Evil Under the Sun (1941)

I’ve been on a bit of an Agatha Christie kick since discovering that David Suchet has narrated some of the audio books which feature Hercule Poirot and have discovered that the old stories, which I’d thought would be a bit dated and uninteresting, are, for the most part, entertaining tales.

Evil Under the Sun is familiar territory for Christie in that it’s a variation on the country house mystery, although the cast of characters are guests at a seaside hotel in Devon this time around. Arlena Marshall is a beautiful actress* staying at the hotel with her husband Kenneth (he’s her second or third, I can’t remember) and his daughter Linda. Also at the hotel are an elderly American tourist couple, a female fashion designer who has known Kenneth Marshall for many years and a young English couple: the Redferns. After some establishment scenes in which it is assumed that Arlena is having some kind of entanglement with Patrick Redfern her body is discovered in a secluded cove near the hotel and Hercule Poirot, a guest himself, must investigate the crime.

So far in my meandering journey through Agatha Christie audio books I’ve read four books narrated by David Suchet and this was the least entertaining for me. The story isn’t terrible by any standards but it doesn’t have the drama of [b:Murder on the Orient Express|16304|Murder on the Orient Express (Hercule Poirot Mysteries)|Agatha Christie|http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1166722586s/16304.jpg|2285570], the humour of [b:Dead Man’s Folly|527620|Dead Man's Folly (Hercule Poirot Mysteries (Paperback))|Agatha Christie|http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1175549837s/527620.jpg|2655933] or the exotic characters and setting of [b:Death on the Nile|131359|Death on the Nile|Agatha Christie|http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1224211907s/131359.jpg|3038762] and therefore seems a bit under done. As Margot Kingberg points out in her recent post about the book the victim in this instance is a virtual non-event and it’s hard to care that she’s been murdered. The rest of the characters are more interesting than Arlena but none of them really got under my skin enough to worry much about whether or not they were the murderer. Quite a few of the characters, including the American tourist couple and the retired army captain, were excruciatingly stereotyped and I had an urge to fast forward any sections in which they appeared.

The ultimate resolution to the crime was suitably complicated for a Christie tale but because I didn’t really care much for any of the characters it felt like it took a long while to get there. Poirot’s dénouement this time takes place after he takes everyone to the murder site for a picnic and some kind of test of something that I have now forgotten and I thought involved one or two more absurd leaps of logic than he normally would engage in.

I guess in a body of work that includes something like 70 novels and numerous plays and short stories it’s to be expected that all titles won’t appeal to all readers in quite the same way. Evil Under the Sun is a perfectly enjoyable book but, for me, didn’t have the spark of drama and intrigue that I’ve come to expect.

*what is Christie’s fascination for actresses? she’s always killing them off in nasty ways or portraying them as insane murderers ( )

This is not one of Agatha Christie's better books; it was not particularly interesting or imaginative (I know some people don't think any of her books are imaginative since they all essentially follow the same formula, but I'm speaking as a Christie fan here). I think, generally, I'm more of a Miss Marple fan, since her generalizations about human nature are more individualized ("She reminds me of a chamber maid I had once" or "He reminds me of that unfortunate boy, the son of the butcher"), while Poirot's are all "men always..." or "women never..." ( )

A great read (with a summer vacation theme) from Dame Christie. I thought I had figured out the murderer this time around... but I was wrong. Like most of Christie's work, though, I don't mind at all that I'm completely on the wrong track. It's just too interesting to see how it all works out.
*side note: watched the taped episode of Doctor Who where he meets Agatha Christie right before she disappears for 2 weeks - it was very well done and if the Sci Fi channel repeats the Doctor Who series at all, I highly recommend. ( )

Abridged on 3 CDs, and read by David Timson. Ably read by Timson, but I thought the abridgement was rather unsatisfying, as while it had sufficient information to solve the mystery, it didn't clear up what happened to some of the characters. ( )

I heard the story as an unabridged audiobook and enjoyed it very much. I had deduced some of the puzzle but I was intrigued by the story and how it all fit all the same. ( )