Abandoned by Booklikes

I wish that I had liked this one more than I did (I gave it 3.5 stars but Goodreads only gives full stars so I rounded up to a 4). I think the main problem was that the story was told from Amy Leatheran's point of view.

Amy Leatheran speaks in an older voice during the course of this story though she was apparently a young nurse when this story takes place. The foreword was written by Doctor Giles Reilly (another character in the story) who mentions that it was four years ago when these events take place so she had to be in her early 30s or mid to late 30s by the time the story is told. However, she spoke as a woman in her late 50s in my opinion. She just seemed quite old in her mannerisms and thinking and how she spoke. Perhaps Ms. Christie should have aged the character. She can write younger female characters and has done so quite well before. Perhaps Ms. Leatheran was a stand in for a Miss Marple type character.

The flow of the novel through 1/4 of the story was quite slow. I found myself having trouble keeping everyone separate and trying to figure out how everyone was connected.

I was actually relieved when the actual murder took place since that meant that Poirot was soon to be on the scene.

I do always enjoy reading other character's points of view of Poirot. Ms. Leatheran talks about how short, old, and foreign Poirot is in her eyes. She even dislikes him through a good portion of the book until she realizes how smart he really is. We eventually have Ms. Leatheran stepping in for the missing Hastings and helping Poirot with his investigation of who killed Ms. Leidner. Once Poirot is on the scene the book flows much easier.

I can say that for once I guessed at who the murderer was correctly. I just didn't understand how they possibly could have done it. Once the solution was laid out it seems perfectly understandable and I felt foolish for not putting it together.

Also though I guessed the murderer it still made no sense to me how a woman like Mrs. Leidner could be totally in the dark about the identity of her killer. I just had so many questions there. I don't want to spoil for those who haven't read, but my first thought was one of incredulity when I realized who the murderer is and who they could possibly be.

I then promptly watched David Suchet in Hercule Poirot's "Murder in Mesopotamia". This one had Hastings assisting Hercule and we once again get to the same murderer. However, the set up is different with Hercule in place before Mrs. Leidner is murdered.

I do want to say a good thing for me that I did watch "Murder in Mesopotamia" this weekend. Netflix then recommended to me "Miss Fisher's Murder Mysteries" and I promptly watched all of series 1 and 2. I am now in love with Essie Davis. I will have to pick up these books sometime in the future since they sound right up my alley. When I am done with Poirot it will be nice to read another novel with another female protagonist since I am now done with Miss Marple.