Hallowe'en Party
Ratings159
Average rating3.4
It took me some time to get into this one, and I felt like Poirot didn't stick out as much as usual.
I picked this up because I was feeling Halloween-y, but to be honest, Halloween doesn't figure very prominently in the plot. But still, it was very engaging! I had my suspicions all along, but a few of the twists at the end still caught me by surprise. An intriguing mystery!
I received this paperback book as a early birthday present and I look forward to reading it, since the plot of this book is interesting and it has now been adapted into a film.
I like the actor Kenneth Branagh as Hercule Poirot (a fictional Belgium detective)
I already like the adaptation of And then there were none and the adaptation of Murder on the Orient Express was okay.
This book is about a group of people attending a Séance in Venice, Italy but things don't go according to plan and people are murdered so then it turns into a murder mystery.
''The past is the father of the present.
The ‘‘crime'' writers who write like Christie are few. The ones who try to write mysteries similar to her own are non-existent. I may sound harsh, but those who struggle to imitate her should take a step back and reconsider. And why is that? Because she understood, embraced and elevated to a whole new level the implications of the past when facing the present. As horrible as a present situation may be, the roots of all evil lie in the deeds of the past. This is present to every work of the Queen of Crime. In my opinion, ‘‘Hallowe'en Party'' delivers this notion in a highly atmospheric manner and presents one of the most elaborate crimes Agatha ever delivered.
13 year old Joyce, a little busybody who wants to be in the centre of attention, is found murdered in a tub filled with apples, in a twisted apple-bobbing game on Halloween. Hercule and the wonderful Ariadne Oliver are called to solve the crime. In this work, sexual passion and obsession are the motives that guide each suspect and there is a plethora of fascinating stories of people attracted to beauty, vice and a twisted notion of love. Agatha creates a unique atmosphere, with prominent descriptions of the Halloween festivities, the beautiful garden, the temptations that guide the characters to questionable deeds. The snapdragon scene, a haunting game that isn't included in many works of Fiction, is among my favourites in all of Christie's novels and stories. Not to mention that I love Ariadne to pieces. I think she's an exciting character on her own and the proper equivalent to our beloved Hercule. And, naturally, the ITV film production was perfect, despite some deviations from the novel.
If you want to experience Halloween through Crime Fiction, don't look further. ‘‘Hallowe'en Party'' is just what you want, with a healthy dose of good old British mystery. Can't get any more perfect than that...
Dnf, this writing style is my personal hell. I can't speak to the actual story
I've read a few of Christie's books, and I don't care much about the Poirot books. They have a lot of nonsense in them. They follow a pattern where a dude shows up, more people start to die, and then there's a lot of clucking of the tongue about how tragic it all is.
If you want to hear people moan about the hippies, I guess this book is for you. It wasn't for me.
Definitely not my favorite. Felt like it was written for the wrong time period, super mundane and uninteresting... Movie is better.
i think i might have done a disservice to myself by making this my first book read by Agatha Christie. it felt like a nancy drew book and NOT in a good way. that being said, it wasn't terrible but it also felt very repetitive and i didn't like the ending. oops
Alright, folks, let's talk about “Hallowe'en Party” by the legendary Agatha Christie.
I'm going to be straight with you. This one was a tough nut to crack. It's like slogging through molasses, and I only powered through because I had the haunting in Venice (the movie) to look forward to. Trust me, just watch the movie...
You know that feeling when you're hoping for a thrilling mystery but you end up with more of a puzzle than you bargained for? That's exactly what happened here. The plot was more tangled than a ball of yarn that's been in the paws of a hyperactive kitten.
So, if you're thinking about tackling “Hallowe'en Party,” I'm going to give you a piece of advice – maybe save yourself the headache and grab some popcorn instead. There are plenty of Christie classics that are worth your time, but this one, well, you can skip it.
Figured I'd get it read before Branagh's movie comes out. It's supposedly based on this book, but the trailer bears no resemblance to the book whatsoever, with its seances and supernatural goings on and its Venice setting.
The premise is a cracking one. Talk at a party comes around to murder and a 13 year old girl mentions that she once witnessed a murder. Nobody believes her but an hour later, she's found head down in a bucket permanently bobbing for apples. This is Christie in her later years so she seems to shoehorn some of her own moaning in whenever she can. She has four different characters mention apropos of nothing that “they don't keep mental patients locked up anymore, they just send them home these days to live in the community”. The talk of the killer potentially being “some mentally disturbed person” who walked into the party and spotted an opportunity occurs so much that you would think it must have some relevance to the outcome. Characters also complain more than once of mothers not raising their children right anymore, children getting into cars with strangers and long haired young men smashing up phone boxes for the hell of it. Though she does have the good sense to have a dialogue between teenage boys and immediately start off by saying they had a very adult manner and if you closed your eyes you might think it was two elderly gentlemen speaking. Nobody wants to read Agatha Christie's attempts at 60s youth slang.
Quite a dull read overall with Poirot plodding around repeatedly asking characters the same questions like a Broken Sword game - “And what did you think of the young girl who was murdered?” “What do you know about the foreign girl who disappeared a few years ago?” etc. In the end, the mystery and its reveal weren't particularly interesting. I'm not sure the motives of the killer fully make sense but I'm also past the point of thinking about it too much.
⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
A book that I loved, an absolute must read, and now a favorite of mine. It's a book that will live on my shelves forever and I would re-read in the future. I would pick up anything else by this author without question. This book is now one of my all-time favorites,
If you are a fan of Agatha Christie you will love this book! As usual she does not disappoint and Hercule Poirot is as charming as ever.
I often forget how specific my likes are for older novles. Especially the conversations. I needed to find on audiobook for this because I couldn't stay alert enough to follow the story. So yeah that
É uma história de Poirot, mas não foi dessa vez que peguei um grande caso com muita participação dele. É uma história onde ele já está velhinho e acaba mais ajudando de longe enquanto a história acontece em outro país. Uma menina é chamada pra fazer um serviço na casa de uma senhora em um horário específico, mas quando chega lá tem um homem morto na sala e vários relógios espalhados com a mesma hora em todos eles. Só que o mistério é: ninguém sabe de quem é o corpo, a dona da casa (que é cega) não estava na hora da morte e não foi ela que chamou a menina.
Fiquei pensando com qual nota avaliar e decidi por 2,5. Não vi nada demais nessa história especificamente, mas já estou sabendo que fica mesmo aquém dos melhores livros da autora, tudo certo. Próximas leituras já estão por aqui, vou ver como serão as outras experiências.
not my favorite poirot novel, but it had a fun fall vibe to it so i didn't really mind that it was predictable!
Trigger warning: children in harm's wayIt's not my favorite Agatha Christie, but it's fascinating. I love how she describes the Halloween party. Snapdragon and bobbing for apples... it sounds nice, though I wouldn't want there to be murders in my party :-D Unless it was a murder mystery...This is a very good read for October. I recommend you also read [b:The Hound of Death 450779 The Hound of Death Agatha Christie https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1374713913l/450779.SY75.jpg 2785408] and [b:The White People and Other Weird Stories 11226926 The White People and Other Weird Stories Arthur Machen https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1311702486l/11226926.SY75.jpg 16152817], and The Leopard Lady by Dorothy L. Sawyers (It's in the [b:In the Teeth of the Evidence 393105 In the Teeth of the Evidence (Lord Peter Wimsey, #14) Dorothy L. Sayers https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1421012334l/393105.SY75.jpg 529130]) - gives it a little mysterious, supernatural, magical realism feeling :-D
Ariande Oliver attends a Halloween party where a young girl ends up murdered. Earlier that day the young girl was overheard speaking of a murder she witnessed years before. Could this be why she was killed? Ariande needs help and brings in Hercule Poirot to solve the murder.
This one was a bit slow, which I'm not used to when reading Agatha Christie. Usually there is an investigation but there is also excitement and intrigue. Even though it was a slow read I still enjoyed the mystery solving. I also enjoyed reading about the Halloween party and games that were played.
Fast paced, and has all the ingredients of an Agatha Christie novel.
A little predictable, and dragged out in my opinion.
Taking a little break from reading books, will resume in a month.
Here's to another 25 books by the end of the year.
I have been reading all of Christie's books chronologically and I am getting pretty close to the end with this one. After Passenger to Frankfurt I was feeling a little disheartened. I hate to say it, but I was starting to think like the detectives who work with Poirot, “Is Christie getting a little too old for this?”
I was then very pleasantly surprised with this one. The plot was interesting and there were plenty of suspects, enough to send you on the wrong trail a few times. Poirot is charming as ever. I really enjoyed it.
I saw another commenter who rated this one low, mentioning she loved Christie but didn't like how much social commentary there was in this one. All I have to say to that is HA! because if you have read as many of her books as I have (nearly all of them by now) you will realize that Christie puts a LOT of social commentary in her books and this one is nothing compared to some of the others. She does talk a lot about insanity and crime, a pattern with all of her books.
I am not saying this is her best, but it is one of her better ones and the social commentary is very usual of the author. I don't agree with all of it, but as a mystery I thought it was well-crafted and enjoyable.
I haven't read an Agatha Christie novel since I was a teenager. After reading this one, I've added more to my “To Read” list. It's an enjoyable little read, with Poirot exercising his little grey cells.