It’s all fun and games until Joyce, a thirteen year-old who claims to have witnessed a murder, winds up dead at a children’s Halloween party. Brought in on request of his friend, Hercule Poirot (a recurring character in Christie’s writing) must dredge up old and forgotten incidents in the sleepy town of Woodleigh Common in order to explain the current killings.
The story started off well, drawing the reader into the normalcy and complacency of children’s parties and suburban life, only to shake them awake with a murder. Unfortunately for Poirot, the story went downhill from there. From stilted and exacting dialogue to a tediously slow plot development, I found myself struggling to stay engaged. The fact that I had been organized enough for a themed book review was the main driving factor in finishing the novel.
To the book’s credit, I appreciated the ending. In a classic reveal, Poirot recounts all the things you as the reader saw but didn’t understand, piecing the information together to expose the killer and the motive that lay in plain sight all along. It was a decent ending and had a fair amount of drama in its conclusion, but it was not enough to redeem the preceding 200-something pages.
After my initial introduction to Agatha Christie with And Then There Were None, I was eager to delve into her other work. I’m sad to admit, however, that Hallowe’en Party did not live up to the intrigue and thrill I had previously experienced. It was not enough to put me off of Christie in the future, but I’m still in search for the caliber of writing and suspense of And Then There Were None. If you’re an Agatha Christie fan and have suggestions or personal favorites, send them my way.
Personal rating: 4/10
Recommend? No
Re-read? Not ever
Time: 1:38