Mini Review – The Hollow

From Goodreads:

Lady Angkatell, intrigued by the criminal mind, has invited Hercule Poirot to her estate for a weekend house party. The Belgian detective’s arrival at the Hollow is met with an elaborate tableau staged for his amusement: a doctor lies in a puddle of red paint, his timid wife stands over his body with a gun while the other guests look suitably shocked.

But this is no charade. The paint is blood and the corpse real!

Christie described this novel as the one "I had ruined by the introduction of Poirot." It was first published in 1946 in London. In the USA it was published under the title Murder after Hours. Christie adapted the novel for the stage though with the omission of Hercule Poirot.

This is a really unusual one for a Poirot mystery. It is fantastic and it is interesting that Christie herself has re-wrote it omitting Poirot. It is by far one of the most complex plot lines in the Poirot series. It just kept you guessing and switching allegiances all the way through. Even at 80% of the way through I was convinced that any one of them could have done it! I by no way agree with Christie stating she ruined it by introducing Poirot as with out his conclusions I would have still been a bit up in the air about just how the murder was committed. It just keeps twisting and adding new bits of information making you look one way and then the next which just makes it such a fast and fun read.

I loved the Lady Angkatell. She was such a fun and feisty character, her mile a minute way of thinking was so different from Poirot’s it was really different. I Had little to no love for the murdered party, so felt no sympathy for them, instead I became invested in those that were accused of the murder and were rooting for them to be innocent, which is a fun stance to have in a Christie novel.

Overall this is one of my favourites so far!