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3.65 AVERAGE
3.65 AVERAGE
funny
mysterious
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
No
een paar fijne verhalen, Triangle at Rhodes is mijn favoriet.
I liked to see a few Poirot's short stories and get to see more of his work.
It was an okay book. All the cases were too short to be well-developed, so I felt it was a little underwhelming. Still, I was entertained.
Individual Ratings:
Murder in the Mews - 3.75 stars
The Incredible Theft - 3.25 stars
Dead Man's Mirror - 3.25 stars
Triangle at Rhodes - 3.25 star
Overall Rating: 3.25 stars
Murder in the Mews - 3.75 stars
The Incredible Theft - 3.25 stars
Dead Man's Mirror - 3.25 stars
Triangle at Rhodes - 3.25 star
Overall Rating: 3.25 stars
adventurous
mysterious
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:
No
Collection of short stories. One of the stories is one of Christie's Poirot-solves-crime-of-national-significance types. These are my least favorite. All the other stories are typical Poirot brilliance.
Four stars just because of the Triangle at Rhodes. I enjoyed the other three, but I loved how short, simple, and to the point Triangle at Rhodes was.
mysterious
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
“Why not, my friend? I tell you, me, I can suspect everybody!”
2.5 stars. This was a very competently written collection of stories. Christie never delivers anything less! But somehow, I had my nitpicks with all of them and the enjoyment just wasn't there, as it usually is when I read her novels. That might be a symptom of the fact that they are short stories, and I don't think I've ever liked any of her short story collections as much as I've liked the best of her novels. But also, I just have to admit that all of these stories just had some element that I found a little irritating or irksome. They were all really smart, really well-crafted, but by the end of each mystery, I was just kind of annoyed? So it's definitely down to personal preference and things that I enjoy and don't enjoy in stories. Poirot was so annoyingly judgemental, which isn't exactly new for him, with all of his ego, but somehow in this collection it just bothered me more than ever.
Spoiler time.
Spoiler
In "Murder in the Mews", the conclusion that it's ~ever so wrong~ to condemn a man to life in prison or to death after he literally just drove a woman to suicide made me roll my eyes, especially with the patronising way that Poirot delivered his judgement to Jane. Sorry, but I completely sympathise with her for wanting to avenge her friend. She was so smart about it, too! Woulda gotten away with it, if it weren't for that meddling egghead. In "The Incredible Theft", on the flipside, Poirot lets a man get away with a theft that could have international consequences, all because he apparently trusts that this man (who he's never met before!) is competent enough to have done what he said he did. Poirot apparently believes this guy's assertion that he will be sooooo instrumental to England and therefore, shouldn't be caught in a scandal. Okay dude. In "Dead Man's Mirror", the mother who makes this huge self-sacrificing decision, completely martyrs herself for a daughter who doesn't know she exists... I don't know. It's the kind of martyrdom that does not appeal to me. I don't have any huge complaints about "Triangle at Rhodes", it was fine, but I think at that point I was likely to find anything annoying, and so I did with Poirot's last speech about all the parties.So I don't know. Sometimes, I really love the way that Christie writes character interaction and how she crafts the personalities of all of these people who figure in her mysteries. In some ways she was so ahead of her time. But sometimes, as was the case in all of these short stories, I feel like she leans on some tropes and some stereotypes that I don't love. The mystery element of all of these was really great, and all of the solutions, even when I figured them out, were just so clever. But this is one of the cases where that wasn't enough to make up for my disappointment with the character stuff.
Listened to the audiobook as read by Nigel Hawthorne for the first story and Hugh Fraser for all of the rest. I say it all the time, so no offence to this Hawthorne guy: Hugh Fraser will always be the voice of Poirot to me. He's so effective as a narrator, and so convincing as Poirot. So I definitely preferred that narration. I'm really hoping that my disappointment with this is really mostly because of the short story format, and I will enjoy the rest of her novels more.