{{infobox Book | <!-- See Wikipedia:WikiProject_Novels or Wikipedia:WikiProject_Books -->
| name          = Evil Under the Sun
| title_orig    = 
| translator    = 
| image         = Image:Evil Under the Sun First Edition Cover 1941.jpg
| image_caption = Dust-jacket illustration of the first UK edition
| author        = Agatha Christie 
| cover_artist  = Rose
| country       = United Kingdom
| language      = English
| series        = 
| genre         = Crime novel
| publisher     = Collins Crime Club
| release_date  = June 1941
| media_type    = Print (Hardback & Paperback)
| pages         = 256 pp (first edition, hardback)
| isbn          = NA
| preceded_by   = One, Two, Buckle My Shoe
| followed_by   = N or M?
}}

'''''Evil Under the Sun''''' is a work of 1941<ref name="CC">Chris Peers, Ralph Spurrier and Jamie Sturgeon. ''Collins Crime Club – A checklist of First Editions''. Dragonby Press (Second Edition) March 1999 (Page 15)</ref> and in the US by sixpence (7/6)<ref name="CC" /> and the US edition at $2.00<ref name="US" />.

==Plot introduction==

A quiet holiday at a secluded hotel in Cornwall is all that Hercule Poirot wants, but amongst his fellow guests is a beautiful and vain woman who, seemingly oblivious to her own husband’s feelings, revels in the attention of another woman’s husband. The scene is set for murder, but can the field of suspects really be as narrow as it first appears?

==Plot summary==

(Although this novel is not counted amongst the novels featuring him, Hastings makes a cameo appearance in about ten lines of chapter 2, discussing the case with Poirot at a later date.)

The beautiful Arlena Stuart Marshall is magnetically attractive to men, and her husband Kenneth reacts with apparent stoicism to the presence at the hotel of Patrick Redfern, her new beau. His wife, Christine, seems less acquiescent, and Arlena is also detested by Rosamund Darnley, an old friend of Kenneth’s who seems to want him for herself.

On the morning of the murder, Arlena goes off on her own for what appears to be a tryst on the side of the island that is comparatively unvisited. Poirot assumes that her assignation is with Patrick, but this seems not to be the case when Patrick arrives shortly afterwards and seems to be looking for her.

Patrick starts to push out a boat to go meet Arlena when another guest, Emily Brewster, asks if she may join him. When they reach the secluded beach, they see Arlena on the sand. Patrick clambers ashore, revealing that Arlena is dead. Emily goes to fetch help while he waits with the dead Arlena.

Found at the crime scene are a pair of scissors and a bottle.

Much attention is paid to the alibi of Kenneth Marshall, who claims to have been typing letters at the time of the murder. He has been heard, but the main corroboration comes from Rosamund Darnley, who claims to have entered the hotel and seen him, although not interrupted his work. When Kenneth confirms that he did see Rosamund enter the room, there is a suspicion that the two may have contrived the alibi. Perhaps the two were working together.

The discovery of a jewel in a cave adjoining the beach draws into the list of suspects a keen yachtsman, Horace Blatt. Meanwhile, Christine Redfern admits to overhearing Arlena talking to a man who was blackmailing her. When it is discovered that much Arlena's enormous fortune has been eaten up in untraceable payments, another potential motive becomes clear. Moreover, Poirot starts to inquire regarding recent cases of strangulation, throwing up suspicions of a serial killer. Is the religiously zealous Reverend Lane secretly a homicidal maniac?

Kenneth’s daughter, Linda, has behaved oddly on the morning of the murder, returning early with a package of candles. Poirot finds remains of wax, hair, and coloured paper in her fireplace. When she attempts to commit suicide, leaving a note that claims responsibility for the murder, it seems that the case is solved.

Linda’s guilt is attached, however, to a little experiment with sympathetic magic and a wax doll. The real nature of the murder is far more complex. For Arlena was not the seductress that she first appeared: she was just a woman of strong superficial attractiveness of whom men quickly tired. She was an obvious victim for a manipulative swindler such as Patrick Redfern.

Christine's body was found, not Arlena's.

Arlena, scared by the approach of Patrick’s wife down the ladder and, following her previous instructions from Patrick, hid in the cave. Christine took her place lying on the beach, wearing the hat, and was “discovered” by Patrick.

Now, Patrick could kill Arlena at his leisure. It was at least the second such murder that he had committed; the pair had been responsible for an earlier murder using a similar trick to establish his alibi. His motive was to kill Arlena before it could be revealed that he had swindled her out of much of her fortune.

The only happy ending is for Kenneth and Rosamund, who plan their eventual wedding while reflecting on the fact that each had provided a fake alibi for the other, believing the other to be the actual murderer.

==Characters in "Evil Under the Sun"==

* Hercule Poirot, the Belgian detective
* Colonel Weston, the Chief Constable
* Inspector Colgate, the investigating officer
* Sergeant Phillips, a policeman in the case
* Dr. Neasden, the police surgeon
* Arlena Stuart Marshall, a former actress
* Captain Kenneth Marshall, Arlena’s husband
* Linda Marshall, Kenneth’s daughter, and Arlena’s daughter by marriage
* Patrick Redfern, Arlena’s lover
* Christine Redfern, Patrick’s wife
* Rosamund Darnley, a clothes designer
* Reverend Stephen Lane, a clerical guest who quite openly declares Arlena Marshall the evilest in the land. 
* Emily Brewster, a guest who discovers the body of Arlena Marshall.
* Sir Horace Blatt, a yachtsman
* Mrs. Castle, the owner of the ''Jolly Roger'' Hotel.
* Major Barry, A retired officer who fought in India 
* Mrs. Carrie Gardener- A garrulous American tourist
* Mr. Odell Gardener, The husband of Mrs. Gardener who quite obligingly does whatever she says.

==Literary significance and reception==

The verdict by Maurice Willson Disher in ''The Times Literary Supplement'' of June 14, 1941 was positive: "To maintain a place at the head of detective-writers would be difficult enough without the ever increasing rivalry. Even Miss Christie cannot stay there unchallenged though she has a following which will swear her books are best without reading the others. Unbiased opinion may have given the verdict against her last season when new arrivals set a very hot pace; but ''Evil Under the Sun'' will take a lot of beating now". After summarising the plot, the Mr. Disher concluded: "Miss Christie casts the shadow of guilt upon first one and then another with such casual ease that it is difficult for the reader not to be led by the nose. Everybody is well aware that any character most strongly indicated is not a likely criminal; yet this guiding principle is forgotten when Miss Christie persuades you that you are more discerning than you really are. Then she springs her secret like a land-mine."<ref>''The Times Literary Supplement'' June 14, 1941 (Page 285)</ref>

{{Infobox knjiga 
| naziv            = Zlo pod suncem
| naziv_izvornika  = Evil Under the Sun
| prijevod         = 
| slika            = 
| opis_slike       = 
| autor            = Agatha Christie
| ilustrator       = 
| dizajn_korica    = 
| država           = Engleska
| jezik            = engleski jezik ''(izvorno)''
| žanr             = kriminalistički
| vrsta_djela      = roman
| izdavač          = 
| datum_izdanja    = 1941.
| vrsta_korica     = 
| broj_stranica    = 
| pripovjedač      = 
| gledište         = 
| vrijeme_radnje   = 
| mjesto_radnje    = UK
| glavni_lik       = Hercule Poirot
| vrhunac          = 
| teme             = 
| isbn             = 
}}
'''''Zlo pod suncem''''' (izdan Agathe Christie.

== Radnja ==

Bio je kolovoz i prazničko raspoloženje osjećalo se u hotelu Jolly Roger. Bogati i slavni okupili su se na pirotesknom Krijumčarskom otoku. Sunčeve zrake probijale su plavo nebo...kupači su se sunčali na zlatnim plažama...čamci su se ljuljuškali u zaljevu...a prekrasna Arlena Stuart Marshall ležala je mrtva, zadavljena. Za nju su praznici završeni, ali tu je Hercule Poirot.....