Five Little Pigs By Agatha Christie

The book came in perfect condition and was delivered way earlier that ETA.

Hercules Poirot reinvestigates a sixteen year old murder for which the wrong person may have been convicted. He re-interviews five suspects and asks them to both recall and write a description of the events surrounding the murder of an artist by coniine (hemlock extract) poisoning. His wife was convicted of murdering him but the suspects are two friends, his mistress, his wife's young sister and her governess.Due to the structure of the book it is quite repetitive, as others have observed. There are clues along the way. Unusually for an Agatha Christie, I pretty much saw the solution to the mystery, although usually I'm flailing in the dark. There are a couple of unlikely events to make the plot work, but that's often par for the course too. This is often rated as one of Christie's better books, but although enjoyable, I'm not convinced.

I LOVED this book. For the first time I took notes and highlighted a book, I loved trying to work out who it was and (as Agatha Christie books always do) I was surprised by the ending. I was quite repetative as Poirot interviews 5 people and then gets them to write an account of the incident which we get to read. But it is very interesting as you can see that people have slightly different views and at the end it is so exciting to see how clever Poirot is with solving the mystery.

I really enjoyed this book. I have recently started to read Agatha Christie and this is the eighth book I have read. Agatha sets a good scene and her characterisation is amazing (in my opinion). I liked that it was not obvious, even though I should have spotted the culprit as the story rolled out, until the end who actually dunnit and why. I recommend this book.

My favourite Poirot, bar Curtain, this is a very different book to the usual murder mysteries she writes. Poirot is hired to deduce the innocence (or not) of the long dead Caroline Crale, convicted of the murder of her artist husband Amyas Crale. There are five suspects and each of their memories (or what they claim are their memories) of the crime are painstakingly taken apart by the great detective. Five viewpoints of the crime but which is the true remembrance? Wonderful.

Loosely based on Agatha Christie's holiday home at Greenway and, in particular, the battery looking across the River Dart, this is a brilliant story, full of tension and intrigue.