Sunday, March 6, 2022

Review: The Murder on the Links (Hercule Poirot #2) by Agatha Christie


3 stars for The Murder on the Links (Hercule Poirot book 2) by Agatha Christie.

Reading this book makes me think I have been too harsh in my earlier rating given to book 1 The Mysterious Affair at Styles. I definitely prefer that book to this one and if this book 2 warrants a 3-star rating, then I need to up my rating for the Styles story. That is exactly what I did, and in fact, before I have even finished reading this book, I went to revise my review rating from 3 stars to 4.

This book 2 of the Hercule Poirot series is once again narrated in first person and by the same Captain Hastings. His friend, Poirot, is hired by a rich man who is in need of the services of a detective and Hastings is involved because he is somehow embroiled in everything in which Poirot is concerned.

The mystery is a particularly perplexing and baffling one in which there is a deep riddle for Poirot to solve amidst a man's love affairs, business transactions, friendships, and enmities that he may have incurred. In reading the story, it feels as if the author tries too hard to please the reader by making it unnecessarily complicated. Yes, it is too complicated for my liking.

Regardless of my above grievance, there are still aspects of the story which I do enjoy. And one such is the entertaining side of the writing where Poirot is portrayed as not just the detective who knows the mind of man, he is also funny in his behaviour and choice of words.

This is still a series I will like to explore more of in the future.


Publisher: Warbler Classics; Illustrated edition
Publication date: 10 Jan 2020

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When Hercule Poirot and his associate Arthur Hastings arrive in the French village of Merlinville-sur-Mer to meet their client Paul Renauld, they learn from the police that he has been found that morning stabbed in the back with a letter opener and left in a newly-dug grave adjacent to a local golf course.

Among the plausible suspects are Renauld's wife Eloise, his son Jack, Renauld's immediate neighbor Madame Daubreuil, the mysterious "Cinderella" of Hasting's recent acquaintance, and some unknown visitor of the previous day--all of whom Poirot has reason to suspect. Poirot's powers of investigation ultimately triumph over the wiles of an assailant whose misdirection and motives are nearly--but not quite--impossible to spot.

*Blurb from Goodreads*

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