The Hollow

Really fun read with lots of misdirection to keep readers on their toes. It\’s a little different from Christie\’s earlier books, and Poirot is more in the background than usual, even though he was an eye witness. This story is very much character driven and the characters well drawn and fascinating. Not a humble rector or little old lady in the bunch. It deserves to. be better known than it is, but is perhaps overlooked because Poirot is not as central to the story as usual. But his little gray cells are in fine form, don\’t worry. He soon untangles all the misdirection and red herrings to discover \”who dunnit.\” Part mystery and part drawing room comedy, it has a different pace from many of Christie\’s books, but may be one of best.

Agatha Christie was an exceptional writer, and this book has the absolute best characterization of any character she ever wrote about: Gerda Christow. A clueless not particularly bright woman, with slavish devotion to her husband John, the part at the front of the book where Gerda can\’t decide whether or not to send the meat back to the cook to be warmed up is beautifully written. You get right inside such a prosaic dull mind as Gerda\’s instantly. The other characters are equally wonderfully written, in that you get inside their minds and hearts immediately. Dr. John Christow is probably the best example Agatha wrote of a selfish mindless man who is forced to deal with things with which he isn\’t comfortable dealing, and the subsequent awkward feelings those things produce. It\’s a good example of insight into the marriage of John and Gerda, and why it doesn\’t work: each person is viewing the other in a totally unrealistic way. In fact, the most practical character in the book is Lucy Angkatell, despite her fairy and elfin way of behaving. It\’s Lucy who hits the nail on the head throughout the entire story. This book was made into a really superb movie with David Suchet, to me the absolute pinnacle of the best Poirot ever. If you want a story with (to me) a totally unexpected ending, a very realistic set of characters doing the exact things their characters would really do, set in an English country manor house, with Poirot using to his utmost his little grey cells, then this is the book for you. I first read this fifty years ago, and time has not dulled my enjoyment of it; indeed to the contrary, it\’s one of my favorite Agathas, that I read over and over again. I hope you will find it as scintillating as I did. 🙂

This Christie mystery is interesting because it looks like the murder scene was staged, with a lady holding a gun over the corpse, no less. I did think the book was a bit of a snoozer until Poirot arrives on the scene in Chapter 11. Oh but when he does arrive, the book sparks to life! His quirkiness and complaints about the dust and smell of the country are hilarious; as is his observation that the English insist on sitting outdoors in all kinds of weather. The mystery itself was difficult to figure out as there were several viable suspects. The story seemed to point to everyone at different parts in the story. With all of this misdirection, I failed to guess the killer until Poirot solved it for me. I do have to say that this book as the most ingenious way of hiding the murder weapon that I have read in a Christie mystery so far.

This is the most psychological of the Agatha Christie\’s that I\’ve read so far (and I\’ve read a lot). I agree that with other reviewers (and with Christie herself) that the late addition of Poirot changes the book into a much more wooden read. Not only is Poirot\’s character not used in his green-cat-eyed best, but the book becomes almost mechanical in its treatment of the mystery. I still give it 4 stars because I love the first part of the book. I realized, like others, somewhere in the middle of the book that I had read this in the past when I was a Christie harlot in my teens. Now, I am rereading Christie with a greater appreciation of her apt insights into psychology and life in general. Where in the past, I had to take these descriptions on faith, I can now recognize them as true within my own experience. Don\’t read it if you\’re looking for a straight mystery. There are many better Christie books for that. But if you\’re into Christie for all the aphoristic bits, then the first half of the book will satisfy.

Of all the Christie \’s I\’ve read (60+), this is far and away her best with respect to character development. It\’s the first I\’ve read thus far where the characters were so vividly drawn that I had no trouble keeping track of who was whom. The mystery seems almost an afterthought, and yet is brilliantly deceiving. I read voraciously, and it requires quite a lot to cause me to raise my brow and step back to simply admire a book as an art form; Christie pulled it off with The Hollow. An exceptional, and exceptionally underrated work

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