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3.53 AVERAGE
3.53 AVERAGE
adventurous
mysterious
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
There was no any mystery you can understand everything from the plot anyway. At the end, only in 10 pages, someone’s murderer reveals all of a sudden, a love came up. Ridiculous
adventurous
challenging
mysterious
sad
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:
Complicated
adventurous
fast-paced
adventurous
mysterious
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
This standalone spy thriller, also published under the name So Many Steps to Death, is not necessarily playing to author Agatha Christie's strengths, and there's a definite vein of anti-Asian and anti-Black racism (including an instance of blackface) running through the affair. It nevertheless carries a certain ludicrous joy in its James Bond-esque plot, in which prominent scientists from around the world are disappearing, either by defecting or being kidnapped by an unnamed group with unclear intentions. One such figure has vanished without his wife, whom the authorities suspect is in on the plan and merely awaiting her own opportunity to follow. So when she dies unexpectedly and an agent trailing her notices a nearby woman of the same description on the brink of suicide, he recruits the latter to take up the former's identity and infiltrate the syndicate or die trying, since that was her original intent anyway.
It's all a bit goofy, but it's a marked improvement over the Poirot story The Big Four of a quarter-century earlier, which utilized a similar premise. While not a mystery per se, the narrative here contains a few twist reveals and accompanying red-herring fakeouts, deployed with the writer's usual skill. As with the frequently bigoted framing and comments throughout the text, the Cold War concerns may not have aged well since 1954 -- perhaps explaining why this title is one of only four Christie novels that remain unadapted for television or film -- but it's a solid lightweight caper overall.
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It's all a bit goofy, but it's a marked improvement over the Poirot story The Big Four of a quarter-century earlier, which utilized a similar premise. While not a mystery per se, the narrative here contains a few twist reveals and accompanying red-herring fakeouts, deployed with the writer's usual skill. As with the frequently bigoted framing and comments throughout the text, the Cold War concerns may not have aged well since 1954 -- perhaps explaining why this title is one of only four Christie novels that remain unadapted for television or film -- but it's a solid lightweight caper overall.
Like this review?
--Throw me a quick one-time donation here!
https://ko-fi.com/lesserjoke
--Subscribe here to support my writing and weigh in on what I read next!
https://patreon.com/lesserjoke
--Follow along on Goodreads here!
https://www.goodreads.com/user/show/6288479-joe-kessler
--Or click here to browse through all my previous reviews!
https://lesserjoke.home.blog
adventurous
mysterious
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
"I thought Agatha Christie wrote murder mysteries?" my spouse asked when I summarized the plot of this one.
"Sure, but she also wrote novels about international intrigue, and this is one of those."
I'm not a fan of the "international intrigue" novels, but I do enjoy getting a glimpse of what people thought about things in the times they were happening, especially since there are so many parallels with the present. This one offered that.
"Sure, but she also wrote novels about international intrigue, and this is one of those."
I'm not a fan of the "international intrigue" novels, but I do enjoy getting a glimpse of what people thought about things in the times they were happening, especially since there are so many parallels with the present. This one offered that.
mysterious
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
All alerts go red when a handful of scientists go missing; international intelligence agencies are on the case. One of the wives, a Mrs. Betteron seemingly has all the answers as to where her husband really is, though she claims otherwise. Hilary Craven on the other hand, has a death wish; she has lost everything and the last thing she has to lose is her life. Fate works in different ways, and when the plane she was supposed to be in crashes without her in it, agent Jessop offers her a different way to die.
What a premise. I really enjoyed this.
What a premise. I really enjoyed this.
adventurous
mysterious
tense
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
adventurous
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
One of her more interesting books. I was getting tired of her usual methodology of the the big murder, side character murder and the killer almost murders again but gets caught so this book was a breath of fresh air. The twist was good as well.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Confinement, Misogyny, Racial slurs, Racism