Elephants Can Remember

Halfway through the book, when the twin sister is introduced, the solution becomes intuitively apparent. Since every Christie that I had read before always brought up an ingenious solution, I dismissed it, thinking that it couldn't be this obvious.

Unfortunately, it came out to be true, and that's the worst thing I can say about a Christie novel. The way it was structured and the stodgy dialogue pretty much gave the mystery away quite some time before the conclusion. You could extract a soap drama from the melodramatic ‘reveal' which felt cheesy enough to be used for a Margherita pizza.

Elephants can remember but this was a forgettable book.

I loved the little moments with Mrs Oliver, and her approach to solving crime. However–

slight spoilers ahead–

I was hoping for another twist at the end. I saw the main twist coming, and I was actually expecting the plot to go one step further. In the end, there were several threads left open that could have really gone together, and it felt like they'd been neglected.

I'm definitely not the first reviewer to say that, and it's totally understandable given how late in Christie's career this came out. I still had fun with it as a character study, so my advice is just be along for the ride and don't put too much stress on the puzzle! :)

I am coming very close to finishing all of Christie's mysteries chronologically. Compared to some of her others, this one is bleh. Very predictable (identical twins...hmm...) and repetitive (mention the elephant metaphor one more time...) with lots of ideology about how crime is genetic. Not her best.

I grew up with several shelves' worth of Agatha Christie books in the built-in bookcase above the stairs, but I only ever read one short story or novella. I borrowed a few books from my parents the last time I visited, and the first sentence of this one introduced a novelist. What writer doesn't enjoy reading about novelists? So I started with this one.

The story was fine, interesting and engaging enough, but it lit none of the fires that Sayers usually does for me, or that Hammett and Highsmith recently did. I might go on to read By the Pricking of My Thumbs and The Mirror Crack'd from Side to Side because those are the only titles that have stuck with me since my youth, but I don't think I'll miss much if I leave the rest be.