3.72 AVERAGE

adventurous challenging dark funny inspiring mysterious reflective sad fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven: A mix
Strong character development: Yes
Loveable characters: Complicated
Diverse cast of characters: Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus: Complicated
inspiring mysterious medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven: Plot
Strong character development: No
Loveable characters: No
Diverse cast of characters: Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus: No
adventurous lighthearted 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: No
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: Complicated

I have to say BAH!.
Don't get me wrong. It's a cool story, easy to follow, small cast where the vast majority are women an so on.. my main problem is that; this was supposed to be a Poirot novel yet it was page 160 and he was still not there. It's absurd. If you have been reading my reviews you know that Christie, as she writes more and more Poirot she became sick of him. She wanted to do something else, write more Miss Marple or other characters but the publishers wanted money so she wrote more Poirot. And the last 3 or 4 it shows that. He arrives late, barely there and basically solves the crime with little to none inconvenience. It's super easy - feeling almost all people around him to be plain dumb. Police and detectives are so bad doing their job , compare with a guy now what? 70? Is more smart than any of them.

Oh well, I will be glad to finish the series.. and that's a shame. 7/10

neerajpatki's review against another edition

DID NOT FINISH: 14%

Will get back to it, no time
mysterious fast-paced

The start of this felt very different to the other Poirot books in that it had a sort of spy plot, which I'm still not sure about. I thought some of the (white) characters in this were especially memorable and developed, specifically Julia, my favourite, plus Miss Bulstrode and Miss Chadwick who were the most canon lesbian couple ever; sadly some of the characters' motivations were cliche and stereotypical. The mystery was again ingenious but I was put off by the blatant racism.
mysterious medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven: Plot
Strong character development: No
Diverse cast of characters: No
lighthearted mysterious slow-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