Dead Man's Folly (1956)
1956 Collins blurb:
Nasse House—and a Fête in progress, including, not a Treasure Hunt, but a Murder Hunt—devised by that well-known detective novelist, Mrs. Ariadne Oliver; the prizes to be given away by the celebrated M. Hercule Poirot.
And then a murder that was all too real.
An unlikely victim, an incredible disappearance, an impossible murder… so it seems. But in the end they all make sense to Hercule Poirot.
This book follows Hickory Dickory Dock from the pen of the writer who is universally acknowledged as being the supreme practitioner of the complex and fascinating art of the detective story.
My review:
Conventional, but
entertaining Christie—indeed, it is a tribute to her art that even when
the setting (country house fête), characters (nouveau riche
squire, brainless wife, devoted secretary, enigmatic old woman and
neurotic young man, and sinister foreigner), red herrings and even the
plot itself (related to "The
Companion" and Evil Under
the Sun) are highly conventional, she still manages to
entertain. Poirot functions; Mrs. Oliver is in splendid form; and
the murderer is not too difficult to spot. In short, quite
pleasant—in the way that Miles Burton is pleasant: soothing and
innocuous, but scarcely extraordinary.
Note similarities with Hallowe'en
Party, Nemesis and Sleeping
Murder.