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A review by pn_hinton
The Agatha Christie Book Club by C.A. Larmer
2.0
I am an Agatha Christie fan, which is why this book intrigued me when I bought it months ago. I recently got around to reading it because I was in the mood for a good mystery and it seemed it would fit the bill.
The premise of this book was promising and it did start off that way as well. However, early on, it became very jumbled. Part of this was due to the multiple ‘mysteries’ introduced. Another factor was the constant changes in the points of views. This was not a seamless change, sometimes occurring in the very same paragraph. So in some spots it was hard to keep up. The writing style also seemed to change in the middle of the book, to the point of almost being corny or juvenile. These were all adults but after about 25%, it read like it was for a younger reading age.
There were also red herrings galore, which is to be expected in a mystery. But even Christie didn’t have as many as this novel did in any of her novels. While I know this was done to make the mysteries more intriguing it came across as annoying after a while. The characters were all stereotypical archetypes. This made it hard to get to know or really like them. What few pieces of insight into their character that were shown seemed out of place when they were revealed and came across as trying to be filler. I am not inclined to read the rest of the series to see if these get further developed.
I’ve read far worse mysteries, but consequently I’ve read better. This was also a bit of a "meh" book for me. The big reveal at the end wasn’t that surprising all things considered especially with all the indicators throughout the novel. This is a book that I likely will not read again.
The premise of this book was promising and it did start off that way as well. However, early on, it became very jumbled. Part of this was due to the multiple ‘mysteries’ introduced. Another factor was the constant changes in the points of views. This was not a seamless change, sometimes occurring in the very same paragraph. So in some spots it was hard to keep up. The writing style also seemed to change in the middle of the book, to the point of almost being corny or juvenile. These were all adults but after about 25%, it read like it was for a younger reading age.
There were also red herrings galore, which is to be expected in a mystery. But even Christie didn’t have as many as this novel did in any of her novels. While I know this was done to make the mysteries more intriguing it came across as annoying after a while. The characters were all stereotypical archetypes. This made it hard to get to know or really like them. What few pieces of insight into their character that were shown seemed out of place when they were revealed and came across as trying to be filler. I am not inclined to read the rest of the series to see if these get further developed.
I’ve read far worse mysteries, but consequently I’ve read better. This was also a bit of a "meh" book for me. The big reveal at the end wasn’t that surprising all things considered especially with all the indicators throughout the novel. This is a book that I likely will not read again.