There Is a Tide (Winterbrook Edition)

Rating:
Summary: Twists and turns and surprises to the very end
Review: This 1948 novel opens as Poirot taking refuge in a London Club tries to take his mind off the bombing going on outside by listening to the club bore tell another of his endless stories. Years later the story and the bore re-enter Poirot's life, leaving the detective to sort out past fiction from fact to solve more recent murders.

The Cloade family had always relied on Uncle Gordon and his money to make their lives more comfortable. In post war England life was no longer comfortable and they needed Uncle Gordon more than ever. Unfortunately for them Uncle has married a much younger woman, then died in an air raid without making provisions for them. Now they needed to ask his young wife and her brother (or is he her brother?) for help...or did they?

Surprise twists happen every few pages making what is seemed certain suddenly uncertain - rather like the post war turmoil many of the characters were experiencing. In typical Christie fashion though, all the clues are there for the reader to ferret out before Poirot reveals all.

Rating:
Summary: False motives
Review: This Agatha Christie novel has a deliciously complex plot with the usual twists and turns which are uncovered by the inimitable Hercule Poirot. A young woman named Rosaleen has married a man named Underway. Upon Underway's death, Rosaleen remarries a wealthy man named Gordon Cloade. He dies two weeks after the marriage, which makes Rosaleen a very wealthy widow indeed. She and her brother come to take over Cloade's home and fortune, much to the dismay of Cloade's family who have lost a fortune to her. Soon a man comes to town and claims that Rosaleen's first husband, Underway, is not dead, meaning Rosaleen is still married to him and so should not inherit Cloade's fortune. People begin to die and one of the Cloade men asks for Hercule Poirot's help in solving the mystery. Poirot interviews the people involved, gets his little gray cells working and puts together the puzzle to solve the murders. This is another wonderful book by the world's most famous mystery author.