History Literature / FiveLittlePigs

* LivingLieDetector: Miss Williams to a degree. When she was a governess, none of the kids even tried to lie to her, feeling that it'd be pointless. Poirot, at first, tells to other people that he's writing a book about the case, but he tells the truth to Miss Williams right away.

* ExactWords: Caroline is overheard fuming about the unfairness of the situation. [[spoiler:She's not mad that her husband has fallen for yet another model, but that he's going to break the ''model's'' heart.]] The key phrase is, "You and your women!" [[spoiler:In the Summation Poirot notes the plural, implying there's nothing special to Amyas about this latest woman, Elsa, after all.]]

* DoesNotLikeMen: Miss Williams. Years of observing the womanizing Amyas probably didn't help.

* DeathByWomanScorned: Amyas' womanising ways eventually got him murdered. [[spoiler:Elsa, one of his lovers, genuinely believed his claims when he told her that he'd leave his wife for her. Then she overheard the truth, got her heart broken, and killed Amyas in revenge.]]

* ClingyJealousGirl: Gender-inverted with Amyas. The infamous rows between the couple is mostly not because of Amyas' frequent flings with other women, but because he's jealous that Caroline seem to prioritise her sister Angela over him.

* AssholeVictim: Possibly subverted. Several characters sided with Caroline Crale when she was convicted of murdering her husband Amyas, since he was having an affair with his model - one of many. [[spoiler:It turns out he never intended to leave Caroline, and he was murdered by said model. It depends on the reader whether you think that the fact that he never intended to leave Caroline is enough to get Amyas out of the "Asshole" category, or if you think he's still an asshole for having an affair and letting Elsa think he loved her enough to leave his wife.]]

* AmbiguouslyGay: Miss Williams is an old maid who takes DoesNotLikeMen to the hardcore and sees Caroline as a saintly martyr to one of that filthy kind. To the more modern reader, it may look like she'd been attracted to Caroline.

* BettyAndVeronica: Amyas Crale (the Archie) stands in the middle between his long-suffering wife, Caroline (the Betty) and his young, but glamorous, new model, Elsa (the Veronica).

* DeathByWomanScorned: Amyas' womanising ways eventually got him murdered. [[spoiler:Elsa, one of his lovers, genuinely believed his claims when he told her that he'd leave his wife for her]]. Then she overheard the truth, got her heart broken, and killed Amyas in revenge.

* BrutalHonesty: Caroline Crayle believed in this, at least according to her daughter. The reason that Carla believes her mother is innocent is because Caroline sent her a letter saying so, and Caroline never told her daughter comforting lies.

* SlapSlapKiss: Amyas and Caroline, constantly. Amyas had affairs and he had very nasty fights with Caroline, but despite this, they were very much in love. [[spoiler: Amyas never considered leaving her and she always forgave him.]]

* YourCheatingHeart: Amyas Crale had a lot of affairs, despite being married. [[spoiler:However, he only really loved his wife; the rest of the women meant nothing to him.]]

* TakingTheHeat: [[spoiler:Caroline believes that Angela poisoned Amyas (perhaps by accident, just meaning to make him sick). Since she believes that she still owes Angela for injuring her when they were kids, she lets suspicion fall on her and ends up being jailed for Amyas' murder.]]

* AmbiguouslyGay: Miss Williams is an old maid who takes DoesNotLikeMen to the hardcore and sees Caroline as a saintly martyr to one of that filthy kind. To the more modern reader it may look like she'd been attracted to Caroline.
* AssholeVictim:
** Possibly subverted. Several characters sided with Caroline Crale when she was convicted of murdering her husband Amyas, since he was having an affair with his model - one of many. [[spoiler:It turns out he never intended to leave Caroline, and he was murdered by said model. It depends on the reader whether you think that the fact that he never intended to leave Caroline is enough to get Amyas out of the "Asshole" category, or if you think he's still an asshole for having an affair and letting Elsa think he loved her enough to leave his wife.]]

The story was featured in the television series ''Series/{{Poirot}}'' in 2003.

* AdaptationNameChange: Carla's name is changed to "Lucy" in the TV adaptation.
* AdaptationalSexuality: Philip Blake is gay in the 2003 adaptation, and his long-term crush on Amyas replaces the original book's {{Gender Flip}}ped WomanScorned as the fuel for his resentment of Caroline

** Caroline herself gets a bit of this in the 2001 adaptation [[spoiler:due to the change in Philip Blake's sexuality. While in the original story he tried to seduce Caroline while her marriage was apparently on the rocks; in the adaptation it was she who tried to seduce him, and then taunted his homosexuality when he refused her, making her come across less sympathetically than she had been in the original novel.]]

%%* [[spoiler: {{Gayngst}}: Philip Blake in the ''Series/{{Poirot}}'' adaption. In the original his bitterness was because he was infatuated with Caroline.]]

* HeterosexualLifePartners: Philip Blake is Amyas's steadfast companion, to whom Amyas would confide in whenever he has rows with his wife. Their relationship is less "heterosexual" in the 2003 adaptation.

* KarmaHoudini: Downplayed. Poirot admits to the killer he has no physical evidence to prove their guilt and they won't publicly confess to it. However, they don't get away consequence-free: [[spoiler:Elsa Greer has never been able to move on from the day she murdered the only man she ever loved. She lives a wealthy but utterly joyless and miserable life. As she puts it [[FateWorseThanDeath "I died that day."]] In the adaptation she even begs Carla/Lucy to shoot her when she confronts her with a gun, determined to exact her own justice - but Lucy decides to let her live instead, as a CruelMercy.]]

%%* StraightGay: [[spoiler: Philip Blake in the ''Series/{{Poirot}}'' adaption.]]

** Both the Blake brothers in love with Caroline, and neither ever marries, even after her death.

* HiddenDepths: Meredith Blake discusses this trope in his personal recollection of the Crale Case by saying that people usually have hidden sides that no-one knows about. This is the reason why he believes that Amyas ''could'' have committed suicide, even though it would seem very out-of-character for him to do so.

* DoomedMoralVictor: Played with; while no one really believes that Caroline was innocent except for her daughter, many of the onlookers note that the way she accepted her fate was really quite impressive. [[spoiler: And she turns out to actually be this for Elsa, the real murderer; while Caroline ended up taking the fall for Elsa's crime, and Elsa herself goes on to marry into wealth and fame, the brave and dignified way she meets her fate serves to rob Elsa of any satisfaction she might have gained from seeing Caroline go down, and all the wealth and fame in the world don't end up making Elsa happy in the slightest.]]

* IfICantHaveYou: Amyas is constantly having flings with numerous girls, and was apparently about to leave his wife and marry his latest model, Elsa Greer. This incident eventually leads to his being murdered.

* MustMakeAmends: Caroline never stops trying to make up for her sister's injury, but as a result spoils her.
* NiceJobBreakingItHero: Both Caroline and Miss Williams tried to protect someone in the name of what they thought was justice, but their lies caused the actual murderer, whom neither of them would want to shield, to get away.

* WomanScorned: Gender-flipped with [[spoiler: Philip Blake, who wanted to make Caroline look as black as possible at least partially because she rejected him when they were young]].

* WomanScorned: Gender-flipped with [[spoiler: Philip Blake, who wanted to make Caroline look as black as possible at least partially because she rejected him when they were young]].* YourCheatingHeart: Amyas Crale had a lot of affairs, despite being married. [[spoiler:However, he only really loved his wife; the rest of the women meant nothing to him.]]

* BettyAndVeronica: Caroline (Betty), Amyas (Archie) and Elsa (Veronica)

* NiceJobBreakingItHero: Both Caroline and Miss Williams [[spoiler:tried to protect someone in the name of what they thought was justice, but their lies caused the actual murderer, whom neither of them would want to shield, to get away]].

* ReallyGetsAround: Amyas Crale had a lot of affairs, despite being married. [[spoiler:However, he only really loved his wife; the rest of the women meant nothing to him.]]

* StraightGay: [[spoiler: Philip Blake in the ''Series/{{Poirot}}'' adaption.]]

* WomanScorned: Gender-flipped with [[spoiler: Philip Blake, who wanted to make Caroline look as black as possible at least partially because she rejected him when they were young]].

* HeroicSacrifice: Played with: [[spoiler: Caroline Crayle ''thinks'' that she's doing this to spare Angela from the gallows and to [[TheAtoner atone]] for blinding her as a child, but as it turns out Angela is completely innocent and Caroline's sacrifice is needless. However, the peace and courage Caroline derives from what she thinks is this trope ironically serves to thwart Elsa by depriving her of any satisfaction she might have received from seeing her romantic rival be punished for her crime.]]

* AdaptationalInducedPlotHole: In the TV version, there's an added line in the argument between Amyas and Caroline, where the former announces that he's going to marry Elsa and that nothing would ever stop it from happening. [[spoiler:This makes TheReveal thatAmyas never intends to do anything of that sort]] a lot more unconvincing, and since the second flashback involving that scene has him say a completely different thing.

88 Meredith Blake's love for Caroline. [[spoiler: Subverted, however, because while he claims he's still in love with Caroline, reading his account of the crime makes it obvious he's actually in love with Elsa.]]

* DeathByAdaptation: Well, she ''is'' dead by the start of both the novel and the ''Series/{{Poirot}}'' adaptation, but in the novel Caroline Crale got a life sentence and died a year later in prison, while the adaptation had her executed.
* DeathByWomanScorned: Played straight. [[spoiler:Also subverted, because it is not the woman we assume at first.]]

* UnrequitedLoveLastsForever: Meredith Blake's love for Caroline. [[spoiler: Subverted, however, because while he claims he's still in love with Caroline, reading his account of the crime makes it obvious he's actually in love with Elsa.]]

* WomanScorned: [[spoiler: Subverted with Caroline, but played straight with Elsa.]]
** Gender-flipped with [[spoiler: Philip Blake, who wanted to make Caroline look as black as possible at least partially because she rejected him when they were young]].