I have been busy reading and have managed to get through a fair few over the last few weeks, six in fact. Last week I had three coffee dates and caught up with several of my friends and this did take me away from my reading a little bit. But this week I am on track again and I also decided to finally tackle the growing stack of books to be reviewed. It's a different and more solitary kind of catch up but one equally necessary.
However, first things first. My bargain of the week (after last week's three books for £1 each) is definitely the new album by Foy Vance. It is amazing and wonderful and amazingly good. In short: It's AMAZING. I have had it on non-stop for the past few days and am still not tired of it.
Then all I need to do is wait for James Vincent McMorrow's new album due to be released early next year to get another dose of magical music.
But, duty and honour call me to the reviewing so of we go...
#### SPOILER ALERT ####
Five Little Pigs - Agatha Christie
I had got this one earlier in the year on one of my bookshop roaming trips. Then I went to see the play a few months ago and now I have read the book too. It was kind of a shame I had seen the play as I knew who had done it before I started it but I have to say that I liked the way the book was set up way better than the play.
The book tells the story of Carla Lemarchant who is trying to find out if there is any truth in her mother's assertions that she was not guilty of killing her husband. Sixteen years ago Caroline Crale was convicted of the murder of Amyas Crale. Apparently she had poisoned him as revenge for taking up with a new, younger woman who had been posing for a picture with Amyas. Not that it seems to matter much any more if she was guilty or innocent as mummy dearest is dead even before the books begins. But.... Carla believes that her mother would not have proclaimed her innocence had it not been the truth so the asks the help of our favourite foreign detective Hercule Poirot. It seems that Carla wants to know what happened so she can understand herself better and perhaps understand what kind of person she comes from. Poirot is looking upon the whole thing as an interesting intellectual exercise if nothing else and decides to help her piece together what happened. So, off Poirot trots to do the rounds and find all the people that were in the house at the time of the murder, and the lawyers, policemen involved in the case. This way he gets a picture of the case and is able to bring it to its final conclusion.
This way we hear from all those involved and the picture of what happened on the final days of Amyas Crale is laid out in front of us. Philip Blake seems very intent on making Caroline look bad and you get the feeling that this is due to his own scorned interest in her. Elsa Greer (the other woman) is equally intent to paint Caroline as a vindictive woman. And indeed, how unreasonable of a married woman not to give up her husband to any new brazen hussy that comes through the front door eh Elsa. Mr Meredith Blake seems to be trying to find excuses for her but has to accept there is no other person to have done it but she. Angela Warren is Caroline's sister and is convinced she did not do it but cannot see who else might have been the murdered. She is one of the few who has anything good to say about Caroline. Finally we have the nanny, Miss Cecilia Williams who seems to be the dedicated servant who can see what is happening but has also reached the conclusion that from her behaviour at the time Caroline has shown that she is guilty.
The nice thing of the book is that you get the same story told from each person's perspective. You would think that Poirot wants them to be as neutral and factual as possible but no... he seems to encourage them to recall their memories of what happened and get their specific perspective on what happened. Poirot gets everyone together in the final showdown and poses a few scenarios to those present.
One of the great things is that looking at the stories of all those involved, any of them could have at one point had the opportunity to poison Amyas and the motive too. Poirot plays on this nicely as he lays out the events of the day before those present and brings it all to a lovely neatly wrapped up conclusion. We see that finally, as if by magic, Poirot is able to get to the truth of what happened on the day. I have no idea what or how Poirot picks up on the things that he does or how he draws the conclusions that he does. It's clever, very clever. Slightly unbelievable... but clever nonetheless.
What the book does really well is bring to life the characters that are no longer that, Caroline and Amyas. Through the stories of those involved you build up a picture of a turbulent marriage that would probably have weathered the storm. It is also a book about sacrifice, the love of one sister for another, of the danger of drawing the wrong conclusions and of getting some sort of justice in the end.
I liked it!
Title: Five Little Pigs
Author: Agatha Christie
233 pages
Harper Collins Publishers
ISBN #0-00-765950-4
Books to be read: 151
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