Evil Under the Sun (Hercule Poirot, #24) in Around the Year in 52 Books

Oct 15, 2020 Heather L rated it it was amazing

Shelves: mystery, 2020, featured-cozy-author, agatha-christie

One of her best! I though I had this one figured out, but there’s always bits of evidence she withholds from you until the final denouement.

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May 27, 2022 Alison Rose rated it liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: women-authors, 3-star-books, audiobooks, read-in-2022, mystery-thrillers

It was extremely meta to listen to a Poirot mystery read by David Suchet himself. Every time he said "Poirot did this" or "Poirot said" I was like OH DID HE NOW?

It's also always difficult for my brain to accept that Suchet does not actually sound like Poirot. Nice British accent, dude!

This was an interesting one, though probably the one I've enjoyed the least thus far from Christie. I did love the idea of what is sort of an isolated closed-circle mystery but set in a very pleasant and calm envi It was extremely meta to listen to a Poirot mystery read by David Suchet himself. Every time he said "Poirot did this" or "Poirot said" I was like OH DID HE NOW?

It's also always difficult for my brain to accept that Suchet does not actually sound like Poirot. Nice British accent, dude!

This was an interesting one, though probably the one I've enjoyed the least thus far from Christie. I did love the idea of what is sort of an isolated closed-circle mystery but set in a very pleasant and calm environment, which gives the reader this sense of undue unease. And as always, she is exceedingly good at making every single character seem believably suspicious. The whodunnit was probably third or fourth on my list, and I definitely did not guess the, let's say, other layers of it. There was also one amusing moment when someone mentioned "Princess Elizabeth" and I was like………..oh, they mean the Queen! Right, right, she wasn't always queen, LOL. Sure seems like it now. That's one durable lady.

(Poor Charles. Lurking in the background with his stiff upperclass twit smile, just thinking WHEN ARE YOU GONNA DIE ALREADY OLD WOMAN, I WANT TO BE KING. No no, I'm sure he'd love it if she lived to 120. Yes, of course. Undoubtedly. Yes.)

But I thought the structure of the story was a bit off. The discovery of a body doesn't happen until the 27% mark, which felt too long. I know that Christie loves to give us a look at every character, so we can start sussing out reasons as to why they might be a stone cold killer, but all that went on a bit too long, in my opinion. And then while I always love Poirot's explanation at the end, that also felt dragged out, and then we get these last few minutes with a couple of the characters blah blahing to each other and I was like

Also, and I don't lay this on the book, but while Suchet's narration was pretty good as far as making the voices all distinct and doing different accents, some of the women's voices he did were grating as hell. Mrs Gardner sounded like an elderly harpy with a sore throat coming down off a coke binge.

So of course the mystery here was fun and well-crafted, but this one didn't grab me as much as the others I've read. Although it did make me a little glad that I can't leave my apartment. You want me to go outside? Where murders happen? FOH.

...more

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Feb 01, 2023 Maggie rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: british, fiction, mystery, agatha-christie

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here. While I read through Agatha Christie's novels with the Appointments with Agatha group, I'm putting a templated synopsis of each novel in my review. It has spoilers!

Book: 29 of Christie's novels, 22 of Hercule Poirot novels
Setting: The Jolly Roger Hotel, Smuggler's Island, Leathercombe Bay
Detective and Companions: Hercule Poirot, Colonel Weston, Inspector Colgate
Crime: Arlena Marshall, a siren of a woman, is found strangled on a beach.
Suspects:
- Captain Kenneth Marshall, Arlena's quiet, reticent ...more

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Jul 29, 2008 Catsalive rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: 2008

Poirot is sooo clever, well, the plotting is very clever. Aggies are always entertaining so occasionally they must be re-visited. I don't like the bit at the end about a successful woman having to give up her business if she wants to marry her man, but it was first published in 1940 so one must make allowances for the sexist notions of that time, I suppose.

back cover:
It was August and the holiday mood ran high at the Jolly Roger Hotel. The rich and the famous were gathered together on the pictur ...more

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Jan 19, 2022 Ann rated it liked it

Shelves: 2022-aty-52, 2022-ssdd

Prompt: A book with handwriting on the cover

A lesson on first impressions...

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Jul 13, 2007 Jaime rated it really liked it

Shelves: read-2007, mystery

It’s hard to review classic authors such as Christie. To me, she’s a master of creating suspicion and changing your mind, only to create suspicion again. I really enjoy these.

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