Rating: 
Summary: One of her very best books
Review: The people who decry this book as not being as good as some of her others are misplaced in their views. This is definitely another of her masterpieces. Her best Poirot books are those set in this kind of territory (I.e. Murder On the Orient Express, Death on the Nile, Appointment with Death, Murder, and this one.) because the setting really enhances the plot. The way this book is narrated is rather different from some of the other books. Told from the perspective of the nurse who looked after the victim before she died, it is very engaging and the prose brings a very human element to the book, and the feelings and emotions of being caught up in a murder, in which everyone becomes a suspect. It works very well. There are some great characters in this one. Some eccentric, some you grow to love, some you are indifferent to. None that you actively dislike. All intriguing. The way the story unfolds is materful, and the methods for murder are, when finally revealed, ingenius. You would enver think of it in a million years, even thought it really is staring you in the face. Also, this books holds the top place in the "most vile deaths in an Agatha Christie novel" category. Anne Johnson's instrument of demise is, to be blunt, quite horrible. I felt sick at the thought of it. (And the way it was depicted in a recent television adaptation in the UK was quite vile. But powerful, and packs a great punch.) An incredibly strong, yet simple, plot, is what makes this book stand out amongst her others. It has power, and is emotional and intense. The method of murder is quite brilliant. The solution, whilst not packing a great surprise as some of her more unlikely novels do, nonetheless rings true. (It would be incredibly hard to have made the identity of the killer a real surprise...all the characters seemed to be viable suspects, and wouldn't pack a great surprise if it was revealed to be them.) This stands among "Towards Zero" "Murder is Easy" "Appointment With Death" "Death on the Nile" "Death Comes as the end" "And Then there Were None" and "Murder on the Orient Express" as one of her very very best books.
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