Channelling Agatha

What made the experience of listening to The Monogram Murders the most enjoyable?

The story. I think that Ms Hannah has captured the essence of Agatha Christie's story telling style. There is a lot of reliance on dialogue to move the plot along, always interspersed with Poirot's egomanic claims that HIS little grey cells are superior to his offsider's!

The only 2 comments that I make about the book, is the setting is not a classical Christie setting - elite hotel, aristocratic home or simple English country village. (Indeed the village in this story bears more relation to Midwich that St Mary Mead!) The other comment is that the writing is a bit more detailed than I am used to with Agatha Christie, making the story a bit too long.

However, neither of these was a significant barrier to my enjoyment of the book. I congratulate Sophie Hannah on an excellent replication of a Hercule Poirot tale, and await her foray into Miss Marple's world.

Did the plot keep you on the edge of your seat? How?

Not on the edge of my seat, any more than one of Agatha Christie's stories did. What it did do well was to get me to exercise my little grey cells. I thoroughly enjoyed the many and varied red herrings as they trailed across the story.

Have you listened to any of Julian Rhind-Tutt’s other performances before? How does this one compare?

I haven't heard Julian Rhind-Tutt previously, and I thought that his personification of Poirot was especially good. I liked his voice and the pace at which he read.

One problem that I did have was that he varied the volume of his voice rather too much, and that even with earphones that sit inside my ear, there were times when I had to turn the volume of my iPod very high (if I had time) and then, when using hie regular voice, it was much too loud.

Did you have an extreme reaction to this book? Did it make you laugh or cry?

No extreme reaction - a quiet delight that there is someone who can write a good copy of Agatha Christie's style.

Any additional comments?

If you are a Christie afficionado - read it. If you have never read Christie - read it, but then read some Christie afterwards

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2 people found this helpful

Over complicated narrative quite unlike Agatha Christie

Although the story was well read it was far too long , unnecessarily complicated & with too many peripheral characters.
The premise of the story was good, a locked room mystery , resulting from events in the past , but the manner of solving the murders was too wordy with too many needless red herrings & diversions.
The presence of the Scotland Yard detective was completely irrelevant & unnecessary, he added nothing to the story, in fact, confused the issue.
The same is true of the hotel owner, the waiter, the junior clerk & the waitresses.
Having finished the story I felt dissatisfied with the solution in a way that one never felt with an Agatha Christie novel & with no desire to hear it again at a future date as one can with an Agatha Christie story.
To sum up - good idea poorly executed.

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No, no and NO!

I don't know where to begin. I've listen/read almost all Agatha Christie books. Definitely all the Poirot mysteries. This is such a disappointment.

One:
This is not Poirot at all. Period. Shouting, ordering people around, mean insulting... also he never withholds important information, unless he found out something at the end of a book and hasn't had time to reveal it yet, and does so in the last tell-all moment, even then all the hints are there to at least make the reader guess what he is up to and what he suspects. Agatha Christie lays all that you need to know to solve the problem somewhere in plain sight, it never hangs on the missing info.

Two:
The narrator, the young Scotland Yard detective is simply blind! Even when Poirot is spelling things out he doesn't seem to follow the simplest reasonings. I understand that the narrator (usually) doesn't get things the right way, right away but eventually once the reader has been lead all the way to the answer what is the point of dragging the stupidity any further?

Three:
Plot holes so big you could fit an entirely new story in them! None of it makes sense. At first it looks like a highly detailed plan by the wrongdoers of the story, in the end everything about it is stupid and unnecessary. To avoid spoilers I wont say more here.

Four:
The writing! why so repetitive? why? I think the author should respect her readers more.

SPOILERS... The twists just don't make sense!
For example, Jennie leaves Lady W.'s house because they've already made their plans and she can't be there when Poirot shows up! Ok! and this has happened just shortly before Poirot shows up because we know the new maid is horribly inexperienced. Ok! meanwhile Lady W has had time enough to take the crested bowl belonging to Jennie out of the servants' quarters and put it in a guest room (what kind of lady does this?) and then Nancy (who is in on the plan) painted Lady W in that same place with the bowl in the picture, and had time enough to finish it? And then has to repaint it with a different color to hide the crest? Why paint it in the first place? The plans were already made! You either care or not care about the crested bowl. Why even say you were delivering a picture to Lady W and then stayed for dinner (alibi)? You're friends with Lady W and she is going to lie anyway, just say you were there for dinner... why bring attention to the altered picture? This is just one example of things that don't make sense at all!

Another example: Just remembering that in 1920s all lifts had lift attendants (unlike the story) the story falls apart badly. Not much of a mystery left for Poirot to solve.

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2 people found this helpful

Great journey, disappointing destination

I was very satisfied with the book until the end, where the solution and the character decisions infuriated me. I re-listened the ending chapters to make sure I wasn't the one mistaken, but no such luck. The "true" chain of events is moronic and inconsistent. I would advice any mystery fan to skip this one.

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Really disappointing

This was a slog. So much repetition, such frustrating narration, shitty payoff at the end. I've never hated Poirot before.

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1 person found this helpful

THE MONOTOMOUS MURDERS

Would you try another book from Sophie Hannah and/or Julian Rhind-Tutt?

Judging by thus book, I doubt it.

Has The Monogram Murders turned you off from other books in this genre?

It will be a long time, before I try a pseudo Agatha Christie again.
Can't beat the real thing.

What didn’t you like about Julian Rhind-Tutt’s performance?

His performance was okay. The book was too long.

What character would you cut from The Monogram Murders?

All of them;

Any additional comments?

Was bored to tears. Book was tooooooo long, did not hold my attention. Was longwinded.
Was a waste of money. Fell asleep twice. Was surprised it was still going, when I woke up.
Terrible.

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1 person found this helpful