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3.39 AVERAGE
3.39 AVERAGE
fast-paced
I read this once long ago and didn't remember anything except that I didn't love it. To start, when I'm reading a book solely for reasonably light entertainment, I'm not crazy about children as murder victims. (and I'm not even a big fan of children in general) This loses any Halloween atmosphere quickly and brings in a complicated plot line that wasn't that interesting. (But as always, Hugh Fraser is great with the audio, I particularly like his rendering of Ariadne Oliver.)
speaking my truth, i just didn’t enjoy this as much as i thought i would :/ miss christie this isn’t you
Not as fun as I was hoping. It felt very repetitive, especially when it came to explaining the crime and public opinion. It’s just a lot of people talking and saying the same things about all the crimes that have happened around them. And it’s possible that’s realistic when you’re following a detective getting testimonies, but it doesn’t make it more interesting.
I noticed a lot of “back in my day” stuff happening in Poirot’s conversations that were weird and had nothing to do with anything. There’s a couple scenes where basically every older person is like, “Things are different now. We aren’t locking up the mentally ill enough. Kids these days…” blah blah blah. Also, there was this weird thing about how biology determines if you’re born evil and bound to become a murderer. And if I remember this correctly, a character who believes in rehabilitation for criminals is not supported by the narrative, and Poirot doesn’t agree with her, and it just felt off. I can tell this was written later in Christie’s life, and maybe she was getting tired of these books.
This lacks the atmosphere I would expect from a story that appears to be about Halloween. The seasonal vibes are basically gone after the first couple chapters.
It was odd how little people cared about the murdered child. Basically everyone has the same negative opinion about her except her mom. Each kid is described in a strange way, too. There were a couple moments when adults talk about how attractive the preteen girls are. Plus, I thought it was silly how often another child was left unsupervised during the murder investigation. I know times were different, but come on, she’s the same age as the murder victim, so why isn’t her mom watching her?
The plot feels kinda forgettable, and it wasn’t really a page turner. There’s a lot of indistinguishable characters, and it took me a while to finish this one, so I kinda lost track of who to focus on. The ending felt convoluted and a little random, but it could’ve been that I wasn’t paying enough attention. I know Christie has better books, and I still like Poirot as a character. I’d prefer to try her more popular novels after this one.
I noticed a lot of “back in my day” stuff happening in Poirot’s conversations that were weird and had nothing to do with anything. There’s a couple scenes where basically every older person is like, “Things are different now. We aren’t locking up the mentally ill enough. Kids these days…” blah blah blah. Also, there was this weird thing about how biology determines if you’re born evil and bound to become a murderer. And if I remember this correctly, a character who believes in rehabilitation for criminals is not supported by the narrative, and Poirot doesn’t agree with her, and it just felt off. I can tell this was written later in Christie’s life, and maybe she was getting tired of these books.
This lacks the atmosphere I would expect from a story that appears to be about Halloween. The seasonal vibes are basically gone after the first couple chapters.
It was odd how little people cared about the murdered child. Basically everyone has the same negative opinion about her except her mom. Each kid is described in a strange way, too. There were a couple moments when adults talk about how attractive the preteen girls are. Plus, I thought it was silly how often another child was left unsupervised during the murder investigation. I know times were different, but come on, she’s the same age as the murder victim, so why isn’t her mom watching her?
The plot feels kinda forgettable, and it wasn’t really a page turner. There’s a lot of indistinguishable characters, and it took me a while to finish this one, so I kinda lost track of who to focus on. The ending felt convoluted and a little random, but it could’ve been that I wasn’t paying enough attention. I know Christie has better books, and I still like Poirot as a character. I’d prefer to try her more popular novels after this one.
Comforting to know that “Kids these days” has been a saying since forever.
I feel like the mystery was relatively straight forward, but the writing was lovely surprisingly often!
I feel like the mystery was relatively straight forward, but the writing was lovely surprisingly often!
dark
mysterious
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
Maybe more like 3.5? Not my fave of hers but still a fun Halloween read. And fun to read a more “modern” Agatha story
Pleasantly surprised that this one wasn't from Hastings' perspective (I jumped straight from book 1 to book 41...) but beyond that I didn't enjoy this much. It's extremely repetitive, with a too-large cast of characters all telling Poirot essentially the same pieces of information over and over again. The ending is very abrupt and was confusing as I couldn't remember at first who the murderer was when their identity was revealed. I wasn't at all convinced that Poirot could have figured out as much as he did from the information he had and he even admits that he doesn't have evidence for who the murderer is. Characters act in very silly ways and are almost all insufferable.