But within hours, Miss Pinkerton had been killed in a hit-and-run car accident. Mere coincidence? Luke was inclined to think so – until he read in The Times of the unexpected demise of Dr Humbleby…
Comment: One more book by Agatha Christie I had not read before. I got this book in Portuguese, several years ago.. since I had finished all I had planned for June and with only one day left in the month there wasn't time for any bigger books, I've picked this one, which didn't even have 300 pages...
Luke Fitzwilliam is traveling by train but a mistake during a stop causes him to miss it and he needs to embark on the next one. That is how he sees himself in a conversation with mrs Lavinia Pinkerton and she shares with him the suspicion something is not right in her rural village of Wychwood. Luke agrees her best option is to visit Scotland Yard in London, yes, but he also believes she might be exaggerating. However, days after, he sees in the newspaper the news about her death and of another person from her village... coincidence, after all the other dead mrs Pinkerton had told him about? Luke decides to investigate and a friend tells him about the perfect disguise. Bit will Luke be able to keep an observant eye with several distractions the village offers?
I've lost count of all the titles by the author I've read, but since I had not yet read any of her books featuring miss Marple, I'm not close to finish, at all. Still, after so many attempts, after liking some more than others of course, I can say this one is probably middle of the pack. Enjoyable, but not the plot I'd say was the most successful one.
The start was very promising and the train setting led me to believe perhaps the choice of setting would have more importance but, it turns out, not really. Since the book is short (they all seem an exercise in restraint, which works out quite well for some stories, but can be frustrating for others) everything happens in a very precise way, without room for unnecessary flourishes. I do like this style but there are times where the hints and the subtlety of some messages simple gets lost.
Luke is the "hero" since he is investigating what mrs Pikerton had revealed and why she might have been killed, but he isn't such a distinctive character as others by this author (even putting aside Poirot, the greatest) that I felt eager to keep track of his thought process. Besides, he arrives at the village under a disguise and someone there is waiting for him,who knows what he is doing. Apparently this person, Bridget, is going to marry a rich man for security and Luke feels jealous, since he starts having feelings for her. Considering the fact this was published in 1939, the "romance" is incredibly frustrating but it does offer a novelty, for romantic situations in other books are never center stage.
As expected, most of the novel is spent in setting up the characters and their personalities while Luke investigates. Sometimes, the red herrings in this author's novels are so well done that anything could be important or vital, but in this book I'll have to say I struggled to find the urgency of the search for a culprit. I really think this plot wasn't written in a very engaging manner and the villain is a little obvious from a certain point on, more or less after half way. It's not that the author intentionally gives the information away but the killer's identity isn't hidden very well.
The killer is an interesting study in characterization and psychology, no doubt this is one of the author's strongest points in writing, everything always has a method and a reason. Nevertheless, while accepting this, I still have to say some explanations seem a bit simplified when the final reveals are shared. Of course most villains in Agatha Christie's books can't be immediately recognizable as evil, otherwise part of the story would never happen, but in this case, the secret behavior of the villain feels difficult to believe in because there are really no hints and when we discover the truth, some reveals are too flimsy.
Heh, it's interesting how differently we readers can feel about the same book.
ReplyDeleteI like this one quite a bit myself, because the premise that people who are generally invisible--like, say, elderly ladies--can get away with a lot more than one thinks they would feels pretty feasible to me.
(Back in the 1980s, a woman who ran a boarding house murdered several of her tenants over a period of several years, in order to continue cashing their social security checks; if someone asked after any one tenant, she would just say they had moved on. She murdered at least ten people this way.)
I can see your POV. It was certainly a novelty the identity of the villain but the explanation was very shady, in the sense she did it partially due to insanity... better if it was only for a reason similar to the one you mention if that 1980s case.
DeleteAh, yes, absolutely, I see what you mean; there is a tendency to conflate evil with mental health issues (and genre romance is rife with it!), that is so very enraging! Evil people are evil because they are, period.
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