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A review by kartrick
Death in the Clouds by Agatha Christie
4.0
4.5/5
Truly one of my favourites of Poirot (finished in one go), but rounded down to 4 due mostly to Goodreads' senseless rating system and partly to some of my qualms which I have listed below.
What I loved:
I am obliged to state how many times I laughed out loud (not LOLed) on reading the banter between Poirot and Japp, or sometimes just Japp's lines themselves. This is the first novel I can remember in which I actually felt a strong sentiment for the man.
I absolutely loved Poirot actively doing things, as opposed to the usual sitting-in-armchair-preening-moustaches-employing-little-grey-cells-to-think-and-police-to-crawl. It was not just refreshing, but also exciting.
Hmmm... but never mind
The scientific inaccuracy regarding poison and venom (their use in the book interchangeably), particularly the novelist in the story talking about an idea of his involving "toxin from a python" (pythons have no venom). This is passable though, considering the book was written close to a century ago and since it didn't affect the main plot in any major way.
I'd read a review which talked about the blatant racism in two of the main characters, but my copy seemed to have that part edited out. Now, while I imagine I wouldn't have liked the sentiment very much, I would much prefer to read the original with the uncensored lines, than the censored one which blocks part of the complete picture. But this is more to do with censorship in general and sensitivities of the present time, so not to dwell much on that.
???
There is something that confused me greatly since the first chapter all the way until the end. I am unhappy that it wasn't cleared up, and also because it is uncharacteristic of Christie. I could not for the life of me figure out how on earth the seats were arranged on the plane! There was so much ambiguity and confusion, so unlike AC! I was expecting a schematic diagram (oh Japp, you did so tease me when you took yours out!) such as Hastings often attaches when he is the one writing up the story, but nothing.
It is understood from Jane Grey early on that her seat is facing that of Norman Gale's. Now, first point of confusion. What aircraft has seats that face each other? I wondered whether it wasn't the style of time, so I tried searching online, but found no explanation. There was no explicit mention in any part of the book whether the seats were front-facing or rear-.
It is also (with a bit of difficulty) understood a bit further on that a row in the plane contains 4 seats, with the aisle in between the second and third. But the numbering of the seats again confuses. According to the numbers given, the last row at the end of the plane (first in order of numbering) should contain only 2 seats!
Finally, since Jane's and Norman's seats are facing each other, one would expect the other seats to do so as well. i.e., Poirot's should be facing Dupont's. But again, with some difficulty, it is understood later on that this is not the case, and that these seats are all facing forward as is normal on an aircraft. So why is only front row of seats facing the other way??? Not that this is inherently a problem, but one would expect it to be explicitly stated and perhaps explained!
This greatly annoyed me, and if anyone has an answer, kindly enlighten me! Otherwise, thoroughly enjoyed the book!
Truly one of my favourites of Poirot (finished in one go), but rounded down to 4 due mostly to Goodreads' senseless rating system and partly to some of my qualms which I have listed below.
What I loved:
I am obliged to state how many times I laughed out loud (not LOLed) on reading the banter between Poirot and Japp, or sometimes just Japp's lines themselves. This is the first novel I can remember in which I actually felt a strong sentiment for the man.
I absolutely loved Poirot actively doing things, as opposed to the usual sitting-in-armchair-preening-moustaches-employing-little-grey-cells-to-think-and-police-to-crawl. It was not just refreshing, but also exciting.
Hmmm... but never mind
The scientific inaccuracy regarding poison and venom (their use in the book interchangeably), particularly the novelist in the story talking about an idea of his involving "toxin from a python" (pythons have no venom). This is passable though, considering the book was written close to a century ago and since it didn't affect the main plot in any major way.
I'd read a review which talked about the blatant racism in two of the main characters, but my copy seemed to have that part edited out. Now, while I imagine I wouldn't have liked the sentiment very much, I would much prefer to read the original with the uncensored lines, than the censored one which blocks part of the complete picture. But this is more to do with censorship in general and sensitivities of the present time, so not to dwell much on that.
???
There is something that confused me greatly since the first chapter all the way until the end. I am unhappy that it wasn't cleared up, and also because it is uncharacteristic of Christie. I could not for the life of me figure out how on earth the seats were arranged on the plane! There was so much ambiguity and confusion, so unlike AC! I was expecting a schematic diagram (oh Japp, you did so tease me when you took yours out!) such as Hastings often attaches when he is the one writing up the story, but nothing.
It is understood from Jane Grey early on that her seat is facing that of Norman Gale's. Now, first point of confusion. What aircraft has seats that face each other? I wondered whether it wasn't the style of time, so I tried searching online, but found no explanation. There was no explicit mention in any part of the book whether the seats were front-facing or rear-.
It is also (with a bit of difficulty) understood a bit further on that a row in the plane contains 4 seats, with the aisle in between the second and third. But the numbering of the seats again confuses. According to the numbers given, the last row at the end of the plane (first in order of numbering) should contain only 2 seats!
Finally, since Jane's and Norman's seats are facing each other, one would expect the other seats to do so as well. i.e., Poirot's should be facing Dupont's. But again, with some difficulty, it is understood later on that this is not the case, and that these seats are all facing forward as is normal on an aircraft. So why is only front row of seats facing the other way??? Not that this is inherently a problem, but one would expect it to be explicitly stated and perhaps explained!
This greatly annoyed me, and if anyone has an answer, kindly enlighten me! Otherwise, thoroughly enjoyed the book!