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

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