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3.63 AVERAGE
3.63 AVERAGE
adventurous
mysterious
Strong character development:
No
One evening in the middle of winter, the residents of Sittaford House and their guests host a seance. The message reveals the Captain Trevelyan is dead! But is this just a macabre joke? Despite the snow, one of the guests sets out on foot for locate the Captain.
This was a standalone murder mystery. This book followed the efforts of Inspector Naracot and Emily Trefusis - the accused's fiancé.
As always, the cast of characters and suspects were varied and interesting, each lending something different to the story: Burnaby - a retired military man; Violet Willet - now occupying Sittaford House; Ronnie Garfield - a bumbling lad looking to get in his aunt's good side for the inheritance. Despite some of them getting very little page time, I thought the community around Sittaford was well developed and believable.
The murder itself had me stumped. I did not guess the culprit. I found the clues weren't as well laid out in this story. This book focussed much more on the police work of the inspector and the nosiness of Emily. There were a lot of half-finished thoughts as the characters investigated, making it hard for the reader to follow the process. That being said, the solution once revealed was simple and the murder well thought out.
This was a standalone murder mystery. This book followed the efforts of Inspector Naracot and Emily Trefusis - the accused's fiancé.
As always, the cast of characters and suspects were varied and interesting, each lending something different to the story: Burnaby - a retired military man; Violet Willet - now occupying Sittaford House; Ronnie Garfield - a bumbling lad looking to get in his aunt's good side for the inheritance. Despite some of them getting very little page time, I thought the community around Sittaford was well developed and believable.
The murder itself had me stumped. I did not guess the culprit. I found the clues weren't as well laid out in this story. This book focussed much more on the police work of the inspector and the nosiness of Emily. There were a lot of half-finished thoughts as the characters investigated, making it hard for the reader to follow the process. That being said, the solution once revealed was simple and the murder well thought out.
lighthearted
mysterious
relaxing
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
People don't generally move from somewhere warm in winter to somewhere wintry. But two of the characters in this story do, to everyone's puzzlement. But they're not even the most interesting characters in this mystery. That honour goes to Emily Trefusis who, after Captain Trevelyan is murdered and her fiancé is charged, embarks on her own investigation of all the potential suspects, roping in a reporter and using her wits, intelligence and lots of logic. This isn't a Marple or Poirot story, and this time the Police Inspector is a pretty smart guy. Emily and Inspector Naracott conduct their respective investigations, eventually pooling their knowledge together, and I was surprised by who the murderer was.
Great winter read! I listened to the audio version and the narrator was excellent, doing all the accents.
funny
mysterious
medium-paced
This was a fairly quick interesting little mystery, though the characterisation made more of an impression than the murder plot. Many of the characters were larger than life and stereotypically presented. There are a lot of bossy women, and a lot of snide comments about men being ‘managed’ which haven’t really stood the test of time. I couldn’t really tell if it was serious or a satire of itself.
Because there are so many different characters and everyone is trying to solve the case either independently or as a group it did get quite repetitive as the same facts were gone over again and again. When we did discover the culprit and the motive it kind of fell flat, as it was as interesting as I thought it could have been.
Because there are so many different characters and everyone is trying to solve the case either independently or as a group it did get quite repetitive as the same facts were gone over again and again. When we did discover the culprit and the motive it kind of fell flat, as it was as interesting as I thought it could have been.
7/10
A slow start - maybe not so much in terms of action than in terms of introducing the central characters to the investigation. This made me feel rather detached for the first third of the book. Things really start moving forward once Emily is introduced: the girlfriend of the accused, and one of these strong and determined young women that Christie had a knack for, she reminded me of Tuppence and Bundle.
I really enjoyed the investigation as it progressed - all our main suspects are outside Sittaford, but so many mysteries are linked back to it, plenty of unexpected connections come to light and we get to a point where anyone might have been involved.
But then the ending felt a little bit rushed and the actual culprit wasn't entirely surprising, hence the rounding down.
A slow start - maybe not so much in terms of action than in terms of introducing the central characters to the investigation. This made me feel rather detached for the first third of the book. Things really start moving forward once Emily is introduced: the girlfriend of the accused, and one of these strong and determined young women that Christie had a knack for, she reminded me of Tuppence and Bundle.
I really enjoyed the investigation as it progressed - all our main suspects are outside Sittaford, but so many mysteries are linked back to it, plenty of unexpected connections come to light and we get to a point where anyone might have been involved.
But then the ending felt a little bit rushed and the actual culprit wasn't entirely surprising, hence the rounding down.
adventurous
lighthearted
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
Any Agatha Christie is enjoyable, especially when narrated by the wonderful Hugh Fraser, but this one didn't work for me as well as usual. The simple reason is that I developed an irrational dislike of the heroine Emily Trefusis. It's a pity, because I loved the nicely spooky beginning, when a light-hearted game of table-turning turns serious when the spirits announce that a man has been murdered. And the plot is good, relying on being able to work out how the murder was done, which of course I didn't. Not sure why poor Emily annoyed me so much. I usually love Christie's spirited independent-minded heroines, like Tuppence Beresford or Lucy Eylesbarrow. I think it was that I felt Emily was being unfair, either to her fiancé, who is the chief suspect, or to Charles, the journalist whom Emily flirts with to get him to agree to help her find the murderer. But it's not a big deal, and most people seem to love Emily, so don't let me put you off. Otherwise a fun read, and with its snowy setting on Dartmoor, perfect for winter reading.
lighthearted
mysterious
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No