The Witness for the Prosecution

“Mr. Mayherne was a small man precise in manner, neatly, not to say foppishly dressed, with a pair of very shrewd and piercing grey eyes. By no means a fool. Indeed, as a solicitor, Mr. Mayherne’s reputation stood very high. His voice, when he spoke to his client, was dry but not unsympathetic.” 

Christie is known for her succinct use of language, and her ability to pack lots of information into her sentences. Here, her description of Mayherne reveals much about him: his appearance, distinctive physical characteristics, personality type, and profession. In particular, the emphasis on his “shrewdness,” “precision,” and rationality encourage the reader to view Mayherne as a reliable judge of character, which is itself pivotal in convincing the reader that Leonard Vole is, as Mayherne believes, an innocent man. It’s therefore ironic that those same traits ultimately prove at least partly responsible for Mayherne’s misjudgments over the course of the story; his reserved and proper nature predisposes him to think the worst of a woman like Romaine. 

“I must impress upon you again that you are in very grave danger, and that the utmost frankness is necessary.” 

Mayherne is, in Christie’s words, a “practical, not emotional” man (2). In this passage, for instance, he speaks plainly to Leonard about the gravity of the situation in which he finds himself, and stresses that he expects equal candor in return; if he has all the facts at his disposal, Mayherne says, he will succeed in getting Vole acquitted. As the conversation continues, Mayherne’s strategy—reframing the facts of the case in a way favorable to Vole—becomes clearer. This is in fact the tactic that ultimately secures Vole’s acquittal, but it’s Romaine, rather than Mayherne, who deploys it most skillfully.