Murder in Retrospect

Review Date — July 20, 2018

You know that Christie has seriously messed up your mind when murder by poisoning starts feeling like a serene murder. Knowing how macabre her killing methods can be, this one probably sits somewhere around the bottom of the list. The book Five Little Pigs kicks off with Hercule Poirot undertaking a murder case of the long past upon the request of Miss Carla Lemarchant, whose mother, Caroline Crale was convicted poisoning her husband Amyas Crale sixteen years ago. Subjected to penal servitude for life by the law, Caroline Crale, in her dying moments left a letter for a her daughter claiming that she was innocent. Bent fervently upon proving her mother’s innocence, the book sees Poirot delve deeper and deeper into the layers of stacked history of the infamous case and its seemingly innocent five suspects.

With the suspects no longer suspects in the eyes of the law, can Poirot somehow glean the missing bits and pieces from the suspects to see the complete picture of the murderer? It is a toss-up between a shameless lie and a clear conscience and while the investigation cannot alter the past, it’s never too late for justice to be done.

Hercule Poirot’s repertoire has enabled him to crack the most herculean of cases (bad pun, sorry) but to digress from the typical on-the-scene investigation and making the crime a thing of the past so as to change his approach entirely is a stroke of genius. Usually with a whodunnit, half the time goes in getting your head around the facts and the characters. Here however, the number of facts and the characters is nominal and with the scenario being deviously simple, the book draws you in to think deeply, messes with your mind, and presents an outstandingly brilliant solution that leaves you transfixed. Typical.

There is a veiled sense of tranquility about the book since the stakes aren’t so high but that just goes to show that you don’t need to have continuous action to have a great murder mystery. To sum it up, the idea is ingenious, the plot is subtle, the conclusion is an absolute ripper and hence, I have got no hesitation whatsoever in handing out the perfect score of 10 out of a possible 10 with a profound recommendation to read it.