I read all (or almost…) of Agatha Christie’s mysteries in my teens and it’s been years since I picked up one of these Poirot mysteries. I was really glad when it was decided to do a group reading of this one at the CozyMystery group. I’m a bit late as this should have been in the beginning of the month and I just finished it yesterday but oh well…
I enjoyed it very much. It’s had been so long since I first read it that I had totally forgotten who the murder was. I started to have some suspicions by the middle of the book, more because of what kept coming to mind from the previous read than from any clues Poirot mentioned.
First of all I like the small time atmosphere. It’s so much fun when there are big mysteries in close knit community where everyone knows everyone else and because of that anyone has a theory about who the guilty part might be. I think I missed having Hastings around, Dr Sheppard somehow was not the same thing (and the end would prove me right…) but I really liked Caroline Sheppard’s character. It seems common knowledge that she was what inspired the Miss Marple character and I thought she was a lot of fun always knowing everything, even when she didn’t leave the house.
I thought the plot twist in the end was really original. I love those reunions Poirot sets with all the suspects while he takes the leading role and explains who did what. I believe this is the only book in which he doesn’t reveal the guilty person during that meeting (correct me if I’m wrong please).
This read also made me want to pick all my old Christie’s and reread them again. I think they are truly comfort reads. If I didn’t have such a big TBR pile I would read them all again. An A-.
I read a Portuguese edition which has 2 books, this one and The Secret of Chimneys. Maybe I wont resist that one for long. And the cover shown here is not the one I read since I couldn't find it online and I thought David Suchet looks really good as Poirot on TV so I chose this one with him.
As you know, I'm a huge Agatha Christie fan, too. I read most of this author's books years ago, and I've been rereading them, but I haven't got to TMORA yet.
ReplyDeleteI remember being SO shocked when I first read it! It was almost 20 years ago, when I was probably around 11 or 12, and since this was long before the internet, I had no idea this particular book was supposed to be remarkable in any way.
Re: those final scenes we get in almost all Poirot books, I love them, too! Did you finally start JD Robb's In Death, series? Because one of them, Witness in Death, is a homage to Christie, and it's got one of those! *g*
Oh I didn't know that! Well I've been promising to start the JD Robb books for so long now that I really have no excuse not to pick them up next.
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