After the Funeral

This book starts with a classic Christie zinger. At the funeral of the wealthy Richard Abernethie, his eccentric sister Cora blabs out: "But he was murdered, wasn't he?" The next day, Cora is found hacked to death with a hatchet. It’s a brutal, high-stakes hook that promises a lot. As Poirot notes during his investigation:

"It is the small things that are important. For a funeral, for instance, one should always have the correct clothes."

This quote is actually a massive clue, but as a critic, I have to say that the middle of this book is exhausting. The Abernethie family are a bunch of greedy, bickering vultures. While Christie is great at writing dysfunctional families, these characters lack the charm or wit found in her earlier books. You’re basically stuck in a room with five people who all hate each other, and frankly, you’ll probably end up hating most of them too.

Poirot also feels a bit "tired" in this one. By 1953, Christie was getting a little bored of him, and it shows. He spends a lot of time being mysterious without actually doing much until the very end. That said, the "trick" Christie uses to hide the killer is genuinely one of her most brilliant pieces of misdirection. It’s a "slap-your-forehead" moment that almost makes the boring middle section worth it.