Tag: Poirot

Agatha Christie – Towards Zero | Review

Title: Towards Zero

Author: Agatha Christie

Type: Fiction

Page Count: 192

Rating: 3.25/5

This book is one of Christie’s Inspector Battle books, and I’ve always found them to be a little weaker than the Marple and Poirot books, as well as just her general standalones. Unfortunately, Battle just isn’t a particularly gripping character, and so when he’s front and centre in one of Christie’s books, it’s a bit of a struggle.

I think part of the problem here was that the mystery itself also wasn’t particularly interesting, and so that left me just reading for the sake of reading even though the story and the characters were of only passing interest. I mean, it’s still alright, just not great.

Still, I should caveat this with what I always say about Agatha Christie, which is that even a bad Agatha Christie book is better than a good book by most other authors. It’s just a shame that I left this one until towards the end, because I was kind of hoping to go out on a high. And now I only have two more of her books left.

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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.

Learn more about Taken at the Flood.