The Mystery of Three Quarters: The New Hercule Poirot Mystery (Hercule Poirot Mysteries) Kindle Edition

Agatha Christie's greatest asset as a mystery writer was her ability to devise brilliant but concise plots. You could give the solution to her most brilliant puzzles--- say, "Death on the Nile," "The Murder of Roger Ackroyd," "Murder in Mesopotamia", "The ABC Murders", "Sleeping Murder"--- in one or two sentences, and they're satisfying when revealed. The reader doesn't feel cheated: All the information was there was all along, and the solution feels clever but simple in retrospect.This book is the opposite of that. It's rambling and plodding, and its eventual solution is unnecessarily complicated and fundamentally disappointing. The bulk of the book is a tedious slog through interviews that don't go anywhere, failed attempts to liven up flat characters, and unrewarding scenes that don't advance the plot. The suspects have little personality and are unmemorable. Poirot and Catchpool are the usual two-dimensional caricatures, with the latter even more idiotic than usual (being delighted with himself, for example, in referring to a dog's handiwork as its 'paws-iwork').When Poirot finally gathers the suspect in the drawing room to reveal the solution, it takes 58 pages to get through it. It's not Poirot's long-windness that pads it out; rather, it's the need to explain the convoluted series of events a decade before the start of the plot that are involved in its unraveling. Once everyone's secret pasts have been revealed, the solution to the mystery is uninteresting and unrewarding.This setup is the same as in Hannah's previous two books, and it wasn't very good then. Improbable relations among characters that were only vaguely hinted at in the story? Check. A past incident more than a decade old that was never revealed but secretly drives the plot? Check. A key plot point being a conversation that was overheard but misinterpreted? Check. There's little point to reading this book if you read either of the last two books; they're pretty much the same. If you haven't read them, try a better author instead.

I have read every Christie mystery currently available in the U.S., so I was somewhat skeptical of Sophie Hannah's attempt to duplicate the style and substance of one of my favorite authors. Although Hannah did a good job in her two prior books, this mystery is so difficult to plow through because the dialogue in the initial chapters is boring and the action does not pick up until the second half of the book. In retrospect, Hannah concocted a clever plot but her execution was flawed because all of the suspects are strange and unlikeable people, resulting in the reader not being invested in the outcome. I doubt I would read another book in this series.

A lover of Christie will be bored out of mind by this effort. Go back and read the real thing!

I enjoyed the previous new Poirot mysteries -- in fact I liked them better than actual Agatha Christie mysteries because they avoided the 'rabbit out of a hat' solutions that Christie wrote. This book, however, was disappointing. As other reviewers have said, it rambles on without the plot advancing very much. But even if it had been more tightly-written, the book still would have left me with a sour taste in my metaphorical mouth. There's no one with whom to sympathize. There are no likable characters, except for Catchpool, who is likable only by virtue of being not-dislikable. Even Poirot, whose eccentricities are usually part of the fun, is a sourpuss who's unhappy that the killer gets life in prison instead of hanging. Well, all right -- the dog is okay. I could sympathize with the dog, being stuck with all those disagreeable humans. I don't know if I'll go for another book, if there is one, in this series. I've re-read the others, enjoying them the second time around. I didn't enjoy this one the *first* time around.

This book is a pallid reminder of what a real Hercule Poirot book should be. Wordy & complicated with too many coincidental connections.

....that's pretty much where the resemblance ends. Agatha Christie plots always moved right along, each action, every speech moved the plot forward. Christie provided the all the clues but only gave them once, it was up to the reader to pick up on them. This one falls short in that regard. A tough editor would be able to cut this story down to novella length, perhaps even short story just by cutting out the unnecessary bits.On the plus side, the premise is interesting - somebody has written letters accusing various people and signed Poirot's name. Poirot is appalled when he is suddenly confronted by the irate recipients. Of course he will not rest until he finds out who has committed this fraud, and perhaps discover which, if any, of the accusations are true. The author has done an excellent job of capturing Poirot's speech and mannerisms as well as the 1930's setting. Now if she would just work on the plot....

It was a real struggle to get to the end of this book. The perpetrator is obvious early on in the book. Poirot asks questions but fails to ask the obvious follow-up questions. You have plenty of 'exactements', 'mon amis' and 'little grey cells but that is not enough to make it sparkle and was quite dull and flat.The plot is very contrived and hinges on the sight of a dog's wet legs, which stretches ones credibility to breaking point.An odd thing is that Poirot is an advocate of the death penalty in this book. Odd because the last civil execution in Belgium was in 1863 and Poirot would have grown up in a country that did not use execution as a punishment. I think he left before WWI, when military executions took place.Overall not the book I hoped for (but much better than the Poirot in the BBC's awful 2018 adaptation of the 'ABC Murders').

This is a well-written novel. You can see that there's a novelist's craft in the way it;s been put together.However...While it got me turning page after page, as an act of dogged persistence long after it had ceased to be a pleasure, to find the solution to the crime I can't say that the story, the characters or the setting ever gripped me. There are many reworkings of Christie characters (and Christie herself) at the moment, and I would say that this is one of the better ones, but it feels dated (as it should perhaps?) and complex to the point of seeming muddled.

This is reasonably good Poirot. Perhaps a little lacking in the depiction of the man with the little grey cells. However a good plot. I particularly liked the bit when all the suspects are called to the drawing room denouement and fail to turn up on time. Great bit of tongue in cheek

I reviewed one of the earlier books in this little series by Sophie Hannah, and I really liked that one & love this one too. It has held me throughout, really good characters and a great mystery. I am not a purist as a Christie fan, haven't read all the originals and like Poirot (always more of a Sherlock fan) - but am not so involved with the originals that a deviation upsets me at all. What I have here is a tale that holds together, Poirot is a likeable and interesting detective and holds centre stage without dominating - the other players are all well developed. I would say if you are a fan of detective fiction go for it, its another great read by Hannah.

The Mystery of the Three Quarters is a highly enjoyable and entertaining whodunit. Poirot investigates a baffling mystery, why have four people all received a letter supposedly signed by him, which accuses each one of them of murdering Barnabas Pandy? Poirot puts his little grey cells to work, does Barnabas Pandy exists, was he murdered and if so how and by whom? Without giving the plot away, the ending came as a total surprise. As well as plenty of intrigue, there’s also lots of humour in the book, which made it lots of fun, engaging and a pleasure to read from start to finish.I love Sophie Hannah’s Poirot novels and this is my favourite so far. As a long time Agatha Christie fan, I find Poirot authentic and she is always respectful of Agatha. However, Sophie has introduced in her books some great, new characters, Edward Catchpool and my personal favourite Fee Spring, and it’s wonderful to see these characters evolve. Highly recommend.