From the Bookshelf of Reading the Detectives…

Elephants Can Remember (Hercule Poirot, #42)

Agatha Christie

Start date: December 1, 2020

Finish date: December 31, 2020

Discussion: Archive: Poirot Buddy Reads

Why we're reading this: Getting towards the end of our Poirot buddy reads.
[close] Getting towards the end of our 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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last updated Feb 05, 2021 06:12PM

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What Members Thought

Nov 25, 2020 Susan in NC rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: want-to-reread, christie

Another fun late Poirot with a healthy dose of Ariadne Oliver - I mostly listened to the audiobook, which accounts for my enjoyment - Hugh Fraser is my favorite Christie narrator, I love the way he voices Ariadne! He adds a great deal to my enjoyment.

No spoilers, but about two-thirds through this one a clue was mentioned that turned a lightbulb on for me - I suddenly envisioned the murder scene very clearly, and realized I had seen the dramatization of this book at some point. I couldn’t remembe Another fun late Poirot with a healthy dose of Ariadne Oliver - I mostly listened to the audiobook, which accounts for my enjoyment - Hugh Fraser is my favorite Christie narrator, I love the way he voices Ariadne! He adds a great deal to my enjoyment.

No spoilers, but about two-thirds through this one a clue was mentioned that turned a lightbulb on for me - I suddenly envisioned the murder scene very clearly, and realized I had seen the dramatization of this book at some point. I couldn’t remember exact details, but I was pretty sure I knew whodunnit. It wasn’t particularly complex, as Christie’s usual knotty puzzles go, but it was more about the nature of memories, and how people remember (and what they remember), about past tragedies. I think that made it very relatable - as we age, our memories become fuzzier, but some details, especially about traumatic events, stand out.

This becomes important when a stranger, a pushy woman, approaches Ariadne Oliver at a luncheon. The woman thinks her son might marry Ariadne’s goddaughter, but the girl’s parents died under suspicious circumstances many years earlier. The investigation at the time suggested a double suicide, but the couple seemed happy, so there was always a cloud over the tragedy. Ariadne was out of the country at the time of the tragedy, so can’t answer the nosy woman’s questions - but it stirs up concerns, and she asks Poirot to help her look into it. No spoilers, but there were tragic circumstances surrounding the people involved in the case, even before the suspicious deaths.

Ariadne, for her part of the investigation, goes off “hunting elephants”, as she calls people peripherally involved with the dead couple, who might remember details that might provide clues to what actually happened. She tells Poirot people often remember things from long ago, as elephants supposedly do, things that might be clues even if they don’t recognize them as such. I found several of these interviews rather sad, as old retainers or friends, most quite elderly and at the end of their lives, looked back down the years at the tragedy.

There were some bits that didn’t really fit for me, like some (I think) unanswered questions about mental illness for one character, and the disposition of another’s inheritance due to adoption, and a coming fortune. Also, I wasn’t really sure why Ariadne felt compelled to pursue the matter in the first place; she does seek out her goddaughter, who she hadn’t seen for years, but after interviewing that rather intimidating and competent young woman, I didn’t feel she really had a mandate to investigate. She just seemed bothered and wanted to dig - yet she says she doesn’t want to be a “nosy parker”! But it might just be because I listened, rather than read, those parts. I’m not sure - but I still enjoyed this one, despite any shortcomings. ...more

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May 22, 2013 Laura Anne rated it it was ok · review of another edition

Shelves: mystery, british-isles

Old sins have long shadows. After about 75 pages trying to decide if they should investigate, Poirot & Mrs Oliver look into a cold case concerning the murders and/or suicides of a married couple. Unlike Five Little Pigs-in which each character had a distinctive voice & unique perspective- the interviewees (elephants, as Mrs Oliver dubs them) give hazy, meandering, repetitive* recollections; one of Dame Christie's weakest books.

*Someone rattled off, "whether her mother had killed her father, or w ...more

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