More like 3.5I made a status update halfway through the book remarking that I knew who murdered Amyas and how.I was so confident that I had cracked the “Agatha Christie” modus operandi .I even consciously picked up bits and pieces from the book to support my theory.But I don’t feel any shame in admitting that the magic of the ‘Queen of crime’ is still successful. I was wide off the mark, exactly where Agatha wanted her readers, right in her trap. For this reason, the book went from 3 to 3.5.Amyas Crale was a celebrated painter . . . and an even more celebrated lover. His wife Caroline was as jealous as she was devoted. So naturally, she was convicted of Amyas' murder. Now, 16 years later, their daughter presents Poirot with a challenge: find the fatal flaw in the case that will clear her mother's name. Also published as Murder in Retrospect.Murder in Retrospect it is. The investigation by Poirot takes place 16 years after the murder took place. It starts well enough with the introduction of the deceased’s daughter who wants to know the truth about this tragedy and prove her mother’s innocence. 5 characters were involved directly in the events. So Poirot begins his trademark investigation, exercising his grey cells and taking on the case from the psychological point of view rather than taking the CSI route.‘One does not, you know, employ merely the muscles. I do not need to bend and measure the footprints and pick up the cigarette ends and examine the bent blades of grass. It is enough for me to sit back in my chair and think. It is this’—he tapped his egg-shaped head—‘this that functions!’First the interviews and then the detailed account of what happened on the fateful day made the book drag towards the middle. The interviews told me what was necessary for the reader to know and I believe the extensive point of views of every character about the same event could have been shortened without making any difference to the narrative. This is the part where I thought about abandoning the book because I knew the murder of course. But I’m glad I resisted and continued on to finish the book.At the end all I can say about the author is ‘RESPECT’.
