction: first classic then he invents romanticism. In many short stories he is in his romantic phase so to speak.