Agatha Christie Re-Reading Project #5: Books 14-16

Despite evidence to the contrary, I have not abandoned my Agatha Christie re-read project! Life, and other reading challenges such as reading to prizelists, have somewhat derailed me, but I am still turning back to this one when the inclination urges. 

This time, I decided I needed a palate cleanser after whipping through the first five books on the Booker Prize longlist and finding all but one of them underwhelming, and starting into books 6 and 7 only to feel myself flagging straight away. Rather than plunging ahead with that list, I gave myself a quiet Sunday and a few pre-bed reading evenings to instead indulge in a Christie re-read, and I AM NOT SORRY :-)

I have completely broken with my in-order plan now and am embracing the chaos of just reading the ones I feel like reading, which, this time, was two early-ish Poirots (Peril at End House from 1932 and The ABC Murders from 1936) and a much later Miss Marple, A Caribbean Mystery, from 1964. On the whole, I thought one of the three held up extremely well, with the second attracting a key caveat as explained in the review, while the third suffered the most from time (ironically, the latest of the three).


I had remembered this one as being an iconic Poirot with some unusual and engaging features, and my memory was not faulty! 

It has all the elements that I most associate with the pure visceral enjoyment of Poirot stories - the tricky plot, the vivid side characters, the foibles and genius of Poirot himself, lots of English town and country colour, narration by the hapless Hastings, the misdirect, and the dramatic reveal, which I know took me by surprise when I first read it (although I had retained the information, so it was not a shock on re-read).

However, it's also more thriller-esque than most Christies - the idea of hunting a serial killer (a term that wasn't even in use at the time), with Ripper-reminiscent taunting letters to boot, is an intriguing departure from the more classic puzzle whodunnit format, and Christie makes it work beautifully.

It's fairly low on the ick factor, with just the usual amount of side-eye for working people, "young smart girls", and a bit of rueful mockery of Poirot's Belgian speech patterns. Of course, this is a book that does not feature a single non-white character, so the bar was in the floor, but there's no doubt that it makes it a more straightforwardly enjoyable read.

Overall, I really rate this one, and I thoroughly enjoyed the re-read. 8.5/10 for me.


This is one of the earliest Poirots in what would become Christie's goldrush era of pumping out banger after banger in rapid succession, and it shows.

Featuring Poirot and his sidekick Hastings, who are drawn into the life of Miss "Nick" Buckley after several attempts are made on her life while they are holidaying near her family home (End House), the story has more than delivered on the core Christie brief: "Make it tricky, lard it with red herrings, deliver a satisfying denouement, feature at least one, and preferably all, of: a poisoned box of chocolates, a disputed inheritance, and a damsel in distress who may or may not be either a damsel or in distress". 

With one key caveat (see below), this book is still enjoyable, clever, and an excellent template for the Christie ouevre. I loved how prominent Poirot's skills - not just detecting, but human empathy and relationship-building - are in this story. I thought all the characters were vivid and engaging, especially Nick but also her friend Frederica (Freddie), her cousin Maggie, and the various menfolk and adjacent hangers-on that plump out the suspect list. The attempted and actual crimes follow reliable beats and the reveal, while dramatic, is above all *fair* - all the clues were clearly presented to the reader, and it was perfectly possible to work out the ending if you read closely and attentively.

The only thing about the book that has not aged well is its portrayal of the character of Jim Lazarus, art dealer and suitor of Frederica. My edition of the book was printed in 1987, and it still contains this deathless prose: "Rolling in money, of course. Did you see that car of his? He's a Jew, of course, but a frightfully decent one". And so it goes on from there. Lazarus is not a villain character (if anything, he is the opposite) and Christie doesn't particularly belabour the stereotype, but the absolutely jarring constancy of the language really interferes with the storytelling for a modern audience.

So in the end, I give this 7/10, because although it is a really good story and should rate higher on just that metric, the language creates a cognitive glitch that I can't and don't want to get past.


This is a later Miss Marple, but unlike almost all of the Marple books, it does not take place in or around St Mary Mead or London. Rather, it takes place on a Caribbean island where Miss Marple has been dispatched for a holiday to recover from a serious illness, by her writer nephew Raymond.

I mentioned in an earlier review (The Thirteen Problems) that I thought the seeds of this novel, and indeed of a Poirot novel Evil Under the Sun, too, were sewn in one of the short stories in there. Having now re-read Caribbean Mystery, I stand by that view. Obviously the novel does much more and with greater plot devices, but the core concept is one Christie thought had significant legs.

The strengths of this book, for me, were:

1. The set-up, which is clever, ambiguous and immediately sucks you in

2. The centrality and active involvement of Miss Marple, here seen in Avenging Angel mode rather than Fluffy Old Dear mode

3. The first of the plot misdirects, which was really well done.

However, these are largely outweighed in my mind by its weaknesses. The plot is no better than so-so, especially by comparison with some of Christie's better books. The setting is oddly muted in a way that her English and Egyptian setting novels are absolutely not (she brings London, the English countryside, and Egypt vividly and wonderfully to life). And her depictions of the resort's servants (Caribbean people) are so unpleasantly racist-adjacent as to leave a sour taste that can't be washed out. 

Overall, I give this one 5/10 (most of which is for the Marple factor) and I won't be back again.


RUNNING LIST

Poirot books targeted (highlighted when read):

  1. The Mysterious Affair at Styles (1920): 6.5/10
  2. The Murder on the Links (1923): 6.5/10
  3. Poirot Investigates (1924, ss): 4.5/10
  4. The Murder of Roger Ackroyd (1926): 8.5/10
  5. The Big Four (1927)
  6. The Mystery of the Blue Train (1928)
  7. Peril at End House (1932)
  8. Lord Edgware Dies (1933) 
  9. Murder on the Orient Express (1934) 
  10. Three Act Tragedy (1935) : 6/10
  11. Death in the Clouds (1935)
  12. The A.B.C. Murders (1936) 
  13. Murder in Mesopotamia (1936)
  14. Cards on the Table (1936)
  15. Murder in the Mews (1937, ss) 
  16. Dumb Witness (1937) 
  17. Death on the Nile (1937) 
  18. Appointment with Death (1938)
  19. Hercule Poirot's Christmas (1938) 
  20. Sad Cypress (1940)
  21. One, Two, Buckle My Shoe (1940) 
  22. Evil Under the Sun (1941)
  23. Five Little Pigs (1942) 
  24. The Hollow (1946) 
  25. The Labours of Hercules (1947, ss)
  26. Taken at the Flood (1948) 
  27. Mrs McGinty's Dead (1952)
  28. After the Funeral (1953) 
  29. Hickory Dickory Dock (1955)
  30. Dead Man's Folly (1956)
  31. Cat Among the Pigeons (1959)
  32. The Clocks (1963)
  33. Third Girl (1966)
  34. Hallowe'en Party (1969)
  35. Elephants Can Remember (1972)
  36. Poirot's Early Cases (1974, ss)
  37. Curtain (written about 1940, published 1975) 
Miss Marple books targeted (highlighted when read):

  1. The Murder at the Vicarage (1930, Novel): 7.5/10
  2. The Thirteen Problems (1932, short story collection featuring Miss Marple, also published as The Tuesday Club Murders): 8/10
  3. The Body in the Library (1942, Novel): 8.5/10
  4. The Moving Finger (1943, Novel): 5.5/10
  5. A Murder Is Announced (1950, Novel)
  6. They Do It with Mirrors (1952, Novel) – also published in the United States as Murder With Mirrors
  7. A Pocket Full of Rye (1953, Novel)
  8. 4.50 from Paddington (1957, Novel) – also published in the United States as What Mrs. McGillicuddy Saw!
  9. The Mirror Crack'd from Side to Side (1962, Novel)
  10. A Caribbean Mystery (1964, Novel)
  11. At Bertram's Hotel (1965, Novel)
  12. Nemesis (1971, Novel)
  13. Sleeping Murder (1976, Novel)
Tommy and Tuppence and stand-alone books targeted (highlighted when read):
  1. And Then There Were None (1939): 8.5/10
  2. The Pale Horse (1961): 8/10
  3. The Secret Adversary (1922 novel): 5.5/10
  4. Partners in Crime (1929 short story collection): 6/10
  5. N or M? (1941 novel)
  6. By the Pricking of My Thumbs (1968 novel)
  7. Postern of Fate (1973 novel)

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