Agatha Christie's second last book, written at the age of 82 and showing some signs of the mental deterioration she appeared to suffer from in her old age. This is a tale about memory, about who remembers, and how well those memories can be trusted. Ariadne Oliver ropes Poirot in after she is asked by a stranger at a literary lunch to find out whether Oliver's god-daughter's mother shot her father or vice versa. Christie's themes of the importance of truth (which can be coped with) over a comfortable lie, of how the past can be investigated, adoption, and how love can lead to unexpected actions are strong in this book, although it is more wooly and meandering than her strongest work. One for fans. ( )

Figured out the end before it reached the climax of the story still a good read. ( )

This is only the third Agatha Christie book that I have read, but compared to the first wo (Murder of Roger Ackroyd & The Orient Express), this one was a complete let down.

I suspect that this was written late in the author's career. She passed away 3 years after this was written, and considering that she long career as a writer, its expected not everything is good.

As for the book itself, I found the characters annoying, too much pointless chit-chat, mentions of people that seemed rather important, but never brought up (for example, what happened to the young girl her pushed her brother and he fell, hitting his head and dying). And I found most of the characters to be unbelievable. Like Celia not seeming to care much that her parents died in a murder suicide plot, or that Mrs. Oliver not really knowing much about her friend's death, even is She was traveling in America at the time, the gossip would have followed her, and it would have been sensational. Even the police seemed to have dropped the case as a matter of fact sort of thing.

I also had about 75% of the plot figured out by the middle of the book. While the ending made sense, the motives seemed so off. I just can't see someone caring more there crazy Sister/Sister in-law rather than their young children, especially when the sister has a history of killing children.

This isn't a very good book. And I'd avoid it if you are just getting into Agatha Christie. ( )

Hercule Poirot se detuvo en la cima de la montaña. Años atrás, en este lugar, hubo un trágico accidente, seguido por el horrible descubrimiento de otros dos cuerpos -marido y mujer- muertos a balazos. Pero ¿quién mató a quién? ¿Se trató de un pacto suicida? ¿Un crimen pasional? ¿O un asesinato a sangre fría? Poirot deberá hurgar en el pasado para descubrir que «los viejos pecados dejan largas sombras

4/8/22