The Murder on The Links

Like usual, Agatha Christie's book kept me on the edge of my seat, but this time I actually lost my interest towards the end of the book. I went ahead and took a guess on what the murder is all about, who did it and why, at the start of the book, and when it turned out I was half-right, I lost some interest. Of course, everything was way more complicated than I assumed, but that also made it feel a bit over the top, just a tad.

Do not think I did not enjoy the book, because I did, a lot. I like Agatha Christie's writing style and I absolutely love Hercule Poirot. There were some instances, some remarks, of the great detective that actually made me laugh. The humour is great in this book and I am a big fan of it.

Hastings, on the other hand, is just as insufferable as I remembered him. Luckily for me, I felt like I had to put up with him for only about three chapters before the murder plot took over and he remained just a narrator. I wonder if he'll grow on me, because I do plan on reading more of Hercule Poirot's adventures, not necessarily in order, though.

I don't think there's much else to be said about the book. It's a classic, it's just as enjoyable now as it probably was when it was first published. Highly recommend it.

Also, while reading the book, I thought I'd do a simple pixel art portrait of Hercule Poirot, so since this book kind of inspired it, I'll link it here.

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This was a great, fun, and twisty read.
I loved the sass between both poirot and Giraud and the teasing with Hastings. The twist after twist after twist was fun, and with all my guesses of whodunit, I possibly guessed the murderer at some point but was thrown off several times and ended up being shocked and satisfied by the ending.

“Is he not a splendid fellow? I call him Giraud!”

chef's kiss

This was my first Agatha Christie book, and I found it okay. The mystery was interesting and I liked that it was a classic "murder in a house" plot. The female characters were all bafflingly useless and don't feel like full human beings, which is the main reason I didn't love it. Poirot was a bit unlikable, but I'm willing to believe he's better in other books.

A worthy follow-up to the first Poirot story, this book swaps England for France as the setting. The inclusion of an arrogant rival detective from Paris is a good source of comedy as Hastings is invariably impressed by his industry, only for Poirot to be the one in the right as usual. I found the romantic subplot to be a bit threadbare, although Christie does manage to weave it into the main plot at the end, albeit not a hundred percent satisfactorily. All in all another enjoyable whodunit and I look forward to reading the next.

The murder and mystery is kind of fun but it’s a book of it’s time. You can tell by looking at people if they are foreigners, “The man is a Frenchman—I would take my oath on that—”

And then we have Captain Hastings, a man in his 30’s lusting after a child, “ I judged that she was little more than seventeen…”

the plot was absolutely incredible, i'm fully convinced nobody will be able to find out the murderer's identity for this one unless you're hercule poirot.

Giraud thought he slayed lol

My highlights

“Arrange your ideas. Be methodical. Be orderly. There is the secret of success.”

...“the unconscious recoil of the mind against originality.”

“It is love that has come—not as you imagined it, all cock-a-hoop with fine feathers, but sadly, with bleeding feet.”

So many twists and turns!

This went to places I did not expect and I enjoyed it thoroughly.

3.5 •《Decididamente, tiene usted un corazón de turco, Hastings. ¡Debería formar un harén!》

It was fine, especially when read to me. However there are several books in this time period that have people lying and acting like guilty people to protect someone else's honor in ways that are hard for me to deeply comprehend. It makes all the nonsense people go through to ferret out the truth just fall flat for me.

This one had a massive side story that I thought was quite fun, or I would have marked it down even more.

Loving all the plots. The answer was basically in front of me all the time but I was just like Hesting on this case...

Excellent read.

Another wonderful heroine of Agatha :-D Cinderella aka Dulcie Duveen :-)
I have seen most of these as tv series episodes, so I think I have read this, but they aren't the book, now, are they? Some surprises in there :-D

Serios de nu, merita doua stele din start doar pentru Poirot.

2.5

This was pretty good. Mistaken identities abound. Mysterious pasts are revealed. Hastings falls too quickly in love. Poirot is brilliant of course.

Hastings is one Stoopid Boy

Almost too many twists and turns.

Hastings chases tail
he'd fall in love with a stump
with enough makeup.

I think this review by Robert Barnard sums up my feelings on this one quite nicely - “Entertaining for most of its length, but the solution is one of those ‘once revealed, instantly forgotten' ones, where ingenuity has triumphed over common sense”

Pas forcément mon roman préféré d'Agatha Christie, j'en garde peu de souvenirs.

I thought this radio play was fairly enjoyable, though having someone other as David Suchet playing Poirot caused a bit of cognitive dissonance for me. The narrative resolution wasn't as good as I'd like - thought that's perhaps a problem of the nature of radio plays as a medium - you have to tell everything, which means omissions are an even bigger problem then they'd be normally.