So I don’t know if you guys remember my Bookish Confessions where I said “I’ve never read an Agatha Christie book and I don’t plan to”… well apparently I lied. Not intentionally, but because of a few eager comments on that post, my curiosity was sparked. And then, thanks to a *brilliant* review by my friend Lashaan over at Bookidote, I knew I had to read it!! I ended up picking it up in a bookshop, thinking “let’s see what all the fuss is about”, and, one thing led to another, I got hooked!
No word of a lie- I’m actually experiencing a bit of a slump here, so I hardly expected a murder mystery written over 80 years ago to do anything about that- yet I couldn’t for the life of me bring myself to put this book down.
First of all, I enjoyed the intriguing, somewhat atmospheric start. I found the characters vivid and delightfully drawn. I even found some of Poirot’s line’s chuckle worthy:
(I know in context it’s just to show how perceptive Poirot is- but c’mon, what a 21st century insult- I was instantly rooting for him after that)
I will admit, not being a big mystery reader, I was pretty clueless about what was going on in the middle and I won’t pretend I followed a lot of it. For me personally, I felt it lagged a little. Even so, plotwise, I wouldn’t criticise it for that, because in the end…
WOW what a finale!! It made everything worth it!! I can’t say anything because you *do not* want to be spoilt for it. But even I, as a mystery virgin, found myself going “ohhh” as the clues slotted into place. Little things that had me frowning early on suddenly had me smiling as it all made sense. What’s even more impressive is for a book of its age, it felt fresh and completely not what I expected. I never saw that coming.
Unbelievably (at least for me), reading this has completely changed my mind about checking out Christie’s work. I thoroughly enjoyed it.
Rating: 4/5 bananas
Have you read this? Did you enjoy it? And- I can’t believe I’m asking this- any other Agatha Christie books you can recommend? Let me know in the comments!