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A review by maiagaia
The ABC Murders by Agatha Christie
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
0.25
What a snooze fest. Easily the most boring mystery/thriller I've ever read.
The solution was fairly obvious from quite early on with only a detail or two that were led to be revealed slightly later in the story. However, while the solution was obvious from a reader's perspective, the truth is that it is a stupid, convoluted plan that would never actually work. I don't need a mystery to be perfectly reasonable but this one stretched the imagination too far.
I'm now convinced that Agatha Christie just isn't for me. I have a few more of her stories I'd like to read (they're classics, and I don't want to merely read a plot summary of them), but I doubt I'll enjoy the execution of any of them. Her writing style just doesn't work for me. I find her authorial voice pretty insufferable (though in this case, that was probably heightened by her "putting on" a voice since it was technically written by a character. But even the sections that were outside of that character's perspective were grating). Her characters are painfully flat and obvious. Additionally, I find the mystery is never unraveled in an interesting way. It's just sort of... Stated. How anticlimactic.
The solution was fairly obvious from quite early on with only a detail or two that were led to be revealed slightly later in the story. However, while the solution was obvious from a reader's perspective, the truth is that it is a stupid, convoluted plan that would never actually work. I don't need a mystery to be perfectly reasonable but this one stretched the imagination too far.
I'm now convinced that Agatha Christie just isn't for me. I have a few more of her stories I'd like to read (they're classics, and I don't want to merely read a plot summary of them), but I doubt I'll enjoy the execution of any of them. Her writing style just doesn't work for me. I find her authorial voice pretty insufferable (though in this case, that was probably heightened by her "putting on" a voice since it was technically written by a character. But even the sections that were outside of that character's perspective were grating). Her characters are painfully flat and obvious. Additionally, I find the mystery is never unraveled in an interesting way. It's just sort of... Stated. How anticlimactic.