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A review by book_concierge
The Pale Horse by Agatha Christie
3.0
Audio book read by Hugh Fraser
3.5***
Is it possible to kill someone by remote control – that is, black magic?
A woman on her deathbed asks for a priest – a Roman Catholic priest to be exact. After he leaves her bedside he stops in a café to ponder what she told him. He scribbles down a list of names on a scrap of paper, and because he has a hole in his pocket, puts the paper inside his shoe. On his way back to the parish, however, he is brutally murdered – a seeming robbery. But that scrap of paper wasn’t found by the robber, and it piques the interest of the police, and that of Mark Easterbrook and his sidekick, Ginger Corrigan. The mystery involves three middle-aged women living in a former tavern – The Pale Horse – and dabbling in the occult, a disbarred attorney who likes to take odd wagers, a wealthy industrialist crippled by polio, and a list of people connected only by the fact that they are all deceased. Mrs. Ariadne Oliver makes a brief appearance, and does provide some valuable assistance. Still, I was caught completely unawares at the ending. I just love how Agatha Christie weaves her plots. She really deserves her reputation as the Queen of Mystery Writers.
Hugh Fraser – known to millions as Captain Hastings, assisting Hercule Poirot in A&E’s [i]Poirot[/i] and in the Agatha Christie [i]Mystery![/i] series on PBS – does a fine job of narrating. He has good pacing and an expressive voice which he moderates wonderfully to distinguish the various characters.
3.5***
Is it possible to kill someone by remote control – that is, black magic?
A woman on her deathbed asks for a priest – a Roman Catholic priest to be exact. After he leaves her bedside he stops in a café to ponder what she told him. He scribbles down a list of names on a scrap of paper, and because he has a hole in his pocket, puts the paper inside his shoe. On his way back to the parish, however, he is brutally murdered – a seeming robbery. But that scrap of paper wasn’t found by the robber, and it piques the interest of the police, and that of Mark Easterbrook and his sidekick, Ginger Corrigan. The mystery involves three middle-aged women living in a former tavern – The Pale Horse – and dabbling in the occult, a disbarred attorney who likes to take odd wagers, a wealthy industrialist crippled by polio, and a list of people connected only by the fact that they are all deceased. Mrs. Ariadne Oliver makes a brief appearance, and does provide some valuable assistance. Still, I was caught completely unawares at the ending. I just love how Agatha Christie weaves her plots. She really deserves her reputation as the Queen of Mystery Writers.
Hugh Fraser – known to millions as Captain Hastings, assisting Hercule Poirot in A&E’s [i]Poirot[/i] and in the Agatha Christie [i]Mystery![/i] series on PBS – does a fine job of narrating. He has good pacing and an expressive voice which he moderates wonderfully to distinguish the various characters.