I started reading Agatha Christie novels when I was in middle school. My first book was, surprisingly, “Why Didn’t They Ask Evans?“, which didn’t have Hercule Poirot or Miss Marple or even Tommy and Tuppence. It was a great mystery and pulled me into reading more Christie. After reading a bunch of Poirot novels, I had to read “Curtain”, the last Poirot novel, but I was unable to get it at our school library. It was several years later that I finally read it. And recently, I read it again to see how it felt.The book starts off with a heavy dose of nostalgia. Somewhat like the beginning of “Norwegian Wood“. This is the last hunt for Hercule Poirot and Captain Hastings as they try to find the person who commits the “perfect murder”. It is a serial murderer who manages to kill off several people in different places without being suspected and somehow there is someone else who is brought before justice. The plot is set in the same house as the “The Mysterious Affair at Styles”. Agatha Christie wrote this novel in the 1940s and had it locked up and only released close to her death. This meant that in some ways, the novel was written at the height of her mystery writing skills. I think all authors should do the same: writing a final novel for their famous character when they have their wits about them, but only publishing it after their death.I cannot reveal the ending, so I will have to be necessarily vague in the next few lines. Poirot does explain everything at the end of the book, but it is not a classic Poirot story in the sense that there is little active investigation by Poirot in the story. Captain Hastings is the narrator and much of the action happens without Poirot. In “The ABC Murders”, we saw that a letter addressed to Poirot had a much deeper meaning than we understood at the beginning of the story. In “Curtain”, the presence of Captain Hastings is more involved than we think at first.Once you know the plot, as I did in my second reading, it is amazing to see Christie at work. We see the murderer at work, and notice how Christie throws a lot of red herrings to confuse the reader. But what is remarkable about Christie novels is her adherence to Occam’s Razor, where the final answer is the one that is the most straightforward. Cutting through all the assumptions. Making us slap our forehead and say, why didn’t I notice that? It was all there in plain sight. We almost see two murders taking place and we still do not guess the murderer.A great end to the best detective in fiction. Read it and once you are done, look at this post referencing something in the New York Times upon the publication of “Curtain”.
رغم مرور زمن طويل على امتلاكي لهذه الرواية إلا أنني كنت دائماً أؤجل قراءتها.. بكل بساطة لا أريد موت بوارو.. الرجل الذي عشت معه كل ذكريات الطفولة والمراهقة.. ربما كان تفكيري ساذجاً لا يليق بعمري ولكنها الحقيقة بكل بساطة ووضوح.. وداعاً بوارو.. وداعاً أجاثا.. كل فترة قراءة الرواية كنت لا أريد الانتهاء منها لعلمي أنه سيموت ولعلمي أن هذه الرواية هي آخر ما نُشِر للعبقرية آجاثا.. استطاعت آجاثا حتى آخر رواية لها أن تسحرني وتُدهشني كما عهدتها دائماً.. لا أدري كيف أصف شعوري الآن ولكني أستغرب أنني فعلا حزينة.. وكأنني طفلة سلبوها لعبتها المفضلةرجل كـبوارو وبغروره كنت أعلم أنه لن يموت طبيعياً.. فقد فضل أن يحقق العدالة بيده هذه المرة وقرر موعد نهايته بنفسه
What do You think about Curtain (2000)?
When I read the original CYOA books, I would first go through the book as it was meant to be read. The. I would read it again and hold my place witha a finger any time I came to a choice so that I could go back and make the other hoofs any time I came to an ending. It was problematic when I ran out of fingers and it never worked well when I was referred backward to an earlier page. But eventually I would die all the deaths and that was a good thing. So I am thrilled I achieved maximum deathage at your hands.
—mark monday
Between the books and the TV series I thought that I knew all of the Poirot stories and as I started reading this one, I kept thinking that any minute, I would remember what was going to happen. But I didnt. I think that it helped the reading of the book by having the characters of Poirot and Hastings so well established. I enjoyed the story and the plot even though AC managed to fool me with it. I was quite certain that I knew which way the 'action' would go and I even had my reasons but I was wrong.I wont give anything away or spoil the enjoyment of this (almost) classic tale by saying anything about the story. Again, I found myself wishing for a half mark to award as I think this was probably a 3.5 but with the choice of either 3 or 4 I will be generous.
—John Lee
While I generally dislike Hercule Poirot and many of Agatha Christie's novels that feature him, this farewell to the character is surprisingly good. The basic premise is that Poirot and a buddy head to a shabby "hotel" (it's somehow less than a hotel, but I think there are cultural issues here that I don't understand as someone from the States) in the middle of nowhere to eat bad food, sit in the sun, meet other guests who have set aside weeks to similarly do nothing (again, I think there are real cultural issues here when it comes to planning a vacation), and maybe prevent a murder if they have the chance. The pacing of the novel is slow, like the lazy afternoons enjoyed by the hotel guests, but the conclusion is quite ingenious and casts a very different light on all of the details that came before it. If a reader is already a fan of Hercule Poirot, then this book is a great conclusion to his story, but even for a reader who generally dislikes Poirot and reads Agatha Christie mostly to feel superior to a bad author, this book is surprisingly good and worth a read for the truly menacing villain.
—Kurt
