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Hercule Poirot #19
Appointment with Death
Among the towering red cliffs of Petra, like some monstrous swollen Buddha, sat the corpse of Mrs Boynton. A tiny puncture mark on her wrist was the only sign of the fatal injection that had killed her.
With only 24 hours available to solve the mystery, Hercule Poirot recalled a chance remark he’d overheard back in Jerusalem: ‘You see, don’t you, that she’s got to be killed?’ Mrs Boynton was, indeed, the most detestable woman he’d ever met.
With only 24 hours available to solve the mystery, Hercule Poirot recalled a chance remark he’d overheard back in Jerusalem: ‘You see, don’t you, that she’s got to be killed?’ Mrs Boynton was, indeed, the most detestable woman he’d ever met.
303 pages, Paperback
First published May 2, 1938
About the author
Agatha Christie
4,570 books68.1k followersAgatha Christie also wrote romance novels under the pseudonym Mary Westmacott, and was occasionally published under the name Agatha Christie Mallowan.
Dame Agatha Mary Clarissa Christie, Lady Mallowan, DBE (née Miller) was an English writer known for her 66 detective novels and 14 short story collections, particularly those revolving around fictional detectives Hercule Poirot and Miss Marple. She also wrote the world's longest-running play, the murder mystery The Mousetrap, which has been performed in the West End of London since 1952. A writer during the "Golden Age of Detective Fiction", Christie has been called the "Queen of Crime". She also wrote six novels under the pseudonym Mary Westmacott. In 1971, she was made a Dame (DBE) by Queen Elizabeth II for her contributions to literature. Guinness World Records lists Christie as the best-selling fiction writer of all time, her novels having sold more than two billion copies.
This best-selling author of all time wrote 66 crime novels and story collections, fourteen plays, and six novels under a pseudonym in romance. Her books sold more than a billion copies in the English language and a billion in translation. According to Index Translationum, people translated her works into 103 languages at least, the most for an individual author. Of the most enduring figures in crime literature, she created Hercule Poirot and Miss Jane Marple. She atuhored The Mousetrap, the longest-running play in the history of modern theater.
Associated Names:
Agata Christie
Agata Kristi
Агата Кристи (Russian)
Агата Крісті (Ukrainian)
Αγκάθα Κρίστι (Greek)
アガサ クリスティ (Japanese)
阿嘉莎·克莉絲蒂 (Chinese)
Dame Agatha Mary Clarissa Christie, Lady Mallowan, DBE (née Miller) was an English writer known for her 66 detective novels and 14 short story collections, particularly those revolving around fictional detectives Hercule Poirot and Miss Marple. She also wrote the world's longest-running play, the murder mystery The Mousetrap, which has been performed in the West End of London since 1952. A writer during the "Golden Age of Detective Fiction", Christie has been called the "Queen of Crime". She also wrote six novels under the pseudonym Mary Westmacott. In 1971, she was made a Dame (DBE) by Queen Elizabeth II for her contributions to literature. Guinness World Records lists Christie as the best-selling fiction writer of all time, her novels having sold more than two billion copies.
This best-selling author of all time wrote 66 crime novels and story collections, fourteen plays, and six novels under a pseudonym in romance. Her books sold more than a billion copies in the English language and a billion in translation. According to Index Translationum, people translated her works into 103 languages at least, the most for an individual author. Of the most enduring figures in crime literature, she created Hercule Poirot and Miss Jane Marple. She atuhored The Mousetrap, the longest-running play in the history of modern theater.
Associated Names:
Agata Christie
Agata Kristi
Агата Кристи (Russian)
Агата Крісті (Ukrainian)
Αγκάθα Κρίστι (Greek)
アガサ クリスティ (Japanese)
阿嘉莎·克莉絲蒂 (Chinese)
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January 30, 2022
Appointment with Death (Hercule Poirot #19), Agatha Christie
Appointment with Death is a work of detective fiction by Agatha Christie. The novel opens as the family and the victim are introduced through the perspective of Sarah King and Dr. Gerard, who discuss the behaviour of the family.
Mrs. Boynton is sadistic and domineering, behaviours which she may have carried over from her original profession of prison warden. Sarah is attracted to Raymond Boynton, while Jefferson Cope admits to wanting to take Nadine Boynton away from her husband, Lennox Boynton, and the influence of her mother-in-law.
Having been thwarted in her desire to free the young Boyntons, Sarah confronts Mrs. Boynton whose apparent reply is a strange threat: "I’ve never forgotten anything – not an action, not a name, not a face." When the party reaches Petra, Mrs. Boynton uncharacteristically sends her family away from her for a period. Later, she is found dead with a needle puncture in her wrist.
تاریخ نخستین خوانش: در سال2001میلادی
عنوان: ملاقات با مرگ؛ نویسنده: آگاتا کریستی؛ مترجم: جمشید اسکندانی؛ تهران، روایت، سال1372؛ در474ص، عکس؛ چاپ دوم سال1374؛ موضوع داستانهای پلیسی و کارآگاهی از نویسندگان بریتانیا - سده20م
عنوان: ملاقات با مرگ؛ نویسنده: آگاتا کریستی؛ مترجم: رویا سعیدی؛ تهران، شهر کتاب، هرمس، کارآگاه، سال1380؛ در259ص، عکس؛ چاپ دوم سال1384؛ شابک9647100507؛ چاپ سوم سال1387؛ چاپ ششم سال1397؛ شابک9789647100502؛
در اردوگاهی پژوهشی، در «اورشلیم»، خانواده ای به نام «بوینتون» اقامت دارند، که همسر و رئیس خانواده، آقای «بوینتون» رئیس پروژه ای پژوهشی باستان‌شناسی است؛ رئیس خانواده «لیدی بوینتون»، زنی مستبد، و شکنجه گر است، که فرزندانش قصد دارند، ایشان را بکشند؛ اما پیش از آنکه آنان اقدامی‌کنند، وی به قتل می‌رسد؛ «پوآرو» که در زمان قتل، در همان‌جا بوده، این ماجرا را، پی‌گیری و قاتل را می‌یابد
هرکول پوآرو، برای گذراندن تعطیلات، به «اورشلیم» می‌رود، و در هتل «سلیمان» اقامت می‌کند، و در شب اول اقامتش از پنجره ی مجاور چیزی می‌شنود، که توجهش را جلب می‌کند؛ یک نفر با صدایی آهسته و مرموز می‌گوید: «ولی باید او را بکشیم؛ میفهمی؟» «پوآرو» نخست گمان می‌کند این جمله بخشی از اجرای نمایشنامه یا داستانی است؛ ولی سپس متوجه می‌شود که گوینده ی این جمله را با غیظ و هیجان عجیبی ادا کرد؛ از دیگر میهمانان هتل، دکتر «تئودور ژرار» است، که یک روان‌شناس نامدار «فرانسوی» است، و «سارا کینگ» که دانشجوی پزشکی است، و تعطیلاتش را در «ارض موعود» می‌گذرانده، و مهمتر از همه طایفه «بوینتون» که بزرگ خانواده آنها خانم «بوینتون» است، زنی خودخواه و سلطه جو که دکتر «ژرار» او را کابوس زنانگی می‌داند؛ خانم «بوینتون» که زنی چاق و خیکی است، یک گوشه نشسته و از حرکت عاجز است – و بی‌شباهت به مجسمه کج و کوله «بودا» نیست – و مثل عنکبوت گنده ای است با یک تار بزرگ؛ قربانیان او فرزندان و بستگان سببی اش هستند که همه اسیر بیرحمی و سلطه جویی و شرارت اویند؛ تاثیر ناگوار اخلاق او را، در رفتار فرزندانش نیز بخوبی می‌توان دید، که همه آشکارا یا نهان از او متنفرند
نقل از متن: (میفهمی؟ او باید کشته شود، این جمله در گوش هرکول پوآرو طنین انداخت، و در مقابل چشمان او، در هیئت شبحی سرگردان درآمد، از پنجره بیرون لغزید، چند لحظه ای در هوای تاریک معلق ماند، سپس همچون پرنده ای به سوی «بحر المیت» پر کشید، و در دل شب ناپدید شد.)؛ پایان از فصل اول ترجمه خانم «رویا سعیدی»؛
تاریخ بهنگام رسانی 14/11/1399هجری خورشیدی؛ 09/11/1400هجری خورشیدی؛ ا. شربیانی
Appointment with Death is a work of detective fiction by Agatha Christie. The novel opens as the family and the victim are introduced through the perspective of Sarah King and Dr. Gerard, who discuss the behaviour of the family.
Mrs. Boynton is sadistic and domineering, behaviours which she may have carried over from her original profession of prison warden. Sarah is attracted to Raymond Boynton, while Jefferson Cope admits to wanting to take Nadine Boynton away from her husband, Lennox Boynton, and the influence of her mother-in-law.
Having been thwarted in her desire to free the young Boyntons, Sarah confronts Mrs. Boynton whose apparent reply is a strange threat: "I’ve never forgotten anything – not an action, not a name, not a face." When the party reaches Petra, Mrs. Boynton uncharacteristically sends her family away from her for a period. Later, she is found dead with a needle puncture in her wrist.
تاریخ نخستین خوانش: در سال2001میلادی
عنوان: ملاقات با مرگ؛ نویسنده: آگاتا کریستی؛ مترجم: جمشید اسکندانی؛ تهران، روایت، سال1372؛ در474ص، عکس؛ چاپ دوم سال1374؛ موضوع داستانهای پلیسی و کارآگاهی از نویسندگان بریتانیا - سده20م
عنوان: ملاقات با مرگ؛ نویسنده: آگاتا کریستی؛ مترجم: رویا سعیدی؛ تهران، شهر کتاب، هرمس، کارآگاه، سال1380؛ در259ص، عکس؛ چاپ دوم سال1384؛ شابک9647100507؛ چاپ سوم سال1387؛ چاپ ششم سال1397؛ شابک9789647100502؛
در اردوگاهی پژوهشی، در «اورشلیم»، خانواده ای به نام «بوینتون» اقامت دارند، که همسر و رئیس خانواده، آقای «بوینتون» رئیس پروژه ای پژوهشی باستان‌شناسی است؛ رئیس خانواده «لیدی بوینتون»، زنی مستبد، و شکنجه گر است، که فرزندانش قصد دارند، ایشان را بکشند؛ اما پیش از آنکه آنان اقدامی‌کنند، وی به قتل می‌رسد؛ «پوآرو» که در زمان قتل، در همان‌جا بوده، این ماجرا را، پی‌گیری و قاتل را می‌یابد
هرکول پوآرو، برای گذراندن تعطیلات، به «اورشلیم» می‌رود، و در هتل «سلیمان» اقامت می‌کند، و در شب اول اقامتش از پنجره ی مجاور چیزی می‌شنود، که توجهش را جلب می‌کند؛ یک نفر با صدایی آهسته و مرموز می‌گوید: «ولی باید او را بکشیم؛ میفهمی؟» «پوآرو» نخست گمان می‌کند این جمله بخشی از اجرای نمایشنامه یا داستانی است؛ ولی سپس متوجه می‌شود که گوینده ی این جمله را با غیظ و هیجان عجیبی ادا کرد؛ از دیگر میهمانان هتل، دکتر «تئودور ژرار» است، که یک روان‌شناس نامدار «فرانسوی» است، و «سارا کینگ» که دانشجوی پزشکی است، و تعطیلاتش را در «ارض موعود» می‌گذرانده، و مهمتر از همه طایفه «بوینتون» که بزرگ خانواده آنها خانم «بوینتون» است، زنی خودخواه و سلطه جو که دکتر «ژرار» او را کابوس زنانگی می‌داند؛ خانم «بوینتون» که زنی چاق و خیکی است، یک گوشه نشسته و از حرکت عاجز است – و بی‌شباهت به مجسمه کج و کوله «بودا» نیست – و مثل عنکبوت گنده ای است با یک تار بزرگ؛ قربانیان او فرزندان و بستگان سببی اش هستند که همه اسیر بیرحمی و سلطه جویی و شرارت اویند؛ تاثیر ناگوار اخلاق او را، در رفتار فرزندانش نیز بخوبی می‌توان دید، که همه آشکارا یا نهان از او متنفرند
نقل از متن: (میفهمی؟ او باید کشته شود، این جمله در گوش هرکول پوآرو طنین انداخت، و در مقابل چشمان او، در هیئت شبحی سرگردان درآمد، از پنجره بیرون لغزید، چند لحظه ای در هوای تاریک معلق ماند، سپس همچون پرنده ای به سوی «بحر المیت» پر کشید، و در دل شب ناپدید شد.)؛ پایان از فصل اول ترجمه خانم «رویا سعیدی»؛
تاریخ بهنگام رسانی 14/11/1399هجری خورشیدی؛ 09/11/1400هجری خورشیدی؛ ا. شربیانی
April 3, 2024
It was a complete accident.
Really.
The gist is that a nasty old woman who terrorizes her family gets bumped off and Poirot ends up on the case.
Everyone is a suspect. And since Agatha Christie is known for using unreliable narrators and murderers to tell her stories, you suspect even the people who are seemingly working to help Poirot find the killer.
There is a clue in this one that might let you eliminate a few suspects and put you on the right track to whodunnit. But, personally, I wasn't sure till Poirot told me who did it and why.
I always think that's part of the fun.
The thing that stood out to me in Appointment with Death was how long it took to finally knock the old lady off. Usually, the victim dies within the first chapter, but this time around you're stuck with this horrid old bat for the majority of the story.
She's one of those people who is just a complete waste of a human being. Serving no higher purpose than fulfilling her own obnoxious desire to manipulate and dominate anyone weaker, she has cruelly brainwashed her own children to the point that even as adults they don't have the ability to leave or tell her no.
Needless to say, by the time someone does her in, you're good and ready for it.
This was my first time reading this one and that's always a treat.
I don't remember hearing much about Appointment with Death before, and I'm not sure why. Then again, she's written so much stuff that it's kind of easy to just focus on the super famous ones. I'm hoping I can dig up a lot more gems like this one by the time I'm done with my Christie Mystery binge.
Recommended!
Really.
The gist is that a nasty old woman who terrorizes her family gets bumped off and Poirot ends up on the case.
Everyone is a suspect. And since Agatha Christie is known for using unreliable narrators and murderers to tell her stories, you suspect even the people who are seemingly working to help Poirot find the killer.
There is a clue in this one that might let you eliminate a few suspects and put you on the right track to whodunnit. But, personally, I wasn't sure till Poirot told me who did it and why.
I always think that's part of the fun.
The thing that stood out to me in Appointment with Death was how long it took to finally knock the old lady off. Usually, the victim dies within the first chapter, but this time around you're stuck with this horrid old bat for the majority of the story.
She's one of those people who is just a complete waste of a human being. Serving no higher purpose than fulfilling her own obnoxious desire to manipulate and dominate anyone weaker, she has cruelly brainwashed her own children to the point that even as adults they don't have the ability to leave or tell her no.
Needless to say, by the time someone does her in, you're good and ready for it.
This was my first time reading this one and that's always a treat.
I don't remember hearing much about Appointment with Death before, and I'm not sure why. Then again, she's written so much stuff that it's kind of easy to just focus on the super famous ones. I'm hoping I can dig up a lot more gems like this one by the time I'm done with my Christie Mystery binge.
Recommended!
September 6, 2019
Review to follow tomorrow 😉
Ok, ok, it was more than just a day till I got around to writing my review, mea culpa.
After a year of reading all the Miss Marple books, this is now the 21st month of the Poirot Buddy read Challenge (organised and led by Jessica, thank you) and is still proving amazingly enjoyable and not at all repetitive, which just goes to show what a good writer Ms Christie was and how different (in general) are all of her books.
This was an interesting book, that yet again I didn't remember reading. This book finds Poirot on holiday in the Middle East when he is called upon by Colonel Carbury ( an acquaintance of Colonel Race, an old colleague of Poirots) to investigate what the colonel calls an incident that isn't neat.
It is the death of the matriarch and tyrant Mrs Boynton, who rules the lives of her children with an iron fist. Being such a nasty bitch I almost cheered when she was found dead. But which of her downtrodden children did it, which one found the gumption to do the dirty deed. All of them said they spoke to her, sat out in the open at the front of the "cave" where she was staying, on the afternoon she died, but half of them said it was after the doctor put her time of death, so what is going on. Are they protecting each other or lying for some other reason.
Enter Poirot who has all of 24hrs to sort the issue before it would be too late. His "little grey cells" go into overdrive to solve the case through interviewing all the Boynton family and the other few tourists present at the time; a Mr Cope, friend of the Boynton; Lady Westholme, larger than life peer; Dr Gerard, a famous psychologist; Sarah King, newly qualified doctor and traveller; and Miss Pierce, a meek and mild retired governess.
Poirot arranges his normal denouement gathering at which he unmasks the murderer much to Colonel Carbury's relief.
I did like the epilogue set 5 years later where Poirot reappears !
Ok, ok, it was more than just a day till I got around to writing my review, mea culpa.
After a year of reading all the Miss Marple books, this is now the 21st month of the Poirot Buddy read Challenge (organised and led by Jessica, thank you) and is still proving amazingly enjoyable and not at all repetitive, which just goes to show what a good writer Ms Christie was and how different (in general) are all of her books.
This was an interesting book, that yet again I didn't remember reading. This book finds Poirot on holiday in the Middle East when he is called upon by Colonel Carbury ( an acquaintance of Colonel Race, an old colleague of Poirots) to investigate what the colonel calls an incident that isn't neat.
It is the death of the matriarch and tyrant Mrs Boynton, who rules the lives of her children with an iron fist. Being such a nasty bitch I almost cheered when she was found dead. But which of her downtrodden children did it, which one found the gumption to do the dirty deed. All of them said they spoke to her, sat out in the open at the front of the "cave" where she was staying, on the afternoon she died, but half of them said it was after the doctor put her time of death, so what is going on. Are they protecting each other or lying for some other reason.
Enter Poirot who has all of 24hrs to sort the issue before it would be too late. His "little grey cells" go into overdrive to solve the case through interviewing all the Boynton family and the other few tourists present at the time; a Mr Cope, friend of the Boynton; Lady Westholme, larger than life peer; Dr Gerard, a famous psychologist; Sarah King, newly qualified doctor and traveller; and Miss Pierce, a meek and mild retired governess.
Poirot arranges his normal denouement gathering at which he unmasks the murderer much to Colonel Carbury's relief.
I did like the epilogue set 5 years later where Poirot reappears !
January 8, 2022
Agatha Christie Book Reading Challenge
BOOK 31 :- JUNE 2021
4.25 STARS
BOOK 31 :- JUNE 2021
4.25 STARS
June 12, 2022
Buenísimo y muy bien armado. La reina Agatha Christie lo ha vuelto a hacer.
Con seguridad digo que esta es una de las historia de Christie que más me ha mantenido interesado de principio a fin y también una de las que más juega en los últimos capítulos con la lista de sospechosos, porque aseguro que cuando las pistas apuntan a uno y crees que ya las cosas están sobre la mesa, luego pasas a otro sospechoso y crees que es ese y luego a otro y a otro... y así, hasta que al final Poirot tiene la gran bondad de decir en realidad lo que pasó, quién fue y porqué lo hizo.
Con este caso me la pasé inventando mil y un escenarios posibles, a cada uno le podía encontrar razones para cometer el crimen (especialmente a los integrantes de la familia). Porque a ver, con semejante señora tirana de la que dependían económicamente y que sobretodo les prohibía y no les permitía socializar con nadie fuera de su círculo para posteriormente manipularlos todo el rato. Así cualquiera en un momento fuera de sus cavales lo hace. Y es que cualquiera de ellos tenía motivos de sobra para ponerse manos a la obra, principalmente por conseguir libertad en todos los sentidos y ya no tener que vivir bajo su yugo.
Por favor, es que lo recomiendo bastante. Que grandioso caso el que ha creado aquí la reina del crimen. Adictivo, te mantiene en duda hasta el final y aseguro que es casi imposible que alguien acierte y sepa quién fue el culpable. De hecho, este es uno de los casos mejor armados, con varias pistas de dudosa procedencia, con alguna que otra discrepancias e incoherencias con detalles por parte de Poirot que son fundamentales para darse cuenta hacia dónde apuntan sus extrañas preguntas y comportamientos con los testimonios que dan los sospechosos. Y aunque el crimen solo pase hasta la mitad del libro que es cuando el detective belga por fin hace su aparición permanente dentro de la historia, no creo que esto eche para atrás si los últimos capítulos valen la pena y los personajes te mantienen interesado.
Con seguridad digo que esta es una de las historia de Christie que más me ha mantenido interesado de principio a fin y también una de las que más juega en los últimos capítulos con la lista de sospechosos, porque aseguro que cuando las pistas apuntan a uno y crees que ya las cosas están sobre la mesa, luego pasas a otro sospechoso y crees que es ese y luego a otro y a otro... y así, hasta que al final Poirot tiene la gran bondad de decir en realidad lo que pasó, quién fue y porqué lo hizo.
Con este caso me la pasé inventando mil y un escenarios posibles, a cada uno le podía encontrar razones para cometer el crimen (especialmente a los integrantes de la familia). Porque a ver, con semejante señora tirana de la que dependían económicamente y que sobretodo les prohibía y no les permitía socializar con nadie fuera de su círculo para posteriormente manipularlos todo el rato. Así cualquiera en un momento fuera de sus cavales lo hace. Y es que cualquiera de ellos tenía motivos de sobra para ponerse manos a la obra, principalmente por conseguir libertad en todos los sentidos y ya no tener que vivir bajo su yugo.
Por favor, es que lo recomiendo bastante. Que grandioso caso el que ha creado aquí la reina del crimen. Adictivo, te mantiene en duda hasta el final y aseguro que es casi imposible que alguien acierte y sepa quién fue el culpable. De hecho, este es uno de los casos mejor armados, con varias pistas de dudosa procedencia, con alguna que otra discrepancias e incoherencias con detalles por parte de Poirot que son fundamentales para darse cuenta hacia dónde apuntan sus extrañas preguntas y comportamientos con los testimonios que dan los sospechosos. Y aunque el crimen solo pase hasta la mitad del libro que es cuando el detective belga por fin hace su aparición permanente dentro de la historia, no creo que esto eche para atrás si los últimos capítulos valen la pena y los personajes te mantienen interesado.
January 3, 2018
“They have been in prison so long that, if the prison door stands open, they would no longer notice!”
It was rather frustrating to have to wait more than 100 pages for the murder to happen, but oh, it was so worth it. Poirot's final dénouement was particularly appreciated. And I'm so ridiculously glad they all had their , in the end.
This time around, the queen of crime did not disappoint at all.
It was rather frustrating to have to wait more than 100 pages for the murder to happen, but oh, it was so worth it. Poirot's final dénouement was particularly appreciated. And I'm so ridiculously glad they all had their , in the end.
This time around, the queen of crime did not disappoint at all.
February 3, 2022
I very much enjoyed this particular installment of the Poirot series. The story was for me one of the good ones in the series. The book is of two parts and Poirot makes his appearance proper in book two. However, this doesn't stop the famous Belgian detective from solving a crime that would have otherwise been put down to natural causes through his brilliant psychological analysis.
Christie presents us here with an odious victim, the older Mrs. Boynton- an old woman who is a mental sadist. I came across another detestable victim in one of my previous reads, but this victim was a thousand folds worse. I was very much relieved by her death although it was a murder (it's very mean of me, I know 🙂) and reading became much pleasanter in her absence.
I really liked the characters of the story (except the victim, of course) especially the Boynton children and the young doctor, Sarah. It's not easy to like all the characters in a story, yet after The Mysterious Affair at Styles, I was able to feel so here.
The ending was abrupt and rushed on, which was a little disappointing. I wish that Christie took a little more time to shape it well. That is my only complaint about the story, however. Overall, I was much pleased with it and had a very interesting time reading it. This installment was yet another reminder for me as to why I keep on continuing with this series.
Christie presents us here with an odious victim, the older Mrs. Boynton- an old woman who is a mental sadist. I came across another detestable victim in one of my previous reads, but this victim was a thousand folds worse. I was very much relieved by her death although it was a murder (it's very mean of me, I know 🙂) and reading became much pleasanter in her absence.
I really liked the characters of the story (except the victim, of course) especially the Boynton children and the young doctor, Sarah. It's not easy to like all the characters in a story, yet after The Mysterious Affair at Styles, I was able to feel so here.
The ending was abrupt and rushed on, which was a little disappointing. I wish that Christie took a little more time to shape it well. That is my only complaint about the story, however. Overall, I was much pleased with it and had a very interesting time reading it. This installment was yet another reminder for me as to why I keep on continuing with this series.
January 1, 2019
First book of the year and... I don't have much to report, interpret, gauge, or infer. This is the first time I've read it in English. Before that I read it when in my teens, in French. The latter translation was superb. The translator, Louis Postif, was a genius.
Returning to this book, it does not lend itself very well to a reread. The first time I was impressionable. I wasn't impressed by Poirot this time around.
There was no determining proof of guilt in this case. Only the flimsiest trace of misdemeanor. This happens to most clever mysteries. The writer paints herself into a corner then is inconvenienced. Despite the low score, it was a good experience reading an old favorite.
Returning to this book, it does not lend itself very well to a reread. The first time I was impressionable. I wasn't impressed by Poirot this time around.
There was no determining proof of guilt in this case. Only the flimsiest trace of misdemeanor. This happens to most clever mysteries. The writer paints herself into a corner then is inconvenienced. Despite the low score, it was a good experience reading an old favorite.
August 21, 2022
Quick paced and fun, with a twist at the end I definitely didn’t see coming
You do see, don’t you, that she got to be killed
A very fun read that kept me guessing till the very end. Also I need to see Petra in real life!
I found Appointment with Death definitely much more enjoyable than the much more well known Death on the Nile. Poirot is called in to investigate the death of a thoroughly unlikeable woman, who as a tyrant (She gives us every luxury. Except freedom) resides over her family and its wealth. The number of suspects is therefor high. This Agatha Christie novel has a hell of a captivating opening and interesting that the apparent perpetrators already are known at the start of the book.
Queer is definitely the bingo word used extensively in this book.
Lady Westholme, a MP is hilarious, there are poisonings, there is romance, there is a time limit of 24 hours to solve the case. There is little not to like (although the abhorrent nature of the victim might be hard to pull off in a non-misogynistic manner on screen) in this story, and I was thoroughly entertained. Maybe a bit less innovative as And Then There Were None, but definitely up high in my list of favourite Christie novels.
You do see, don’t you, that she got to be killed
A very fun read that kept me guessing till the very end. Also I need to see Petra in real life!
I found Appointment with Death definitely much more enjoyable than the much more well known Death on the Nile. Poirot is called in to investigate the death of a thoroughly unlikeable woman, who as a tyrant (She gives us every luxury. Except freedom) resides over her family and its wealth. The number of suspects is therefor high. This Agatha Christie novel has a hell of a captivating opening and interesting that the apparent perpetrators already are known at the start of the book.
Queer is definitely the bingo word used extensively in this book.
Lady Westholme, a MP is hilarious, there are poisonings, there is romance, there is a time limit of 24 hours to solve the case. There is little not to like (although the abhorrent nature of the victim might be hard to pull off in a non-misogynistic manner on screen) in this story, and I was thoroughly entertained. Maybe a bit less innovative as And Then There Were None, but definitely up high in my list of favourite Christie novels.
June 13, 2020
Real Rating: 3.25* of five
I'll say more later, but whee dawggie did this rotten old bat's death fix the world!
***
LATER
One of Poirot's most arrogant cases, this one stems from a remark casually overheard by our snoopy sleuth: "You do see, don't you, that she's got to be killed?" spoken by American tourist Raymond Boynton to his sister Carol. The "she" in the sentence is their stepmother, an evil, sadistic harpy, as we learn later. Mrs. Boynton is a foul person whose abusive behavior towards her stepchildren is reminiscent of her premarital career as a prison warden. (Which is a whole other kettle of fish that, well, kudos to Dame Agatha for bringing it up no matter how tangentially.)
But the vile old bitch dies on a side trip from their holiday base in Jerusalem, at that time in the British Empire's control. While in a touring party, Mrs. Boynton and company meet Lady Westholme, charming English willful woman who was once an M.P. It is then, when La Westholme hoves into her view, that Mrs. Boynton utters a cryptic and menacing line: "I never forget. Remember that. I’ve never forgotten anything – not an action, not a name, not a face…."
The problem I have with this story is the cruelty of Mrs. Boynton to her family, her stepchildren and her own daughter (most inaptly named Ginevra, like any 1910s American mother would name her child such a foreign-sounding thing! Geneva, yes, but GINEVRA? Ha!), and the very, very dated "psychology" Christie lards into the tale via the French psychologist inexplicably on scene to explain why the Boynton woman has been able to keep control of these adults. Not to say it's badly written, really, though I do get a little tired of Ma Christie's use of foreigner-English. It's just that it's aged poorly and there is so damned *much* of it.
And Poirot's arrogance: He decides, after the dead woman is brought from Petra to his holiday destination visit to Col. Carbury, that by no more than interviewing the people in the holiday party he will solve the crime. But Mrs. Boynton wasn't, to all appearances, murdered...she just died of heart failure. But no, Poirot's little grey cells must be let out to run! Secrets must be revealed, The Truth must be discovered, and hang the consequences! (Which will, you know Poirot knows, be dire.)
Dire they are: More death (this time really unnecessary and quite horrible in its reason), a hideous boil of a family lanced and drained of a lifetime's accumulation of rotten, stinking emotional and physical abuse. Humiliation and misery for all! What a marvelous story to set in the so-called Holy Land, the source of millennia of misery, death, humiliation, and evil!
Can't fault Dame Ags for apt choices even if they aren't terribly subtle. And no one's going to convince me that they weren't both deliberate and calculated...too much evidence in her ouevre of her dislike for religion.
Agatha Christie's Poirot: Appointment with Death
Rating: 3.5* of five
Can't deal with child abuse, just can not. I also don't much enjoy the steady Catholicking of Poirot that Suchet began about this time, especially since this book was so bitterly anti-Catholic! He makes such a smug little speech to camera at the end of the show about Almighty God and I was ready to urp.
Now...about what survived...the awfulness of La Boynton, the identity and fate of the murderer, and several names. The major problem for me was that the child abuse was so well filmed, although one never sees the acts one does hear them, like the camera is one of the children not being tortured. It's effective.
TOO effective. I hated it.
The motives for the murder remaining the same, well, almost the same don't bother me. It's the nature of the beast in a murder mystery for the cracks to show. But the vileness of the victim and the condign death she endures don't make for easier watching. Families aren't safe, happy havens for all of us. But this family, its unique and terrible pathology, are ripe for fictional exploration. I don't think the screenplay does violence to the spirit of Nemesis that animates the book, that vengeful and dreadful goddess of retribution for the crime of hubris. In our secular age, that crime is no longer against the gods but against the Norm, the Way Things Should Be, ma'at. Lady Boynton, as she is in the show, has committed modern hubris on every conceivable subject: Her family's fate, her actions in the financial markets, her husband's bizarre search for the head of John the Baptist. Ah yes, that freshly invented husband: Played by the delight that is Tim Curry, he is a bluff'n'hearty old sod, obsessed with his Grail-quest to the exclusion of all other considerations...son, stepchildren, anything except the cash-cow of Lady Boynton and his digs for the damned white whale of a skull. It's a great pity that, after delivering a blistering character assessment of Poirot's need to furtle in the family linen-drawers, he essentially vanishes when his quest proves hollow. In the book, the same idea was served directly to Poirot by a now-disappeared character. The substance is the same: "can't you just leave it? She was evil, she's dead, let the living enjoy their lives at last."
Characters are invented, disappeared, renamed, repurposed; standard stuff, really, but the story...dreadful harpy rules all about her with great cruelty, gets come-uppance...remains. I rate it slightly higher than its book source material because it is very beautiful to look at. And Tim Curry, stout though he'd become by then, is still great fun to watch as he not so much chews but demolishes the scenery in his irrepressible aliveness.
I don't particularly recommend the story to you in either version. Child abuse is a crime, and now is punished as one. This is a societal change I approve of most heartily.
I'll say more later, but whee dawggie did this rotten old bat's death fix the world!
***
LATER
One of Poirot's most arrogant cases, this one stems from a remark casually overheard by our snoopy sleuth: "You do see, don't you, that she's got to be killed?" spoken by American tourist Raymond Boynton to his sister Carol. The "she" in the sentence is their stepmother, an evil, sadistic harpy, as we learn later. Mrs. Boynton is a foul person whose abusive behavior towards her stepchildren is reminiscent of her premarital career as a prison warden. (Which is a whole other kettle of fish that, well, kudos to Dame Agatha for bringing it up no matter how tangentially.)
But the vile old bitch dies on a side trip from their holiday base in Jerusalem, at that time in the British Empire's control. While in a touring party, Mrs. Boynton and company meet Lady Westholme, charming English willful woman who was once an M.P. It is then, when La Westholme hoves into her view, that Mrs. Boynton utters a cryptic and menacing line: "I never forget. Remember that. I’ve never forgotten anything – not an action, not a name, not a face…."
The problem I have with this story is the cruelty of Mrs. Boynton to her family, her stepchildren and her own daughter (most inaptly named Ginevra, like any 1910s American mother would name her child such a foreign-sounding thing! Geneva, yes, but GINEVRA? Ha!), and the very, very dated "psychology" Christie lards into the tale via the French psychologist inexplicably on scene to explain why the Boynton woman has been able to keep control of these adults. Not to say it's badly written, really, though I do get a little tired of Ma Christie's use of foreigner-English. It's just that it's aged poorly and there is so damned *much* of it.
And Poirot's arrogance: He decides, after the dead woman is brought from Petra to his holiday destination visit to Col. Carbury, that by no more than interviewing the people in the holiday party he will solve the crime. But Mrs. Boynton wasn't, to all appearances, murdered...she just died of heart failure. But no, Poirot's little grey cells must be let out to run! Secrets must be revealed, The Truth must be discovered, and hang the consequences! (Which will, you know Poirot knows, be dire.)
Dire they are: More death (this time really unnecessary and quite horrible in its reason), a hideous boil of a family lanced and drained of a lifetime's accumulation of rotten, stinking emotional and physical abuse. Humiliation and misery for all! What a marvelous story to set in the so-called Holy Land, the source of millennia of misery, death, humiliation, and evil!
Can't fault Dame Ags for apt choices even if they aren't terribly subtle. And no one's going to convince me that they weren't both deliberate and calculated...too much evidence in her ouevre of her dislike for religion.
Agatha Christie's Poirot: Appointment with Death
Rating: 3.5* of five
Can't deal with child abuse, just can not. I also don't much enjoy the steady Catholicking of Poirot that Suchet began about this time, especially since this book was so bitterly anti-Catholic! He makes such a smug little speech to camera at the end of the show about Almighty God and I was ready to urp.
Now...about what survived...the awfulness of La Boynton, the identity and fate of the murderer, and several names. The major problem for me was that the child abuse was so well filmed, although one never sees the acts one does hear them, like the camera is one of the children not being tortured. It's effective.
TOO effective. I hated it.
The motives for the murder remaining the same, well, almost the same don't bother me. It's the nature of the beast in a murder mystery for the cracks to show. But the vileness of the victim and the condign death she endures don't make for easier watching. Families aren't safe, happy havens for all of us. But this family, its unique and terrible pathology, are ripe for fictional exploration. I don't think the screenplay does violence to the spirit of Nemesis that animates the book, that vengeful and dreadful goddess of retribution for the crime of hubris. In our secular age, that crime is no longer against the gods but against the Norm, the Way Things Should Be, ma'at. Lady Boynton, as she is in the show, has committed modern hubris on every conceivable subject: Her family's fate, her actions in the financial markets, her husband's bizarre search for the head of John the Baptist. Ah yes, that freshly invented husband: Played by the delight that is Tim Curry, he is a bluff'n'hearty old sod, obsessed with his Grail-quest to the exclusion of all other considerations...son, stepchildren, anything except the cash-cow of Lady Boynton and his digs for the damned white whale of a skull. It's a great pity that, after delivering a blistering character assessment of Poirot's need to furtle in the family linen-drawers, he essentially vanishes when his quest proves hollow. In the book, the same idea was served directly to Poirot by a now-disappeared character. The substance is the same: "can't you just leave it? She was evil, she's dead, let the living enjoy their lives at last."
Characters are invented, disappeared, renamed, repurposed; standard stuff, really, but the story...dreadful harpy rules all about her with great cruelty, gets come-uppance...remains. I rate it slightly higher than its book source material because it is very beautiful to look at. And Tim Curry, stout though he'd become by then, is still great fun to watch as he not so much chews but demolishes the scenery in his irrepressible aliveness.
I don't particularly recommend the story to you in either version. Child abuse is a crime, and now is punished as one. This is a societal change I approve of most heartily.
September 25, 2011
Feels like Dame Agatha was experimenting with new techniques, namely, how long will the readers wait before letting Hercule come in and solve the story? And of course, a little like Murder on the Orient Express, it's a murder that no one really wants solved. Yet, enter he does, and solves the crime using the techniques of the mind--although he admits he lacks proof. Come to think of it, I don't think he referred to "the little grey cells," alas. While not her best, I nonetheless enjoy the Egyptian setting, the awful dynamics of a very dysfunctional family, and her twist. She blends some "love-at-first-sight" romance here as well, which is perhaps a little eye-rolling.
January 18, 2021
This was somewhat of a disappointment in the sense that I picked this up seeking Christie’s testimony of the world of archaeology embedded in her fiction -- rather than out of interest in her mystery plot. After marrying Max Mallowan in 1930, she accompanied him in several of his digs in the Middle East and in Egypt. She was not a passive observer; she became the photographer in several of these expeditions and participated also in the cataloguing process of pieces found. Five of her novels offer remains of her archaeologist experiences. I recently read Murder in Mesopotamia which is set in the camp archaeologist’s camp. This one, however, deals with a group of American tourists who are visiting Petra. Not exactly what I was looking for.
Nonetheless, I like Christie’s humour, and her acute power of observation. Some of her comments seem dated because now we are not allowed to air our prejudices. And she certainly had several – those part of the age she lived in, and every age has its own. But she also shows to have had an open mind, possibly related to her observant nature.
Enjoyable again is the additional dimension, the psychological one, with which she endeavours to enrich her mysteries. Not that they are convincing, but they are quaint. And if in Murder in Mesopotamia there were several engaging comments on the art of fiction, in this one finds Christie is playing with her reader when her smart Poirot informs his companions that:
My theory is that criminology is the easiest science in the world! One has only to let the criminal talk -- sooner or later he will tell you everything.>
That’s right, Agatha, let your characters talk and reveal to us the cards that you have placed in their hands, and what you have concocted this time for our entertainment.
March 28, 2023
Re-read on October 2016
I stand by my rating :))
***
10+++ Stars
This is perhaps one of my most favourite Christie's. No matter how many times I read it (last count was 8), this story does not get old, all those descriptions and sequences retain their power to thrill me even when I read it today. I simply love this book and the mystery of it.
This has nothing to do with anything Jerusalem, archaeology, historical artifacts. Nope. Absolutely not.
I stand by my rating :))
***
10+++ Stars
This is perhaps one of my most favourite Christie's. No matter how many times I read it (last count was 8), this story does not get old, all those descriptions and sequences retain their power to thrill me even when I read it today. I simply love this book and the mystery of it.
August 5, 2019
This is almost like a tourist brochure for Israel and Petra. The plot has a great sinister beginning and in true Christie fashion there are many with motive for murder. In his typical fashion Poirot goes after the psychology of the murderer. However the end is quite dampening and disappointing. Average read.
March 1, 2023
This is definitely not Agatha Christie's best work.
May 17, 2023
Otro ejemplo más de lo gafe que es Poirot. En esta ocasión se va de viaje a Jerusalém y casualmente escucha desde una ventana cómo hablan de un asesinato. Si yo fuera él me quedaría en casa quietecito porque parece que lo hace aposta.
No es la mejor historia de Poirot pero Christie sigue entregando una novela entretenida e ingeniosa. De hecho, me ha parecido mucho más interesante el retrato de la familia protagonista, con esa matriarca dominante y sádica y esos hijos ya adultos pero abducidos sin capacidad de llevarle la contraria. Mucho más interesante que el propio asesinato en sí que se veía venir desde la primera línea y solo estabas esperando a que Poirot lo resolviera.
También tiene una estructura distinta a otros que he leído de Poirot porque el asesinato ocurre a mitad del libro y la investigación de Poirot se resume en unos pocos capítulos por lo que si buscabas una investigación con muchas vueltas tampoco la vas a encontrar.
No es la mejor historia de Poirot pero Christie sigue entregando una novela entretenida e ingeniosa. De hecho, me ha parecido mucho más interesante el retrato de la familia protagonista, con esa matriarca dominante y sádica y esos hijos ya adultos pero abducidos sin capacidad de llevarle la contraria. Mucho más interesante que el propio asesinato en sí que se veía venir desde la primera línea y solo estabas esperando a que Poirot lo resolviera.
También tiene una estructura distinta a otros que he leído de Poirot porque el asesinato ocurre a mitad del libro y la investigación de Poirot se resume en unos pocos capítulos por lo que si buscabas una investigación con muchas vueltas tampoco la vas a encontrar.
May 6, 2016
Compared to the other Christie mysteries, this was just OK.
Pros: 1.The story itself was quite good; set in foreign locales that added to the mystery.
Cons: 1. All characters felt one dimensional & unbearable.
2.No Poirot in almost the first half & the built up takes so much of time.
3. Poirot's deduction & his explanation is confusing and the final twist was totally bizarre.
It was totally unexpected, but it didn't make sense.
So in short, "Appointment with Death" was a fast read but underwhelming & disappointing.
Pros: 1.The story itself was quite good; set in foreign locales that added to the mystery.
Cons: 1. All characters felt one dimensional & unbearable.
2.No Poirot in almost the first half & the built up takes so much of time.
3. Poirot's deduction & his explanation is confusing and the final twist was totally bizarre.
It was totally unexpected, but it didn't make sense.
So in short, "Appointment with Death" was a fast read but underwhelming & disappointing.
October 3, 2019
“The quickness of Christie’s hand still continues to deceive our eyes.” (Val McDermid, New York Times bestselling author)
I loved the book but didn't want to spit it out.
If you read the book carefully, you can easily identify the "killer".
Read and enjoy :))
I loved the book but didn't want to spit it out.
If you read the book carefully, you can easily identify the "killer".
Read and enjoy :))
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
May 14, 2021
Muy entretenido y el final, como siempre sorprendente.
September 8, 2023
দারুন একটা প্লট, অসাধারন এক্সিকিউশন!
ক্রিস্টি সাহেবার বই পড়তে গিয়ে প্রতিবার কনফিউজ হয়ে যাই! এবার ও তার বেতিক্রম না!
এতটাই কনফিউজ ছিলাম কালপ্রিট রে মনে হচ্ছিল বাংলা ১ম এর MCQ!
ক্রিস্টি সাহেবার বই পড়তে গিয়ে প্রতিবার কনফিউজ হয়ে যাই! এবার ও তার বেতিক্রম না!
এতটাই কনফিউজ ছিলাম কালপ্রিট রে মনে হচ্ছিল বাংলা ১ম এর MCQ!
February 8, 2023
у випадку нечитуна - пані Агата завжди спрацьовує
April 5, 2017
This is one of my personal favourites.
An obnoxious old woman, Mrs. Boynton (who used to the warden of a women's jail) has kept her daughter and stepchildren in psychological bondage for their whole lives: she gets her kicks from exercising control over other human beings. Obviously, they wouldn't mind if somebody murdered her.
Well, what's hoped for happens. In the Red City of Petra where the family is on tour, Mrs. Boynton is discovered dead with a puncture mark on her wrist, sitting outside a cave on the mountain trail. And - as is the norm with Christie - any of her children could have done it.
But unfortunately for the murderer, Hercule Poirot is also part of the tour party...
-------------------------------
This story is exquisitely plotted: there is no dependence on coincidence. As usual, the emphasis here is on the personality of the victim. If we follow the clues diligently as Dame Agatha provides them from the first chapter onwards, or if we correctly interpret the ten important points Poirot notes down, the identity of the murderer is obvious. But we won't. We will be flabbergasted at the end, when Poirot reveals all, how simple it was.
A challenge to armchair detectives: concentrate on the character of Mrs. Boynton, mull over the points Poirot notes down, and try to guess the murderer before all is revealed.
An obnoxious old woman, Mrs. Boynton (who used to the warden of a women's jail) has kept her daughter and stepchildren in psychological bondage for their whole lives: she gets her kicks from exercising control over other human beings. Obviously, they wouldn't mind if somebody murdered her.
Well, what's hoped for happens. In the Red City of Petra where the family is on tour, Mrs. Boynton is discovered dead with a puncture mark on her wrist, sitting outside a cave on the mountain trail. And - as is the norm with Christie - any of her children could have done it.
But unfortunately for the murderer, Hercule Poirot is also part of the tour party...
-------------------------------
This story is exquisitely plotted: there is no dependence on coincidence. As usual, the emphasis here is on the personality of the victim. If we follow the clues diligently as Dame Agatha provides them from the first chapter onwards, or if we correctly interpret the ten important points Poirot notes down, the identity of the murderer is obvious. But we won't. We will be flabbergasted at the end, when Poirot reveals all, how simple it was.
A challenge to armchair detectives: concentrate on the character of Mrs. Boynton, mull over the points Poirot notes down, and try to guess the murderer before all is revealed.
January 23, 2022
Choose Your Own Adventure!
As a gay man, you have many tasks to accomplish in the course of a normal day. It is best to keep an appointment diary at hand, at all times.
6:00am Gym
8:00am Breakfast (oatmeal and egg whites)
9:00am Hair Appointment
10:00am Shopping (Macy's or Nordstrom's)
11:30am Leisurely al fresco Brunch
2:00pm
(1) assume complete control of all U.S. Federal, state, and local governments, as well as all other national governments
(2) destroy all healthy marriages
(3) replace all school teachers K-12 with militant homosexuals who seek to recruit children for their homosexual lifestyle
(4) bulldoze all places of worship
(5) seize control of internet and other media
(6) be utterly fabulous
3:00pm Beauty treatment for facial wrinkles from the stresses of world conquest, followed by aromatherapy
4:00pm Cocktails
5:00pm Light Dinner (soup, salad with arugula and balsamic vinaigrette, Chardonnay)
8:00pm Theatre
10:00pm Cocktails in charming neighborhood bistro
12:00am Bed (du jour)
If you think gay people are disgusting and you’d rather do a keg stand, choose http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/...
If you enjoy the company of straight women, the kind that look at you adoringly but are not exactly your type, the kind who treasure your taste, style, and ability to dance shirtless at circuit parties, then choose https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
As a gay man, you have many tasks to accomplish in the course of a normal day. It is best to keep an appointment diary at hand, at all times.
6:00am Gym
8:00am Breakfast (oatmeal and egg whites)
9:00am Hair Appointment
10:00am Shopping (Macy's or Nordstrom's)
11:30am Leisurely al fresco Brunch
2:00pm
(1) assume complete control of all U.S. Federal, state, and local governments, as well as all other national governments
(2) destroy all healthy marriages
(3) replace all school teachers K-12 with militant homosexuals who seek to recruit children for their homosexual lifestyle
(4) bulldoze all places of worship
(5) seize control of internet and other media
(6) be utterly fabulous
3:00pm Beauty treatment for facial wrinkles from the stresses of world conquest, followed by aromatherapy
4:00pm Cocktails
5:00pm Light Dinner (soup, salad with arugula and balsamic vinaigrette, Chardonnay)
8:00pm Theatre
10:00pm Cocktails in charming neighborhood bistro
12:00am Bed (du jour)
If you think gay people are disgusting and you’d rather do a keg stand, choose http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/...
If you enjoy the company of straight women, the kind that look at you adoringly but are not exactly your type, the kind who treasure your taste, style, and ability to dance shirtless at circuit parties, then choose https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
March 9, 2015
Lady Westholme
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
December 28, 2023
The main story revolves around a sickly tyranny stepmother who, during a family vacation with her stepchildren, suddenly passes away. Initially, people assumed her death was natural because of her poor health. However, someone on the same trip suspected that she might have been murdered due to some unusual circumstances surrounding her death and her complex relationship with her stepchildren.
Since I don't read many detective or murder mystery stories, I have to admit that I'm easily impressed. I couldn't determine if this book is genuinely great or my standards for good murder mystery stories are simply low. Despite not being a big fan of murder mysteries, I really enjoyed this book. For me this is a very fun to read murder mystery story with quite fast paced explanation. I'm excited to read more of Agatha Christie's works.
Since I don't read many detective or murder mystery stories, I have to admit that I'm easily impressed. I couldn't determine if this book is genuinely great or my standards for good murder mystery stories are simply low. Despite not being a big fan of murder mysteries, I really enjoyed this book. For me this is a very fun to read murder mystery story with quite fast paced explanation. I'm excited to read more of Agatha Christie's works.
September 20, 2023
OK Agatha Christie novel with a typically devious explanation. The characters are particularly grotesque - and a little hard to believe - but if you read it in a day it's entertaining enough.
October 13, 2021
Fun read. Typical Christie - lots of characters, ending I never would have guessed, but a fabulous locale. Great narration.
August 10, 2022
Appointment with Agatha August 2022
Dame Agatha really relished thinking up unpleasant characters to fill up her novels. This one gives us Mrs. Boynton, a nasty, sadistic lump of a woman who enjoys tormenting her own family. Christie also glories in describing the listless, the weak, and the incompetent. This seems to characterize the entire younger generation of the Boynton family. Yet it seems likely that either one of them or all of them have conspired to murder the old woman. Has the worm turned?
One of M. Poirot's acquaintances asks him early in the novel if bodies tend to show up wherever he goes and he allows that it happens more frequently than he would prefer. By having him travel, Christie avoids creating another little vortex of death like Chipping Cleghorn of Miss Marple fame. (And leading to books like Your Guide to Not Getting Murdered in a Quaint English Village by Maureen Johnson). Christie was a devoted traveler and used her personal experience to provide wonderful settings for her fiction. I've always wondered why Hercule Poirot would travel to these environs, however, where his shoes will get scratched and all of his possessions will become dusty!
As usual, I completely missed all the relevant clues and allowed myself to be distracted by all the emotional drama in the story. As M. Poirot points out, this is all revealed by the psychology of both murderer and victim. I'm getting used to being wrong, indeed I think I would have been disappointed had I come to the correct conclusion. I marvel at how many ways there are to distract and deflect in such brief novels. As usual, Christie manages to deftly pour so much into such economic prose.
Dame Agatha really relished thinking up unpleasant characters to fill up her novels. This one gives us Mrs. Boynton, a nasty, sadistic lump of a woman who enjoys tormenting her own family. Christie also glories in describing the listless, the weak, and the incompetent. This seems to characterize the entire younger generation of the Boynton family. Yet it seems likely that either one of them or all of them have conspired to murder the old woman. Has the worm turned?
One of M. Poirot's acquaintances asks him early in the novel if bodies tend to show up wherever he goes and he allows that it happens more frequently than he would prefer. By having him travel, Christie avoids creating another little vortex of death like Chipping Cleghorn of Miss Marple fame. (And leading to books like Your Guide to Not Getting Murdered in a Quaint English Village by Maureen Johnson). Christie was a devoted traveler and used her personal experience to provide wonderful settings for her fiction. I've always wondered why Hercule Poirot would travel to these environs, however, where his shoes will get scratched and all of his possessions will become dusty!
As usual, I completely missed all the relevant clues and allowed myself to be distracted by all the emotional drama in the story. As M. Poirot points out, this is all revealed by the psychology of both murderer and victim. I'm getting used to being wrong, indeed I think I would have been disappointed had I come to the correct conclusion. I marvel at how many ways there are to distract and deflect in such brief novels. As usual, Christie manages to deftly pour so much into such economic prose.
April 19, 2023
“¡Está claro que, dondequiera que vaya, hay algo que me recuerda el crimen!”
Señora Agatha Christie, creo que hemos hecho las paces (por el momento). Después de un par de novelas que no han sido tal de mi agrado, como se diría en inglés (not my cup of tea).
“Porque, déjenme que les diga una cosa, amigos míos, para investigar un crimen basta con dejar hablar a la parte culpable. ¡Al final, los culpables siempre acaban contándote lo que quieres saber!”.
Esta novela sale un poco de lo acostumbrados que nos tiene la autora y su personaje Poirot. No voy a negar que yo también quería matar a la víctima. Tampoco me esperé para nada el asesino. Consiguió dejarme boquiabierta y con una sonrisa de estúpida una vez más.
“Ya no tengas miedo al calor del sol, ni de la rabia furiosa del invierno; has completado tu tarea en este mundo, has vuelto a casa y has obtenido tu premio”.
De los mejores que he leído por el momento.
Señora Agatha Christie, creo que hemos hecho las paces (por el momento). Después de un par de novelas que no han sido tal de mi agrado, como se diría en inglés (not my cup of tea).
“Porque, déjenme que les diga una cosa, amigos míos, para investigar un crimen basta con dejar hablar a la parte culpable. ¡Al final, los culpables siempre acaban contándote lo que quieres saber!”.
Esta novela sale un poco de lo acostumbrados que nos tiene la autora y su personaje Poirot. No voy a negar que yo también quería matar a la víctima. Tampoco me esperé para nada el asesino. Consiguió dejarme boquiabierta y con una sonrisa de estúpida una vez más.
“Ya no tengas miedo al calor del sol, ni de la rabia furiosa del invierno; has completado tu tarea en este mundo, has vuelto a casa y has obtenido tu premio”.
De los mejores que he leído por el momento.
May 29, 2022
nie
me esperaba algo mucho más agatha christie
me esperaba algo mucho más agatha christie
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