Sign in with Facebook
Loading...
9th out of 66 books
—
45 voters
The Pale Horse (Ariadne Oliver #5)
Was it really the Thomasina Tuckerton--dropout heiress turned bohemian beat girl--seen in a cafe brawl with another woman? Her obituary confirms it. Thomasina's unfortunate demise would have passed unnoticed if it hadn't been for the priest who suffered a fatal blow at the hand of a stranger only days later. What's the connection? A list of names hidden in father Gorman's...more
Mass Market Paperback, 276 pages
Published
December 15th 2002
by St. Martin's Press
(first published 1961)
Friend Reviews
To see what your friends thought of this book,
please sign up.
Community Reviews
(showing
1-30
of
3,000)
Hoje, em homenagem ao seu 122º aniversário, terminei mais um livro daquela que é considerada a Rainha do Crime ou Duquesa da Morte como esta preferia ser apelidada.
É, como todos os outros, um livro que nos agarra desde as primeiras linhas e nos transporta para o mundo do crime em Inglaterra.
Apesar de, nesta história, não aparecer o meu detective preferido (Poirot), acabei por gostar muito da originalidade das personagens. Mark Esterbrook interpretou na perfeição o papel de investigador sedento...more
É, como todos os outros, um livro que nos agarra desde as primeiras linhas e nos transporta para o mundo do crime em Inglaterra.
Apesar de, nesta história, não aparecer o meu detective preferido (Poirot), acabei por gostar muito da originalidade das personagens. Mark Esterbrook interpretou na perfeição o papel de investigador sedento...more
The Pale Horse is Agatha Christie’s novel dealing with black magic. Dame Christie ingeniously weaves a web into the murderous world of an old inn The Pale Horse where a witch, a medium and a psychic form circle of devious intentions. The story opens with Thomasina Tuckerton in a brawl with another woman over a man and that leads to a chain of events that uncovers one murder after another. Ms. Tuckerton’s untimely death and would have been unnoticed if Father Gorman had not been found murdered af...more
Extremely dark and chilling - read with a stuffed animal or a huggable friend nearby! Very thrilling and powerful read, and definitely my favourite non-Poirot or Marple mystery, hands down. Definitely a tense and creepy affair; the atmosphere is very much like what I would imagine the dark streets of Whitechapel would be during the late 19th Century. Mark Easterbrook is a loveable hero, intelligent and brave, and you can't help but be nervous and root for him at the same time as he plunges headl...more
Christie has several titles that are sort of similar, so I guess I had this book confused with another. As I started reading, I realized that I couldn't remember what happened in this one. I know that I read it before, but it must have been a long time ago.
The book opens with a man having a meal in a tea shop. He sees two girls get into a fight. Later he asks a waiter about them and learns their names. The next day he reads that one of the girls is dead.
The book then jumps to a dying woman who a...more
The book opens with a man having a meal in a tea shop. He sees two girls get into a fight. Later he asks a waiter about them and learns their names. The next day he reads that one of the girls is dead.
The book then jumps to a dying woman who a...more
Ok ehem. .i admit that i was being misguided by this book but . .it is because the way agatha written this masterpiece is really goddamn smart! !for some reason i first thought (before i finish the book) that christie had gone mad cause it is not like her to write sophisticated story with a little crime in it .At first i thought that the method of killing the victim is insane and it didn't make any sense for me at all cause i'm sure that you will say "what the hell??"too if the story goes like :...more
I am almost tempted to award four stars on the basis of the comments on the threatening nature of the nosie of machines mnade, if memory serves me right, in a coffee shop at the beginning of the story. My copy was a paperback which fell apart so I cannot quote but the opening lines point to something which no other writer has so succinctly pointed out, so fas ar I know, and has nothing very much to do with the story, namely the threatening nature of the noise of machinery in our modern world. I...more
Audio book read by Hugh Fraser
3.5***
Is it possible to kill someone by remote control – that is, black magic?
A woman on her deathbed asks for a priest – a Roman Catholic priest to be exact. After he leaves her bedside he stops in a café to ponder what she told him. He scribbles down a list of names on a scrap of paper, and because he has a hole in his pocket, puts the paper inside his shoe. On his way back to the parish, however, he is brutally murdered – a seeming robbery. But that scrap of pape...more
3.5***
Is it possible to kill someone by remote control – that is, black magic?
A woman on her deathbed asks for a priest – a Roman Catholic priest to be exact. After he leaves her bedside he stops in a café to ponder what she told him. He scribbles down a list of names on a scrap of paper, and because he has a hole in his pocket, puts the paper inside his shoe. On his way back to the parish, however, he is brutally murdered – a seeming robbery. But that scrap of pape...more
Jul 16, 2011
Ariel
rated it
4 of 5 stars
·
review of another edition
Shelves:
mystery-agatha-christie
I read this entry in the summer cool down with AC challenge ahead of viewing the Masterpiece movie that is currently available online. Strangely, they added Miss Marple to the movie version. I am not quite sure why they did that and that threw off my viewing of the movie. In any case this book centers around the mystery as to whether a coven witches really can cause people to die by casting a spell on them. This book does not have Poirot or Miss Marple but Ariadne Oliver who was featured promine...more
Is it possible to cause the death of someone by sheer power of mind, that is, without any visible contact? Is it possible to contract a deadly disease merely by someone’s ill wish? Are there people who can act as a living bridge between the mortal world and a world of uncanny powers? Agatha Christie proposes this improbable and incredible theory in her highly interesting book - The Pale Horse.
Story - Third person’s narrative- The story starts with a description of an ailing woman calling for the...more
Story - Third person’s narrative- The story starts with a description of an ailing woman calling for the...more
This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it,
click here.
"Tell us more about MACBETH, Mark, and the awful witches. I know how I'd produce the witches if I were doing a production ... I'd make them very ordinary. Just sly quiet old women. Like the witches in a country village."
There are three witches living in the old pub that used to be called The Pale Horse. They claim to be able to do an extraordinary thing. To kill at a distance without a trace! Is it possible to believe in this modern day and age, or have they tapped into something old and very e...more
There are three witches living in the old pub that used to be called The Pale Horse. They claim to be able to do an extraordinary thing. To kill at a distance without a trace! Is it possible to believe in this modern day and age, or have they tapped into something old and very e...more
Early in this novel a character muses about how best to portray the Witches in a production of ‘Macbeth’. It’s his contention that rather than pushing up the weirdness so the sisters become something which could feasibly fit into a pantomime, they are instead portrayed as the kind of normal – if slightly sinister – old ladies who are frequently dismissed as witches in English country villages. As apparently all English villages have witches (a fact which all country folk know), and it would just...more
Aug 27, 2012
Tali
rated it
3 of 5 stars
·
review of another edition
Shelves:
christie-mysteries,
crime
Having seen the adaptation of this on TV several times and not liked it, I was a bit unsure of whether I would enjoy the original novel or not. I ended up neither particularly liking it nor hating it, which I think is one of the worst things that can happen when reading a book. You want there to be at least one element that grabs you and shakes you hard. Unfortunately, this was a pleasant read but nothing beyond that. All of the actual storyline and plot happens in the second half of the book, w...more
Un prêtre estimé de tous, le père Borman, est assassiné dans la rue.
Il venait de recueillir l'ultime confession d'une femme.
On retrouve sur lui un papier, comportant une liste de noms : des personnes mortes récemment - ou en train de mourir - de maladie.
Quel secret redoutable a pu lui révéler l'agonisante ?
Tombé sur cette histoire tout à fait par hasard, l'historien Marc Easterbrook - grand ami de la célèbre romancière Ariadne Oliver, bien connue des lecteurs d'Agatha Christie - va se passio...more
Il venait de recueillir l'ultime confession d'une femme.
On retrouve sur lui un papier, comportant une liste de noms : des personnes mortes récemment - ou en train de mourir - de maladie.
Quel secret redoutable a pu lui révéler l'agonisante ?
Tombé sur cette histoire tout à fait par hasard, l'historien Marc Easterbrook - grand ami de la célèbre romancière Ariadne Oliver, bien connue des lecteurs d'Agatha Christie - va se passio...more
"One of the oddest things in life, as we all know, is the way that when you have heard a thing mentioned, within twenty-four hours you nearly always come across it again." So states the narrator early on in the book. Well, not only is this phenomenon particularly true of my life, it occurred promptly the next day when I was skimming through the newspaper and came upon a review of another book which referenced this one and helpfully revealed the mystery.
Happily, spoilers don't affect me: I routin...more
Happily, spoilers don't affect me: I routin...more
First read this 1961 Agatha Christie novel of modern-day 'witchcraft' in the early 1970s. Of course I'm not reading a St. Martins Press paperback edition - I'm reading the 1962 Dodd, Mead First Edition copy to which I recently treated myself!
This was one of the better - and better-received - novels of Christie's later period, and several years after its original publication this novel was instrumental in solving a real-life mystery involving several deaths!
This was definitely what I like to thin...more
This was one of the better - and better-received - novels of Christie's later period, and several years after its original publication this novel was instrumental in solving a real-life mystery involving several deaths!
This was definitely what I like to thin...more
I saw it coming. I am so proud of myself with this one, because I knew who did it!
This is not her most original nor her most intricate (and I am lowering my self esteem again . . . ), but it is a fun read. Be warned it talks a lot about witches and cursing, and there is one frightening scene in which characters "curse" a person to die. I am a Christian, and while I did not find it off putting enough to make me think I shouldn't be reading it, I am sure that there will be some who might think so....more
This is not her most original nor her most intricate (and I am lowering my self esteem again . . . ), but it is a fun read. Be warned it talks a lot about witches and cursing, and there is one frightening scene in which characters "curse" a person to die. I am a Christian, and while I did not find it off putting enough to make me think I shouldn't be reading it, I am sure that there will be some who might think so....more
The story of this book is about murder case in face of black magic. The story is chopped into small pieces. The hard part is to remember each peace at first time, especially because there are so many players in this story. But the good thing is that there is a characters introduction in the very beginning of the book, it's very helpful :).
The story is very logical and easy to be understood once every piece is combined. The only part that makes the story lose its attractiveness is because the mai...more
The story is very logical and easy to be understood once every piece is combined. The only part that makes the story lose its attractiveness is because the mai...more
Jun 11, 2012
Liang
rated it
4 of 5 stars
·
review of another edition
Recommends it for:
mystery lovers
Another wonderful Christie mystery! I love how she blended elements of the paranormal into this story. It was well done. The shifts from Mr. Easterbrook's pov to 3rd person omniscient added an interesting break up from 1st person pov monotony. The characters were well rounded and so wonderfully British. They're reactions to the events of the deaths and the mystery surrounding the Pale Horse Inn felt genuine to me, like how real people would react as well. Christie leaves you guess right along wi...more
Sommige mensen hebben de vervelende gewoonte om niet te overlijden op een tijdstip dat andere mensen goed uitkomt. In dat geval biedt 'Het Vale Paard' uitkomst. Moord op afstand via paranormale methodes of zelfs hekserij? Dat bestaat niet. Feit is echter dat het resultaat er niet om liegt. Wie is het meesterbrein achter deze organisatie? Het antwoord hierop zag ik totaal niet aankomen. Zonder Poirot, Miss Marple of Tommy & Tuppence, maar met de nieuwe held Mark Easterbrook die toevallig bij...more
tegang banget habis baca nih novel. hehe... kirain pelaku kejahatannya emang beneran pake ilmu hitam, eh ternyataaa..... seperti biasa, novel-novel agatha selalu bikin kita ber "ohhh" dan ending yang selalu gak diduga-duga. dari awal aja udah jelas banget siapa pelakunya, trus di susunan tokoh udah sangat tersirat siapa dibalik semua dalang pembunuhan ini. cckkk... yang bikin serem itu karena novelnya banyak menceritakan hal-hal supernatural yang ternyata cuma akal bulus manusia buat ngelakuin p...more
The book has a promising beginning: a woman dies, but not before giving a list of names to a neighborhood priest, who is almost immediately murdered. But then the story descends into suspicions of black magic and the narrator/hero waivers between believing and not believing that the occult is at the bottom of the mystery. The ramblings and repetitions that follow gave this reader, at least, the feeling that Dame Agatha lost interest midway in the situation she had created but she was stuck with...more
I think I must have seen a movie version of this story, because the image of The Pale Horse pub-converted-to-inn was just too realistic in my mind, and I found myself anticipating the next bit of intrigue in the book. (Of course, it's entirely possible and somewhat more likely, I read the book at one time as well, and just have a vivid recollect, just not of the title.)
It was a fun and quick way to spend an afternoon recovering from a virus which kept me from going out and getting into mischief....more
It was a fun and quick way to spend an afternoon recovering from a virus which kept me from going out and getting into mischief....more
This Agatha doesn't really feature a famous character, like Poirot, but Mrs. Oliver, the mystery novel writer, does appear. So does Rhoda and Major Despard - they are from a different Agatha. I am amused by the distaste with which she writes about highly intellectual women - people, overall, I guess. She likes intelligent people, and her heroes and heroines are all intelligent, but also practical people with common sense. I love her vicar's wives - always want to go talk to them, have them help...more
Nov 30, 2008
Phayvanh
rated it
3 of 5 stars
·
review of another edition
Recommends it for:
Agatha Crhistie readers
Witches, really? Has Dame Christie gone over the edge this time? Of course not, as is revealed in the end, murder is most mundane, and even the most elaborate of schemes has a mastermind, and his/her own psychological motives.
I borrowed this from the library, since I was looking for stand-alone mysteries (not part of a series), and this one caught my eye. Look for her trademark small villages, where gossip reigns supreme, and the biblical references. Oh, and there's a character here who reminds...more
I borrowed this from the library, since I was looking for stand-alone mysteries (not part of a series), and this one caught my eye. Look for her trademark small villages, where gossip reigns supreme, and the biblical references. Oh, and there's a character here who reminds...more
كان هذا الكتاب في كتبتي منذ زمن
يوم كانت روايات اغاثا كريستي تأخذ بالفعل حيزاً من غرفتي ووقتي
وقتها لم اكمله
وبعد ان دار الزمن , بعد ان اصبح في مكتبتي كتب أكثر عمقا من كتب اغاثا كريستي
قرأته من جديد , وحسنا ً, كالعادة النهايات الغير متوقعة أبدا والحبكه المحاكة بصنارة ماهرة , والشخوص التي هي اقرب للواقع من الخيال
لكن هذه الرواية وفي الصفحات الاخيرة أحسست ان الكاتبة دمرت القصه ككل بعد ان وضعت كل اصابع الاتهام المنطقيه في وجه متهم ما , دمرت كل شئ باشارة وحيدة لاخر وجده غير ملائم أبداً لهكذا دور بل...more
يوم كانت روايات اغاثا كريستي تأخذ بالفعل حيزاً من غرفتي ووقتي
وقتها لم اكمله
وبعد ان دار الزمن , بعد ان اصبح في مكتبتي كتب أكثر عمقا من كتب اغاثا كريستي
قرأته من جديد , وحسنا ً, كالعادة النهايات الغير متوقعة أبدا والحبكه المحاكة بصنارة ماهرة , والشخوص التي هي اقرب للواقع من الخيال
لكن هذه الرواية وفي الصفحات الاخيرة أحسست ان الكاتبة دمرت القصه ككل بعد ان وضعت كل اصابع الاتهام المنطقيه في وجه متهم ما , دمرت كل شئ باشارة وحيدة لاخر وجده غير ملائم أبداً لهكذا دور بل...more
Mais uma leitura que dou como terminada e outro sucesso estrondoso. Posso afirmar, sem medo de errar, que esta é uma das melhores colecções que estão no mercado, este livro é já o numero 73 e espero poder ainda ler muitos mais.
Novamente, Agatha Christie veio presentear-nos com mais um romance policial cheio de mistérios e de pontas soltas que nos traz momentos muito bem passados. Confesso que o verdadeiro assassino estava mesmo na minha frente, mas acabei por não o conseguir desvendar e ficar me...more
Novamente, Agatha Christie veio presentear-nos com mais um romance policial cheio de mistérios e de pontas soltas que nos traz momentos muito bem passados. Confesso que o verdadeiro assassino estava mesmo na minha frente, mas acabei por não o conseguir desvendar e ficar me...more
So here's the thing: I don't read the description on Christie's books before I read them. For one, my library has a bunch of hard backs that don't have one on them. And then Christie isn't so much about the plot as about the guessing of it... So I didn't realize this was Christie's "Black Magic" one. I read the short character bio's, and realized it was a bit on the dark side, but decided I'd try it. Read a bit, set it down. (view spoiler)...more
Choose Your Own Adventure!
And I looked, and behold a pale horse: and his name that sat on him was Death, and Hell followed with him. And power was given unto them over the fourth part of the earth, to kill with sword, and with hunger, and with death, and with the beasts of the earth.
If you’ve decided that you’ve had enough of Agatha Christie, then choose http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/...
If you’ve decided that you’ve had enough of living, then choose http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/.....more
And I looked, and behold a pale horse: and his name that sat on him was Death, and Hell followed with him. And power was given unto them over the fourth part of the earth, to kill with sword, and with hunger, and with death, and with the beasts of the earth.
If you’ve decided that you’ve had enough of Agatha Christie, then choose http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/...
If you’ve decided that you’ve had enough of living, then choose http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/.....more
I really thought I had read all of Agatha Christie's novels, but I found this one at a book fair last summer and finally got around to reading it. No Jane Marple or Hercule Poirot here. The detective is Mark Easterbrook a writer and academic who gets swept up into the mysterious goings-on at The Pale Horse (a former pub that now hosts senaces). I really enjoyed how Christie intertwined several different storylines and the coincidences didn't seem forced. The Pale Horse had me guessing up until t...more
There are no discussion topics on this book yet.
Be the first to start one »
Agatha Christie also wrote romance novels under the pseudonym Mary Westmacott, and was occasionally published under the name Agatha Christie Mallowan.
Agatha Mary Clarissa Miller was born in Torquay, Devon, England, U.K., as the youngest of three. The Millers had two other children: Margaret Frary Miller (1879–1950), called Madge, who was eleven years Agatha's senior, and Louis Montant Miller (1880...more
More about Agatha Christie...
Agatha Mary Clarissa Miller was born in Torquay, Devon, England, U.K., as the youngest of three. The Millers had two other children: Margaret Frary Miller (1879–1950), called Madge, who was eleven years Agatha's senior, and Louis Montant Miller (1880...more
Share This Book
7 trivia questions
More quizzes & trivia...
“She looked at nobody, but just before she went out, she raised her eyes and took a speedy glance at me. There was something in that looks that startled me - though it was difficult to describe why. There was malice in it, and a curious intimate knowledge. I felt that, without effort, and almost without curiosity, she had known exactly what thoughts were in my mind.”
—
1 person liked it
“I avoided my own friends and acquaintances, yet the loneliness of my existence was insupportable.”
—
1 person liked it
More quotes…
