I just love the atmosphere of a good Agatha Christie book. There’s not really anything like it. I was bit of a dum-dum and started listening to this one (with classic Christie narrator, Hugh Fraser) while doing stuff at work and didn’t pay it sufficient attention at first, and so was feeling a bit lost. Which is a shame! Because once I started paying attention, I had a really good time with this one.
It’s a bit different than Christie’s other mysteries, in that we don’t see Poirot hunting for clues or motives in the traditional way, as all four suspects have supposedly previously committed murder, and all four suspects specifically had motive to kill Mr. Shaitana, the host of a dinner Poirot is invited to. Oh, and the dinner? He has gathered four people he knows to be murderers, compelling them to be there because they know he knows their secrets, and he also invites Poirot, Superintendent Battle, Colonel Race, and Ariadne Oliver to dinner, presumably to show off his collection of murderers.
At which point he is murdered himself. Four “detectives” and four suspects, but who did it? And who will figure it out?
Poirot conducts a psychological investigation of the four suspects, reasoning that though there isn’t sufficient evidence at the crime scene, there is sufficient evidence to prove the character of the suspects, because only a certain type of person could have committed this crime. He of course turns out to be right, because Agatha Christie wrote it that way, but also there is literally a scene in here where Poirot states out loud that he is never wrong. Which is hilarious, because it’s totally not true, I can think of a handful of times he got it at least a little wrong, before course correcting. But he’s vain like that.
Chipping Away at Mt. TBR, July 2022—Book 12/31