Reviews

The Monogram Murders by Sophie Hannah

uutopicaa's review against another edition

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5.0

Pero vayamos al texto en cuestión.

Para los que nunca han oído hablar de este libro y se preguntan de dónde salió, siendo que Agatha Christie está muerta, permítanme contarles.

Los crímenes del monograma es una novela escrita por Sophie Hannah, una autora británica apasionada por los casos de Poirot.

Quienes hemos leído la obra de Christie, sabemos que la autora llegó a darle un cierre a los casos de Poirot con “Curtain: Poirot’s Last Case”, sin embargo, esta nueva novela se sitúa en algún punto incierto en la vida del detective.

Aclaremos que esta NO ES la primera vez que un escritor moderno se toma el atrevimiento de volver a imaginar a Hercules Poirot y sus “Little gray cells”. Pero como supondrán, entre el montón de libros del estilo, este se destaca por su fidelidad a la obra original, al punto de hacer que el lector se olvide que no fue Christie quien escribió la novela.

Llevaba ya varios meses queriendo leer un buen policial. Me alegra haberlo encontrado.



LA HISTORIA
Obviamente no puedo contarles demasiado sin hacer algún tipo de spoiler, así que les diré lo mismo que la sinopsis, y quizás un poco más.

El libro empieza con Poirot, cenando como todos los jueves a la misma hora en un establecimiento llamado Pleasant. Esta rutinaria escena se ve interrumpida por la llegada de una mujer que parece estar agitada y asustada. Poirot, con curiosidad, le pregunta qué ocurre, a lo que ella simplemente le da un par de datos que no terminan de explicar la historia. Alguien podría matarla, y si lo hacen, ella no quiere que busquen al asesino. Eso es lo único que queda claro.

Luego, Poirot se encuentra con nuestro narador, un policía de Scotland Yard que acaba de llegar de la escena del crimen de un asesinato triple en un hotel de Londres.

De ahí en adelante, distintos personajes van sumándose y los hechos se van vislumbrando desde diferentes puntos de vista.



LO QUE MÁS ME GUSTÓ
El libro realmente parece escrito por Christie, aunque no me termina de cerrar la forma de narrar del detective de Scotland Yard porque es un inútil y hay un montón de cosas que no entiende y que me resultaron obvias.
Me encanta la forma en la cual se describe a Poirot y sus excentricidades.
La complejidad del caso es increíble. Tantos personajes, todo lo que ocurre, el pasado, el presente, alianzas, traiciones, es un enredo de lo más entretenido.



LO QUE MENOS ME GUSTÓ
Si bien el final fue en gran parte inesperado, la autora intentó llevarnos por una línea de pensamiento falsa (la que sigue el detective) que me molestó. Hasta el día de hoy, no hay un solo libro de Agatha Christie que me haya resultado predecible en lo más mínimo. Y sin embargo, en esta novela hay muchas cosas a las que pude adelantarme sin problema.



UNA CITA
“¿Cómo van a mejorar el mundo unos hombres que solo piensan en aplastar y destruir, y que no pueden hablar de sus sueños y esperanzas sin que el odio y el rencor desfiguren sus facciones? (…) Un movimiento impulsado por la ira y el resentimiento nunca cambiará nuestras vidas para mejor”



PREGUNTAS
¿Lo recomiendo? Totalmente
¿Me gustó? Mucho.
¿Es un buen libro? Es excelente.
¿Cumple con lo que promete? Completamente
¿Me gustaría que la autora continuara escribiendo a Poirot? Sí, extraño sus aventuras.

annashiv's review against another edition

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1.0

This was so bad. Definitely the worst mystery book I've ever read, which is all the more a crime since it is sanctioned by the Agatha Christie estate.

Catchpool is the most incompetent and unlikable detective I've ever read. He literally does nothing competent. And he's afraid of dead bodies essentially. Like, he's in the wrong field. He had no original thoughts. His only role was to keep repeating how he had no idea what was going on and refute Poirot's theories (which are always correct). What was the point of having him otherwise? Couldn't tell you.

Spoiler The plot twist/reveal involved one of my main gripes I had from the beginning of the book - the people were never verified to be who they checked in the hotel as. They never questioned if the witnesses who saw these people were all talking about the same person. It bothered me and it was important in this case, and it annoyed me that I caught on that from the beginning. Basically, if they had just done the most basic and obvious thing to establish from the beginning. If they had, the whole book would have fallen apart.


There is no subtlety or room for the reader to be smart or read between the lines. We are treated as dumb as Catchpool. The author carefully lays out everything in such a crude, transparent manner. And yet the one part she failed to lay out in a clear way was the end who-dun-it. It was disjointed, and far too detailed on points that didn't matter. Anyway, it was basically too much hand-holding and bad writing. No hints or clues were craftily hidden and pulled out later unexpectedly. You knew when something was a clue. It was just a matter of how it all fit together, which hinges on such convouted things like, they used this word in this order, so that MUST mean they meant this (several times). Or 'no one would do this in such a situation, where it is totally plausible some might.

Characters never felt real. They didn't act like real people. Their decisions and interpretations (especially in the village) were such caricatures and felt in no way natural or realistic.

The word that kept popping up in my mind almost every page was 'contrived.'
I have another book in the series by the author I got for like a dollar but I'm not going to bother wasting my time on it.

Did we really need more Poirot stories anyway? There are 47. And then there are more with Miss Marple and such. This did not need to exist.

readmore's review against another edition

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adventurous mysterious medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? It's complicated
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.0

monte_cristo's review against another edition

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mysterious slow-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Plot
  • Strong character development? No
  • Loveable characters? No
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? N/A

2.0

The book reads fairly well for the first half of it, but then takes a sharp downwards turn to the point that I really struggled to finish it. The ending is unnecessarily convoluted. 

kerrysj's review against another edition

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lighthearted relaxing fast-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Plot
  • Strong character development? N/A
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? N/A

3.0

nziam's review against another edition

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dark 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? It's complicated

2.75

korennn's review against another edition

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dark mysterious tense medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? No
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

tinysealoot's review against another edition

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1.0

British murder mysteries have me in a choke hold. This one was subpar only because it was over written and repetitive.

szilvicsanyi's review against another edition

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4.0

After a very slow start it turned out to be an interesting crime story. The puzzle and the end were satisfactory. Having read many Scandinavian crimes recently, I really enjoyed the lack of brutality and cruelty. I think the author managed to re-create Poirot's personality and conversational style, but I didn't like the character of Catchpool. Poirot's "assistants" were never this annoying in Agatha's books. All in all, if you've missed Poirot, it's worth reading.

jessitaylor012's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious sad tense medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Plot
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? N/A
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.0