Sunday 26 February 2012

Hallowe'en Party - Agatha Christie

To go with a week when I had less time to devote to reading I handily decided to read a slightly shorter book.  We have a selection of Agatha Christie's Poirot books which I have been working my way through.  Hallowe'en Party is the final one of the slightly random set.

In case there is anybody that doesn't already know this, the Poirot books are murder mysteries based on the Belgian detective Hercule Poirot.  This particular book is based in a small village and the events that occur at, funnily enough, a Halloween party.  A girl boasts about having witnessed a murder and then later becomes a victim herself.  The noted detective novelist Mrs Oliver heard the boasting and decides to call in Poirot.

Mrs Oliver is a very amusing character who it would seem is a tongue-in-cheek representation of Agatha Christie herself.  She carries with her the great belief that all crime fiction fans develop, that murder is like in the books and a black-and-white matter.  Between the books I have read and the TV shows I watch I fall into this category myself sometimes.  But the only mysteries I consistently fail to even vaguely guess the answer to are the Agatha Christie ones.

I enjoyed reading Hallowe'en Party and seeing how the story developed.  The plot has many different pieces, most of which refer to seemingly unconnected events.  This makes things quite complicated but somehow not too difficult to follow, although I did get some of the women muddled up a few times!

Overall I found it quite nice to read something a bit lighter after a 750ish page fantasy book.  Not sure I should really be describing a murder book as 'light' but never mind.  Think I'm trying to say that it was an easy read and not too heavy going.  Now that I've finished all the Poirot books that we own I suppose I'll have to head to the library or buy some more, because I'm definitely not leaving it there.  They're just far too interesting to do that.

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