Reviews - Sad Cypress | The StoryGraph

1.18k reviews for:

Sad Cypress

Agatha Christie

3.82 AVERAGE

bookaneer808's review against another edition

3.0

mysterious tense medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Plot

Strong character development: No

Loveable characters: No

Diverse cast of characters: No

Flaws of characters a main focus: Complicated

Enjoyable whodunnit

librarianmilner's review against another edition

3.5

mysterious sad medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Plot

Strong character development: No

Diverse cast of characters: No

sofiabc4's review against another edition

4.5

mysterious fast-paced

Plot or Character Driven: A mix

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: Yes

Diverse cast of characters: No

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

readingthroughthelists's review against another edition

3.5

mysterious tense slow-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Character

Strong character development: Complicated

Loveable characters: Complicated

Diverse cast of characters: No

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

The mystery at the core of Sad Cypress is pretty good, but I think the commitment to linear storytelling works against the novel as a whole. The first half of the book is very slow going and I don’t find any of the characters particularly compelling save Mary (RIP Mary, you deserved better). Things pick up in the second half, especially once the trial commences, but if the book had had these courtroom scenes scattered throughout, then the facts of the crime could have been presented in a more interesting way and possibly given us more insight into Eleanor.

Speaking of…Eleanor just doesn’t work for me as a character. I understand that her whole vibe is being cold and aloof, keeping her cards close to the chest, but this also prevents us, the readers, from really getting to know or understand her. She’s just kind of weird (though not as weird as the 2003 ITV adaptation; that girl is *bonkers*).

irisfang's review against another edition

4.0

mysterious medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: A mix

Diverse cast of characters: No

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

Enjoyed this one a lot.

I figured out fairly early on that Mary must have been Welman's daughter, but I did NOT figure out how, exactly, that led to her death.

I'm not entirely sure Christie "played fair" by the reader (i.e. gave us all the clues to work out all the twists and reasoning), but that's partly on me for getting so caught up in the story that I just powered through it. There was a nice red herring that definitely stole my attention for a bit, so props to Christie for that. I went through the whole book like "is it REALLY possible that Elinor's not guilty?" and honestly wasn't sure one way or another until the very end (until Poirot graces us with all his thinking.)

Side note - there's a lot of musings on love and marriage in this book, and I do wonder if any of it was impacted by Christie's own life - the idea that someone you can be happy with is better than intense, passionate love. Funnily enough, I often have issues with how Christie goes about wrapping up books romantically, but this is one time where I wouldn't be opposed to the two characters possibly getting together/getting married.