Nemesis

I am coming to the end of reading all of Christie's mysteries chronologically. This one, Nemesis, started off well and had a great title (Nemesis was the Greek god who punished arrogance) but lost some serious points for me. The mystery itself was actually quite entertaining, though somewhat obvious (I definitely guessed it right off). I gave it two stars only for that.

What peeved me was the social commentary. I have mentioned her commentary before, in fact it is quite common in her books, but this one was almost unbelievable. It just keeps coming in long paragraphs by different characters (who all somehow agree with one another).

Christie has been accused of being sexist and, though I really enjoy her mysteries, I have to on this point agree. It is especially apparent in this one. Young women are constantly being called silly and unable to take care of themselves, with people insisting it's trouble for them to make their own decisions because they are in a perpetual state of not wanting to grow up.

Okay, you say, that's not so bad. But then two separate characters comment that rape isn't really rape anymore, that women's mothers just insist they report it as such when they get pregnant. Add some heavy victim blaming on there (“Girls are far more ready to be raped nowadays than they used to be...”) and I almost rated this book a single star. It would have been different if I felt it was the character's view, not the author's. But when two (almost three) separate respectable characters say more or less the same thing...yikes.

That's not to mention the commentary on nature vs nurture and “love”...disagree, disagree, disagree. It's too bad because this could have been a good mystery.