The Mysterious Mr. Quin

Not entirely characteristic of Agatha Christie's usually no-nonsense way of solving mysteries, but the surreal and supernaturalistic elements of these stories had me intrigued. I found the mysterious Mr. Quin fascinating, yet perplexing at the same time. Is he real? Or is he just a figment of the imagination? Just as I've pinned him down as a ghostly hallucination, other character in the novel attest to his presence in the setting. He barely interacts with anyone, but his presence serves as a catalyst for our narrator, Mr. Satterthwaite, to get things going. Satterthwaite makes for a rational, clear-headed narrator because of his specialty in life: being the observant wallpaper. In a sense, he takes away most of the narrative work of building up other characters because he simply can read them as they are, rather than letting the readers figure out their personalities for ourselves. Nevertheless, there is something a little pitiful and a little endearing about Satterthwaite and the way life has passed him by. On the whole, The Mysterious Mr. Quin would be a good read for those with a little preference for the mystical and inexplicable, but if you're looking for something clear-headed like Hercule Poirot or Miss Marple stories, this isn't really for you.