This Poirot mystery is another good story. Whoever said Agatha Christie's characters are all cardboard is wrong. Sure, she writes within the limitations of the Golden Age of Detection puzzle, but here she pays a lot of attention to the psychology of her characters, and it's an enjoyable story because of that.

My only problem with it is that it shouldn't be a Poirot story, because we don't see Poirot actually doing any detecting. I get the feeling that Christie is tired of Poirot, and would like to write novels without him, but she includes him for commercial reasons. It's a problem common to several creators of very popular detectives (see also Conan Doyle, for example). They get tired of their famous characters and their quirks, but readers demand them, so they have to be included. ( )

John Christow is a slug.
Motivation in one part of his life shouldn't make up for lack of consideration in every other part of his life. He deserves a drop kick and that's all.

Oh, and also Edward is a drip. 'I'm not good at anything' he whines all the time; well, why do you have to be "good" at something to do it? He has money, he has land, he has a brain, just start something, stick with it and stop self-obsessing. ( )

While staying at a vacation home, Poirot is invited to lunch at the manor house up the road. But when he arrives, one of the other guests has just been shot and the new widow is holding a gun…

Whew. Christie never disappoints. Everyone has a motive but none of the leads pan out, and even Poirot seems baffled up until the very end. ( )

Not a Christie I remember reading previously, which is good. [return][return]Poirot takes a back seat for the first half of the story, as the different new characters and their relationships are set up.[return][return]Then Poirot - living in his cottage in the country - is invited to lunch at the "big house" nearby, and when he arrives, finds John Christow dying beside the pool, his slow and dimwitted wife standing over him with a gun. Did she kill him?

"Sometimes," she said meditatively, "things arrange themselves quite simply. I've asked dthe Crime man to lunch on Sunday. It will make a distraction, don't you think so?"
"Crime man?"
"Like an egg," said Lady Angkatell.

Christie, Agatha. The Hollow: Hercule Poirot Investigates (Hercule Poirot series Book 25) (p. 7). HarperCollins. Kindle Edition.

Hercule Poirot is invited to lunch but is disappointed to find his hosts so crass as to stage a murder as the entertainment. Only his hosts are as surprised as he to find the charming Doctor John Cristow dead with his newly widowed wife, Gerda Christow holding the gun.

This was fantastic. A seemingly simple crime turns complex as Poirot pits his wits against his most fiendishly good villain yet or do gooder as the case may be. . Every clue is a red herring leaving both Poirot and Inspector Grange scratching their heads. Okay I'll admit, and me. I was jumping from suspect to suspect sure I was finally right. Of course, I was wrong but I had a great time trying to puzzle my way out of this one. I loved Henrietta and Lady Lucy Angkatell best but I was also pretty fond of Midge and Gerda. Lucy cracked me up. I loved that she had a whole conversation with Midge before she actually gets to Midge and then she's like oh dear, you're so helpful! and Midge is like am i?

I was amused by the butler, Gudgeon and his efforts to look after his mistress, Lady Angkatell to the best of his abilities. Like having multiple replacement kettles for when she inevitably burns them by l eaving them to boil and walking away.

The victim, Doctor John Christow was a different story. Honestly the guy was a jerk. He deserved everything he got. I hated the way he treated Gerda. The poor woman didn't deserve it at all and I felt so sorry for her having so much anxiety and being told she was so stupid. I loved that she made a decision at some point to just play dumb so people would leave alone but I still felt sorry for her to have to.

And Henrietta. I liked that she was kind to Gerda although it definitely doesn't excuse her for sleeping with her husband ffs. But I didn't get why she liked John either. He treated her, in his own way, just as badly. Wanting to own her and possess her when he has a freaking wife and children is just as terrible. I liked that Henrietta wasn't as wrapped up in him and recognised the situation for what it was but I also would've liked her to just get rid of him. As for the villain of the piece Henrietta was epic. I loved her misleading Poirot and it cracked me up when she said how tired she was trying to keep ahead of him. I got why she protected Gerda - I just wish that Gerda doesn't try to kill her in the end. I would've liked some girl power or something. But Poirot always knows how to play the odds and it was neatly tied up.

A fantastic Hercule Poirot. 4.5 stars, rounded to 5 stars. ( )