Review: The Mystery of Three Quarters by Sophie Hannah
I've previously read and enjoyed Sophie Hannah's other Poirot novels, so I was very excited to receive a beautiful arc of The Mystery of Three Quarters courtesy of LoveReading UK.
Returning home after lunch one day, Hercule Poirot finds an angry woman waiting outside his front door. She demands to know why Poirot has sent her a letter accusing her of the murder of Barnabas Pandy, a man she has neither heard of nor ever met.
Poirot has also never heard of a Barnabas Pandy, and has accused nobody of murder. Shaken, he goes inside, only to find that he has a visitor waiting for him a man who also claims also to have received a letter from Poirot that morning, accusing him of the murder of Barnabas Pandy
Poirot wonders how many more letters of this sort have been sent in his name. Who sent them, and why? More importantly, who is Barnabas Pandy, is he dead, and, if so, was he murdered? And can Poirot find out the answers without putting more lives in danger?
The premise of this one is intriguing - four people, all seemingly unconnected, have each received letters accusing them of murder, letters signed by the great detective himself! Except of course Poirot didn't send them, and the supposed murder was ruled accidental death by the coroner. Naturally Poirot's curiosity, and his pride, can't allow this bizarre turn of events to stand, and he sets out to investigate.
The Mystery of Three Quarters is Hannah's third Poirot novel. Taking on the great detective must surely be a daunting task, but Hannah more than does justice to Agatha Christie's creation. She perfectly captures Poirot's essence - his mannerisms and quirks of speech. I can literally hear David Suchet's voice in my head as I read! That said, I can also see the differences - Hannah's approach is a little more comic. Instead of trying to replicate Christie -which is surely an impossible task- she puts her own spin on the characters. As with the other two novels the story is narrated by Scotland Yard Inspector Edward Catchpool, a Doctor Watson-esque figure who records Poirot's cases in writing for posterity. In creating recurring supporting characters, such as Catchpool and waitress Fee Spring, a cast of characters begins to grow providing both scope and appetite for further stories.
True to classic crime, the country manor setting works brilliantly. The characters are all distinctive and memorable, and the plot is as twisty and unpredictable as you would expect from a Poirot novel. The clues are all there plain as day to piece together, but of course the only one who can make any sense of them is our Belgian detective. The reveal takes up a fair chunk of the book, and I shared the frustration with the suspects of wanting to know what happened, with Poirot taking centre stage and revelling in his own cleverness as he so often does.
The Mystery of Three Quarters is a fun, clever homage to one of our greatest fictional detectives, and of course to his creator. I'm looking forward to the inevitable fourth Poirot novel from the pen of Sophie Hannah!
Returning home after lunch one day, Hercule Poirot finds an angry woman waiting outside his front door. She demands to know why Poirot has sent her a letter accusing her of the murder of Barnabas Pandy, a man she has neither heard of nor ever met.Poirot has also never heard of a Barnabas Pandy, and has accused nobody of murder. Shaken, he goes inside, only to find that he has a visitor waiting for him a man who also claims also to have received a letter from Poirot that morning, accusing him of the murder of Barnabas Pandy
Poirot wonders how many more letters of this sort have been sent in his name. Who sent them, and why? More importantly, who is Barnabas Pandy, is he dead, and, if so, was he murdered? And can Poirot find out the answers without putting more lives in danger?
The premise of this one is intriguing - four people, all seemingly unconnected, have each received letters accusing them of murder, letters signed by the great detective himself! Except of course Poirot didn't send them, and the supposed murder was ruled accidental death by the coroner. Naturally Poirot's curiosity, and his pride, can't allow this bizarre turn of events to stand, and he sets out to investigate.
The Mystery of Three Quarters is Hannah's third Poirot novel. Taking on the great detective must surely be a daunting task, but Hannah more than does justice to Agatha Christie's creation. She perfectly captures Poirot's essence - his mannerisms and quirks of speech. I can literally hear David Suchet's voice in my head as I read! That said, I can also see the differences - Hannah's approach is a little more comic. Instead of trying to replicate Christie -which is surely an impossible task- she puts her own spin on the characters. As with the other two novels the story is narrated by Scotland Yard Inspector Edward Catchpool, a Doctor Watson-esque figure who records Poirot's cases in writing for posterity. In creating recurring supporting characters, such as Catchpool and waitress Fee Spring, a cast of characters begins to grow providing both scope and appetite for further stories.
True to classic crime, the country manor setting works brilliantly. The characters are all distinctive and memorable, and the plot is as twisty and unpredictable as you would expect from a Poirot novel. The clues are all there plain as day to piece together, but of course the only one who can make any sense of them is our Belgian detective. The reveal takes up a fair chunk of the book, and I shared the frustration with the suspects of wanting to know what happened, with Poirot taking centre stage and revelling in his own cleverness as he so often does.
The Mystery of Three Quarters is a fun, clever homage to one of our greatest fictional detectives, and of course to his creator. I'm looking forward to the inevitable fourth Poirot novel from the pen of Sophie Hannah!
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