Three Act Tragedy (Poirot #11)

[Sunny]

I had plans to read 3 books in Oct to catch up with this series, but just couldn't get interested. I picked up one book after the other and read a couple of pages and found I couldn't concentrate. And I'm trying to catch up on several things and this time of year is always so busy. So I'm not gonna' be able to continue.

[Tara]

I already have my copy from the library.

[Sonsoles]

Hi! I started reading yesterday and I can't belive how fast I was turning pages!

I haven't read many of Agatha Christie's books and although I am a bit "disapointed" because Hercule Poirot seems not to be in a so "leadership" position in this story (I don't know if this can be said like that in English, I hope it makes sense XD) I am enjoying a lot.

Are you already reading it? Do you have any hypothesis on what has happened?

[Sonsoles]

Sunny wrote: "I had plans to read 3 books in Oct to catch up with this series, but just couldn't get interested. I picked up one book after the other and read a couple of pages and found I couldn't concentrate. ..."

Well, it has happened to me several times when I try to force myself to read something that I don't really feel like reading in that moment. Specially if there are many books very similar to each other, it's boring to me and very hard if that's not what I want to read.

So I understand completely. Reading must be something you enjoy. Hope to see you in another thread with some other book ^^

[Sonsoles]

Hi! I have already finished it. I don't want to say much until some of you have read some of it too =)

[Tara]

Sonsoles wrote: "Hi! I have already finished it. I don't want to say much until some of you have read some of it too =)"

I hope you liked it. I will start it the next few days and I'm sure it won't take long for me to read.

[Tara]

Sonsoles wrote: "Hi! I started reading yesterday and I can't belive how fast I was turning pages!

I haven't read many of Agatha Christie's books and although I am a bit "disapointed" because Hercule Poirot seems n..."

I just finished and it is most unusual for Poirot to be absent for so much of the first half of this book. Christie does do a good job of making each book unique and I think that is why she remains popular still today. She changes up narrators often. Hastings is the narrator sometimes and in one of the earlier books (view spoiler)[ the narrator ended up being the murderer! (hide spoiler)]

[Lily]

oh that sad

[Tara]

Sir Bartholomew Strange is such an awesome name! This one was very enjoyable and as usual I was fooled.

[Lily]

oh really

[Sonsoles]

Tara wrote: "Sir Bartholomew Strange is such an awesome name! This one was very enjoyable and as usual I was fooled."

Haha, to me it was a funny name. Maybe because I am not native English speaker and I wasn't raised in any English country, I don't know, but the only Dr. Strange I knew was that one of the Marvel movies and comics, so I Benedict Cumberbatch was always coming to my minds.

Tara wrote: "Sonsoles wrote: "Hi! I started reading yesterday and I can't belive how fast I was turning pages!

I haven't read many of Agatha Christie's books and although I am a bit "disapointed" because Hercu..."

Yeah, I found that very curious. It doesn't happen much in this kind of novels. I only found it once in a Spanish short novel called El asesino de la lista, but it wasn't so well done, since, at some point, (view spoiler)[you could figure out the murderer and the narrator were one (hide spoiler)]. In this case, the maestry of Agatha Christie prevents that.

[Tara]

Sonsoles wrote: "Tara wrote: "Sir Bartholomew Strange is such an awesome name! This one was very enjoyable and as usual I was fooled."

Haha, to me it was a funny name. Maybe because I am not native English speaker..."

Yes, I thought of Benedict Cumberbatch as Dr. Strange also.

[Sonsoles]

Tara wrote: "Sonsoles wrote: "Tara wrote: "Sir Bartholomew Strange is such an awesome name! This one was very enjoyable and as usual I was fooled."

Haha, to me it was a funny name. Maybe because I am not nativ..."

Haha, glad to see I am not the only one. I was a bit worried about myself XD

[Trisha]

Hi folks, I finished the book today and I am afraid to say that I didn’t like it at all. Being an ardent fan of Agatha Christie, this is a first for me to not like her mystery. The book failed to intrigue me at all. I had guessed the murderer pretty soon in the investigation but definitely wasn’t sure of the motive and when it came out, I found it a bit odd (because to risk your reputation over such a trivial reason, but then the world is full of people who do odd things). Also, I missed Poirot! I have realised that despite his boastfulness, I have a thing for him and would rather have him boast than go missing!

[Sonsoles]

Trisha wrote: "Hi folks, I finished the book today and I am afraid to say that I didn’t like it at all. Being an ardent fan of Agatha Christie, this is a first for me to not like her mystery. The book failed to i..."

Hi, Trisha.

Sorry that you didn't like it. I feel bad when that happens to me, I feel it waste, like I could have been reading something that I really enjoy instead of that.

In my case, I can't say I didn't like it, but it's true it wasn't that good. It's far from other novels by Agatha Christie and it's tricky to consider it a Poirot novel, since he is absent most part of the time and does nothing.

I like Poirot and it was a bit disappointing that he did nothing.

But I couldn't guess the murderer, maybe because of the stupid reason and the stupid way he did it. That thing of (view spoiler)[ pretending to work for Strange, that kind of joke for other guests... (hide spoiler)].

I don't know, it wasn't very convincing. But I read it quickly and, despite of the end, I was entertained while reading it.

Do you think you will go on reading these books following months or this made you give them up for a while?

[Trisha]

Sonsoles wrote: "Trisha wrote: "Hi folks, I finished the book today and I am afraid to say that I didn’t like it at all. Being an ardent fan of Agatha Christie, this is a first for me to not like her mystery. The b..."

Hey Sonsoles, tbh this book is definitely at the bottom of my list of Agatha Christie mysteries, but since I’m a huge fan of Christie, one bad book won’t impact my loyalty in any way. I’m on a mission to read the entire Hercule Poirot series and until I’ve the read to the very last, I’m not giving up! 😊

I think the first thing that made me guess the murderer (view spoiler)[ was perhaps when Sir Charles showed his worry over Mr Babbington being murdered. No host would ever do that! In fact a host would always try to make a murder at his own party look like a natural death so as to not grab negative attention. But Sir Charles did the complete opposite. This was indeed very fishy! I was confirmed of my suspicion of him being the murderer when he dramatically spotted the note left behind by the butler. He never appeared to be the kind of intelligent man (the Sherlock kind) who could visualise the entire event so clearly. This totally gave him away!

Although I wasn’t sure why would he kill the clergyman. As for Mr Strange, I assumed since they were old friends, there could be a hundred reasons to kill him. But I couldn’t guess the motive behind the first murder. To a good time I thought it was a failed attempt to kill Mr Strange. Who rehearses a murder? (hide spoiler)]

Looking forward to future readings of this series.🤩

[Tara]

Hopefully Death in The Clouds will have more of Poirot and his little gray cells for us to enjoy next month.

[Sonsoles]

Sonsoles wrote: "Trisha wrote: "Hi folks, I finished the book today and I am afraid to say that I didn’t like it at all. Being an ardent fan of Agatha Christie, this is a first for me to not like her mystery. The b..."

Yeah, after reading the entire novel, what you say makes sense, but what I though was that he was simply one of those bored rich well-off people that find some entertaiment in being paranoic or making up stories.

Also a person who likes drama and being the center of attention would prefer to have a murder than a simple natural death. In Spanish we say something like "Let them talk about you, even if it's bad" and he found a way to make himself being important and people talk about him.

The part of the note was indeed suspicious, but sometimes this kind of novels have those weird things made up just to explain some facts that I didn't pay much attention.

It seems I was too confident when reading this one, because no matter how obvious it was, I didn't get it hahaha it was right before my eyes XD

Then I see you next month, because I'm reading it too. Let's hope it's a better novel and it has more Poirot in it!

[Tara]

I just finished listening to the audio of book 12 in the series, Death in the Clouds
I'm sorry that we didn't have a successful go of it as a buddy read but I did commit to one each month and I did finish one each month.

[Sonsoles]

Hi!

I am reading it too! I have read half of the book so far and I even posted it in the main thread od Buddy Reads.

If we are 2... isn't it the minimum to go on with a BR?

I haven't been for long in this group, but I have commited too =/

[Sonsoles]

Another question: which one would be the next one? I'd like to get it and read it too =)

[Sonsoles]

Sonsoles wrote: "Another question: which one would be the next one? I'd like to get it and read it too =)"

Thanks ^^

[Tara]

Kristin wrote: "Per request and interest, I have posted the next book in the series: https://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/..."

Thank you Kristin!