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Murder Is Easy (Superintendent Battle, #4)

Agatha Christie

Start date: October 1, 2022

Finish date: October 31, 2022

Discussion: Group reads

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What Members Thought

Mar 18, 2017 Christine PNW rated it liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: vintage-women

This is designated as a Superintendent Battle book, although he doesn't appear until 85%, and he doesn't solve the case at all. It's better to think of it as a stand along, with Luke Fitzwilliam as the main investigator.

This is not the top of the Agatha Christie heap, but it is a solid mystery. I enjoyed the way that Luke kept referring to his dear old Aunt Mildred, who is clearly in the vein of Jane Marple. This one also provides an easy comparison to Towards Zero, another Battle book with some ...more

10 likes · Like · see review

Feb 28, 2016 Amy rated it it was ok

Shelves: 2016

This was rubbish. Are we sure Agatha Christie wrote this? The whole book was the world's dumbest policeman (Luke Fitzwilliams) walking around thinking about who committed the murders and he was continually wrong. He also didn't seem to care one bit about evidence either. Horrible. ...more

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Jan 07, 2022 Bev rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: british-mystery, bought-2018, vintage-mystery, mount-tbr-2022, mystery

Luke Fitzwilliam has retired from the police force abroad (in Asia) and just returned to England. First thing on the train, he winds up sharing a compartment with a (so it seems to him) woolly-minded elderly lady who rather reminds him of his aunt. She confides to him that she's on important business to Scotland Yard. It seems there have been one too many "accidental" deaths in her small village of Wychwood and she believes she knows who's behind it--she insists they "get a look on their face" w Luke Fitzwilliam has retired from the police force abroad (in Asia) and just returned to England. First thing on the train, he winds up sharing a compartment with a (so it seems to him) woolly-minded elderly lady who rather reminds him of his aunt. She confides to him that she's on important business to Scotland Yard. It seems there have been one too many "accidental" deaths in her small village of Wychwood and she believes she knows who's behind it--she insists they "get a look on their face" when they've chosen their next victim--and...she knows who's going to be next. An inoffensive doctor by the name of Humbleby. Luke is pretty sure that the Yard will just murmur interestedly and send the lady on her way.

But Miss Fullerton was wrong about who the next person to die was going to be...for she was struck down in a hit-and-run accident on her way to Scotland Yard. Fitzwilliam doesn't think of the newspaper report as more than a coincidence. But then a few days later he reads the death notice of a Dr. Humbleby from Wychford and he begins to wonder. He talks it over with his best pal, Jimmy Lorrimer who just happens to have a cousin down in Wychford. They fix it up that Fitzwilliam will be another cousin and go stay with cousin Bridget and her fiancé Lord Easterbrook and try to find out if Lavinia Fullerton was imaging evil in her backyard.

It winds up she wasn't. The longer Fitzwilliam stays in the village the more convinced he becomes that the old lady knew what she was talking about. But there's so little proof and it seems that the killer just doesn't make mistakes. He's very much afraid that there will need to be another death before he'll be able to catch the killer out...and he's even more afraid that Bridge may be next on the madman's to-do list.

I don't believe that I have read this one since the very first time I read it back in the 1980s. I'm not entirely sure why, because it's quite a nice little story. There are plenty of possible suspects with ties one or more (and, if we follow Luke's loose logic, likely all) of the victims. Christie does what she does so well...which is make me fasten onto one particular suspect and completely ignore the one she plainly displayed to me. I just have two quibbles with this one. First, Luke Fitzwilliam doesn't seem all that good a detective for a former policeman. Bridget figures things out much better--of course, she does have an inside track, having lived there and all. But still--his methods and deductions just don't seem very police-like. Second, we see very little of Superintendent Battle. He makes a cameo appearance at the end, but I would have liked to have had him more active in the story.

Putting aside those quibbles, this is still a highly entertaining mystery with an exciting denouement and a little romance thrown in for good measure.

First posted on my blog My Reader's Block. Please request permission before reposting portions of review. Thanks. ...more

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Feb 26, 2023 Teri-K rated it it was ok · review of another edition

Shelves: mystery-golden-age

This is literally the only Agatha Christie full-length mystery that my Overdrive system doesn't have in e-book. It only has an abridged audiobook, which I listened to. Then, in hopes of learning more about the book I listened to this book's episode on the podcast All About Agatha and watched the odd but charming Miss Marple adaptation on Youtube, (it has Benedict Cumberbatch being adorable!) But here I'll just discuss the book, or what I could "read" of it.

After all of that I have to say I didn ...more

2 likes · Like · see review

Mar 12, 2021 Grisette rated it liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: 3rd-pers-narration, my-kind-of-detective-thriller

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here.
3.5 stars

⏳ [Re-read project #6 of 2024, 1st proper review, rating maintained]

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🔹️ Number of death/s: 7
🔹️ Motive for the crime: Revenge & Passion (Madness)
🔹️ Method of crime: Poison (2), Push to fall (3), Blood Poisoning (1), Battery (1)
🔹️ Main location: England
🔹️ Notable element: Probably the novel with the most body count (reminds me a lot of Midsomer Murders 😅🤣, and what with the small English well-to do village atmosphere!); the village old pussies theme is at the forefront in