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3.92 AVERAGE
3.92 AVERAGE
mysterious
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
Hercule Poirot is holidaying on the Cornish coast where he meets a young woman, Magdala 'Nick' Buckley who, he learns, has been involved in several curious accidents recently. Poirot deduces that her life is in danger although on the face of it there is no reason anyone should want her dead. Poirot is determined to keep Nick safe, but when a party is held at her home at End House, a murder takes place.
A cleverly crafted story, which I enjoyed. I loved the delapidated old country house setting with its "atmosphere of evil" as one character refers to it. Nick fascinated me from the start, as did the other 'bright young things' in her circle of friends. I read it in just a couple of sittings, really didn't want to put it down until I knew who the culprit was and why. My hunch proved correct as to who, but the explanation of why and how they went about it was pretty ingenious.
As with many Christie books, you need to be prepared for some political incorrectness (one character says of another - "He's a jew, of course, but a frightfully decent one.") Thankfully, attitudes have moved on since 1932.
A cleverly crafted story, which I enjoyed. I loved the delapidated old country house setting with its "atmosphere of evil" as one character refers to it. Nick fascinated me from the start, as did the other 'bright young things' in her circle of friends. I read it in just a couple of sittings, really didn't want to put it down until I knew who the culprit was and why. My hunch proved correct as to who, but the explanation of why and how they went about it was pretty ingenious.
As with many Christie books, you need to be prepared for some political incorrectness (one character says of another - "He's a jew, of course, but a frightfully decent one.") Thankfully, attitudes have moved on since 1932.
dark
mysterious
tense
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
adventurous
challenging
mysterious
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
dark
mysterious
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
There is a reason Agatha Christie is the master of the mystery, she is just so darn good at creating clever mysteries with endings you don’t see coming . This only critique I have is that the book has some of the casual anti-semitism that is present in many of her books.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Antisemitism
funny
mysterious
relaxing
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
Book fifteen in my personal read through of Agatha Christie in publication order! The mystery was especially good and hard to predict in this one. If the characters were more likeable it might have been in the running to be one of my all time favorites. Though I did find Hastings more tolerable than usual in this one!
Content Warnings
Moderate: Grief, Murder
Minor: Addiction, Cancer, Drug abuse, Infidelity, Suicide
Good mistery,loved Poirot and Hastings banter and friendship. Little warning for slight misogony and one of comment of antisemitism
Content Warnings
Minor: Death, Drug abuse, Drug use, Gun violence, Misogyny, Suicide, Xenophobia, Antisemitism, Grief
adventurous
challenging
mysterious
tense
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
mysterious
tense
fast-paced
A girl who can’t figure out who is trying to murder her because she thinks she’s too boring for anyone to bother to kill her is such a good premise – instantly captivating! And then this book is such an adventure!
This is exactly what I've been looking for in my Agatha Christie audiobook escapades: a very good mystery featuring an intriguing cast of characters, a really distinctive setting, and an endless maze of twists and turns (each of which feels thoroughly earned). It is very well-paced and very addictive.
Unusually for a Poirot case (I think? At least, it's unusual in my experience), every detail of Poirot's thought process is laid out right in front of us. By that, I mean Poirot literally writes out all his theories down on a piece of paper and shows it to Hastings.
Because Hastings is privy to the inner workings of Poirot’s mind here, I managed to mostly solve this case partway through – and I didn’t care that I figured it out because (a) it felt like such a fitting resolution, and (b) it did not detract from how exciting it was to witness everything get unfurled.
Poirot and Hastings’ dynamic is rich and really quite lovely here – though Poirot is SUCH a bitch in this book, despite almost never being provoked. He truly just set out to be a world-class hater.
Agatha Christie is simply very good at writing chic, self-centred young women, and I'm so glad she wrote a novel centred around one of them (though Freddie is my favourite character here; I love a droll, disaffected woman with strange personality ticks). Half the characters in this book feel like non-university educated versions of Sally Rooney characters transposed to 1930s Devon, which is an excellent vibe for a murder mystery.
You could never accuse Christie of being verbose, and yet, despite her efficiency with words, she delivers some incredibly evocative descriptions of settings here. You get to know the geography of this novel so well. I feel like I could walk the cragged, cliffside path up to End House with my eyes closed. It’s a really effective way of engaging you in the detective work, and I hope I find another one of her books that possesses such a vivid little world.
Peril at End House is not the kind of clever that will break your brain, but this book would work as a perfect introduction to Agatha Christie for just about anyone. It really does encapsulate so much of what she is great at in an extremely neat package.
A.N. I would like to note that I did try to listen to an audiobook that wasn't an Agatha Christie novel, but I don't know what to tell you except that these other narrators are nothing compared to Hugh Fraser! It genuinely feels like multiple people are voicing the different characters instead of one actor; it is INSANE.
Christie, as always, genius. Hercule Poirot is such a fun and complete character.
An excellent mystery! The Dame has done it again. I could not possibly guess the true villain of the story, but when it's all said and done, everything makes perfect sense. This time Hercule Poirot takes on a case of a young woman, who has been a target of mysterious accidents. Convinced that those were in fact murder attempts, the famous detective plunges headfirst into the world of intrigue, deception, and greed. One of the best Poirot instalments I've read so far.