Avenel Books, 1936
115 pages
Mystery; Hercule Poirot
4/5 stars
Source: Library
Summary: Mr Shaitana collects things; one of those things allegedly being people who have committed murder without being caught. One night he invites four renowned investigators of crime (Hercule Poirot, Colonel Race, Superintendent Battle, and writer Ariadne Oliver) and four people who presumably have committed murder. But at the end of the night, Mr Shaitana is dead and Poirot and the others must race against time to capture the culprit before s/he becomes to emboldened by success.
Thoughts: This is apparently the first Poirot novel with Ariadne Oliver, a mystery writer who allows Christie to express anger toward her fictional detective, discuss detective fiction, and provide comic relief. I quite liked her although sometimes I feel like Christie doesn't much like women.
The four suspects were pretty interesting and there was a lot of backstory as we tried to figure out the psychology of them in order to discern who could have committed this murder. We also got to spend a lot of time with some of them, which helped me distinguish them in my head not that it helped me solve the mystery.
As there were only four suspects, I had a 1 in 4 chance of getting the right person. But with all of the plot twists and details uncovered, I ended up very confused. I should just go with the least likely person! Seriously, there are at least two major turnabouts that change things! There was also entirely too much talk about bridge.
Overall: A bit confusing but very thrilling and maybe you'll have better luck figuring out the murderer!
Cover: I like the cards and the stiletto and colors but I'm not really in to that hat.
I have so much to learn about Christie. I didn't know about Ariadne Oliver, I confess. A lovely review and it is another Christie I can look forward to reading one day. The cover is great, I like images of cards, for some reason.
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