Book Review: Hallowe’en Party by Agatha Christie (Hercule Poirot #36)

Stars: 4 out of 5

Pros: Interesting mystery

Cons: Biggest for me – victim’s age

The Bottom Line:

Death at a party

Can Poirot find the motive?

Overall, still good

Drowned in the Apple Bobbing Tub

I probably wouldn’t have picked up Hallowe’en Party right now if it hadn’t been announced that it was going to be the inspiration for the next Kenneth Branagh Poirot movie, coming later this year.  I wasn’t the only one suddenly interested in this lesser-known Christie book since it took me a couple of months and a few tries to get the audio version from my library.  While this doesn’t have the renown of some of Agatha Christie’s other books, there is a good mystery here.

This book is near the end of the Hercule Poirot series, originally coming out in 1969.  It finds Poirot called to a small English village after a Hallowe’en party ends in a tragedy.  Thirteen-year-old Joyce, who was helping with the party for the children of the village, is found dead in the tub used for the apple bobbing.  Earlier in the evening, she had bragged about seeing a murder, but no one believed her.

Poirot’s friend, mystery author Ariadne Oliver, was one of those who found Joyce.  She thinks that Joyce might have been telling the truth, but as Poirot starts to interview those who have known Joyce longer, everyone says that Joyce was always lying or embellishing stories, so there is no reason to take her seriously.  But if not, why did someone kill her?

I mentioned 1969 earlier for a reason.  This is definitely a later entry from Agatha Christie since the theory in the village is that the killer is a wandering sex criminal, a problem that they were having in “modern” British society.  I’ve got to admit, I found that a bit jarring.  No, we don’t get much more discussion than that, but it’s not something I was expecting.  The book does provide a bit of interesting commentary about how some topics we are still dealing with in society were being viewed at the time.

The other thing I found a big jarring was Joyce’s age.  I can’t remember the last time I read a book with a victim this young.

However, I definitely got into the story.  As Poirot digs into the past and the present in order to make sense of the crime, he uncovers some pretty strong motives, and I enjoyed trying to piece together what happened.  The ending is an edge of your seat thrill as he must race to keep tragedy from striking again.  I didn’t have everything pieced together, but I was definitely on the right track, so I felt the ending made sense.

I also felt the characters were good.  We didn’t get to know everyone super well, but we got to know them enough to care about the outcome.  I think if the characters were better developed, the victim been thirteen might have impacted me even more than it did, so this was probably a good thing.

As I said at the beginning, I listened to an audio version of this one.  Hugh Fraser was the narrator of this particular version, and he did a good job of helping bring the story to life and keeping the characters straight without overwhelming the story.

Since the new movie will be “inspired” by Hallowe’en Party, I’m expecting some major changes (including the location, I believe).  But it will be interesting to see if I recognize anything from this book in the movie.  In the meantime, I’m glad the movie inspired me to read this lesser-known Agatha Christie books.