I was bit torn when I started to read this book. I love Sophie Hannah’s psychological thrillers. I love Agatha Christie’s Poirot. So, combine the two and you’re onto a winner, right? Well, not quite. At first, I felt that Sophie Hannah was trying too hard to portray Poirot as Agatha Christie did. Just, trying too hard. He was too irritating, used too much French. Just felt a bit forced, if I’m honest. However, I pretty quickly ignored that and fell inside the story. It is a very clever plot, and the style was a lot like the kind of mysteries that Christie wrote. Lots of suspects, no idea who is the guilty party until the end. That was good. The end, though.that took a while to be reached. The unveiling of the guilty party took up the last quarter of the book. It felt too drawn out.

So, three murders in a hotel on the same night. The bodies have all been laid out in the same way in their respective rooms. All of them have a cufflink stuffed into their mouths with an initial etched on it. How are they related? Poirot will work his genius and get the answer.

In this book, Poirot's sidekick is the police detective Catchpool. I despised this character. He had no charm whatsoever. He didn't want to do anything, he complained about everything. He didn't trust Poirot's words at all. I just didn't like him.

Cozy mystery lovers. Agatha Christie fans ... I'm not sure. Some will like it, definitely. Others will definitely not.

The plot. Sophie Hannah has plotted every bit as cleverly as Agatha.

The end. My goodness, it took forever for Poirot to explain.

Read one of Sophie Hannah's psychological thrillers, to prove to myselfI wasn't wrong about how good she is.

At times, excited and engrossed. At other times, bored.

Sophie Hannah. From Amazon: "Sophie Hannah is an internationally bestselling crime fiction writer whose books have sold millions of copies worldwide. Her crime novels have been translated into 49 languages and published in 51 countries. Her psychological thriller The Carrier won the Crime Thriller of the Year Award at the 2013 UK National Book Awards. In 2014 and 2016, Sophie published The Monogram Murders and Closed Casket, the first new Hercule Poirot mysteries since Agatha Christie's death, both of which were national and international bestsellers. She went on to publish a third, The Mystery of Three Quarters in 2018 which was an instant bestseller, and her fourth Poirot novel, The Killings at Kingfisher Hill will be published in August 2020. Sophie helped to create a Master’s Degree in Crime and Thriller Writing at the University of Cambridge, for which she is the main teacher and Course Director. She is also the founder of the Dream Author Coaching Programme for writers which launched in September 2019.

Sophie is also an award-winning, bestselling poet, and her poetry is studied at GCSE level across the UK. She has co-written two murder mystery musicals with composer Annette Armitage: The Mystery of Mr. E and Work Experience. She has written a self-help book called How To Hold a Grudge: From Resentment to Contentment - The Power of Grudges to Transform Your Life, and hosts the How to Hold a Grudge podcast."

It's not bad.

It's not great.

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Created Sep 11, 2025 at 5:48am • Submit your own review...