Hardcover: 224 pages
Publisher: HarperCollins Publishers Ltd; First Edition edition (November 1969)
ISBN-10: 0002311178
ISBN-13: 978-0002311175
Although I enjoy reading mysteries, I'd never read anything by Agatha Christie. I really didn't care for it and I found myself becoming rather bored at the drawn out pace of the narrative.
During preparations for a Halloween party, 13 year old Joyce Reynolds announces she had witnessed a murder. Since she was known for not telling the truth, no one paid much attention. After the party she was found dead, drowned in an apple bobbing tub. Present at the party is Ariadne Oliver, a famous mystery writer, who turns to her old friend Hercule Poirot to solve the crime.
During Poirot's investigation he discovers that it is entirely possible that Joyce really did witness a murder. It is rather interesting to observe Poirot making his rounds of all the characters, asking what appear to be pointless questions, then drawing the past and the present together to solve the mystery.
I will admit, the book got more interesting once I got past the pointless narrative in the beginning. The plot was interesting but other than Poirot and Oliver, the characters were not really well developed. Over all I found this book to be merely mediocre. However, after reading some reader reviews referencing some of her other books, I'm going to give it another try and read another one.
Synopsis
At a Hallowe’en party, Joyce – a hostile thirteen-year-old – boasts she once witnessed a murder. When no-one believes her, she storms off home. Within hours her body is found, still in the house, drowned in an apple-bobbing tub.
That night, Hercule Poirot is called in to find the ‘evil presence’. But first he must establish whether he is looking for a murderer or a double-murderer …
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