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magical_book_wyrm 's review for:
Hallowe'en Party
by Agatha Christie
'Hallowe'en Party' by Agatha Christie - 3.5/5 ⭐
My first Christie novel, and an undeniably fun murder mystery in which a child is found dead at a halloween party and Poirot is around to help- hence the name!
First of all I understand the Poirot appeal, even though from my understanding this is one of his last appearances. At this point in the timeline he is a funny old man and I love him. In the plot, he is the only character who has a strong conviction that the child was murdered with a specific motive - due to her admitting that she had 'seen a murder' happen a few years prior, and the murderer presumably wanting to keep her quiet.
The other characters are all set on the fact that the child was being dishonest and lying, whereas Poirot seemed committed in investigating the truth behind her claim - since a lot of the non-Poirot locals had really similar opinions, it made their voices feel quite homogenous to me and I struggled to pick them out from each other in conversations. There was also a bit of 'Bah, kids these days' amongst everyone, which I found tiring after a while. I also found it quite confusing given the story's subject matter - especially when the 70s was around the time where 'stranger danger' for children was just starting to become a real concern. You'd think 'Don't accept car rides from strangers, Timmy' would compliment a story about children being in danger really nicely.
I also wish there was MORE halloween! The party at the start is cute but only exists at teh very start, and the 'village witch' does turn out to be mildly prophetic, but I really wanted the vibes to be amped up more.
I had worked out who the murderer was likely to be fairly soon after they were introduced, and thought the surpising hellenistic themes were cool, if not a bit tonally dissonant with 'halloween'. Ariadne Oliver is perfect, no notes.
Overall I enjoyed it, and I'd love recommendations on what your favourite Christie novels are as I can really see me loving her better work. I found this one good, but not amazing!
My first Christie novel, and an undeniably fun murder mystery in which a child is found dead at a halloween party and Poirot is around to help- hence the name!
First of all I understand the Poirot appeal, even though from my understanding this is one of his last appearances. At this point in the timeline he is a funny old man and I love him. In the plot, he is the only character who has a strong conviction that the child was murdered with a specific motive - due to her admitting that she had 'seen a murder' happen a few years prior, and the murderer presumably wanting to keep her quiet.
The other characters are all set on the fact that the child was being dishonest and lying, whereas Poirot seemed committed in investigating the truth behind her claim - since a lot of the non-Poirot locals had really similar opinions, it made their voices feel quite homogenous to me and I struggled to pick them out from each other in conversations. There was also a bit of 'Bah, kids these days' amongst everyone, which I found tiring after a while. I also found it quite confusing given the story's subject matter - especially when the 70s was around the time where 'stranger danger' for children was just starting to become a real concern. You'd think 'Don't accept car rides from strangers, Timmy' would compliment a story about children being in danger really nicely.
I also wish there was MORE halloween! The party at the start is cute but only exists at teh very start, and the 'village witch' does turn out to be mildly prophetic, but I really wanted the vibes to be amped up more.
I had worked out who the murderer was likely to be fairly soon after they were introduced, and thought the surpising hellenistic themes were cool, if not a bit tonally dissonant with 'halloween'. Ariadne Oliver is perfect, no notes.
Overall I enjoyed it, and I'd love recommendations on what your favourite Christie novels are as I can really see me loving her better work. I found this one good, but not amazing!