Booknote: Thirteen at Dinner

Agatha Christie, Thirteen at Dinner. (WorldCat link. There are various editions of this and other Christie works, so find the one you like)

This one took me a bit longer to read, and I will admit that the path to the solution was a bit complex for me. That did give me an appreciation of Dame Christie's craft. Lord Edgware is murdered. His wife, actress Jane Wilkinson, who was asking Hercule Poirot for help in divorcing him and/or getting rid of him, is naturally a suspect. However, another actress known for her celebrity impersonations is charged with the crime. There is even a witness that identifies her. However, this may not be a simple case, and it falls to Poirot to find the truth.

For me, part of the appeal of reading Agatha Christie is in the setting of the novels. I find small details such as letter writing to be fascinating. There is a charm to Poirot's pre-World War II era that is not there in modern mysteries. In addition, Christie falls in the cozy mystery category, which means no blood or gore. So, the attention to the mystery really falls on the mystery itself and the details. Overall, this was a nice light read, and I'd give it four out of five stars if you ask.

On a side note, I picked this up earlier because of the library's summer reading program. One of the options from the public library for the adult program was to read a mystery. Since I had read Christie before, and I do like Poirot, I picked up this one.