Reviews

This one is a fairly fun if a little bland Christie mystery. Poirot is back yet again, but he seems a little tired. I guess it's good he's staying busy and keeping his mind sharp, and growing marrows in the country wasn't his thing, but he tried to retire and people just keep bothering him. Maybe he could open a school to teach younger generations to solve mysteries and grow elaborate mustaches so they can fend for themselves eventually.

kiwiflan97's review against another edition

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funny mysterious tense slow-paced

5.0

missmethven's review against another edition

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mysterious fast-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? Yes

4.0

This was my first literary foray into the world of Agatha Christie and it was a fantastic start - this book really shows why she is a national treasure!

I loved the slow unfolding of the characters, I loved the signature way the author drops in plenty of circumstances that make you doubt each character and subtle little clues that make you think ‘how did I miss that?!’

I tried to guess and whittled it down to two possibles but was ultimately wrong because of the fantastic twist right at the very end

A really great book

Content Warnings

linaandthebooks's review against another edition

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mysterious medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? No
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.0

ivory_cassano's review against another edition

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dark funny mysterious tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

5.0

lumierewhispers's review against another edition

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dark funny mysterious medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot

3.0

katykelly's review against another edition

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3.0

I saw that this was being included in the 2014 World Book Night selection, so I thought I'd try it. I'm not much of a 'whodunnit' fan, spending the whole book on the lookout for clues.

In true Christie style, a detective is called in to assist after a funeral of the head of a wealthy family appears to lead directly to his sister's brutal murder. The sister who was heard to say quite clearly that her brother was murdered. But with such a large family, who could be guilty?

Poirot himself only makes his first appearance halfway through, much of the initial detective work done by a family lawyer and an employee of Poirot. The famous detective only plays a larger role in the third act, when he (surprise surprise) brings all the suspects together for questioning and revelation.

It all seems to follow convention, and is quite enjoyable to guess and find the clues. As a one-off for me I enjoyed the experience but I'm not going to be reading the genre any more regularly. Characters are fairly flimsy, not a huge amount happens. It all follows a predictable pattern of structure that I think I would find personally a little tedious on repetition.

I wasn't too keen on Poirot, myself. Didn't warm to him as a detective and in this example I didn't find him well-written, maybe in other plots he has more back story and well-rounded appearance. I seem to remember liking him more in 'Death on the Nile' and 'Murder on the Orient Express', and preferring Christie's books with no series stalwart detective.

Still, it's a good way to while away a couple of hours, and as usual, the murderer isn't obvious.

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