Hallowe'en Party: Inspiration for the 20th Century Studios Major Motion Picture A Haunting in Venice

Wonderful stories by Agatha Christie! Great to read in October!Or use as a book group choice.

‘Hallowe’en Party’, published in 1969, is amongst the best of Agatha Christie’s works. Apart from the legendary Hercule Poirot, this book features crime fiction writer Mrs Ariadne Oliver, the author’s attempt to caricature herself!“Preparations for a children’s party usually give far more trouble to the organisers than an entertainment devised for those of adult years.” While preparations are being made for a Hallowe’en party hosted by the domineering Mrs Drake, 12-year-old Joyce claims that she has witnessed a murder, possibly to attract Mrs Oliver’s attention. She is not taken seriously as she has the reputation of being a compulsive liar – but while the party is in full swing someone kills Joyce by holding down her head in a bucket of water meant for a party game. Hercule Poirot enters the scene and discovers that several unnatural deaths had taken place in and around the village in recent years. Before the present case can be investigated, Poirot would need to look into the earlier cases…Hercule Poirot made his first appearance during the First World War and most of Poirot’s novels are set in the 1930s and 1940s. This book, by contrast, is set in the late 1960s, when British society was grappling with problems like broken homes and drug abuse. There are several children in this book and they seem unusually precocious, both physically and emotionally.While the plot is excellent, this book appears to be riddled with stereotypes and prejudices. A character who claims to have enjoyed a vacation in India talks about “a Maharajah and a tiger shoot and elephants” even though the plot is set in the post-Colonial era. A missing ‘au pair’ girl provokes much xenophobia. “She came from some country in the middle of Europe. Some long name,” says Mrs McKay soon after she had declared “These foreign girls are all the same.”Even the British characters are not immune to class prejudices. When Poirot hears that Harriet Leaman, who was employed as a cleaner, had been asked to witness her employer’s will, he enquires “She can read and write?” No doubt, it can be argued that such condescending attitudes are shown by the characters in the book, not by the author herself, but such examples provide insights into British society well after the sun had set on the Empire.This book will be enjoyed by Agatha Christie’s fans on account of its complex plot with many twists in the end, not to mention Poirot’s vanity and his insistence on wearing tight patent leather shoes while walking around the countryside!

Trovo che la lettura della Christie nell'originale inglese sia assimilabile ad una full immersion nella lingua parlata che può aiutare le conversation skills. Si impara bene ad esempio a coniugare correttamente i verbi. E poi si apprendono vocaboli nuovi dell'everyday english. Un amabile compendio alla lettura di un dizionario o di un quotidiano. Una lingua si impara anche così: leggendo.

El libro ha llegado en perfectas condiciones. La historia empieza genial pero a medida que avanza el libro el asesino resulta ser muy evidente y el final no me ha gustado mucho.

I am not a big reader of mysteries in general nor Christie in particular; however, I must say that whenever I pick up a Christie novel I tend to enjoy it. Some of her mysteries are truly clever and magnificent—And Then There Were None, Murder on the Orient Express, and Death on the Nile being some of my favorites. When I heard Kenneth Branagh was about to release another Poirot movie based on this novel, I decided to read it.I have to say, I can’t quite see what attracted Branagh to this story which, though solid, doesn’t seem to rise to the standards of some of her others. The murders here are quite gruesome, the entire story being started off with a tween girl being drowned in a bucket of water at a Halloween party. However, much of the action here is a bit thrown off by the reactionary feelings about the 1960’s Ms. Christie can’t seem to hide. (This was published in 1969.) I was also a bit put off by the portrayal of our young murder victim as a habitual liar, which almost gives the feeling that she kind of deserved what she got.Poirot’s unravelling of the mystery is done in his typical efficient fashion, once he has spent a number of days interviewing everyone involved, his usual tack. It is a solid conclusion if not as shocking as some of her better novels. Still, I am interested to see how all this plays out in the movies.