Reviews with content warning for Drug abuse - Third Girl: A Hercule Poirot Mystery

While I think the angle Christie takes here is interesting in theory, investigating a confession with seemingly no crime to back it up, it's clear much of the novel is her spinning wheels until she finally conjures a solution to wrap things neatly in a bow. When things move, they have that Poirot charm, but it takes a lot of build up and repetition to get there.

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ran_sophia's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional mysterious sad tense fast-paced

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

5.0

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novi's review

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mysterious slow-paced

Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.5

I was reading this along with one other cozy mystery book. Compared to that book, Third Girl is much more interesting to read, I have to give that to Christie. But it's just so insufferable.

1. It's so slow. Even until around 70% we still don't know what this book is about. Is it about a murder case? Espionage?

2. Poirot is CONSTANTLY thinking here. There's a chapter solely dedicated to his thinking and endless questioning. I really did not enjoy that pointless tangent. I mean I hate when he's being all mysterious and not saying what he's thinking, but I also hate when all he did was thinking but it's going nowhere and it didn't give anything new to the readers.

3. I hate the characters. It might be a personal taste, but characters like Norma is just so annoying for me to read (similar character: the woman in "The Woman in the Window". I can't stand them.). It's not the unreliability, but they're just ga jelas anjir.

4. On the other hand, I really like some of the characters here. Ariadne Oliver is my comfort character. I always love her whenever she's in the book. Probably because finally there's someone that is not Hastings and not a cop that we can fully trust. And the other character that I really like here is a doctor. I think this is the first time I found a character like this in Christie's universe. BUT. His ending. It ruins everything for me!!!! I really hate Christie's heteronormative fantasy. I HATE. IT. WHYYYY.

5. The twist is farfetched but I've read so much of Christie's book that I already half predicted it

that it will involve someone is actually not someone we thought they were, and nobody. NOBODY. realized it before Poirot.

It's one of Christie's favorite tropes.

6. I honestly just read this because Miss Lemon appears here. Why didn't she appear in every book?? Her job is my dream job.

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ani00's review against another edition

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3.75

I'll say I kind of half guessed this one lol. it's different from other poirots, it's modernized, but imo it works in this particular book. maybe i just like when they're more character focused. I liked when poirot got called old and just had to be overly dramatic about it

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