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captwinghead 's review for:
Ordeal by Innocence
by Agatha Christie
This is quite a strange story. Admittedly, this is my first Agatha Christie novel. While I see how the format of this story influenced modern mysteries and whodunnits, I wasn't all that impressed.
To start, a lot of scenes felt downright redundant. The reader is told the same details and timeline of the crime over and over and over again with very little new information provided. It's Mary and Phillip recounting evidence we already know ad nauseam, followed by Calgary and Huish or Calgary and Hester going over the same information we already know ad nauseam. Quite simply put, it was boring to read the same thing over and over again. This novel could've been about a 100 pages shorter.
There were a few comments made about Tina's race that weren't great. Namely Phillip Durrant thinking it was the part of her that "isn't white" that might allow for her to be a cold blooded murderer. Add to that that, while she was the only member of the family that loved the matriarch and bore no ill will towards her, she's presented as only desiring her familial connection out of money and nice things. Not great, but I guess I should say I've read worse things about non-white characters in Stephen King novels.
I hated that there was so much importance placed on blood. So many different characters posit that perhaps the adopted children would've had more love for their mother if they'd been "her own" children and born from her. That maybe she would've been a better mother if she'd given birth to them. That she never really could be their mother because they're not her blood.
I hate that mentality. Not only has it been hurled at queer adoptive parents to minimize their connection to their children, but because adoptive relationships are just as valid as blood ties. Even stranger, this story establishes that the matriarch couldn't have children by natural means. This entire novel was full of people minimizing her ability to be a mother because she was barren. It's just gross.
So, there's not a lot here that I enjoyed. The mystery would've been more fun had I not had the same evidence presented several times.
To start, a lot of scenes felt downright redundant. The reader is told the same details and timeline of the crime over and over and over again with very little new information provided. It's Mary and Phillip recounting evidence we already know ad nauseam, followed by Calgary and Huish or Calgary and Hester going over the same information we already know ad nauseam. Quite simply put, it was boring to read the same thing over and over again. This novel could've been about a 100 pages shorter.
There were a few comments made about Tina's race that weren't great. Namely Phillip Durrant thinking it was the part of her that "isn't white" that might allow for her to be a cold blooded murderer. Add to that that, while she was the only member of the family that loved the matriarch and bore no ill will towards her, she's presented as only desiring her familial connection out of money and nice things. Not great, but I guess I should say I've read worse things about non-white characters in Stephen King novels.
I hated that there was so much importance placed on blood. So many different characters posit that perhaps the adopted children would've had more love for their mother if they'd been "her own" children and born from her. That maybe she would've been a better mother if she'd given birth to them. That she never really could be their mother because they're not her blood.
Spoiler
That, in a really strange twist, it's totally okay for Tina to marry Micky, someone raised as her brother, because "they're not really brother and sister".I hate that mentality. Not only has it been hurled at queer adoptive parents to minimize their connection to their children, but because adoptive relationships are just as valid as blood ties. Even stranger, this story establishes that the matriarch couldn't have children by natural means. This entire novel was full of people minimizing her ability to be a mother because she was barren. It's just gross.
So, there's not a lot here that I enjoyed. The mystery would've been more fun had I not had the same evidence presented several times.