Author:Sophie Hannah
Sophie Hannah continues her excellent series of Poirot mysteries with this new title, the sixth in the series. It is New Year’s Eve of 1932, and Poirot and his good friend Inspector Catchpool, a sort of fusion of Hastings and Japp, arrive on the Greek island of Lamperos for a supposed post-festive break. They are guests of the founder of a quasi religious new age type group, whose core belief is that true enlightenment can only be achieved when all past misdemeanours are forgiven. When each guest anonymously writes a new year’s resolution, one is revealed to be a plan to murder one of the other guests. Sure enough, the house is awoken by screams in the early hours of New Year’s Day and it seems the resolution has been all too quickly fulfilled. Poirot and Catchpool investigate in this ingeniously plotted thriller, which is full of red herrings and misdirections, although the clues are all there if your little grey cells can spot them. The persona of Poirot is superbly recreated, and indeed the book is full of sharply drawn character sketches, in this cleverly executed evocation of the Golden Age of Crime. A vintage Christie style plot, numerous possible motives and potential suspects, all wrapped up in an idyllic setting with your favourite literary detective – what more can you want?
Length of Read:Medium
Might appeal to people who enjoyed…
Vintage crime novels, the original Agatha Christie novels and of course the preceding books in this series.
One thing you’ve learned
This series just gets better and better – the author’s faithful recreation of Poirot is uncannily accurate, and is a real tribute to her talent and of course to the longevity of Christie’s enduring sleuth.
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