The Monogram Murders
by
Sophie Hannah
Agatha Christie, Writing Royalty & Queen of the murder mystery. Every time I go past her statue in the west end of London I always give her a nod of appreciation. Her character Hercule Poirot is one of my all time favourites and been apart of me for most of my life. When I heard they had commissioned for a new book to be written I was a little excited. Although when it came to it, it did take me a while before I sat down and read it. Going into this book I had to go in with an open mind, just like I did when I went to see Queen in concert with Adam Lambert instead of the late great Freddie Mercury. Will Sophie Hannah be as good as Agatha Christie? No, simple as, and if you ask her she would probably say the same, but does that mean it will not be any good? Of course not. Like going to see Queen with Adam, it was an amazing concert and Adam was brilliant. He will never replace Freddie but put his own spin on the singing and made it very enjoyable. I wanted to go into this book, not to compare Agatha with Sophie but just, was it an enjoyable read or not.
"A Murder Mystery Delight that takes you on a ride in 1920's London"
Precis (taken from the cover):
Hercule Poirot's quiet supper in a London coffee house is interrupted when a young woman confides to him that she is about to be murdered. She is terrified, but begs Poirot not to find and punish her killer. Once she is dead, she insists, justice will have been done.
Later that night, Poirot learns that three guests at the fashionable Bloxham Hotel have been murdered, a cufflink placed in each one’s mouth. Could there be a connection with the frightened woman? While Poirot struggles to put together the bizarre pieces of the puzzle, the murderer prepares another hotel bedroom for a fourth victim…
Review:
The book started off very well, and before you know it you were sat in 1920's London waiting for that first murder. It took me a few pages to get with the writing, having to remember that Poirot speaks in the third person from time to time. I kept asking myself who he was talking too or about and having to remember that he was talking about himself.. Once you got your head around it, it was fine and the story flowed a lot easier. I found the pages turned at a fast rate which was really pleasing, especially once the murders had happened and you were desperate to solve the big mystery. If you have never read an Agatha Christie mystery before, any small bit of story which normally you would not think much into could turn out to be a massive clue. This looking back on it now is the same with how Sophie had wrote the book. I don't know about you, but when I read a book like this my brain works overtime, trying to put the parts together as to "Who done it". You know that it could be absolutely anyone and you cannot rule anyone out. As the book went on I changed my mind a lot of times going back to the same people, back and forth back and forth. Did I get t right??? yeah, no... I got it completely wrong, but when I found out, I was like errrrrrrrr so masterfully brilliant.
The characters were really greatly written and this helped with the enjoyment of the story. You really did feel like you were there. The only bit I found strange was the policeman from Scotland Yard Edward Catchpool. Not in a really bad way, just that it took me a while to get used to him being a new character for Poirot to deal with.
Was the book different to Agatha Christie? yes it was, but not too much. I really liked it overall and it was great to have Poirot back solving murders. Sophie Hannah has wrote a follow up to this called Closed Casket which I have bought but not yet read.
Scoring this book, I scored it a 5 out of 5. It was a great book, it really was. My score was on the book itself and not comparing Agatha to Sophie as mentioned above. I have been on a read what other people thought about this book and there are a lot of 1 stars, mainly saying it's not Agatha Christie. I suppose though, what I like, other people might think is rubbish. I would recommend that you give it a try especially if you, like me, love a good murder mystery.
Have you read the book? What do you think? Do you agree with me or not? I would love to know, so write your comments below.
Speak soon,
CBailey31
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