"And I looked, and behold a pale horse; and his name that sat on him was Death, and Hell followed with him." Revelation 6:8

This is one of the best of the later Christies, though it doesn't feature Hercule Poroit or Miss Marple (and thankfully, not Tommy and Tuppence - ugh!).

Mark Easterbrook is suffering from a case of writer's block, and decides to take a break in a rather seedy Chelsea espresso bar. He witnesses a fight between two girls, one of whom pulls the other's hair out. However, the victim insists, "It didn't hurt." The girl's name, Thomasina "Tommy" Tucker, sticks in Mark's mind. It is only a week later that he reads a death notice in the newspaper:

"TUCKERTON. On October 2nd at Fallowfield Nursing Home, Amberley, Thomasina Ann, aged twenty, only daughter of the late Thomas Tuckerton, Esq., of Carrington Park, Amberley, Surrey. Funeral private. No flowers."

An elderly priest, Father Gorman, is killed after hearing the last confession of a dying woman. A mysterious list of last names is found in his shoe:

Ormerod
Sandford
Parkinson
Hesketh-Dubois
Shaw
Harmondsworth
Tuckerton
Corrigan?
Delafontaine?

A quick check on the names reveals that a Lady Hesketh-Dubois died five months earlier, supposedly of a brain tumor. She's also Mark's godmother, which is how he gets drawn into the case. It turns out she's not the only one who's dead. Mark makes the connection with Tuckerton, obviously Tommy Tuckerton, and also with Delafontaine, which could be Mary Delafontaine, a friend of Ariadne Oliver's. It becomes increasingly obvious that everyone on the list is dead - or should be worried about ending up dead.

Mark's investigation leads to a former pub, now private home, The Pale Horse, inhabited by three woman - Thyrza Grey, Sybil Stamfordis, and Bella. Supposedly, they are witches (or at least Bella is), but Sybil prefers the title "medium," and really seems to believe she has magical powers. Is there a connection between the "witches" and the mysterious deaths on Father Gorman's list? It sounds impossible that anyone could kill another person at long distance and leave no trace, but that is apparently what is happening - or is it?

This is one of Christie's better puzzles. The background is well down and eerie. The deaths all appear to be from different causes, but are they? Interestingly, Christie used a murder weapon that had been used before and has been used since, though most people (fortunately) are unfamiliar with it.

The coincidences surrounding Mark Easterbrook bothered me - he's the godson of one victim, the cousin of Rhoda Despard, and a friend of Ariadne Oliver and Jim Corrigan, the police doctor (whose last name is listed above). This is all a bit much, really, and I think Christie was being a tad lazy here. However, the story was fun, so I decided to overlook these issues.

An interesting note is how many characters come from other Christie books - Rhoda and Colonel Despard from [b:Cards on the Table|909818|Cards on the Table (Hercule Poirot, #15)|Agatha Christie|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1327928901s/909818.jpg|894955] (Hercule Poirot), Rev and Mrs Dane Calthrop from [b:The Moving Finger|16341|The Moving Finger (Miss Marple #4)|Agatha Christie|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1396227246s/16341.jpg|2969715] (Miss Marple), and Ariadne Oliver from several books ([b:Dead Man's Folly|16427|Dead Man's Folly (Hercule Poirot, #33)|Agatha Christie|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1435152103s/16427.jpg|2655933]) and short stories ([b:Parker Pyne Investigates|278237|Parker Pyne Investigates|Agatha Christie|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1309305177s/278237.jpg|1877074]. It was like old home week.

Not all of Christie's later novels are good. Her powers waned in her old age, but some gems, like "Pale Horse", come through. It's a fun, quick read that stands out amongst her later books, and holds up quite well amongst her older bones.