Read 2 Agatha christie novel back to back, leaving the third one unfinished. “Elephants can remember” was a book that I couldn’t quite understand and believe wouldn’t be on the “unforgettable” list by Agatha. Semma bore. Even though it was a Poirot mystery, the main detective/ lead is Ariadne. In the name of investigation there are conversation after conversation that it took me weeks to get through even half of it.
Next in list was “Clocks”.
The name of the book caught my fancy and was reasonably confident that it would be an interesting one. Again, the lead detective was not Poirot even though it was a Poirot mystery. But unlike the previous one, this story was narrated in a mix of third person and other characters, with the plot being quite intriguing. A stenographer girl is called for an assignment to a lady’s house. While she waits for the lady, she finds a dead body of an elderly guy soaked in blood. She runs out of the house screaming into the narrator who accompanies her into the house. There he notices 4 different and unique clocks all of them exactly one hour ahead of time. What is the relation to those clocks and the murder, who killed that guy who remains unidentifiable over most portions of the book, how does Poirot cracks the case without even visiting the scene of crime forms the crux of the story. There is a side piece section as well, as to why the narrator happen to be at that place. It is a clever ploy to lead the reader into thinking that the narrator might be the killer for the clue that he tries to decipher is pretty simple. The ending portion even though it was an expected twist feels rushed up and sudden. The intriguing piece of the puzzle, the clock, fails due to over hype. But nevertheless an interesting and fast paced story.
The next completed one was “12 tasks of Poirot” similar to the Mythology around Hercules. Each of the 12 seems to be short story of their own and seems like written just to satisfy the whim of having named Poirot after the mythical character. None of the stories were interesting and they seem ghost written, rather. Not up to her high standards.
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Testimony to Agatha Christie's writing genius. Is she can hold the attention of Generation Z's Gilsu, then she must be very good indeed :)