Publishers Weekly
06/25/2018
Bestseller Hannah’s third Hercule Poirot pastiche (after 2016’s Closed Casket) offers Agatha Christie fans another ingeniously deceptive puzzle. The premise is especially clever—someone, posing as Poirot, has sent letters to four people accusing each of them of having murdered Barnabas Pandy. Pandy, a 94-year-old, was found drowned in his bathtub in Combingham Hall three months earlier—a death that was universally accepted as a tragic accident. Two of the recipients of the letters confront Poirot angrily, professing to have no idea who Pandy was, but the third, Annabel Treadway, distraught at the accusation, discloses that Pandy was her grandfather and insists that no one in the household could possibly have killed him. Aided again by Insp. Edward Catchpool, an enigmatic Scotland Yarder, Poirot uses his “little gray cells” to ascertain who has been impersonating him, whether Pandy was in fact the victim of foul play, and if so, whodunit. The gratifying reveal is a neat variation on one of Christie’s own solutions and demonstrates Hannah’s facility at combining her own plotting gifts with another author’s creation. (Aug.)
From the Publisher
Sophie Hannah’s third “New Hercule Poirot Mystery” proves to be most satisfying…faithful to its model in the essentials but flexible enough to allow for an animated plot and protagonist.” — Washington Post
“Another ingeniously deceptive puzzle…. The gratifying reveal is a neat variation on one of Christie’s own solutions and demonstrates Hannah’s facility at combining her own plotting gifts with another author’s creation.” — Publishers Weekly
“[Hannah] supplies boundless ingenuity... adding a divinely inspired denouement.” — Kirkus Reviews
“It’s safe to say Agatha Christie fans will rejoice that Poirot has returned, keener than ever to solve the case.” — San Francisco Book Review
“It’s easy to see why the Agatha Christie estate chose Ms. Hannah for the daunting task of chronicling Poirot’s continuing adventures. In her capable hands, Hercule Poirot lives and investigates as creatively and astutely as he ever has.” — CriminalElement.com
“A puzzle worthy of the skills of legendary detective Hercule Poirot.... Hannah once again nails the style and substance of her beloved predecessor, producing another treat for Christie fans.” — Booklist (starred review)
“The plot of this mystery is worthy of Agatha Christie’s fame. It is compelling and uses Hercule Poirot’s talents well to solve this most vexing of cases.” — Bookloons.com
“Hercule Poirot fans, rejoice! The fastidious Belgian detective with the amazing little gray cells and equally amazing moustache is back…. I had forgotten how enjoyable, and intricate, the plotting of a Poirot mystery is…. I loved it!” — Suspense Magazine
“Sophie Hannah does an egoless, silky job of reviving Agatha Christies beloved Belgian detective Hercule Poirot. . . . Enough so to hope that Hannah turns to Miss Marple next.” — USA Today on Closed Casket
“A thoroughly enjoyable tale from start to finish. Poirot … is in fine hands with author Sophie Hannah.” — RedCarpetCrash.com
“As tricky as anything written by Agatha Christie.... Poirot is back.” — Alexander McCall Smith, New York Times bestselling author of The No. 1 Ladies’ Detective Agency
“Classic Christie . . . Captures the essence of the originals without being a slavish imitation . . . Clues emerge, but the case remains perplexing. Christie aficionados will delight in the familiar repartee and the intricate deduction of the solution.” — Washington Post
RedCarpetCrash.com
A thoroughly enjoyable tale from start to finish. Poirot … is in fine hands with author Sophie Hannah.
Booklist (starred review)
A puzzle worthy of the skills of legendary detective Hercule Poirot.... Hannah once again nails the style and substance of her beloved predecessor, producing another treat for Christie fans.
CriminalElement.com
It’s easy to see why the Agatha Christie estate chose Ms. Hannah for the daunting task of chronicling Poirot’s continuing adventures. In her capable hands, Hercule Poirot lives and investigates as creatively and astutely as he ever has.
San Francisco Book Review
It’s safe to say Agatha Christie fans will rejoice that Poirot has returned, keener than ever to solve the case.
USA Today on Closed Casket
Sophie Hannah does an egoless, silky job of reviving Agatha Christies beloved Belgian detective Hercule Poirot. . . . Enough so to hope that Hannah turns to Miss Marple next.
Bookloons.com
The plot of this mystery is worthy of Agatha Christie’s fame. It is compelling and uses Hercule Poirot’s talents well to solve this most vexing of cases.
Suspense Magazine
Hercule Poirot fans, rejoice! The fastidious Belgian detective with the amazing little gray cells and equally amazing moustache is back…. I had forgotten how enjoyable, and intricate, the plotting of a Poirot mystery is…. I loved it!
Washington Post
Sophie Hannah’s third “New Hercule Poirot Mystery” proves to be most satisfying…faithful to its model in the essentials but flexible enough to allow for an animated plot and protagonist.
Washington Post
Sophie Hannah’s third “New Hercule Poirot Mystery” proves to be most satisfying…faithful to its model in the essentials but flexible enough to allow for an animated plot and protagonist.
Alexander McCall Smith
As tricky as anything written by Agatha Christie.... Poirot is back.
Booklist (starred review)
A puzzle worthy of the skills of legendary detective Hercule Poirot.... Hannah once again nails the style and substance of her beloved predecessor, producing another treat for Christie fans.
USA Today on Closed Casket
Sophie Hannah does an egoless, silky job of reviving Agatha Christies beloved Belgian detective Hercule Poirot. . . . Enough so to hope that Hannah turns to Miss Marple next.
San Francisco Book Review
It’s safe to say Agatha Christie fans will rejoice that Poirot has returned, keener than ever to solve the case.
Washington Post
Sophie Hannah’s third “New Hercule Poirot Mystery” proves to be most satisfying…faithful to its model in the essentials but flexible enough to allow for an animated plot and protagonist.
JANUARY 2019 - AudioFile
Julian Rhind-Tutt is a narrator of one's dreams. He reads clearly in a melodious voice with spot-on pacing. He offers believable and interesting characterizations of everyone from Belgian Hercule Poirot to a working-class London tea-shop lady. And when the text offers context, such as “he laughed”—well, he has the character laugh. They also cough on cue. What is the audiobook about? It's the third of Sophie Hannah's mystery homages to Agatha Christie's detective. As long as you accept that Hannah's Poirot is livelier and less finicky than the original, and that the books, although well written, aren't as tightly plotted as the originals, you’ll enjoy the result. This one involves an old man who drowned in his bath. Or was he shoved under? A.C.S. Winner of AudioFile Earphones Award, 2019 Audies Finalist © AudioFile 2019, Portland, Maine
Kirkus Reviews
2018-05-28
Hercule Poirot gets pulled into a mystery in the most awkward possible way when someone signing himself Hercule Poirot writes four letters accusing four different people of the same murder.Not only did she not kill Barnabas Pandy, a furious Sylvia Rule assures the famous detective; she's never even heard of him. Neither has John McCrodden, who assumes that his father, Rowland, whose fierce advocacy of the death penalty has won him the sobriquet "Rowland Rope," conspired with Poirot to accuse his long-estranged son of murdering Pandy. Annabel Treadway has certainly heard of Pandy—he was her grandfather, after all—but she tearfully claims that she didn't kill him either, though at least she's willing to listen to Poirot's own protestations of innocence. So is ebullient Turville School housemaster Hugo Dockerill, who passes the accusation off as a joke despite his own connection to Pandy, whose great-grandson, Timothy, Annabel's nephew, is a pupil of his. With all due respect to the obvious questions he shares with his "friend and occasional helper," Scotland Yard Inspector Edward Catchpool—which, if any, of these suspects actually killed Pandy? Why would anyone trouble to drown a 94-year-old slate magnate, no matter how wealthy has was, in his bathtub? Who wrote the letters?—Poirot is fascinated by a more puzzling question: Why would anyone want to write those four letters in the first place? A series of variously edgy conversations, a proffer of alibis, and another sudden death will intervene before Poirot, skillfully exploiting his trademark fondness for neat patterns, is able to make good on his uncharacteristically rash promise to reveal all in a roundup of the unusual suspects only a week later.As in her two earlier Agatha Christie pastiches (Closed Casket, 2016, etc.), Hannah is content to supply boundless ingenuity in place of more 1930s detail, this time adding a divinely inspired denouement that seems to go on for longer than the week that leads up to it.
