06/20/2016
Set in October 1929, bestseller Hannah’s captivating sequel to 2014’s The Monogram Murders finds Hercule Poirot and Scotland Yard’s Insp. Edward Catchpool visiting Lady Athelinda Playford’s mansion in Clonakilty, County Cork, in the Irish Free State. Other guests include Athie’s children, their significant others, her attorneys, and her ailing secretary. At first, Poirot and Catchpool can’t figure out why they were invited, but then Athie announces she’s drafted a new will leaving everything to her secretary, and they realize their presence is intended to keep the peace. Someone commits murder regardless, and the detecting duo must determine whodunit. An intriguing setup, colorful characters, and witty dialogue elevate this classic manor house mystery. Fiendish schemes and an abundance of interpersonal conflict foster tension and drive plot, while outrageous twists and juicy red herrings confound readers. This Christie estate–sanctioned pastiche isn’t perfect—Hannah’s Poirot is too subdued and the killer’s machinations prove preposterous—but overall, this endeavor confirms that the Queen of Crime’s legacy is in capable hands. (Sept.)
Classic Christie . . . Captures the essence of the originals without being a slavish imitation . . . Clues emerge, but the case remains perplexing. Christie aficionados will delight in the familiar repartee and the intricate deduction of the solution.” — Washington Post
“Equal parts charming and ingenious, dark and quirky and utterly engaging…I was thrilled to see Poirot in such very, very good hands. Reading The Monogram Murders was like returning to a favorite room of a long-lost home.” — Gillian Flynn, #1 New York Times bestselling author of Gone Girl
“Perfect...a pure treat for Agatha Christie fans.” — Tana French, New York Times betselling author of The Secret Place
“Sophie Hannah’s The Monogram Murders does Christie proud. Our favorite detective is back and in impeccable form!” — Charles Todd, New York Times bestselling author of An Unwilling Accomplice
“Sophie Hannah is a prodigious talent. I can’t wait to see what she does next.” — Laura Lippman
“Sophie Hannah’s idea for a plot line was so compelling and her passion for my grandmother’s work so strong, that we felt that the time was right for a new Christie to be written.” — Mathew Prichard, grandson of Agatha Christie
Perfect...a pure treat for Agatha Christie fans.
Sophie Hannah is a prodigious talent. I can’t wait to see what she does next.
Equal parts charming and ingenious, dark and quirky and utterly engaging…I was thrilled to see Poirot in such very, very good hands. Reading The Monogram Murders was like returning to a favorite room of a long-lost home.
Sophie Hannah’s idea for a plot line was so compelling and her passion for my grandmother’s work so strong, that we felt that the time was right for a new Christie to be written.
Classic Christie . . . Captures the essence of the originals without being a slavish imitation . . . Clues emerge, but the case remains perplexing. Christie aficionados will delight in the familiar repartee and the intricate deduction of the solution.
Sophie Hannah’s The Monogram Murders does Christie proud. Our favorite detective is back and in impeccable form!
Classic Christie . . . Captures the essence of the originals without being a slavish imitation . . . Clues emerge, but the case remains perplexing. Christie aficionados will delight in the familiar repartee and the intricate deduction of the solution.
Sophie Hannah’s idea for a plot line was so compelling and her passion for my grandmother’s work so strong, that we felt that the time was right for a new Christie to be written.
04/15/2016
Here's Hannah's second Hercule Poirot novel (after the well-reviewed The Monogram Murders; "Christie herself, some might say, could do no better," said the Washington Post). No news on the plot, but there's a 100,000-copy first printing.
Narrator Julian Rhind-Tutt’s only real challenge in this mystery is keeping the story moving as Poirot struggles uncharacteristically to solve the mystery of who killed a dying man (and why). Rhind-Tutt makes Poirot immediately recognizable. His portrayal of Edward Catchpool—previously seen in the first Poirot reboot, THE MONOGRAM MURDERS—is the perfect Poirot foil, expressing equal parts irritation and affection for the master detective. The suspects—the flighty Lady Athelinda Playford, her hearty son and his whining wife, her bitingly modern daughter and her forceful fiancé, and assorted upstairs and downstairs staff—are all distinct and well crafted. Despite story imperfections, Poirot fans will be delighted by Rhind-Tutt's second resurrection of the beloved Belgian detective. K.W. © AudioFile 2016, Portland, Maine
2016-06-15
A famous Irish author of children's mysteries announces that she's just disinherited her family before a gathering that includes those very family members—along with Hercule Poirot.Invited for unknown reasons to spend a week in Lady Athelinda Playford's home, Lillieoak, in County Cork, Poirot and his new Watson, Scotland Yard detective Edward Catchpool, can only watch in astonishment as she tells her dinner guests that she's leaving her entire estate to Joseph Scotcher, her secretary. Viscount Harry Playford, his wife, Dorothy, his older sister, Claudia, and her fiance, pathologist Randall Kimpton, are all aghast at the news that they'll be cut off without a farthing. But Poirot and Catchpool are even more surprised that Lady Playford has disinherited them all in favor of a man with Bright's disease who's been given only a short time to live—a man who greets the news of his unexpected windfall by instantly proposing marriage to his nurse, Sophie Bourlet. Whatever the reason for Lady Playford's quixotic decision, her children and their significant others, it turns out, have nothing to worry about, for Joseph Scotcher is murdered within hours of the disclosure, leaving the guests, one of whom immediately claims that she saw another one actually committing the murder, in the bullying grasp of Inspector Arthur Conree, who maintains that he hasn't sought this job but that he'll brook no interference in conducting it, setting the stage for a dizzying series of surprises that will reveal that everything anyone ever thought about Scotcher was wrong. As in The Monogram Murders (2014), Hannah provides both less and more than Agatha Christie ever baked into any of her tales. But the climactic revelation that establishes the killer's motive is every bit as brilliant and improbable as any of Christie's own decorous thunderclaps.
![The Mysterious Affair at Styles [Illustrated] (Hercule Poirot Series)](http://prodimage.images-bn.com/pimages/2940012762979_p0_v1_s90x140.jpg "The Mysterious Affair at Styles [Illustrated] (Hercule Poirot Series)")
