Five Little Pigs (Poirot) (Hercule Poirot Series)

Although these books were written 80 years ago she really is the best writer for a good murder mystery and I love British mysteries with a passion. If a murder has to be "civilized" then she is the best and the victim usually deserves it!!!

AGATHA CHRISTIE IS MY FAVOURITE AUTHOR ! I read almost ever book she ever wrote . SOME ARE HARD TO FIND. I LOVED THIS BOOK. I'VE SEEN EVERY MOVIE MADE OF HER BOOKS ! I read her books and watched her movies over and over again ! A GREAT FAN

I have not read an Agatha Christie mystery for years and I loved this one. I like the analytical aspects of her writing and the colorful characters. It is hard to believe that a person can be excused for bad behavior because of his artistic ability but it seems real and I like the twist at the end.

AGATHA CHRISTIE IS MY FAVOURITE AUTHOR ! I read almost ever book she ever wrote . SOME ARE HARD TO FIND. I LOVED THIS BOOK. I'VE SEEN EVERY MOVIE MADE OF HER BOOKS ! I read her books and watched her movies over and over again ! A GREAT FAN

I have not read an Agatha Christie mystery for years and I loved this one. I like the analytical aspects of her writing and the colorful characters. It is hard to believe that a person can be excused for bad behavior because of his artistic ability but it seems real and I like the twist at the end.

A wonderful short read where Poirot is asked to reconstruct a murder to try to establish the validity of the initial person accused of the crime. Following the clues and descriptions provided by the 5 main characters was a great challenge to find the murderer before the last chapter. Highly recommend!

Five Little Pigs follows Hercule Poirot as he tries to solve a murder from sixteen years in the past. A young woman comes to him and tells him the story of her parents. It seems that her mother was convicted of the murder of her father and died in prison a year later. The young lady was just a little girl at the time but she strongly believes that her mother was innocent and wants Poirot to prove it. Poirot then approaches the five key witnesses one at a time and interviews them about the events surrounding the murder to piece together what happened.

In some respects, this is a very typical Poirot novel. The murder occurs at an estate, there are a relative handful of people who could have done it, etc. But Christies attempted a major change in structure by setting the murder sixteen years in the past. I wish I could say that this was more effective but there were some very negative ramifications of this choice. First, readers must read descriptions of the same events, almost word for word, several times over as Poirot hears from each witness in turn. These conversations and events are not sufficiently fascinating to make this enjoyable. Second, in many of these interviews, there is a definite detachment to the narrative due to the amount of time that has passed. Despite the tempestuous nature of the husband/wife relationship this makes for a story that has no real emotional core. Third, a lot of the natural interplay between characters is lost and the worst casualty in this regard in Poirot himself. I always love his little observations and interjections during a case. These often come in moments of high tension and his humor is all the more effective at those times. But in these formal interviews, most of the opportunities for his little asides are lost and what is here lacks the usual bite.

Overall, I didn't find Five Little Pigs to be one of Agatha Christie's better efforts. The decision to place the murder sixteen years in the past was an interesting one but it robbed the story of a lot of its impact. This book also sports one of her weaker casts. The two most interesting characters (the victim and murderess) are present only in narrative provided by others and lose a great deal of their vitality in the process. Granted, this is not Christie's worst novel and it is still an adequate read. But I would recommend this book to true fans and not to first time readers. Hercule Poirot appeared in some truly great novels, but this is not one of them.

I love the Agatha Christie mysteries and the wonderful characters Poirot and Marple. However, I was disappointed in Five Little Pigs. It is dated and stale. The characters are overly caricatured and unreal and uninteresting, except for Poirot himself. The mystery is okay, but not up to Christie standards, and not really suspenseful. Soon after reading this one I read Death on the Nile and this great tale reaffirmed my faith in Agatha Christie. gcm

I love Hercule Poirot mysteries and admire Agatha Christie for creating such diverse characters and situations. Always delighted to find one that I have not yet read and Five Little Pigs was one of these.

If you like Hercule Poirot you will enjoy this mystery. I read all the Hercule Mysteries over again and this one is one of those. This book might be more enjoyable if you are already a fan of Hercule.