This is an absolutely superb Book. Agatha does it again.

A country house weekend where the highlight was going to be Sunday lunch with Hercule Poirot who was staying nearby. The Angkatells own The Hollow and invite assorted guests and family members for the weekend. In the hands of Agatha Christie, you know someone isn’t going to make it to Monday morning.

For me, there were two mysteries.

The first was – who was going to be murdered? The death doesn’t occur until Page 101 (in my version) and so there was a debate going on in my mind as to who was going to be the victim. I thought I knew and I was right, because this was the character most featured in the introduction.

Then there’s the murder scene when Poirot arrives. He thinks it’s been staged for his benefit and he’s half right, but then he realises he’s not been considered and that it’s a coincidence that the highly staged murdered scene is in front of him as he arrives.

As to who did it – well I couldn’t decide between three of the characters and it turned out not to be any of those three, so I was wrong about that.

The characters are without exception interesting, have quirky characteristics, and also ‘know’ more than they let on. There are family secrets aplenty. This book is recommended.