Reviews with content warning for Death of parent - The Hollow

“What does one say to a women who has just killed her husband?”

“What alchemy their was in human beings.”

“I love autumn. It’s so much richer than spring.”
~
When a small group of people congregate at The Hollow, a country house with a strange feeling connected to it, no one expects one of the party to end up dead. Never the less the body is found by the pool, the spilt blood turning the pool water pink.

The entire party discover the body at the same time, a surprising extra member of this party is the world famous Belgian detective Hercule Poirot, who happens to be a neighbour of The Hollow.

Poirot gets to work trying to route out the murderer while the inhabitants of The Hollow try and adapt to this turn of events and manage their complex personal connections.
~
This was a really strong one, the suspense was excellently crafted the characters where complex and interesting and their relationships with each other where such a messy web you are never entirely sure what they are going to do next.

I think I particularly enjoyed it as we spent some time in the heads of the suspect’s which lead to a better understanding of their motives and more investment in their welfare.
~
I recommend this book for anyone who enjoys Christie’s more dramatic works. Also good for anyone who enjoys complex side characters and unusual social dynamics.

Content Warnings

tbjeremiah's review against another edition

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dark mysterious tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

Content Warnings

cherryvillegirl's review against another edition

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challenging mysterious sad slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

2.5

the January Read Christie 2021 book.

I have three main issues with this book, which impacted my rating the most, all of which are common with Christie's works, especially those with Poirot.

1. The victim and how he is portrayed.

He's awful. Let's just make that clear to begin with. He's a narcissist and an unfaithful husband, yet he's extolled as a wonderful man and doctor, which, to be fair, is a common occurrence with victims of narcissists. They often can't or won't see the awful things that are happening to them and only see the abuser as some magical, wonderful person that must be upheld as all that is good in the world, so I guess his portrayal is accurate. With this said, it's really frustrating to me to see him continually being portrayed in a positive light. Normally I'm sad about the death in a mystery novel, but I was honestly excited when this guy died.

2. The ending.

a common trope in Poirot novels is him acting as judge and allowing murderers to get away without facing justice. In this book, he let the murderer poison themselves without stepping in and stopping them, just so they wouldn't have to face justice. As much as I pitied the person, I don't like the idea of justice not playing out and this really frustrated me.

3. The pacing. It was so slow. I felt like it could have been cut in half and it would have upped the suspense tenfold. It's especially frustrating when it's revealed that he knew for a while whodunit, leaving me wishing they just revealed it sooner instead of playing games.

There were a few instances of twists that I enjoyed, but mostly I was bored and disappointed by this one.

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