I enjoyed this book pretty well, though it could have been considerably shorter if we hadn't had to read the same information repeatedly. Whole conversations and experiences were repeated in full instead of summarized, which I found tedious. Also I was annoyed by the constant harping on "obviously this murder was done by a crazy person." Way too many characters said exactly the same thing. And Poirot never believed them, so it was obviously a red herring meant to mislead us, except it was too obvious, so it didn't work.
Sooooooo... this was a fun one-time read, but not a Poirot I'll be buying a copy of so I can reread it. And that's okay. My bookshelves are glad of this, hee.
The plot revolves around a girl getting murdered at a Halloween party after boasting that she had once seen someone get murdered. Semi-retired Hercule Poirot is called in to help investigate, and mystery-solving ensues.
If This was a Movie, I Would Rate It: PG-13 for murder, lots of people assuming the murderer's motive was sexual, and discussion of unwed pregnancy. It's fairly tame, but not for kids.
This is the sixth mystery book I read for #AMonthOfMystery. It was such a fun challenge!
"I have discovered that I like Agatha Christie's books about Hercule Poirot, just not so much her Miss Marple books." - exactly my feeling! The Poirot cases are much more memorable, at least.
ReplyDeleteI watched the TV series of this book the other day (David Suchet as Poirot). I think I liked it slightly better than the book.
Fanda, interesting that we both feel that way! Nice that she wrote with several different styles so we can still find something to enjoy :-)
DeleteI wholeheartedly agree! I'm glad I'm not the only one - I much prefer the Poirot stories, and I can't even put my finger on why, exactly.
ReplyDeleteAlso, is it just me, or all the Poirot stories when he's either retired or semi-retired and swears he'll never get back into mystery solving again? xD
Gabby, I think Poirot relies more on logic, deduction, and observation and less on "I feel weird vibes around that guy." If that makes sense? And the former is what I personally like in a detective.
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