Reviews tagging 'Child death'

Hallowe'en party by Agatha Christie

142 reviews

dark mysterious slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven: Plot
Strong character development: No
Loveable characters: Yes
Diverse cast of characters: No
Flaws of characters a main focus: No

Reading this book made me want to read more complex mystery stories like Christie’s work, but this book has some downfalls. The dialogue was very repetitive and contained a lot of tasteless assumptions that were common during the time period. But people went on and on about how delinquent the youth of the day were and how mentally unstable people were roaming the streets because asylums had no space and blaming all the murders on one or the other population. It was tedious, insensitive, and happened so often throughout the book. I also felt like the pacing was generally slow but consistent until the last 30 pages when the story ramped up and then you were still learning facts about the mystery on the last page of the book. It ended too abruptly for me. I love how all the details came together, especially all the scapegoats and red herrings, but the story itself had a lot of filler in the form of insensitive and ridiculous comments.

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mysterious slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven: Plot
Strong character development: Yes
Loveable characters: Yes
Diverse cast of characters: No
Flaws of characters a main focus: Complicated

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Expand filter menu Content Warnings
mysterious slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven: Character
Strong character development: No
Loveable characters: Complicated
Diverse cast of characters: No
Flaws of characters a main focus: No

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adventurous dark mysterious 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

This is a Hercule Poirot mystery. Poirot is now elderly. There is a Halloween party for a group of children in an English town. One of the children is murdered at the party. A famous author, who is a friend of Poirot, was at the party. She asks Poirot to come to the town the party took place in to help solve the mystery. A former police inspector, who also is a friend of Poirot, lives in this town. The author and the former police inspector assist Poirot. I found most of the people Poirot interacted with insufferable and irritating. It was interesting seeing how Poirot interviewed people and solved the mystery. Although I found part of the motivation for the murder a bit of a stretch, I did think the solution of the mystery was a clever one. Overall, I enjoyed the book. It doesn't make me particularly motivated to read more Agatha Christie books though.

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mysterious medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven: A mix
Strong character development: Complicated
Loveable characters: Complicated
Diverse cast of characters: No
Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

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dark mysterious tense fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven: Plot
Strong character development: No
Loveable characters: No
Diverse cast of characters: No
Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

I fucking guessed it, I am a detective at this point

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adventurous dark mysterious fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven: Plot
Strong character development: No
Loveable characters: No
Diverse cast of characters: No
Flaws of characters a main focus: No

Not my favourite. I found this predictable and over repetitive. 

Expand filter menu Content Warnings
mysterious slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven: A mix
Strong character development: No
Diverse cast of characters: No

Expand filter menu Content Warnings
dark mysterious 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: No

Expand filter menu Content Warnings