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Review
“Mrs Christie as usual puts a ring through the reader’s nose and leads him to one of her smashing last-minute showdowns”
Observer
“The answer to the riddle is brilliant”
Times Literary Supplement
Product Description
A womanising painter was poisoned 16 years ago by his wife, but now his daughter believes she was innocent all along…
Beautiful Caroline Crale was convicted of poisoning her husband, yet there were five other suspects: Philip Blake (the stockbroker) who went to market; Meredith Blake (the amateur herbalist) who stayed at home; Elsa Greer (the three-time divorcee) who had roast beef; Cecilia Williams (the devoted governess) who had none; and Angela Warren (the disfigured sister) who cried ‘wee wee wee’ all the way home.
It is sixteen years later, but Hercule Poirot just can’t get that nursery rhyme out of his mind…
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First Sentence
Hercule Poirot looked with interest and appreciation at the young woman who was being ushered into the room. Read the first page Browse Sample Pages
Front Cover | Copyright | Excerpt | Back Cover
Hercule Poirot looked with interest and appreciation at the young woman who was being ushered into the room. Read the first page Browse Sample Pages
Front Cover | Copyright | Excerpt | Back Cover
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
5 of 5 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
This is a more unusual Christie novel. The murder having taken place 16 years earlier, Poirot has only the five written accounts of witnesses to deduce the real criminal. The reader therefore, more than perhaps ever before, sees and hears exactly what the detective does, but I still reckon it's impossible to come to his conclusion. If you think the guilty one is the character I did you'll find yourself being described as "stupid" by the master himself. An excellent read that will lead you down many cul-de-sacs before a dramatic climax.
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover|Amazon Verified Purchase
These facsimile editions of Christie have a great secondary use: a history of book cover art / graphic design in the twentieth century. For a modest sum you can enjoy book covers from the 20s to the 70s in all their glory, although as we hit the 70s it all gets a little dull. Oh, yes: the stories are quite good as well! Now if we can just get facsimile Marsh, Queen, Sayers...
Most Helpful Customer Reviews on Amazon.com (beta)
Amazon.com:
19 reviews
6 of 6 people found the following review helpful
A lesser entry in the Poirot canon
30 Sep 2007
Format:Hardcover|Amazon Verified Purchase
Five Little Pigs follows Hercule Poirot as he tries to solve a murder from sixteen years in the past. A young woman comes to him and tells him the story of her parents. It seems that her mother was convicted of the murder of her father and died in prison a year later. The young lady was just a little girl at the time but she strongly believes that her mother was innocent and wants Poirot to prove it. Poirot then approaches the five key witnesses one at a time and interviews them about the events surrounding the murder to piece together what happened.
In some respects, this is a very typical Poirot novel. The murder occurs at an estate, there are a relative handful of people who could have done it, etc. But Christies attempted a major change in structure by setting the murder sixteen years in the past. I wish I could say that this was more effective but there were some very negative ramifications of this choice. First, readers must read descriptions of the same events, almost word for word, several times over as Poirot hears from each witness in turn. These conversations and events are not sufficiently fascinating to make this enjoyable. Second, in many of these interviews, there is a definite detachment to the narrative due to the amount of time that has passed. Despite the tempestuous nature of the husband/wife relationship this makes for a story that has no real emotional core. Third, a lot of the natural interplay between characters is lost and the worst casualty in this regard in Poirot himself. I always love his little observations and interjections during a case. These often come in moments of high tension and his humor is all the more effective at those times. But in these formal interviews, most of the opportunities for his little asides are lost and what is here lacks the usual bite.
Overall, I didn't find Five Little Pigs to be one of Agatha Christie's better efforts. The decision to place the murder sixteen years in the past was an interesting one but it robbed the story of a lot of its impact. This book also sports one of her weaker casts. The two most interesting characters (the victim and murderess) are present only in narrative provided by others and lose a great deal of their vitality in the process. Granted, this is not Christie's worst novel and it is still an adequate read. But I would recommend this book to true fans and not to first time readers. Hercule Poirot appeared in some truly great novels, but this is not one of them.
In some respects, this is a very typical Poirot novel. The murder occurs at an estate, there are a relative handful of people who could have done it, etc. But Christies attempted a major change in structure by setting the murder sixteen years in the past. I wish I could say that this was more effective but there were some very negative ramifications of this choice. First, readers must read descriptions of the same events, almost word for word, several times over as Poirot hears from each witness in turn. These conversations and events are not sufficiently fascinating to make this enjoyable. Second, in many of these interviews, there is a definite detachment to the narrative due to the amount of time that has passed. Despite the tempestuous nature of the husband/wife relationship this makes for a story that has no real emotional core. Third, a lot of the natural interplay between characters is lost and the worst casualty in this regard in Poirot himself. I always love his little observations and interjections during a case. These often come in moments of high tension and his humor is all the more effective at those times. But in these formal interviews, most of the opportunities for his little asides are lost and what is here lacks the usual bite.
Overall, I didn't find Five Little Pigs to be one of Agatha Christie's better efforts. The decision to place the murder sixteen years in the past was an interesting one but it robbed the story of a lot of its impact. This book also sports one of her weaker casts. The two most interesting characters (the victim and murderess) are present only in narrative provided by others and lose a great deal of their vitality in the process. Granted, this is not Christie's worst novel and it is still an adequate read. But I would recommend this book to true fans and not to first time readers. Hercule Poirot appeared in some truly great novels, but this is not one of them.
5 of 5 people found the following review helpful
Poirot on the way to find out the inevitable (3.5 stars)...
21 Nov 2007
Format:Paperback
... but it's almost guaranteed that, as always with Dame Agatha, you just can't see the inevitable soon enough but only in the last pages. The story is partly told in retrospect, in letters from those involved in the drama. The Great Detective is motivated to investigate a suspicious death of painter Amyas Crale, apparently a womanizer. At the beginning everything looks clear. But Amyas' daughter, although years have passed since the death of her father, is not so sure about the guilt of her mother, who was sentenced for the crime, and asks Poirot to help. This is one of the more psychologically-based Poirot novels, not too suspensful, but the ending is as surprising as ever and sheds a whole new light on the seemingly clear drama. And, as the title indicates, it's one of those Christie speciality novels where a murder takes place according to a nursery rhyme (And Then There Were None and One, Two, Buckle My Shoe are two other good examples of this).
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful
Pretty good, but minimizes Poirot, and unsatisfying ending
6 May 2011
Format:Paperback
A young woman approaching him with a problem is nothing new to Monsieur Hercule Poirot, but what is new is that she wants him to investigate a murder that occurred 16 years ago. It seems that in a famous murder trial, her mother was found guilty of murdering her father, and the young woman wants the great detective to find out the truth of the case. It is a challenge most difficult, one that Poirot cannot refuse!
Overall, I found this to be a pretty good book. It is a good, solid Hercule Poirot mystery. It does, sadly, have several rather debilitating problems. First of all, the author keeps Monsieur Poirot's interaction with the other characters to a minimum, allowing most of the evidence to be presented to him in written form. This does tend to limit the main character's ability to shine in the story.
Secondly, I must confess that I found the ending rather anticlimactic and unfulfilling. Yes, I am sure that it was the most realistic way to have the story end, but that does not mean that it was the most interesting way to end it.
As an Agatha Christie fan, I must say that I am glad to have read a Hercule Poirot story that I have never read before. But, I wasn't thrilled with it, and I doubt that I will ever read the story again.
Overall, I found this to be a pretty good book. It is a good, solid Hercule Poirot mystery. It does, sadly, have several rather debilitating problems. First of all, the author keeps Monsieur Poirot's interaction with the other characters to a minimum, allowing most of the evidence to be presented to him in written form. This does tend to limit the main character's ability to shine in the story.
Secondly, I must confess that I found the ending rather anticlimactic and unfulfilling. Yes, I am sure that it was the most realistic way to have the story end, but that does not mean that it was the most interesting way to end it.
As an Agatha Christie fan, I must say that I am glad to have read a Hercule Poirot story that I have never read before. But, I wasn't thrilled with it, and I doubt that I will ever read the story again.
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