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mysterious
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
Content Warnings
Moderate: Death, Infidelity, Murder
Minor: Toxic relationship, Blood, Death of parent
adventurous
emotional
mysterious
tense
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:
Complicated
I think I have whiplash now
The narrator is a guy in his 30s who falls in love with a 17 year old who he thinks tried to kill her ex-boyfriend and he's just like I'll take that risk
Content Warnings
Minor: Adult/minor relationship, Death, Toxic relationship, Blood, Grief, Death of parent, Murder, War
adventurous
dark
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Content Warnings
Graphic: Body horror, Death, Violence, Blood, Murder
funny
lighthearted
mysterious
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
This was my third Hercule Poirot book, the first two being Murder on the Orient Express and Mysterious Affair at Styles. For some reason, I thought I’d read more, but I’m on a role now!
I did like this one—it has plenty of twists and the mystery was engaging. Poirot, as ever, is utterly amusing, and I greatly enjoyed his interactions and competition with Detective Giraud. It was also very readable, with short chapters and a fast-moving plot.
That being said, Hastings is so annoying in this book! He acts like a lovestruck teenager for most of it, and I really just wanted to give him a good thump on the head to knock some sense into him haha. Thankfully Poirot is there to make sure Hastings doesn’t derail the investigation too much. But seriously, he needs a better investigative buddy.
I watched the TV episode of this story soon after reading, and the changes they made had me laughing—but it made for good TV!
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death, Death of parent, Murder
Moderate: Sexism, Blood, Grief
Minor: Infidelity
dark
mysterious
medium-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
I liked this one pretty well. The story - both past and present - felt very familiar, so much so that I wondered if I had seen an adaptation years ago. There truly is tragedy in this one, even if the characters who die "had it coming" due to past or present villainy.
My favorite character was Cinderella/Bella/Dulcie, an underage manic pixie dream girl who eventually marries Hastings. Much like the surprise of meeting a Poirot already in retirement last book, this end game pairing caught me off guard so early in the series. Apparently Christie later agreed, because Cinderella is barely - if at all - mentioned in the Hastings stories ahead. How disappointing! Dulcie is such a bold, rascally, risk-taking character, with a love of true crime and acrobat skills to boot. She could have been a youthful, plucky third in at least a few of the Poirot/Hastings pairings ahead!
I also wish she weren't SO much younger than Hastings - that weird old womanizing stick in the mud. She's "little over seventeen," and he's at least 30 (his age in Styles). Speaking of Styles, it's interesting how Christie covers that topic: she references it almost immediately, but without giving anything (other than the initial death) away for someone who hasn't read it yet.
My favorite character was Cinderella/Bella/Dulcie, an underage manic pixie dream girl who eventually marries Hastings. Much like the surprise of meeting a Poirot already in retirement last book, this end game pairing caught me off guard so early in the series. Apparently Christie later agreed, because Cinderella is barely - if at all - mentioned in the Hastings stories ahead. How disappointing! Dulcie is such a bold, rascally, risk-taking character, with a love of true crime and acrobat skills to boot. She could have been a youthful, plucky third in at least a few of the Poirot/Hastings pairings ahead!
I also wish she weren't SO much younger than Hastings - that weird old womanizing stick in the mud. She's "little over seventeen," and he's at least 30 (his age in Styles). Speaking of Styles, it's interesting how Christie covers that topic: she references it almost immediately, but without giving anything (other than the initial death) away for someone who hasn't read it yet.
“Do you remember the Styles Case?” I asked.
“Let me see, was that the old lady who was poisoned? Somewhere down in Essex?”
I nodded.
“That was Poirot’s first big case. Undoubtedly, but for him, the murderer would have escaped scot-free. It was a most wonderful bit of detective work.”
Warming to my subject, I ran over the heads of the affair, working up to the triumphant and unexpected dénouement.
So who knows how much time has passed. Near that section, Hastings, as narrator, announces, "Now I am old-fashioned. A woman, I consider, should be womanly. I have no patience with the modern neurotic girl who jazzes from morning to night, smokes like a chimney, and uses language which would make a Billingsgate fishwoman blush!" This particular misogyny is hypocritical, given his immediate attraction to and eventual romance with a woman who does all of the above. The concept of "jazz[ing] morning til night" is now hilarious, and Hastings, as in Styles, is at his funniest while trying to be galant with ladies. The scene where Hastings gives Cinderella time to escape by fending off Poirot is especially funny:
It was a sound in the doorway that made us look up. Poirot was standing there looking at us.
I did not hesitate. With a bound I reached him and pinioned his arms to his sides.
“Quick,” I said to the girl. “Get out of here. As fast as you can. I’ll hold him.”
With one look at me, she fled out of the room past us. I held Poirot in a grip of iron.
“Mon ami,” observed the latter mildly, “you do this sort of thing very well. The strong man holds me in his grasp and I am helpless as a child. But all this is uncomfortable and slightly ridiculous. Let us sit down and be calm.”
The combination of awkwardness, earnestness, sarcasm, and homoeroticism (“It is that you have the strength of a bull when you are roused, Hastings!") adds fun to an otherwise rather grim murder mystery.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Death, Blood, Grief, Death of parent, Murder, Injury/Injury detail
dark
funny
mysterious
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Content Warnings
Graphic: Murder
Minor: Misogyny, Blood
Not her best mystery, but given that it's one of the earliest Poirots, perhaps that's to be expected. The French law enforcement were pretty flat as characters, and there's just the general feeling that Ms. Christie hadn't quite gotten into the swing of it yet (which she did, of course, go on to do better than pretty much everyone). Seemed to go on a bit and felt convoluted. Hastings is also in peak ninny-Watson mode.
lighthearted
mysterious
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
No
I liked how the trope was turned around by the end. I did guess some of the plot points but I enjoyed the denouement.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Ableism, Misogyny, Blood, Murder
dark
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
This is my second Agatha Christie book (after Murder on the Orient Express of course), and I really did enjoy the intrigue. How she was able to come up with such a good murder plot is beyond me. And she reveals clues and revelations at just the correct moment to keep you interested and also completely in the dark around the true events of the murder. (Either that or I am the most perfectly stupid reader she could have asked for).
I enjoyed the closeness that a first person narrative supplied over a third person narrative, but I found Hastings himself was rather annoying and stupid. I hope other companions of Poirot in other books are better. Regardless of Hastings irritating manor, I enjoyed following a narrator who was at least 5 steps behind Poirot at all times, as it meant Poirot's reveals were all the sweeter: it would have been ruined if Poirot himself had been the narrator.
Each new piece of evidence brought me further and further from the truth, when in reality, my first assumption over the killer had been the correct one all along. However, by the time I reached the end, I think I had assumed almost everyone to have committed the crime! A brilliantly thought out, non-violent murder mystery was exactly what I had wanted and was exactly what I received.
I enjoyed the closeness that a first person narrative supplied over a third person narrative, but I found Hastings himself was rather annoying and stupid. I hope other companions of Poirot in other books are better. Regardless of Hastings irritating manor, I enjoyed following a narrator who was at least 5 steps behind Poirot at all times, as it meant Poirot's reveals were all the sweeter: it would have been ruined if Poirot himself had been the narrator.
Each new piece of evidence brought me further and further from the truth, when in reality, my first assumption over the killer had been the correct one all along. However, by the time I reached the end, I think I had assumed almost everyone to have committed the crime! A brilliantly thought out, non-violent murder mystery was exactly what I had wanted and was exactly what I received.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Confinement, Death, Blood, Kidnapping, Grief, Murder, Injury/Injury detail
mysterious
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
a solid Christie, didn't realise this was the 2nd Poirot! didn't guess the ending (i never have, for a christie) and i like hastings as a foil and fresh narrative perspective.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death, Blood
Moderate: Death of parent
Minor: Sexism