As this is posted, it’s April Fool’s Day, a time when a lot of people play practical jokes and pranks (so be careful where you sit, what you eat or drink, and whether you believe something someone tells you…). People pull pranks for a number of reasons. Sometimes it’s spite; sometimes it’s to see whether someone can ‘take a joke.’ Sometimes it’s even a sort of initiation. Whatever the reason, pranks have a long history, and we certainly see them in crime fiction. It makes sense, too, when you think about how many ways a prank can go wrong…
In Agatha Christie’s Five Little Pigs, Carla Lemarchant hires Hercule Poirot to find out who killed her father, famous painter Amyas Crale. He was poisoned one afternoon sixteen years earlier, and his wife Caroline was arrested, tried, and convicted for the crime. She had motive, too, as her husband was having a not-very-well-disguised affair with another woman. Carla is convinced her mother was innocent, though, and wants Poirot to find out what really happened. Poirot speaks to all five of the people who were present at the time of the murder, and he gets written accounts from each. One of those people is Angela Warren, Caroline Crale’s half-sister, who was fifteen at the time of the killing. It turns out that she had played pranks on Crale before, and on the morning of the murder, she’d put valerian into his drink. But does that mean she killed her brother-in-law? It’s one of the many clues that Poirot has to sift through to get to the truth.
In Louise Penny’s Still Life, Chief Inspector Armand Gamache of the Sûreté du Québec investigates when beloved former teacher Jane Neal is found dead on Thanksgiving. She was well-liked and respected in the small town of Three Pines, and on the surface, it looks as though she died as the result of a horrible accident. But Gamache has questions, and he starts to pursue the case. One thing he learns is that, not long before, a small group of boys had played a nasty, homophobic prank on Gabriel ‘Gabri’ Dubeau and his partner Olivier Brulé. Jane Neal saw what happened and called the boys out by name. That angered the boys, and it makes them suspects, but does it mean that they or their families killed her? It’s an example of the way a prank can get a person in quite a lot of trouble.
Peter James’ Roy Grace series begins with Dead Simple. In the novel, Grace is faced with a strange and frightening case when Michael Harrison goes missing on the night before his planned wedding to Ashley Harper. He’s gone out with some friends for his ‘stag do,’ and as a prank, they bury him in a coffin with a breathing tube, a bottle of whiskey, and a pornographic magazine. Their intention is to free him after a while, but they’re involved in a car crash that kills two of them and incapacitates the third. When Harrison doesn’t show up for his wedding, the police get involved, and it’s a race against time to find out what’s happened to the groom. There’s more to this mystery, though, than a case of a stag prank gone wrong. It turns out that Grace has to unpack a web of lies and past histories to find out the truth.
In Y.A. Erskine’s The Brotherhood, Sergeant John White of the Tasmania Police goes to the scene of a reported home invasion. With him goes probationer Lucy Howard. Tragically, White is murdered while investigating, and all of his colleagues are devastated. The most likely suspect is seventeen-year-old Darren Rowley, and soon enough, the police want to catch him. It won’t be easy, though, because Rowley is a minor who is part Aboriginal. So, the media and public will be watching very carefully everything the police do. As the various members of White’s team grieve, one of them, Cameron ‘Cam’ Walsh, remembers a prank that White had played on him to see if he could take a joke. It wasn’t harmful, just a bit embarrassing, and now Walsh remembers it fondly. As the novel goes on, we see all other ways, too, in which White’s death has impacted the people he knew.
There’s also K.B. Owen’s Dangerous and Unseemly, the first in her Concordia Wells series. Concordia is a teacher at Hartford Women’s College in Connecticut. It’s the very end of the 19th Century, and ‘ladies’ are expected to behave ‘appropriately.’ That does not include getting involved in something as sordid as murder, but that’s exactly what Concordia does. She is supervising the school’s upcoming production of Macbeth, and doing the best she can, although she hadn’t planned to be in charge of the show. While she’s trying to put the show together, the school falls victim to some malicious pranks. There’s even a bit of arson. That’s bad enough, but when the school’s Bursar does in an apparent case of suicide, Concordia knows that something more than pranks is going on. Against her better judgement, she starts asking questions, and she finds herself in a great deal of danger.
A lot of people think that pranks are fun. Whether you do or not, there’s no doubt they’re popular. And crime fiction shows us that they can also be dangerous…
*NOTE: The title of this post is the title of a Bee Gees song.
Crime Writer Margot Kinberg 
Wonderful, thanks for the memories and I am watching where I sit! Take care. xx
LikeLike
Yes, do be careful, Jane! Thanks for the kind words, and I’m glad you enjoyed the post. x
LikeLiked by 1 person
I always do. I sometimes save them up and binge read. So entertaining. x
LikeLike
😊
LikeLiked by 1 person
Margot, I have never been able to bring myself to read Peter James’ Dead Simple, even though I have heard he is a very good author. My husband won’t watch TV shows with people buried in a box… and you would be surprised how many there are. Usually those situations are not pranks in TV shows, though. I cannot bear to read that type of story line.
I think I have said it before, but Five Little Pigs is one of my favorite novels by Agatha Christie. (and the TV adaptation too)
LikeLike
I don’t blame you, Tracy, for not wanting to read Dead Simple; nor do I blame your husband for not watching TV shows where people are buried alive. It’s a truly frightening prospect, and a lot of people don’t even want to think of it. If you do get the chance to read other work by Peter James, I hope you’ll like what you find.
And as for Five Little Pigs, I really do think it’s one of Christie’s top books. And the adaptation was done well, too, I think.
LikeLike
Indeed they do – a prank going wrong can be a wonderful plot twist, and that Christie you highlight is a particular favourite of mine, and also one which I thought the Suchet adaptations captured particularly well.
LikeLike
I’ve always loved Five Little Pigs, too, KBR. Christie’s not always known for character development, but I’ve always thought that those characters were quite strong. And, yes, the adaptation with Suchet really does capture the heart of the story. As for pranks? You never know where they may lead…
LikeLiked by 1 person
Not many books send a chill down my back but Harrison buried alive had me shivering. It was terrifyingly credible. I will never forget that opening. Beyond scaring me it did compel me to race through the book to find out Harrison’s fate. No authors need replicate the scene.
LikeLike
That really is a frightening part of the story, isn’t it, Bill? I won’t forget it quickly, either. And you’re right; it does make you want to find out what happened to Harrison. It’s certainly not a scene, though, that I’ll ever do…
LikeLike
Burying someone alive seems a bit of an extreme prank! I think I’ll stick to the old drawing pin on the seat… painful, but rarely lethal… 😉
LikeLike
I’m with you, FictionFan! I’ve heard of a lot of pranks before, but, yes, burying someone alive is extreme! As you say, a draw pin is irritating and probably embarrassing when the person jumps up, but, yeah, not usually lethal… 😉
LikeLiked by 1 person
Such an interesting post, Margot. And very appropriate. I agree with FictionFan that burying someone alive seems a bit of an extreme prank. Just the idea that he is buried and his friends have a car accident sent chills down my spine.
LikeLike
Thanks for the kind words, Carol. And you’re right; It’s a really chilling scene. Peter James really conveys that fear very effectively, too. I’ve heard of some strange ‘stag pranks’ in my time, but not one like that!
LikeLiked by 1 person
Being buried alive has a special place in people’s nightmare’s, don’t you think? In 2015 I went with my grand-daughter to a talk by three crime writers, part of our town’s Literary week. One of them, Clare Donoghue, read to us from the first chapter of her new book, No Place to Die, and it starts with someone being buried alive. Honestly, you could’ve heard a pin drop in that crowded room. And when she’d finished everyone looked ‘horrified’. Nicoloa Upson was one of the other two panelists by the way. I’m off to look up the K.B. Owens series you mention.
LikeLike
I’m sure that Clare Donoghue’s story must have been absolutely gripping, Cath. Being buried alive is unthinkable, isn’t it, so I’m not surprised everyone was so horrified at the idea. And that panel must have been so interesting, too! If you read K.B. Owen’s work, I hope you’ll like it. She writes a fine historical mystery, I think.
LikeLike
Wonderful examples, and I totally agree, pranks can be very dangerous. As long as they’re something lighthearted and funny, it’s fine, but once you cross a line, it’s scary. This reminded me of YouTubers who cross the line all the time by asking gang members if they want to fight, etc or ruining a celebrity’s day and getting arrested for it. Some guy had enough and shot a YouTuber in a mall this April fool’s day. I don’t know why people go to such lengths, risking their lives and stuff to gain subscribers and make money.
LikeLike
Thanks for the kind words, OP. I’m glad you enjoyed the post. It is strange how far people are willing to go for other people to like and subscribe (and pay). It’s scary, too. I sometimes wonder why people think those outrageous pranks are OK; I certainly don’t.
LikeLiked by 1 person