From the Bookshelf of Reading the Detectives…

Endless Night

Agatha Christie

Start date: October 1, 2021

Finish date: October 31, 2021

Discussion: Group Challenges

Why we're reading this: Next in our Assorted Christies challenge.
[close] Next in our Assorted Christies challenge.

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Group Challenges

* Nov 25: Black Coffee (1950) By Agatha Christie
By Susan · 14 posts · 16 views

last updated 6 hours, 32 min ago

* Nov 25: Black Coffee (1950) - SPOILER Thread
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last updated 1 hour, 37 min ago

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What Members Thought

Jan 02, 2015 Christine PNW rated it really liked it

Shelves: vintage-women

Read for The Century Project - 1967.

Full review on my blog here.

Reread in 2017 for Halloween Bingo - square "In the Dark, Dark Woods." ...more

11 likes · Like · see review

Sep 20, 2018 Shabbeer Hassan rated it really liked it

Shelves: general-fiction, thriller, 2018

A highly different take on murder by the Queen of crime! Highly original but it's easy to see snippets of her other famous book - The Murder of Roger Ackroyd, in here. The difference, in this case, is, of course, not being a Poirot novel but also being rather scary in showing a hollow man and his endless journey to fill the void with something. A good read!

My Rating - 4/5 ...more

3 likes · Like · see review

May 30, 2017 Nanosynergy rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: fiction, reviewed, british, mysteries-thrillers-espionage, fiction-1960s, 2017read

A stand-alone book by Agatha Christie. A quite different type of book.

Lower class, somewhat drifter, Michael Rogers marries wealthy heiress Ellie Guteman. They build their dream home on land that is supposed to be cursed. Anything else I write would be a spoiler.

The title comes from William Blake's Auguries of Innocence:

"Every night and every morn,
Some to misery are born,
Every morn and every night,
Some are born to sweet delight.
Some are born to sweet delight,
Some are born to endless night." ...more

1 like · Like · see review

May 24, 2019 Zander rated it it was amazing

I love this book. Yes it can seem to meander but actually that's what I like about it. It's not so much as a mystery as it is a coming of age character study. Even with the simple first person narrative it's actually quite complex story. If one didn't know it was a story by Christie you could assume for most of it that's a romance or a critique of social norms. Christie use of the unreliable narrator also means that even when the story was done I still had some questions. Was the evil stepmother I love this book. Yes it can seem to meander but actually that's what I like about it. It's not so much as a mystery as it is a coming of age character study. Even with the simple first person narrative it's actually quite complex story. If one didn't know it was a story by Christie you could assume for most of it that's a romance or a critique of social norms. Christie use of the unreliable narrator also means that even when the story was done I still had some questions. Was the evil stepmother really that evil or was she trying to protect the Ellie. When did the lawyer know about the lovers, was he playing some game to get control of the fortune knowing that a person found unfit to stand trial would end up locked up for life in a mental hospital with the lawyer have control of everything. I like it because I grew to care about the two protagonists. Ellie was just some random character, she had her own personality even if she was clearly being controlled by others. I also liked the use of the house to represent a life's desire and how the architect is contrasted with Mike. It's mention that the architect had a period of going down the wrong path and I could help but think he was dying an std or something related to his debauchery in the past and that his work had saved him while that same work was Mike's downfall in some ways. I think what made me like the book so much is that murderer who is consider mentally ill by the criminal system clearly realizes that he actually did love his victim and that he could have had the life he always wanted and but because he was already a killer and probably a sociopath he couldn't take that path.

This reminds me of Rebecca and other earlier psychological thrillers. The beginning 1/5 and the ending 1/5 were the highlights but I really enjoyed all parts of.

The BBC Radio Drama adaption of this is also very very good and still pretty close to the basic of the story. It was also adapted to a Miss Marple TV show and that was horrible. ...more

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Aug 27, 2017 Laura rated it liked it

This may have been one of Christie's favorites among her novels, but I can't agree. I didn't like the way you turn the page and suddenly the narrator is a completely different person. I can see though how people would find this an intriguing departure for her at the time of its publication. ...more

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May 30, 2023 Teri-K rated it did not like it

Shelves: mystery

Not my cup of tea. I don't like gothic-style novels, pshychological thrillers, or books full of nasty, cheating people, so there's no way this one will work for me. Though I think Christie wrote it well. ...more

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