Well, sometimes the review is not good. Bummer. This is one of those re-imaginings of a classic work by a modern author and it is not a success. Apparently this author is good, but I am not inspired to check out her other work.
As a fan of Agatha Christie and Hercule Poirot, this was not true to either the spirit or talent of either. I love me some Poirot, with all his OCD tendencies and his little grey cells. I have read every Agatha Christie mystery, many of them numerous times over the years. I was so excited at the prospect of more stories about him, maybe with a modern twist, some fresh perspectives, new adventures.
This was… not that. The plot was needlessly convoluted and nonsensical, lacking suspense but full of dumb contrivances to drag on the story for no good reason. The author attempted to recreate the magic of the Hastings/Watson style of impressed but clueless narrator but the character she created, Catchpool, was so annoying it took away from my enjoyment of Poirot. Which was not previously something I would have thought possible. I love Poirot, you guys. He’s the (self-proclaimed) greatest detective in the world.
Poirot’s new friend Catchpool is an incompetent Scotland Yard detective who is terrified of dead bodies due to some incoherent psychological trauma in his childhood and was actively reluctant to actually investigate the murder. I was so aggravated by him- a Scotland Yard detective with no skills in detection. Catchpool did so many dumb things or botched questioning of suspects that it just dragged and made me frustrated rather than engaged or curious. Hastings or Japp at least were trying really hard while being completely misguided. Their bumbling usually added information even if it wasn’t the info they thought they were getting. Catchpool hindered the investigation! Poirot succeeded in spite of him.
Its not enough to obliquely hint at traumatic reasons for a personality quirk. Especially when the quirk interferes with the raison d’etre of the character, which is to be a detective. This was the mystery that should have been solved- why is Catchpool useless? I still want to know. But not enough to read any more books in this updated series.
My Amazon link is to this book but I highly recommend using the link to buy Christie’s Poirot books instead. Or watch the divine David Suchet’s Poirot on Netflix. Anything but this dumb book. I take my Poirot very seriously, clearly.
