Sun Sentinel Palm Beach Edition
Latest Agatha Christie true to the master
A reason Agatha Christie’s work endures, decade after decade, is that the grande dame of mystery was one tough plotter, producing solid, insightful stories about the wealthy and family dynamics, with just a soupcon of sex that kept her novels G-rated.
In her second estate sanctioned novel about Belgian detective Hercule Poirot, British author Sophia Hannah continues to perfectly channel Christie, who died in 1976. “Agatha Christie’s Closed Casket” is an amusing, wellplotted tale with the astute perceptions of the motives that drive people. Yes, there is the prerequisite isolated area — in this case a County Cork mansion in the Irish Free State — and it features a good number of characters who, of course, also are suspects. And what’s a Poirot novel without a gathering of all to suss out the killer?
Set in 1929, “Agatha Christie’s Closed Casket” finds Poirot and his old friend Scotland Yard Insp. Edward Catchpool invited to an unusual gathering at the home of Lady Athelinda “Athie” Playford, a successful and wealthy children’s writer. Also attending, among others, are Athie’s two children, their significant others, her attorneys and her secretary Joseph Scotcher and his nurse.
Athie wants her guests to know that she is changing her will, leaving everything to Joseph, although he is dying of kidney failure and has weeks to live. Upon his death, Athie’s will reverts back to its original, which left everything to her children. No one understands why this odd, nonsensical change in the will has been made, and the myriad characters soon show their true personalities, greedy natures, and, in one case, murderous ways. Poirot and Catchpool realize they have been invited as peace keepers, as well as sleuths.
The plot proves to be vintage Christie with the expected tensions, twists and red herrings.