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3.72 AVERAGE
3.72 AVERAGE
mysterious
medium-paced
mysterious
tense
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
was my first christie ever, and im still hooked x :)
adventurous
mysterious
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
N/A
Middle of the road - didn't feel like a Poirot story to me, even when he eventually showed up.
dark
mysterious
medium-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:
No
mysterious
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
Even though i have seen the film adaptation of this book a couple of times i can never remember the killer after a few years and even suspect the wrong people. It's a simple mystery that ends in a satisfying way and everything makes sense but it's not the best book by the author. Still would recommend if you like Agatha's books.
I like the espionage hijinks of this novel, although the plot never reaches the thrills of author Agatha Christie's stories that are more focused in that domain, such as those in her Tommy and Tuppence series. And the setting of a high-society finishing school for girls is pleasantly distinctive for the writer too. But overall, this is a rather poor mystery, with a perfunctory string of murders beginning about a third of the way through the text and Hercule Poirot only swooping in at the 70% mark to solve everything.
The problem is, while it's fun to watch the jewels of a fictional Middle Eastern country get passed around from one secret location to another, that part of the action is all relatively straightforward and easy to track. The single element puzzling to readers is the matter of which characters should or shouldn't be trusted at face value, and the ultimate solutions to those questions tend to rely on extreme coincidence and the detective's thinly-supported deductions, which seem like they could have easily gone in a different direction. It's better as a simple spy caper than as a true showcase of the investigator's wits.
[Content warning for gun violence, sexism, and racism.]
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The problem is, while it's fun to watch the jewels of a fictional Middle Eastern country get passed around from one secret location to another, that part of the action is all relatively straightforward and easy to track. The single element puzzling to readers is the matter of which characters should or shouldn't be trusted at face value, and the ultimate solutions to those questions tend to rely on extreme coincidence and the detective's thinly-supported deductions, which seem like they could have easily gone in a different direction. It's better as a simple spy caper than as a true showcase of the investigator's wits.
[Content warning for gun violence, sexism, and racism.]
Like this review?
--Throw me a quick one-time donation here!
https://ko-fi.com/lesserjoke
--Subscribe here to support my writing and weigh in on what I read next!
https://patreon.com/lesserjoke
--Follow along on Goodreads here!
https://www.goodreads.com/user/show/6288479-joe-kessler
--Or click here to browse through all my previous reviews!
https://lesserjoke.home.blog
I went into this book expecting a Hercule Poirot mystery, and he played such a small part in the novel that I was honestly disappointed. I also felt like it was more of an "action" novel than a mystery because of how the events played out and the way the intention of the murderer was made clear from the beginning. And I know it's an old book, so I can't really expect better, but I was kind of disappointed about the commentary about people from the Middle East.
The book was really different from most other mysteries that I've read in the way that it was structured; we were given a lot of (sometimes unnecessary) background information and ended up knowing more than the detectives themselves, which has very rarely been the case in most Agatha Christie novels that I've read. Overall, it is an entertaining read for Agatha Christie fans but not one that I would recommend to new readers, and it is a book that I'll probably forget in the next few weeks.
The book was really different from most other mysteries that I've read in the way that it was structured; we were given a lot of (sometimes unnecessary) background information and ended up knowing more than the detectives themselves, which has very rarely been the case in most Agatha Christie novels that I've read. Overall, it is an entertaining read for Agatha Christie fans but not one that I would recommend to new readers, and it is a book that I'll probably forget in the next few weeks.