I did it: after five and a half years, and eighty novels and short story collections, I’ve finished my Agatha Christie re-readathon with the Poirot mystery that started it all.
The Queen of Crime brings down the curtain on life and work of Hercule Poirot in this melancholy finale that does give her most famous creation a dramatic and memorable send-off.
I assumed I was done with Christie’s short stories, but I was wrong: there remained twelve more tales of intrigue to finish, which mostly land on the fun and frothy end.
An odd mix of murder mystery and spy intrigue, The Clocks is a bit overstuffed and rough around the edges, but Christie’s light touch and humour make this uneven novel very enjoyable despite its shortcomings.
The last short story collection on my Agatha Christie Challenge list is an enjoyable selection of early cases that established Poirot’s professional reputation as (probably) the best detective in the world.
I had early hopes for this Poirot mystery promising Halloween-themed thrills and chills, but after a good start this short novel turns into a meandering slog that’s more duty than pleasure, despite some bright spots and interesting elements.
A collection of eight short stories featuring Hercule Poirot as well as some of Christie’s less-known detectives. You could generously describe it as eclectic, but “random” feels far more accurate.
There’s a kernel of a good mystery here that would probably make for an enjoyable short story, but this penultimate Hercule Poirot adventure feels both padded out and frustratingly short on substance.
A lesser-known train murder mystery from the Queen of Crime, The Mystery of the BlueTrain may not occupy the same rarefied class as Murder on the Orient Express, and Christie herself apparently hated writing it. I thought it was hardly her best, but still a decent enough read.
A collection of short stories blending mystery and romantic melodrama, about a strange crime-solving partnership that has more than a tinge of supernatural. Put it under another Christie book I appreciated much more on a re-read.