The Hollow

Recently read a review touting this as one of Christie's best. I was disappointed. I enjoyed reading another Hercule Poirot mystery but I was never hooked. In this one, he is invited to lunch at a neighbor's in the country and when he arrives he finds a murder has just been committed. It's the typical “Sunday in the country” with lots of houseguests and seems obvious who committed the crime. Obviously, not to be. Poirot curiously does not do any investigating; however, we learn who did it by the people who kept confiding in Poirot over the course of the investigation. I didn't find any of the characters engaging and just finished it to see who was really the culprit. It goes without saying, that Poirot was his usual wonderful character.

Classic Agatha Christie novel. Can finish in one single sitting. I did not remember reading this earlier (even though I definitely had). Wonderful setting, characters felt more compelling, and Poirot as usual, felt quite like an amiable yet irritating uncle. Comfortable read. Christie books always feel like coming home to have my favorite dinner from childhood (does that make me a creep?)

Pretty fun reading this one again. This one concentrated a lot more on the politics and relationship dynamics between the characters, but that's fine. I was definitely also slightly annoyed by everyone's fixation on the doctor at the center of the mystery here, Dr John Cristow. He didn't really feel like all that, but for some reason he had not one but three women trailing after him, at least two of which were intelligent and certainly out of his league.

Anyway, it made for an entertaining read but I find that I enjoy Christie's works where the mystery is more of a structured puzzle, aka And Then There Were None or Five Little Pigs. This one was definitely not within that category, but it was OK.

I did also kind of enjoy how there was a bit more focus on the romantic development of two characters which made for a pretty satisfactory ending.

Overall, decent fun and a serviceable mystery. Not one I'd recommend as a starting point to Christie, for sure, but definitely a good one for when you just need a bit of a Christie fix.