You need to sign in or sign up before continuing.
Take a photo of a barcode or cover
3.39 AVERAGE
3.39 AVERAGE
- my second Agatha Christie read, listened on audio book; maybe should try print
- I really want to like them I just have a hard time paying attention; maybe not enough intrigue/suspense? Too procedural? Too British?
- feels eerie to me how the crime isn’t regarded w gravity, almost too matter of fact and lighthearted that a girl was drowned in the house during a party. That should be more unsettling than it’s portrayed to be
- I feel like the important details to solving are withheld from the reader until the very end, rather than breadcrumbing throughout and still maintaining a twist/reveal; feels disorienting and like the solution is from left field
- excited for the movie adaptation
- I really want to like them I just have a hard time paying attention; maybe not enough intrigue/suspense? Too procedural? Too British?
- feels eerie to me how the crime isn’t regarded w gravity, almost too matter of fact and lighthearted that a girl was drowned in the house during a party. That should be more unsettling than it’s portrayed to be
- I feel like the important details to solving are withheld from the reader until the very end, rather than breadcrumbing throughout and still maintaining a twist/reveal; feels disorienting and like the solution is from left field
- excited for the movie adaptation
Falls short compared to other works by Agatha Christie. The fall setting is the best feature while plot and characters are not as interested as in other stories.
mysterious
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:
Yes
Not my favourite Poirot despite promising beginnings. I found the ending unsatisfactory because one of the characters - admittedly a child - was behaving in a way that I found hard to believe and it made the climax of the book harder to enjoy because I didn’t buy into it.
There were still lots of positive points and I’m reluctant to dock more than one star because for the majority of the book I was really enjoying it. Just a flat ending even though the murder was clever and murderers’ motivations interesting.
There were still lots of positive points and I’m reluctant to dock more than one star because for the majority of the book I was really enjoying it. Just a flat ending even though the murder was clever and murderers’ motivations interesting.
lighthearted
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
took a WHILE getting to the point i almost dropped it, the ending was interesting but the payoff wasn’t so great
3.5 stars. Some interesting aspects, and I really like Ariadne Oliver, but this is not Christie's best work.
2.5/5
This was my first Agatha Christie, but according to popular opinion it seems one that won’t leave a great impression on a new reader, and I have to agree. This is a much later career novel for Christie, but you can almost feel her tiredness through the page. Even Poirot himself feels a bit muted and pale in this story, plodding through the formula points then tipping his hat and saying farewell. There are lots of characters but not tons of action on the page, and the denouement is left to the last few pages where tons of information about characters we aren’t particularly invested in gets dumped and the curtains fall on the story. I didn’t get a sense of what was at stake for any given character pretty much the whole time, but some of the later reveals did surprise me and kept this from being a total loss. I wouldn’t write off such a prolific writer for one book, but I also don’t know that I’d rush back into reading more Agatha Christie, mostly because these types of mysteries simply aren’t what I tend to gravitate to.
Alas! An appropriate seasonal read to finish a few days before Halloween, at least!
This was my first Agatha Christie, but according to popular opinion it seems one that won’t leave a great impression on a new reader, and I have to agree. This is a much later career novel for Christie, but you can almost feel her tiredness through the page. Even Poirot himself feels a bit muted and pale in this story, plodding through the formula points then tipping his hat and saying farewell. There are lots of characters but not tons of action on the page, and the denouement is left to the last few pages where tons of information about characters we aren’t particularly invested in gets dumped and the curtains fall on the story. I didn’t get a sense of what was at stake for any given character pretty much the whole time, but some of the later reveals did surprise me and kept this from being a total loss. I wouldn’t write off such a prolific writer for one book, but I also don’t know that I’d rush back into reading more Agatha Christie, mostly because these types of mysteries simply aren’t what I tend to gravitate to.
Alas! An appropriate seasonal read to finish a few days before Halloween, at least!
Malheureusement, je n'ai pas trop accroché à cet opus donc j'ai découvert le meurtrier assez rapidement. Qu'à cela ne tienne, j'en lirai d'autres !
mysterious
medium-paced