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

Rebecca - Daphne du Maurier

Image Courtesy : Amazon “Last night I dreamt I went to Manderley again”. The opening lines of Rebecca set the tone and mood for the rest of the book. Our unnamed protagonist, who works as a companion to Mrs Van Dee Hooper happens to chance Mr Maxim De Winter (a widower and who is almost twice the age of the protagonist) in a hotel. The acquaintance leads to couple of dates and eventually both of them fall in love with each other. Once, they marry, Maxim takes Mrs. De Winter to Manderley. Mrs. De Winter finds it difficult to adjust to the new house. Mrs. Denver, the devoted housekeeper of Rebecca (Maxim's first wife), still runs the house. She couldn’t resist anyone taking up raking up Rebecca’s place. Mrs. De Winter continues to think herself as inferior to Rebecca and strongly believes that Maxim is still in love with Rebecca. Mrs. Denvers uses this opportunity to persuade Mrs. De Winter to commit suicide. Slowly, it is revealed that Rebecca did not die of accident. ...

After the funeral by Agatha Christie

Image Courtesy : Amazon Richard Abernethie, a wealthy man, dies at home. All the relatives of Richard gather together to discuss the will during which, Richard’s sister, Cora says Richard is actually murdered. Cora is found dead the next day. Mr Entwhistle, the family solicitor, calls up Poirot and requests him to investigate both the murders. Poirot, as usual, using his little grey cells resolves the murderer. A typical Christie - Poirot murder mystery would be like, a murder is committed and there are 4 to 5 primary suspects. Each suspect has a motive to commit the murder and each of them has something to hide from the investigators. At the end, Poirot dramatically reveals the murderer (who generally is the least suspect) by gathering all the participants in a room. After the funeral follows the exact typical, tried and tested formula of Agatha. Christie’s love for dysfu...

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...

Read along

Search This Blog