As often happens with Poirot books after the first few, Agatha Christie is more interested in the story of the victim and suspects than in Poirot's investigations. I'm pretty sure that her Poirot novels sold better and she was encouraged to have the Belgian detective solve the mystery, while still concentrating more on the story she wanted to tell.

This one is a pretty standard setup for a Golden Age mystery, with an old patriarch having recently died and the family gathering for the testament reading. Someone suggests that the old man may have been murdered, and soon there are more corpses. Not really original at this point, but Christie plays to her strengths here.

It's written with the author's usual competence and craftmanship, but I don't think it's among the most inspired Poirot novels. It felt a bit routine. Still, Christie always does well at creating an oppressive family atmosphere full of suspicious characters, and her plotting is excellent. She is always good at misdirection and red herrings. The actual clues are there, and I appreciate them in hindsight, but when reading I don't even bother trying to guess the culprit, since I know she will always fool me.

In this one, I found it a bit difficult at time to keep track of who all the suspects were. Maybe there were too many of them or not distinctive enough, I don't know. The resolution of the mystery, as usual, was a pleasant surprise twist, although I felt the whole question of motive was a weakness of this story. There was a convincing motive, but the thing is that the murderer could have achieved his or her goal in a much less risky manner, without having to murder anyone. ( )

Agatha Christie books are seem to be hit or miss for me, this one is a hit - Agatha puts together a story of murder and possible murder, with all the expected red herrings and dead ends one expects from a mystery. The solution was completely unexpected, but on hind sight, was very obvious, as it should be.

There is one problem with the story, but I don't know enough to say if its a legit problem or not.

As for the characters, they are all have reasons for murder - and are very much suspect. Agatha does characters well, and can capture that upper middle class haughtiness, even when they have to ride a third class carriage due to money issues. ( )

DNF unrated - the radio dramatization version. I don't know why I even borrowed it from the library, because I never like radio dramatizations, no matter how good the production or the source material. But so many friends have spoken glowingly of this book and Hugh Fraser's performance, that I spent the Audible credit on that version and will start listening to it today.

I may,” said Poirot in a completely unconvinced tone, “be wrong.” Morton smiled.
“But that doesn’t often happen to you?”
“No. Though I will admit—yes, I am forced to admit—that it has happened to me.”
“I must say I’m glad to hear it! To be always right must be sometimes monotonous.”
“I do not find it so,” Poirot assured him.

Christie, Agatha. After the Funeral: Hercule Poirot Investigates (Hercule Poirot series Book 29) (pp. 275-276). HarperCollins. Kindle Edition.

Mr Entwhistle calls on his old friend Hercule Poirot when a recent death of a client appears suspicious and a second person connected to the family dies. Poirot, feeling a bit bored with his retirement, agrees to look into the case.

This was alright, a little bland. There wasn't much Poirot, mainly just various scenes with the Abernethie family. The mystery was interesting enough and I liked the bit about the murderer practising her facial expressions in the mirror but the pacing was a bit off and the characters were kind of boring.

Not my favourite Agatha Christie. 3 stars. ( )

When Richard Abernathie's will is read out, his sister Cora asks if he was really murdered. When Cora is found a couple of days later with her head bashed in the family's solicitor Mr Entwhistle cannot believe it was just coincidence. His investigations don't get very far and eventually he is forced to call in his friend Hercule Poirot.

I couldn't work out who it was, even though Poirot actually tells us well in advance of the big reveal. ( )