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Agatha Christie – Taken at the Flood | Review

Title: Taken at the Flood

Author: Agatha Christie

Type: Fiction

Page Count: 192

Rating: 3.5/5

This was just okay but not great, although I always say that even Agatha Christie at her worst is better than most at their best. I think the issue here is that she did her usual thing of not introducing Poirot until towards the end of the story, and that only works if the story and the characters have got you hooked. Here, they unfortunately didn’t.

I did enjoy reading it though, I just can’t say that I enjoyed it as much as the other Christie books that I’ve read, and I wouldn’t recommend it unless you’re a seasoned fan. It’s one of the few times that I’ve been reading a Christie novel and asking myself when it was going to end because I wanted to hurry up and move on to something else.

So yeah, there’s my take on Taken at the Flood, although you should take it with a pinch of salt. Some people like some Christie books and some people like others. So there you have it.

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Robert Louis Stevenson – Kidnapped | Review

Title: Kidnapped

Author: Robert Louis Stevenson

Type: Fiction

Page Count: 232

Rating: 3.25/5

I’ve had this for a while but had been putting it off because I didn’t much like Treasure Island. My issue there was that I thought the story line was good but that the writing let it down, which is why I tend to enjoy adaptations of it more than the source material.

Here, I quite liked the character of David Balfour and I found the story a little more balanced with better pacing, and I also thought that Stevenson’s writing was a little more approachable. The downside is that there aren’t any pirates, but I can live with that.

True, I still don’t think that Stevenson is the writer for me, but I did think that was perhaps more accessible. I’m sure there are some pretty cool adaptations of it too, although I can’t say I’ve ever seen any. Now that I know the story, though, I can go ahead and check some of them out, I guess.

So would I recommend it? Well that kind of depends as it’s a complicated question with no easy answer. It’s not a bad shout if you’re into classics and you’re looking for something that’s a little more of an adventure. If you’re more of a general reader then perhaps you’re better off just skipping it. Huh.

Learn more about Kidnapped.