|
[ Home ]
[ About | Reviews | Search | Submit ]
Following the example of the estates of Raymond Chandler and Arthur Conan Doyle in commissioning new works involving a classic detective, Agatha Christie's heirs have commissioned new Hercule Poirot novel from Sophie Hannah, best known for her psychological thrillers. While at first glance, this seems like a job better suited for an author like G.M. Malliet, who has already mastered writing homages to the Golden Age of detective fiction, psychological insight has always been a key part of Poirot's success and contributes to this tremendous and worthy successor to Christie's canon.
THE MONOGRAM MURDERS opens with Poirot on sabbatical, when he meets a delirious woman named Jenny who claims that she will be murdered soon - but asks for the sake of justice, that Poirot not investigate the deed, a request that has precisely the opposite effect. That night, Poirot's housemate—our narrator, policeman Edward Catchpool, is called in to investigate what appears to be a ritual killing at a posh London hotel. Poirot immediately fears a connection with Jenny. The three victims are found in their rooms, laid out in the same way with identical sets of cufflinks found in their mouth. Poirot's investigation (and it is Poirot's investigation) leads him and Catchpool to dark events in a remote village years ago that led to the tragic double suicide of a vicar and his wife.
Sophie Hannah is in top form here and it is no disrespect to Christie to say that this new appearance of Poirot is easily equal to or better than many of his earlier outings. It is telling that THE MONOGRAM MURDERS is set in 1929, which would put it, chronologically speaking, right in the middle between what are arguably Christie's two best and most ingenious works, 1926's THE MURDER OF ROGER ACKROYD and 1934's MURDER ON THE ORIENT EXPRESS. It's every bit as surprising, incisive, and inventive as those classics. Hannah's background as a writer of psychological thrillers serves her well as there is psychological depth and insight found here that is not commonly found in detective fiction, and frankly was not found to this degree in Christie's original work. While Christie's strange little man has never been a protagonist associated with warm fuzziness, THE MONOGRAM MURDERS contains a surprising amount of heart from both Poirot and Catchpool, and it is a most welcome surprise.
While Hannah is attempting (and succeeding) to take the golden age detective novel to another level, she also manages to pay homage to Christie's work - evoking all the key motifs of Christie's original work, complete with misdirection, red herrings, and Poirot's usual reveal that will satisfy fans, though perhaps not purists. Edward Catchpool is an intelligent and relatable narrator that is as good a sidekick as Poirot ever had this side of Captain Hastings and while the appeal and focus on the story is on Poirot's return, Hannah has created a fascinating mystery that would keep the reader turning the pages even if there were no connection to the little Belgian. THE MONOGRAM MURDERS is not to be missed; one can only hope that Christie's estate keeps Hannah busy with more tales of Poirot in the years to come.
§ Ben Neal is a librarian who likes to fancy himself an amateur writer, humorist, detective, and coffee connoisseur in his spare time. He can be reached at beneneal@indiana.edu.
Reviewed by Ben Neal, September 2014
[ Top ]
QUICK SEARCH:
Contact: Yvonne Klein (ymk@reviewingtheevidence.com)
[ About | Reviews | Search | Submit ]
[ Home ]
|
