297 pages
English language
Published Oct. 29, 2001 by HarperCollins.
Set in the summer of 1917 in an Essex country estate, the story follows the war-wounded Captain Arthur Hastings to the Styles St. Mary manor of his friend John Cavendish. The Cavendish household is wrought with tension due to the marriage of John's widowed old aunt Emily, she of a sizeable fortune, to a suspicious younger man, Alfred Inglethorp, twenty years her junior. Emily's two stepsons, John and Lawrence Cavendish, as well as John's wife Mary and several other people, also live at Styles. Late one night, the residents of Styles wake to find Emily Inglethorp dying. When Emily's sudden heart attack is found to be attributable to strychnine, Hastings, who had runs into his old friend, the Belgian Hercule Poirot, he recruits him to aid in the local investigation. With impeccable timing, Hercule Poirot, the insightful retired detective, makes his dramatic entrance to solve a most baffling case.
Who …
Set in the summer of 1917 in an Essex country estate, the story follows the war-wounded Captain Arthur Hastings to the Styles St. Mary manor of his friend John Cavendish. The Cavendish household is wrought with tension due to the marriage of John's widowed old aunt Emily, she of a sizeable fortune, to a suspicious younger man, Alfred Inglethorp, twenty years her junior. Emily's two stepsons, John and Lawrence Cavendish, as well as John's wife Mary and several other people, also live at Styles. Late one night, the residents of Styles wake to find Emily Inglethorp dying. When Emily's sudden heart attack is found to be attributable to strychnine, Hastings, who had runs into his old friend, the Belgian Hercule Poirot, he recruits him to aid in the local investigation. With impeccable timing, Hercule Poirot, the insightful retired detective, makes his dramatic entrance to solve a most baffling case.
Who poisoned the wealthy Emily Inglethorpe, and how did the murderer penetrate and escape from her locked bedroom? Suspects abound in the quaint village of Styles St. Mary--from the heiress's fawning new husband to her two stepsons, her volatile housekeeper, and a pretty nurse who works in a hospital dispensary. On the day she was killed, Emily Inglethorp was overheard arguing with someone, most likely her husband, Alfred, or her stepson, John. Afterwards, she seemed quite distressed and, apparently, made a new will--which no one can find. Nobody can explain how or when the strychnine was administered to Mrs. Inglethorp. High on Poirot's list of suspects are: John Cavendish, the elder stepson; Mary Cavendish, his wife; Lawrence Cavendish, the younger stepson; Evelyn Howard, Mrs. Inglethorpe's companion; Cynthia Murdoch, her protegee; and Dr. Bauerstein, a mysterious stranger who lives in Essex. All have motive and opportunity but only Poirot can discover the truth.
Enjoyable and I didn’t fully pick up on all the clues or guess the identity of the culprit (unlike The Mousetrap). The general story of the book has aged well, but some of the dialogue has not - characters make casual racist, sexist and antisemitic remarks, which I don’t think would be the case if this book was written today.
Why yes I did recently watch Glass Onion, what makes you ask?
There's not much I can add that hasn't already been said about the debut novel of the most successful commercial author of all time. Though I do remember reading a nonfiction book about the crime fiction genre a while back and how it mentioned that early works in the genre sort of had an upper class/aristocratic bent that tried to solve the central mystery without involving the police, as if to tell the lower classes, "let us handle our own affairs." That kind of happens here as well, but seeing as it was first published in 1920 I shouldn't be surprised. Just something I noticed.
Despite a big cast of named characters, I never felt like I mistook one for another because they all managed to have distinct quirks and behaviors. The pivotal murder occurs, and anyone's …
Why yes I did recently watch Glass Onion, what makes you ask?
There's not much I can add that hasn't already been said about the debut novel of the most successful commercial author of all time. Though I do remember reading a nonfiction book about the crime fiction genre a while back and how it mentioned that early works in the genre sort of had an upper class/aristocratic bent that tried to solve the central mystery without involving the police, as if to tell the lower classes, "let us handle our own affairs." That kind of happens here as well, but seeing as it was first published in 1920 I shouldn't be surprised. Just something I noticed.
Despite a big cast of named characters, I never felt like I mistook one for another because they all managed to have distinct quirks and behaviors. The pivotal murder occurs, and anyone's fair game. I'm left scrutinizing every passing detail and line of dialogue for clues and came out none the wiser; she duped me good. The big setpiece finale where Poirot gathers everyone together to reveal the perpetrator and how he reached his conclusion was satisfactory and I really couldn't think of any question I still had that went unanswered by the end.
Simply put, this book gave me exactly what I wanted out of it.
I had read this one before but it had been a while so I decided to try again—especially because a couple of friends reading Agatha Christie reminded me of how much I used to love her books. It was as thrilling as it was the first time. I had my suspicions, but in the end, I feel just like Hastings—an utter fool. I picked up quite a few of the clues and came to the right conclusions but in the end, had not properly sorted all the clues in my little grey cells. Eager to re-read all her works now!
"At present, we are all thinking so much, and saying so little."
My mom and I talk on the phone every week or so about what we're reading, and when she asked me this week what I was reading and I told her I was reading this book, there was a pause on the line and then an "oh.......... that doesn't seem like you." I had to laugh a little, because it really doesn't when you look at my read list. Before this book, I think the only other mystery series I've kept up with was Louise Penny's Armand Gamache books. I've always counted Agatha Christie books as "the books my grandma read" when I was growing up, and I'm ashamed to say I never gave them the time of day. Now that I work at a library though, I've cast my literary net far and wide to scoop up …
"At present, we are all thinking so much, and saying so little."
My mom and I talk on the phone every week or so about what we're reading, and when she asked me this week what I was reading and I told her I was reading this book, there was a pause on the line and then an "oh.......... that doesn't seem like you." I had to laugh a little, because it really doesn't when you look at my read list. Before this book, I think the only other mystery series I've kept up with was Louise Penny's Armand Gamache books. I've always counted Agatha Christie books as "the books my grandma read" when I was growing up, and I'm ashamed to say I never gave them the time of day. Now that I work at a library though, I've cast my literary net far and wide to scoop up the genres I don't normally read and the "pillars" of each genre to compare them against. It's been a wild ride.
I won't summarize the entire plot (since there's approximately 5 million other reviews here that will do a better job), but basically we're introduced to Hercule Poirot through the perspective of our ride-along character Arthur Hastings at Styles Arms. There's a lot of familial in-fighting within Styles about rich old Emily Inglethorpe's choice in men, and wouldn't you know it, she turns up dead. Hastings, staying at Styles Arms, hears by chance about a group of Belgians staying at a nearby house, and wouldn't you know it, his old detective buddy Poirot is there. Together, the duo wade through the complex family drama and we're introduced to Poirot's method of detective work, equally frustrating and amusing from Hastings' (and our) perspective.
I will say I enjoyed this book a whole lot more once I stopped trying to second-guess the murderer's identity and started just enjoying the process. I noted several comments where people were annoyed they couldn't follow along and guess the murderer, which I get is a feature in some cozy mysteries, but I enjoyed the surprise and the method much more once I stopped worrying about it. It very much felt like a Columbo episode, which I loved.
Some clear inconsistencies that ruined the revelations. The narrative is a little all over the place.
A good story, but legit there's no way I could've gotten this before the big reveal.
Not my last Christie.
I do expect books of this age to be boring but I keep getting surprised by classics. Looks like they're classics for a reason.
But like a really good 3 stars.
Looks like I've found a new series of books to read.
