Endless Night - Agatha Christie

[Image source : Amazon]

A murder is committed once the novel begins (usually, within couple of chapters). There are couple of suspects. A second murder also happens. After a couple of murders, the detective (mostly Poirot) reveals who the murderer is. Sounds familiar? This is the usual plot line of various Agatha Christie novels. However, Endless night does not follow this pattern.

Michael Rogers (Mike) is a middle class guy. His close friend is Santonix who wants to build a dream house for Mike. However, Mike doesn't have enough money to construct a house. Mike comes across a house, named The Towers, in Gipsys acre. He goes to the auction pretending as one of the potential buyers. However, Gipsys acre was not sold in the auction as the expected price of it has not been reached. The reason of under value of the property has been attributed to the history of the place. In other terms, the place is considered as a cursed one. One fine evening, Mike meets Ellie, a poor rich girl, in gipsys acre and it was love at first sight. Esther, a fortune teller, tells Ellie to move away from this place and all she sees is the death. After a certain period of courtship, Mike and Ellie decide to get married. Before her wedding, Ellie reveals that she is one of the richest people in America. They get married and hire Santonix to build their dream house in Gipsys acre. They move in to the house and afer a couple of months of happy life, one fine day Ellie dies after falling of from a horse. What happens aftermath is thrilling end to the fantastic story.

After reading many of Christie's works, I didn't feel like its a Christie's work at the end of this book. Infact avid readers of Christie's work normally associate her to certain plot lines and treatment of characters. However, Endless night is completly different from that perspective as well. Infact the first murder happens only after the reader is into 75% of the book. Also, I am not sure whether Rebecca was an inspiration to Endless night as both are a story of love and a house. There are couple of books of Christie herself from where she had lifted certain aspects of the story. I donot want to mention the titles as it would act as spoilers to the readers. Morethan anything ,readers will be stunned by the climax. Go ahead and read it.

My Rating: 4/5

Comments

4.50 from Paddington (Miss Marple) - Agatha Christie.

Image Courtesy : Amazon Mrs. Elspeth McGillicuddy is on a visit to St. Mary Mead to meet her friend Miss Marple in a Train where she sees a man strangling a woman in the adjacent train. She informs the ticket collector who does not believe her. She reached St. Mary Mead and informed Miss Maple about the murder. Miss Marple decides to find where the body of the dead person is. With the help of train time table and local maps, Miss Marple concludes that Rutherford hall as the possible location of where the body could be hidden. She hires Lucy Eyelesbarrow, an intelligent house keeper, to assist her in finding the body in the Rutherford hall. Mr Crackenthorpe and his family lives in Rutherford Hall. Lucy enters Rutherford Hall as a house keeper and successfully finds the dead body. Who is the dead pe...

Strangers on a train - Patricia Highsmith

Image courtesy : Amazon Strangers on a Train is a psychological thriller about 2 men who accidentally meet each other in a train and how their lives change after that meeting. Guy Haines, an architect, is on a train to meet his unfaithful wife, Miriam, to discuss about his impending divorce with her so that he can marry Anne. He meets Bruno in the train who is completely drunk. Bruno suggests that he would kill Guy’s wife and Guy should kill his father in turn. Guy laughed off his suggestion and proceeds with his life. However, Bruno takes this seriously and kills Guy’s wife and he forces Bruno to honor his commitments of killing his father. Did Guy kill Bruno’s father and what happens after forms the crux of the story. The narrative is dark and the writing ensures that the readers are transpor...

Tell me your dreams by Sidney Sheldon

Its difficult to write about this book because it would lead me to give away too much of the plot which might be detrimental to those who have not read this work. So, hence my little thoughts around this book here. Ashley Patterson , a software engineer, feels that she is being stalked by an unknown person. One day, she finds that some strange writings on the mirror and asks for police protection. Strangely, the police person who came fo r protection is found dead. Who has killed him? Is anyone following Ashley Patterson? It is a classic example of how a thriller has to be written. The book is slick and brilliantly edited to sustain the narration. There are no additional words/lines/pages written that deviates/distracts the readers from the plot. The book also touches upon various problems a women undergo in her personal and professional life. Another important theme that resonates in the book is how a childhood trauma can shape the minds of youth and how the inner t...

Read along

Search This Blog