Une mémoire d'éléphant

This is my second read of this one and I had the loose concept of how the murder was done and the key points still in my head from last time I read it.

While it's great to see Adriana Oliver and essentially get some insight into how Agatha herself felt about her work near the end of her life, the writing here isn't as vibrant as her earlier work. What Elephants Can Remember appears to be is taking some of her notes on a story that she was working on and padding it out into a novel by having the various people monologue at either Poirot or Oliver (or each other).

I think even without having read it before, it's very likely that you'll get the jist of the murder about half way through. It's a shame that it's such a poorly written novel as the murder could have been quite clever if she had have gotten to it earlier. As it is though, it's a bit of a miss.

It's always a treat when I discover a Christie novel I haven't read before. Especially one with Poirot, since he's my favorite. Not sure how I missed this one.

We have a twisted case brought to us from Ariadne Oliver. She has a curious inquiry regarding a long-past case dropped in her lap by a pushy woman, and she can't stop thinking about it so she calls up her old friend Hercule Poirot. Hey, if I was friends with him I would do the same thing. Let him employ those little gray cells and help me sort it all out. And naturally, that is what happens. What else would you expect from Dame Agatha?

Red herrings abound, and I totally thought I had the case cracked 58% in but alas, Agatha fooled me again. You saucy minx, you really are the greatest mystery writer of all time. Subtracting a half star because no actual elephants are featured in the book. (Just kidding, Agatha, you earned all three enjoyable stars).