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The Hollow (Hercule Poirot, #26)

Agatha Christie

Start date: February 1, 2020

Finish date: February 29, 2020

Discussion: Archive: Poirot Buddy Reads

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Archive: Poirot Buddy Reads

* Reading Order for the Unofficial Poirot Buddy Reads
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last updated Dec 27, 2020 08:20AM

Poirot Buddy Read 40: SPOILER THREAD Curtain
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What Members Thought

Jan 14, 2021 Kavita rated it really liked it

Shelves: uk, mystery, golden-age-mystery

This is one of Christie's rare works that has well-rounded characters and psychological interplay between the characters. This was also one of my earliest Christies and I remember not understanding a lot of it. At the age of eight or nine, I was not familiar with certain concepts and did not quite understand what was happening. But I was attracted to the slow pace and the complicated relationships. As an adult, I find this book brilliant. Also, finally glad to have read how Midge, Edward, and He ...more

12 likes · Like · see review

Jun 30, 2019 Anissa rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: british-fiction-uk-ireland, series, mystery-suspense-crime, 2019

I love mysteries. I read them and watch them and one of my favourite things about them is when you're introduced to the characters and one is so awful or has riled up so many people that you just know, there's your murder victim. Dr. John Christow, upon introduction, came screaming off the pages that he was that guy and it was all I could do not to skip forward to his demise (very end of chapter 10) to see how it was going to be done and who among the characters would be the one to send him on h ...more

10 likes · Like · see review

Jan 19, 2017 Damaskcat rated it it was amazing

Hercule Poirot is invited to a country house by Lady Angkatell who is interested in the criminal mind. As Poirot arrives he is faced with an elaborate tableau which features a dead body beside the swimming pool and a woman holding a gun.

Poirot feels at first that he has been set up and it is all an elaborate hoax but he soon realises that it is a real murder and naturally enough his curiosity is aroused and he must investigate. There are plenty if suspects and everyone involved seems determined ...more

4 likes · Like · see review

Mar 21, 2022 Lady Wesley rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: mystery-golden-age-or-similar, chirpbooks, listened

Review of the audiobook narrated by Hugh Fraser

The Hollow is quite different from most Agatha Christie mysteries. For one thing, Hercule Poirot’s appearances are relatively brief, and he relies more on intuition than detection. Most of the characters, beginning with the victim, are unlikeable. It’s more of a psychological study than a mystery. I’m glad that I listened to it — Hugh Fraser is always good — but likely will not repeat.

4 likes · Like · see review

Oct 23, 2019 Christine PNW rated it really liked it

Shelves: halloween-bingo-2019

2019:

Not one of the strongest entries.

2023:

WTF was 2019 me thinking? This mystery was OUTSTANDING!

4 likes · Like · see review

Oct 13, 2014 Amy rated it really liked it

Shelves: read-as-an-audiobook

I've decided everything is better as an audiobook. I probably would have aced Thermodynamics if the textbook has been available as an audiobook. ...more

2 likes · Like · see review

Jul 08, 2011 Bev rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: british-mystery, mystery, vintage-mystery, mount-tbr-2024

Agatha Christie gives us a nice little country house murder. Lady Lucy Angkatell invites a group of friends and relatives that is sure to cause tension somewhere...and it mostly revolves around Dr. John Christow. Christow is a brilliant doctor with a terrific manner with patients and some innovative ideas about a cure for a deadly disease. But he's not really any good with personal relations. His wife Gerda worships him and is exactly what he thought he wanted yet he treats her poorly. Henrietta Agatha Christie gives us a nice little country house murder. Lady Lucy Angkatell invites a group of friends and relatives that is sure to cause tension somewhere...and it mostly revolves around Dr. John Christow. Christow is a brilliant doctor with a terrific manner with patients and some innovative ideas about a cure for a deadly disease. But he's not really any good with personal relations. His wife Gerda worships him and is exactly what he thought he wanted yet he treats her poorly. Henrietta Savernake, a sculptor, is his mistress--because she's more vital and intelligent than Gerda, but he wants her to focus only on him (and not her art)...like Gerda does. Edward Angkatell has always loved Henrietta and hates Christow because Henrietta won't agree to marry him. Others at the house party include Midge Hardcastle, poor relation who must work for her living, who is in love with Edward; David Angkatell, a young intellectual, who feels like an outsider in the family and seems to hate everyone--including Christow. Thrown into the mix is Veronica Cray--Christow's first love who wanted him to give up his life's work as a doctor and come with her to America while she became a Hollywood star. He told her no. She's back in England and determined to get him back. She isn't pleased when he tells her no again.

And then...after he spends a late night at Cray's nearby cottage and then is summoned back in the morning--where he tells her that there most definitely isn't anything doing...he's found dead by the swimming pool, shot to death. And his wife Gerda is standing over him with a gun in her hand. Just at that moment, Hercule Poirot (also staying in another nearby cottage and who has been invited to lunch) comes to the scene...a scene that he initially feels has been staged (as a little joke) for the "great detective" and, as the investigation unfolds, still feels staged, though he's not quite certain by whom and to what purpose. But once the little grey cells have the chance to ponder all of the clues--both real and red herrings--he is able to resolve the question.

I enjoyed this one more for the characters than for the mystery (I spotted what was going on quite early--long before Poirot makes any indication that he knows the culprit, even if he can't prove it yet). Not that the mystery isn't interesting--it is. Christie does some interesting things with the plot and clue placement. But anyone who thinks Christie only does cardboard cutouts and her characters have no depth should really take a look at this one. The standard characters are given motivations and emotional lives that really resonate on the page...and even Gudgeon, the butler who has few scenes, is more than just the wooden-faced, typical butler. But my favorite has to be Lady Angkatell. Probably because with her apparent non sequiturs that have a way of hitting the nail on the head every time she reminds me a great deal of the Dowager Duchess in Sayers' Lord Peter Wimsey mysteries. And I adore the Dowager. Lucy Angkatell is a bit more frightening than the Dowager--she definitely seems to know what she's about in putting together certain persons. But in general she does appear to want what's best for everyone (even if what she thinks is best isn't necessarily what they think is best). A very good mystery that I found moth interesting and fun.

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

1 like · Like · see review