Goodreads Mobile | see what your friends are reading

Dec 17, 2009

Santh rated it:

Hercule Poirot received a letter of asking help, where the surprise thing was it came at once with the death of the writer. He was found in the golf court, almost buried. With the assistance of his best friend, Captain Arthur Hastings, they came to the place of incident.
What was the connection between two murders happened during last 20 years? Between the millionaire’s wife and his secret lover lived next door? Between a beautiful entertainer girl and a blackmail? And the worse, the second More...

0 comments like (2 people liked it)

Jan 18, 2012

Debbie rated it:

"Murder on the Links" is a historical mystery featuring Hercule Poirot. Though written as a contemporary mystery, it's now a historical. Still, it contains enough detail that the historical references can be understood.

The mystery was clever and complex, but whodunit could be guessed from the clues. In fact, the critical evidence was repeated several times--the hard part was making sense of what the clues meant. It was fun that Poirot was competing against a Sherlock-Holmes-t More...

0 comments like

Oct 02, 2011

Peter rated it:

"Enjoyable second full length novel featuring Agatha Christie's Poirot (partnered with reliable Hastings) features a trip across the Channel to the lovely shores of resorts of Northern France. Somewhat fanciful, but compelling story featuring three knives and therefore three murders!

Still early in her career, Agatha was enjoying Poirot and he comes across quite vibrant and fun here. Hastings and his ill-conceived and his annoying love affair mars the novel with his eternal m More...

0 comments like

Apr 09, 2011

Ensiform rated it:

The second Hercule Poirot novel. To explain its plot accurately would take half an hour and a whiteboard, but briefly: the Belgian detective and his aide Hastings are summoned to the house of M. Renauld, a millionaire who fears for his life. They arrive too late, finding him already dead, half-buried in an unfinished golf bunker, supposedly at the hands of bearded foreign thugs, and possibly at the hands of a jilted lover. But Poirot soon unearths not one, but two of the principals are living More...

0 comments like

Sep 13, 2010

Laurel rated it:

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here

0 comments like

Jan 30, 2012

Cheryl rated it:

MURDER ON THE LINKS, Agatha Christie's second book with Hercule Poirot as the sleuth, was written in nineteen twenty-three. With Arthur Hastings now sharing a room in London with his friend Poirot, the reader has a congenial narrator living with the little man with the grey cells. But Poirot's explanations do not lead to an easy solution to the mystery of who killed P.T. Renauld, a millionare with South American business ties.

Responding to a desperate appeal by Renauld for Poirot's hel More...

0 comments like

Apr 30, 2011

Mary Ronan rated it:

Golf must have been really big in 1923 when this book was published. There’s no other explanation for the title because the book has almost no connection with golf. Sure, the body is found in a open grave on land where a golf course was being built (in France no less) – and that is one of the important clues to the mystery – but it might as well have been any construction site.

We who love her books forgive Agatha Christie her whim and in this complicated story with new revelations ev More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Jul 06, 2011

Bigyellowtaxi1 rated it:

For some reason this didn't quite work for me. I'm going to put this down to being one of Christie's early novels (only her third) and that she's yet to find her own style. She is very much working in a Conan Doyle style and I don't think that her own characteristics as an author were fully developed by this point.

Surprisingly for a book in which Hastings plays such an important role, there's very little humour. He's not a character who was fully utilised in this novel, which is a pi More...

0 comments like

Jul 22, 2011

Senny89 rated it:

Devo ammettere che questo libro all'inizio non ingrana molto, è un po' noioso, e uno continua a chiedersi 'quand'é che diventi interessante?'. Poi arriva il primo colpo di scena. Poi un altro. Poi un altro ancora. Poi un altro. E sembra non finiscano mai.

Finalmente la storia decolla e devi rimanere attaccato al libro per sapere come finisce. Verso la fine magari tutti questi colpi di scena cominciano a diventare un po' troppo forzati, troppo ingombranti, ma prima che ci si stufi il libro finisce More...

0 comments like

Oct 21, 2009

Douglas rated it:

This book suffered from simply having too much in it. Perhaps some would like the twists, turns, flips, and surprises at the end, but I failed to enjoy them because of M. Poirot. What an insufferably cruel man to sit back content with his knowledge while allowing others to emotionally react to each new, but false, development. Obviously, Christie wrote him that way so that she could delight her readers with a plot that had more twists than the Colorado River. Unfortunately for me, the story's en More...

0 comments like

Aug 28, 2011

Olga rated it:

Ercule Poirot receives a letter begging him to travel to France to help in a mysterious case. Upon his arrival it turns out that the man who wrote the letter was murdered and it is up to Poirot and his friend Captain Hastings to solve the murder and a couple of other mysteries along the way.

A couple of years ago I got my hands on a volume of five of Christie's Miss Marple mysteries along with a book of short stories and for some reason while I enjoyed them I didn't love them. It all More...

0 comments like

Apr 10, 2009

Bernie rated it:

On receipt of a letter urgently asking for his help, Poirot, with Hastings in attendance, rushes to France. They arrive to find that they are too late; the letter writer has been murdered. Enter the usual cast of suspects - wife, son, son's love interest, secretary, mystery neighbour, domestics. Christie characters are rarely well developed, but usually I have some sympathy or interest in their stories. This time, none of them really stood out. Even the murder victim, whose character is often we More...

0 comments like

Jan 16, 2011

Stephanie rated it:

In this, an early sampling of Hercule Poirot's genius, the great detective ventures to France, with the faithfully assumptive Captain Hastings at his side, in order to answer a plea for assistance from a wealthy man in fear for his life. Unfortunately, Hercule Poirot arrives too late and finds that his would-have-been client has been murdered. Rivaling against a pompous French detective who considers himself superior to the excellent Belgiun, Poirot must decypher a confusion of clues, uncover th More...

0 comments like

Jun 15, 2009

Hannah rated it:

Murder on the Links is definitely one for fans of Captain Hastings. He exhibits his usual grand imagination and gets everything completely wrong again, which is the one trait that makes him so endearing. Here, he finally finds the romance that he's been seeking, but unfortunately, this is one of the times when Christie does not deliver her best. The actual mystery is honestly rather dull, and the girl, supposedly a spirited good sport, came across as rather two-dimensional. The "romance" More...

0 comments like

Sep 29, 2011

Jim rated it:

A typically solid Agatha Christie effort, and as is the case with many of her works, it is the final plot twists and the ultimate resolution of events that raise this Hercule Poirot outing to a special level. Of course, I say this as a huge Christie homer, so there is much bias to be found here. The title of this one is deceptive, as the story has next to nothing to do with golf, but that's merely an observation and not a complaint. The tale revolves around a set of parents and their son and his More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Aug 07, 2009

Mazel rated it:

Une fois n'est pas coutume, cette enquête d'Hercule Poirot nous mène en France d'où M. Renauld - un monsieur qui semble avoir des moyens - a lancé un SOS impérieux au détective.

Une limousine attendra Poirot et son ami Hastings à Calais...

Mais à Calais, point de limousine : c'est que M. Renauld a été assassiné dans la nuit.

On l'a trouvé lardé de coups de couteau dans le dos, au fond d'une tombe ouverte, creusée dans un terrain de golf...

L'enquêt More...

0 comments like

Dec 05, 2010

jennifer rated it:

Poirot receives a brief message from wealthy M. Renauld, begging the detective to come to his home in France. Poirot, along with sidekick Hastings, arrives too late;the man has been murdered during a robbery at his home. Things only get more confused when the body of a tramp is also discovered and a beautiful neighbor turns out to be more than a friend of the dead man.

This, the third book by Christie, has an usual aspect concerning Hastings near the end. I'll say no more about that.
More...

0 comments like

Dec 01, 2011

Harish Kumar Sharma rated it:

Awesome!! Unbelievable!!

This is the third Agatha Christie's Novel I read!! I am spellbound that a person could so meticulously weave a thrilling tale!! Can't think of what inspired her to write but bowled over by the narration!!

Hercule Poirot's shrewdness is unbelievable and there is always Honest Hastings with him through out!! Every character will rise suspicion while reading, but u can never stop guessing!! Mind ticks like clock during each line!! A wonderful page tur More...

0 comments like (2 people liked it)

Jul 25, 2011

Sereina rated it:

Hercule Poirot receives a letter from a wealthy man, requesting him to come to France immediately, for he fears his life is in danger. However, by the time Poirot arrives, accompanied by his best friend Captain Hastings, Paul Renauld has already been murdered and his wife is found gagged and bound in their bedroom.

Murder on the Links is filled with many unexpected twists and turns that I found quite intriguing, yet a bit overwhelming at the same time. I enjoyed how Poirot explained ma More...

0 comments like

Dec 23, 2011

Clarissa rated it:

I knew it was going to be a good book when the second line was "Hell!" said the Duchess. The twists and turns through the book will continue to stump you. While I figured out what must have happened with the first murder, I couldn't figure out why the second murder was committed or how it was done.

Also, I enjoyed how the detectives from France and the Belgium fought to solve the crime before the other. There were times I was confused because of all the foreign names and chara More...

0 comments like

Sep 21, 2011

Andrew rated it:

One of Hercule Poirot's early outings, Murder on the Links is most likable for fleshing out the often foolish character of Captain Arthur Hastings. In this story, Hastings, Poirot sidekick and interpreter of all things English, falls for a a lovely young lady who quickly becomes a leading suspect in the murder of a wealthy business man in France. There are red herrings aplenty and Poirot's infuriating arrogance is center stage. If anything is missing, it's the great detective's sterling sense of More...

0 comments like

Apr 01, 2011

Cindy rated it:

It's funny how quickly a 3- or 4-star book can turn into a 1-star book for me. I'm fickle like that. I think this is one of the early Poirot novels and not one of the better ones. Probably about 75% of the story is great. But the ending sucks. Completely ridiculous and utterly implausible, even for a mystery. And if the last note is a sour one, it takes a really, really great writer to recover from that. And well, Agatha Christie is no *insert favourite author*. Basically, it was good until Hast More...

0 comments like

Jun 29, 2011

Abbey rated it:

Begged to “come immediately!”, when Poirot arrives in a small French resort town he is informed that his client is dead, under extremely suspicious circumstances. And Madame Renauld has been found bound and gagged; when released she spins an intricate tale of two masked men who kidnaped her husband demanding to know the whereabouts of “the secret!!”. Things only get more convoluted from there...

Filled with improbable French magistrates, detectives, maids and gardeners, and a femme f More...

0 comments like

Oct 19, 2011

Su rated it:

Once again, a wonderfully twisty, thrilling mystery (that I just can't EVER guess before the end) by the Queen of Crime Fiction! One of her earlier ones, when Poirot is fun, fresh and has the greatest lines ("That animal of a Giraud!" Giraud being the stuffy, snooty "rival" detective on the case XD), and dear, old Hastings get to commit one of his biggest silly bungles in the history of their partnership. Also, you get to learn about his wife... not to give anything away. ;-) More...

0 comments like

Feb 01, 2012

Sebina (Classicmaiden) rated it:

I'm slowly but surely going through all of Agatha Christie's work. The weird thing for me is that I've been a Agatha Christie admirer since my early teens (I'm in my mid 20s now) through watching every adaptation of her work ever made on TV and in the Cinema, yet I have never read her novels until more recently; last year I read her first novel (and first Poirot story), The Mysterious Affair at Styles (published in the years 1920 and 1921), and I loved it!

The last couple of days I've More...

0 comments like

Aug 01, 2011

Epanorthose rated it:

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here

0 comments like

Jul 08, 2011

Bev rated it:

It seems hard to believe that Murder on the Links is only the second Hercule Poirot novel--and the one where Hastings meets his soon-to-be wife and disappears to the Argentine for a vast number of books. After leaving the books alone for a while and watching the lovely adaptions starring David Suchet, it has made me think that Hastings was always there--for every one of Poirot's cases. Alas, it was not so. But, on to the review...

In Murder on the Links, Poirot receives an More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Feb 27, 2011

Jc rated it:

Agatha Christie's 2nd Poirot adventure, third murder mystery, and fourth novel over all, it easily tops her already special first three outings. Amazingly, Christie got her character right the first time -- this early Poirot captures all the things that made him special over many decades. A great, if gentle for our times, mystery read. Even if you have read many of AC works, you still may find that she can surprise you.If you have the free time, you might find yourself reading it cover to cover More...

0 comments like

Sep 14, 2011

Nancy rated it:

Retired detective Hercule Poirot can't help but find that life has become a little dull. When he receives a panicked letter from a billionaire named P.T. Renauld, asking for help, he jumps at the opportunity. Only by the time Poirot and Arthur Hastings arrive at Renauld's home, the man has already been murdered. And even the great Poirot is surprised when a second man is found murdered in a similar fashion. Can Poirot and Hastings track down the murderer before it's too late?

Murder o More...

0 comments like

Aug 10, 2010

Mmyoung rated it:

This is Christies third book and the second outing of the Poirot/Hastings pairing. It is interesting to see the stylistic differences between this and The Secret Adversary, her previous book. Although Christie was definitely not one of the great stylists among the world of mystery writing one can see clear differences of writing style and plotting between the two “more serious” Poirot books and the romp she published in between.

The greater part of this book is set in France and thou More...

0 comments like

reviews