This is my third book by Agatha Christie, first being And then there were none and second was The murder in the orient express and I really loved those 2 books. As much as I enjoy reading good thrillers and murder mysteries I am somehow not naturally inclined to pick them up. But this book was lying on my bookshelf for a long time and I picked it up to clear my backlog and I am really happy I picked it up.
This is the story of the investigation of the case that happened 16 years ago. Caroline Clare was convicted for the murder of her husband and she has already served her sentence and died after sending a letter to her daughter claiming that she is innocent. Now her daughter hires Hercule Poirot as a private detective to investigate this case and find out the truth. In the process of investigation, he reaches out to five witnesses who were there at the time of the murder and metaphorically referred to by the poem Five Little Pigs.
Now I won’t say that this is the best book by Agatha Christie but it can still be rated quite high on the list. When you are reading a murder mystery and the smug feeling you have when you think you know the killer and when you go through all the pages you just keep on waiting for the time when you can finally say ‘I knew it’. I had this feeling all along only to proven wrong in the end. But yeah since I was quite close, I have deducted a star for it.
The writing style of Agatha Christie, like all her books, is quite easy and you will easily glide through 200 pages without even realizing it. The sheer cleverness of Hercule Poirot to investigate a case that happened 16 years ago and to find the murderer purely based on human psychology is quite amazing. However, at times the book felt repetitive as all the witnesses were telling the same story time and again from their viewpoint which was necessary for the story, but as a reader, I felt a little bored at times. But still all in all I would recommend this book as a quick read.
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