Closed casket The new Hercule Poirot mystery

Sophie Hannah, 1971-

Large print - 2016

"What I intend to say to you will come as a shock ..." With these words, Lady Athelinda Playford -- one of the world's most beloved children's authors -- springs a surprise on the lawyer entrusted with her will. As guests arrive for a party at her Irish mansion, Lady Playford has decided to cut off her two children without a penny . . . and leave her vast fortune to someone else: an invalid who has only weeks to live. Among Lady Playford's visitors are two strangers: the famous Belgian detective Hercule Poirot, and Inspector Edward Catchpool of Scotland Yard. Neither knows why he has been invited -- until Poirot begins to wonder if Lady Playford expects a murder. But why does she seem so determined to provoke a kill...er? And why -- when the crime is committed despite Poirot's best efforts to stop it -- does the identity of the victim make no sense at all?

Saved in:

1st Floor Show me where

LARGE PRINT/MYSTERY/Hannah, Sophie
1 / 1 copies available
Location Call Number   Status
1st Floor LARGE PRINT/MYSTERY/Hannah, Sophie Checked In
Subjects
Genres
Mystery fiction
Historical fiction
Published
New York : Harper Luxe, an imprint of HarperCollinsPublishers 2016.
Language
English
Main Author
Sophie Hannah, 1971- (author)
Other Authors
Agatha Christie, 1890-1976 (-)
Edition
First Harper Luxe edition
Item Description
"Agatha Christie" -- Cover.
Physical Description
440 pages (large print) : illustrations ; 24 cm
ISBN
9780062496669
Contents unavailable.
Review by Booklist Review

*Starred Review* Even Tolstoy's All happy families are alike; each unhappy family is unhappy in its own way is no match for the Playfords, a rich, dysfunctional clan that finds itself in need of smelling salts over an inheritance gone very wrong. Lady Playford, whose family lives in Ireland but is very much of England, writes children's fiction of the Enid Blyton, jolly-good sort. After she summons Hercule Poirot and Edward Catchpool, a Scotland Yard detective, to a showdown with her family, the tale seems to be shaping up like a domestic murder mystery, but then it branches further afield both geographically and in terms of plot twists. Poirot's and Catchpool's sleuthing skills are put to the test as Hannah's spot-on take on Agatha Christie's milieu and writing moves toward an unpredictable and satisfying finale. Hannah's second Christie novel, after The Monogram Murders (2014), will be devoured by readers of that title and of Christie's original works (the new versions thankfully forego the anti-Semitism found in the earlier ones). The book is ideal, too, for fans of Kerry Greenwood's Phryne Fisher novels and the related TV show, Miss Fisher's Murder Mysteries and for library programs featuring the board game Clue.--Thornton-Verma, Henrietta Copyright 2016 Booklist

From Booklist, Copyright (c) American Library Association. Used with permission.
Review by Library Journal Review

World-renowned children's author Lady Athelinda Playford has an unpleasant surprise for her children and invites Hercule Poirot and Insp. Edward Catchpool to circumvent any foul play. Lady Playford loves a spectacle but plays a more dangerous game when she announces at dinner that she has disinherited her family and left her fortune to her sickly secretary Joseph Scotcher. Despite the presence of Poirot and Catchpool, a desperate and violent murder takes place during the night. Everyone has a motive, but delving deeper into the victim's past only raises more questions, none more significant than why would Lady Playford give all of her wealth to a man with only weeks to live? Hannah follows up The Monogram Murders with the second installment in her Poirot series. While the author is true to the Belgium detective's character and his obsession with "the psychology" and "little grey cells," some aspects of the plot are slightly predictable for a well-versed Agatha Christie reader. Verdict Detective fiction readers and followers of Dame Christie should still give this title a try, as Hannah is a wonderful suspense writer. [See Prepub Alert, 3/21/16.]-Jennifer Funk, McKendree Univ. Lib., Lebanon, IL © Copyright 2016. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.

(c) Copyright Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.