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The Pale Horse (Ariadne Oliver, #5)

Agatha Christie

Start date: July 1, 2018

Finish date: July 31, 2018

Discussion: Group reads

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What Members Thought

Jun 28, 2018 Susan rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Published in 1961, this is a later Agatha Christie novel, and a slightly different plot to that which you might be expecting. This is not a cosy mystery, set in a stately home, amid the drawing rooms of the aristocracy. Rather, this has a feel of Dennis Wheatley about it, with a real sense of the supernatural.

A dying woman gives her last confession to a Catholic priest. Father Gorman is troubled by what she tells him and, on the way home, he scribbles a list of names she has given him and tucks ...more

24 likes · Like · see review

Jul 13, 2013 Lady Clementina ffinch-ffarowmore rated it liked it

The Pale Horse (1961) was my choice for the #ReadChristie challenge for this month, and though it was one of the picks for the challenge, it seems I interpreted the visual prompt completely differently to the official interpretation.

The Pale Horse presents an interesting mystery where it isn’t only the whodunit that keeps one puzzled but also the howdunit for seances and witchcraft (mixed with some apparently scientific principles) seem to be the method used, and our protagonists can’t quite wor ...more

16 likes · Like · see review

Aug 28, 2014 Kavita rated it it was amazing

Shelves: uk, mystery

Soooo creepy! I think this has to be one of Christie's creepiest books ever. There is a lot of supernatural mumbo jumbo neatly covering up the actual plot, providing a wonderful red herring for both readers and Mark Easterbrook, the narrator. The story starts with the death of a woman who invites a priest just before her death to give her final confession. But Father Gorman ends up getting murdered on his way back and a list of names is found on him.

Easterbrook gets involved in the plot when he Soooo creepy! I think this has to be one of Christie's creepiest books ever. There is a lot of supernatural mumbo jumbo neatly covering up the actual plot, providing a wonderful red herring for both readers and Mark Easterbrook, the narrator. The story starts with the death of a woman who invites a priest just before her death to give her final confession. But Father Gorman ends up getting murdered on his way back and a list of names is found on him.

Easterbrook gets involved in the plot when he sees the obituary of a young woman he had seen a few days earlier at a café. He is given the list of names by his friend who is involved in the case, and quickly realises that they are all dead. Then he comes across the mention of a Pale Horse, and is introduced to the trio of witches: Thyrza, Sybil, and Bella. Together, the three have created an aura of mystery around them. But they also happen to be rumoured to do away with people. What's the actual truth? When a chemist named Zachariah Osbourne identifies a rich but disabled man, Venables, the story takes a queer turn.

I loved the fact that Mrs. Oliver makes an appearance in the book, but she doesn't have much of a role. I think I would have preferred her to take a more active role and join in the investigation. I always enjoy her scenes enormously. This is her fifth appearance, and Colonel Despard's second. I enjoyed the reference to Mrs. Lancaster and her creepy "Is that your child behind the fireplace?" reference to By the Pricking of my Thumbs. It was an absolute treat!

The main character of Easterbrook is rather colourless, but perhaps it's not a bad idea to keep the focus on the creepy happenings around him. What he does and what happens around him is more important than who he is, so I guess it's not such a bad idea to keep him bland. The secondary characters of Venables, Osborne, Rhoda, Ginger, Hermia, and Despard all play their parts in furthering the narrative and have interesting roles.

I loved the aura surrounding the Pale Horse inn, and the three witches were so convincingly portrayed that I almost felt that there was a supernatural element in play. But they are far more sinister than that, as Easterbrook realised to his dismay. The whole story is tightly woven and leads to a very startling conclusion. The red herrings are neatly distributed and keeps you (and Easterbrook) guessing till the very last minute.

Absolutely one of Christie's gems! ...more

11 likes · Like · see review

Jan 17, 2019 Christine PNW rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: read-my-hoard-2024, 2024

I went into The Pale Horse without much hope that I would enjoy it - I'm down to the last 8 (now 7) Christie novels, and I'm reserving the ones that I thought would be the best bets for enjoyment to the end.

The Pale Horse was published in 1961, between A Cat Among the Pigeons and The Mirror Crack'd From Side to Side. It's not a book that shows up on the best - or worst - lists of Christie mysteries, so I knew almost nothing about it.

My first pleasant surprise occurred on page 8, when Ariadne Oli ...more

9 likes · Like · see review

May 13, 2012 Bev rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: british-mystery, mystery, vintage-mystery, mount-tbr-2014

And I looked, and behold a pale horse: and his name that sat on him was Death, and Hell followed with him... (Revelation 6:8)

It seems rather hard to believe that I had never read Agatha Christie's The Pale Horse (1961) before. After all, Dame Agatha is one of my favorites and I spent a great deal of time reading her books when I was younger--but I did not have this one logged and I did not own a copy until I picked up one of my beloved pocket-size editions in May of 2012, so I'm just going to ac And I looked, and behold a pale horse: and his name that sat on him was Death, and Hell followed with him... (Revelation 6:8)

It seems rather hard to believe that I had never read Agatha Christie's The Pale Horse (1961) before. After all, Dame Agatha is one of my favorites and I spent a great deal of time reading her books when I was younger--but I did not have this one logged and I did not own a copy until I picked up one of my beloved pocket-size editions in May of 2012, so I'm just going to accept that I somehow missed this one.

Christie's only novel in which Ariadne Oliver makes an appearance without Hercule Poirot is a twist on the plot device used by Philip MacDonald in The List of Adrian Messenger two years previously. The story begins with Father Gorman, a Catholic priest called to the deathbed of a woman apparently dying of flu. She tells him that there is "Wickedness...such wickedness...Stopped...It must be stopped...You will..." And the priest assures her that he will do what is necessary. But before he can do anything about what he has heard, he is murdered on his way home. The police find a list of names in his shoe--a list of names of people who seem to have nothing in common. Except when historian Mark Easterbrook is brought into the investigation through the passing of his godmother (whose name, incidentally, appears on the list), he discovers that the names do have something in common....death.

Christie also dabbles in a bit of apparent black magic in this one. The Pale Horse of the title is an old inn, now inhabited by three women who have a reputation for witchcraft. Seances and secret rituals involving white cocks and modern death rays are rumored to occur. Easterbrook, being a modern man, scoffs at the idea of voo-doo or death-wishes, but as each name on the list winds up dead he begins to wonder if there isn't really such a thing as murder by remote control....

This is one of the better Christie stand-alone novels. There is a fine sense of atmosphere from the coffee shops of Chelsea to the country village and mystic Pale Horse. She does her usual excellent job of misdirection--making me completely misidentify the culprit. I should have know better, I really should have--but like Mark Easterbrook I was thoroughly taken in. Mrs. Oliver makes cameo appearances, adding just the right amount of her general dottiness...and helping Easterbrook spot the method of murder even if he does make a mistake in fingering the villain. The romance is also a nice touch--given enough limelight to make events believable, but not too much attention to distract from the business of tracking down the murder. Good classic Christie fun.

First posted on my blog My Reader's Block. Pleaser request permission before reposting. Thanks.
...more

4 likes · Like · see review

Oct 31, 2022 Bev rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: british-mystery, silver-age-mystery, audionovel, british, agatha-christie, bought-2021

And I looked, and behold a pale horse: and his name that sat on him was Death, and Hell followed with him... (Revelation 6:8)

I apparently first read this in 2014--at least that's what my reading log told me, though I had a hard time believing it. Since then, I acquired the audio CD version with Hugh Fraser reading it to me. And I have to say, this is one of the rare times that I didn't enjoy Fraser reading to me just as much as when I read it for myself. Perhaps I was just not in the mood to be And I looked, and behold a pale horse: and his name that sat on him was Death, and Hell followed with him... (Revelation 6:8)

I apparently first read this in 2014--at least that's what my reading log told me, though I had a hard time believing it. Since then, I acquired the audio CD version with Hugh Fraser reading it to me. And I have to say, this is one of the rare times that I didn't enjoy Fraser reading to me just as much as when I read it for myself. Perhaps I was just not in the mood to be read to. But I'm not going to deduct star value since Fraser is usually good. I gave the book four stars when I read it for myself and we'll stick with that.

Christie's only novel in which Ariadne Oliver makes an appearance without Hercule Poirot is a twist on the plot device used by Philip MacDonald in The List of Adrian Messenger two years previously. The story begins with Father Gorman, a Catholic priest called to the deathbed of a woman apparently dying of flu. She tells him that there is "Wickedness...such wickedness...Stopped...It must be stopped...You will..." And the priest assures her that he will do what is necessary. But before he can do anything about what he has heard, he is murdered on his way home. The police find a list of names in his shoe--a list of names of people who seem to have nothing in common. Except when historian Mark Easterbrook is brought into the investigation through the passing of his godmother (whose name, incidentally, appears on the list), he discovers that the names do have something in common....death.

Christie also dabbles in a bit of apparent black magic in this one. The Pale Horse of the title is an old inn, now inhabited by three women who have a reputation for witchcraft. Seances and secret rituals involving white cocks and modern death rays are rumored to occur. Easterbrook, being a modern man, scoffs at the idea of voo-doo or death-wishes, but as each name on the list winds up dead he begins to wonder if there isn't really such a thing as murder by remote control....

This is one of the better Christie stand-alone novels. There is a fine sense of atmosphere from the coffee shops of Chelsea to the country village and mystic Pale Horse. She does her usual excellent job of misdirection--making me completely misidentify the culprit. I should have know better, I really should have--but like Mark Easterbrook I was thoroughly taken in. Mrs. Oliver makes cameo appearances, adding just the right amount of her general dottiness...and helping Easterbrook spot the method of murder even if he does make a mistake in fingering the villain. The romance is also a nice touch--given enough limelight to make events believable, but not too much attention to distract from the business of tracking down the murder. Good classic Christie fun.

First posted on my blog My Reader's Block. ...more

4 likes · Like · see review

Feb 26, 2015 Amy marked it as abandoned

I need to stick with Agatha Christie books before the 1960's. The later ones I just don't think are as good and I feel like her characters just go through the books a little sad that they've found themselves in modern times. ...more

1 like · Like · see review

Dec 02, 2022 Teri-K rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

I remember the first time I read this; I was a teenager and just discovering Christie's books. This was well before the internet, so I have no idea how I knew what the solution of the book was before I started. I suspect I'd read about it in some other mystery. However it happened, I knew exactly how the people would be dying from the first page, and it didn't matter. It also didn't matter that I remembered it many decades later, because Christie throws in enough red herrings to satisfy any hung ...more

1 like · Like · see review