The Hollow. A mini review.

The Hollow

By Agatha Christie

Rating: 4/5 Stairs

Which begins like this:

At six thirteen a.m. on a Friday morning Lucy Angkatell’s big blue eyes opened upon another day and, as always, she was at once wide awake and began immediately to deal with the problems conjured up by her incredibly active mind. Feeling urgently the need of consultation and conversation, and selecting for the purpose her young cousin, Midge Hardcastle, who had arrived at The Hollow the night before, Lady Angkatell slipped quickly out of bed, threw a negligee round her still graceful shoulders, and went along the passage to Midge’s room. Since she was a woman of disconcertingly rapid thought process, Lady Angkatell, as was her invariable custom, commenced the conversation in her own mind, supplying the Midge’s answers out of her own fertile imagination.
The Hollow

I haven’t read any Agatha Christie for many years. The Hollow is the January selection in the Read Christie 2021 Challenge (#readchristie2021) and this was a great first mystery to bring me back to Christie. The Hollow is a classic English countryside mystery written in 1946.

Lady Angkatell has invited several guests to her county house for the weekend, but as the first chapter shows, she already is feeling a sense of unease of putting this particular group of people together. Ms. Christie introduces us to each character before they arrive at the Hollow, and the tension builds as the group is there with their history and secrets.

Now, if you’re the kind of reader who likes an early murder, this is not the book for you. The murder doesn’t actually happen until about 1/3 of the way through the book. Ms. Christie spends a lot of time setting the reader up with the characters and the scene. In fact, although he is mentioned early on as a neighbor of The Hollow, detective Hercule Poirot doesn’t show up until after the murder occurs. (TIP: If you want to remain spoiler free as to who is killed, do not read the blurb on the back of the book or on Goodreads.)

I really liked this classic English mystery. There were plenty of suspects and red herrings. I was guessing whodunit until the end. Looking forward to February’s selection!