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bookishandlegal's review against another edition
adventurous
mysterious
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
The Hollow was the January pick for the Read Christie 2021 challenge so I decided to pick it up. This wasn't one that I had heard of before, but it's a Hercule Poirot book and I just love his character. Like most Christie books this was a quick read and I read the whole thing in a few hours.
This one started super slow and there was a lot of background about the characters that seemed really unnecessary and drawn out. The background, buildup took almost a third of the book and I was itching to get to the murder part of the story. The extensive background on the characters did end up being important to the murder mystery, but while reading the build up was long. Once the story got to the murder and trying to figure that out the plot really picked up and I flew through the rest of the story. The murder was incredibly well written and I didn't see any of the twists coming. There were numerous red herrings and false trails throughout the investigation which kept me guessing of who the actual murderer was through the very end.
My one complaint is the Hercule Poirot seemed to play a back seat role in this book. He wasn't heavily involved in the murder investigation and seemed to be secondary in the investigation. Even though he ended up figuring out the mystery before anyone else did, we didn't get to see inside his thought process or him working through the mystery as much as I would have liked. Another solid Agatha Christie book marked off the list!
Content Warnings
Graphic: Murder
sheryl_reads's review against another edition
mysterious
sad
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
3.0
This was my first Agatha Christie novel - I went in expecting a detective mystery and I wasn’t disappointed!
The Hollow is fairly short, so it’s a good place to start I think. It’s a Hercule Poirot story, but he doesn’t appear til quite far in! It’s a murder mystery and, of course, Poirot gets to the bottom of it!
The end was definitely unexpected, it kept me guessing the whole way through, and the pacing and writing were very good.
As I expected, the story was a little ‘jolly hockey sticks’ - full of upper class British people who don’t have jobs, and who inherit estates and don’t know what to do with themselves. However, unlike some older stories like that, the characters weren’t boring and I didn’t find myself getting frustrated by them.
Overall, I really enjoyed this one and I’ll be reading more Christie over the year. I give it 3 ⭐️ - a very enjoyable read.
I will put a caveat on this however. There is language and descriptions within the book that are offensive. The books are older and I’ve no doubt it’s in keeping with other books of the period, but it does warrant mentioning it. I found it very jarring and it’s definitely something to be aware of before reading.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Blood, Death, Emotional abuse, Gun violence, Murder, Racism, Racial slurs, Religious bigotry, Sexism, Suicide, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide attempt, and Toxic relationship
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