I only finished one book in November. Too much school, I guess. I will at least double that total in December. Maybe quadruple. Next year, I will likely be able to manage even less than I did this year. Yes, I will finish law school in April, but after that I will have to study for the bar and then, knock on wood, I will be starting a new job somewhere. One or two books is my new reality, I guess.

Murder on the Links

Agatha Christie

The only book I finished in November was a Poirot mystery. It was a good one, but I am no better at writing about mysteries without spoiling them. I guess I shouldn’t be worried about spoiling a nearly 100 year old book, but with a mystery, the plot is its biggest draw. The Murder on the Links isn’t quite Christie’s most memorable story, still there is a lot interesting going on.

A big part of the investigation has Poirot in competition with a haughty French rival. The French investigator needles Poirot, who does not seem as on ball as his counterpart. Even Poirot’s sometime sidekick, Captain Hastings, seems to respect the other detective. This is the second full length Poirot novel, and Christie already seems to be tiring of the Holmes and Watson dynamic. It is not surprising that Hasting disappears a few years later. Here, Hasting has fallen in love with a woman who appears to be a suspect.

The crime is actually very simple, but all the stuff around it is very complex. There are multiple crimes, and suspects that seem to alternate between intentionally drawing suspicion and proclaiming their innocence. There is a twin reveal, but it manages not to feel cheap, and in fact by the time it happens I was sure it was coming, because there really was no other explanation. Like most Christies, it was a fun read. It doesn’t quite reach the heights of her absolute best, but it is still really good.