Agatha Christie The Monogram Murders-Sophie Hannah

Agatha Christie The Monogram Murders

Sophie Hannah

Morrow, Sep 9 2014, $25.99

ISBN: 9780062297211

In 1929 London, Belgium refugee Hercule Poirot enjoys a late supper as the only patron at the Pleasant’s Coffee House.  A distraught woman enters the restaurant allowing wintry air inside.  Employee “Flyaway Hair” knows this troubled female Jennie who orders tea.  Introducing himself as a detective, Poirot offers to help her; but Jennie insists it is too late as she is dead and no one should look for the culprit before she makes a rushed exit.

Scotland Yard Inspector Edward Catchpool investigates the murders of three people at the Bloxham Hotel.  Two women and a man died from poisoning and inside their respective mouths is a monogrammed gold cuff link.  Due to Jennie’s lament not to open their mouths, Poirot believes the mass murders and the disturbed female who ruined his mellow dinner are part of the same case.

The enjoyable Monogram Murders is a pleasant Poirot mystery in which for the most part Sophie Hannah captures the essence of Agatha Christie’s classic sleuth and the era he did his mojo.  Readers will like the Depression Era English whodunit though purists will miss Hastings since Catchpool replaces him as the narrator; personally I do not like either of these Dr. Watson wannabees.

Harriet Klausner