Sure, let’s add murder to flying in an airplane and make it even worse.

Not my favorite Christie, but fun all the same.

Of note: Since I first added this book to my TBR in 2008 (thanks, Goodreads!), I have developed a rather bad fear of flying, so this book (in which one passenger is murdered by another) was like, one nightmare scenario on top of another for me. Add wasps (FUCKING WASPS USELESS DEVIL BUGS) in to the mix and why don’t you just kill me already.

This is a Poirot mystery, and a later one at that. I have tried in vain to read all the Poirot books in order, but my library only has so many Christies in audio (my preferred delivery system for Agatha Christie-based verbiage), and free is better than not free, which is apparently one of the only things that can overcome my compulsion to read series in order.

ANYWAYS.

If you have read one Poirot, you probably know the basics. Someone is murdered, Poirot happens to be caught nearby, Poirot cleverly solves the case, laying it all out for you neatly, and usually you don’t see the answer coming. The details differ from book to book but that same basic pleasure remains. This one, other than the three nightmare scenarios piling on top of each other, wasn’t actually all that remarkable in terms of the characters or the mystery. It wasn’t bad at all, but it did feel a little more rote than all the other mysteries I’ve read from her in the past. Maybe because it’s a later one, and I’ve mostly only read the earlier stuff so far?

[3.5 stars]