Enjoyable

Good reading, intriguing story, well scripted characters makes a great mystery story, the twidt at the end was fantastic and unpredictable.

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But solving them isn’t…

As he travels to London by train, Luke Fitzwilliams finds himself sharing a carriage with an elderly lady who reminds him of his favourite aunt. Miss Pinkerton chatters in the way elderly people do (in Christie books, anyway), and Luke listens with half an ear as young men do (ditto). She tells him that she’s going to London to visit Scotland Yard, and then shocks him by saying she’s going to report a series of murders in her village of Wychwood. He doesn’t believe her, of course, but encourages her to go to the Yard anyway since he thinks they probably know how to deal with dotty old dears with vivid imaginations. A couple of days later he is sad to read in the paper a notice of her death, killed by a car on that day in London. But then a couple of weeks later he reads another death notice, this time of Dr Humbleby in Wychwood, the man Miss Pinkerton had mentioned as being the murderer’s next intended victim. So Luke decides to go to Wychwood to investigate…

Luke is an ex-policeman of the colonial kind, so investigation is something he’s used to. He manages to get an invite to stay with the local bigwig, Lord Whitfield, by pretending to be the cousin of Lord Whitfield’s fiancée, Bridget Conway, who happens to be the cousin of a friend of his. Complications ensue when he immediately falls for Bridget. He soon tells her the real reason he’s there and she helps him with local knowledge and introductions to the various people who might have been in Miss Pinkerton’s social circle. Because the whole story is so nebulous he doesn’t contact the police till quite late on, at which point Superintendent Battle plays a very small role. In the way publishers do at the moment, this is now listed as one of the “Superintendent Battle series”, but it really isn’t – it’s a standalone and Luke is the central character. Both Luke and Bridget are enjoyable leads, and there are lots of interesting secondary characters, many of them acting suspiciously in one way or another.

The plot is up there with her best, fair-play but still baffling, and with a great motivation for the murderer who, as Miss Pinkerton promises in Chapter 1, is “just the last person anyone would suspect”! There are two different kinds of pleasure for me when re-reading Christie. Either I’ve forgotten the plot and the solution, so have the fun of being baffled all over again, or I remember whodunit so have the pleasure of spotting the clues as I go, and admiring the way Christie deploys them. This was one of the latter for me, and it has some of her very best clues! In fact, the crucial clue almost equals the brilliance of the one in The Murder of Roger Ackroyd which I have often declared to be my favourite piece of misdirection of all time. It’s right there, in front of the reader’s face, and yet not only does the poor reader miss the significance, it actually sends her off in completely the wrong direction. I don’t know any other writer who can do that with the apparent ease of Ms Christie – it truly is a joy to see such skill in action.

Great stuff, and Hugh Fraser’s narration of the audiobook is as wonderful as always. Pleasure guaranteed!

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Superb Christie

Great story excellently narration by Hugh Frazier.
Highly recommend this to any Agatha Christie fan.
Hugh Fraser should narrate all her novels. He has a lot except
‘Death on the Nile’ Listening to him narrate is a joy.
So come on Audible, ask him to narrate Death On The Nile.
I would highly recommend this title however especially if you’re new to Agatha Christie. A real who done it. And you’ll never guess who!!!

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7 people found this helpful

Agatha Christie at her best!

A superbly crafted story with all the hallmarks of a classic murder mystery by the queen of the genre!

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Super narrating, really enjoyed this book

Loved the story as I'm a big Agatha Christie fan but loved the narration too by Hugh fraser.

Worth listening to, I guessed wrong.

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Excellent Narration

Hugh Fraser is an excellent narrator. I actually forgot there was only one person reading all the parts - each character was so individual. The plot was entertaining and with Hugh Fraser at the helm, the hours just flew by.

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4 people found this helpful

Christie Challenge

Another AC ticked off the list. I did get there via a dummy. Good story

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BRILLIANT

Hugh Fraser has read this story BRILLIANTLY as usual, which is why all the Agatha Christie books I have are read by him!!

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1 person found this helpful

Curl up for a cosy mystery...

One has a sense of Sergeant Howie entering the village in The Wicker Man.
A small rural village mapped out beautifully by Christie, making us familiar with this strange little place and its somewhat suspicious inhabitants...

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Much better than Itv adaption, good story, differ

This is a whole different story, different killer, different motive to TV Adaptation. Much better story. ITV were obsessed with kesbians when they adapted this great book. Listen to this instead.

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4 people found this helpful