Three Act Tragedy by Agatha Christie Narrator: Hugh Fraser
Series: Hercule Poirot #11
Published by Harper Audio on July 3, 2012
Source: Purchased
Genres: Vintage Mystery
Length: 5 hrs 47 mins
Pages: 272
Format: Audiobook
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Sir Charles Cartwright should have known better than to allow 13 guests to sit down for dinner. For at the end of the evening one of them is dead - choked by a cocktail that contained no trace of poison.
Predictable, says Hercule Poirot, the great detective. But entirely unpredictable is that he can find absolutely no motive for murder.…
Three Act Tragedy is not a story I remember well – it’s been ages since I read it last. This time around I listened to the audiobook, narrated by Hugh Fraser, who just does these wonderfully. His characterizations are spot on and his pace and tone match the plot well.
The book opens with a dinner party. A retired famous actor, Sir Charles Cartwright, hosts a dinner party for local friends and some guests from London including Mr. Satterthwaite (from the Harley Quin stories) and Hercule Poirot. Of course, someone dies, but only Sir Charles and another guest, the young Miss Egg Lytton-Gore suspect suspect murder. Until a second house party with many of the same guests ends in a similar death, but this time it’s definitely murder – the police discover the poison that was used. Sir Charles and Egg convince Satterthwaite and eventually Poirot that they need to take the investigation into their own hands.
The plot is nicely complicated. We have a limited pool of suspects, since the killer had to be at both parties. Poirot doesn’t do most of the questioning or following up on leads himself, he leaves that to the others. There are several red herrings, but Poirot in the end gathers everyone together to reveal the killer. And the motives.
It’s not one of my absolute favorite Christies, but it’s solid and has a couple of good twists.
About Agatha Christie
Dame Agatha Mary Clarissa Christie, Lady Mallowan, DBE (née Miller; 15 September 1890 – 12 January 1976) was an English crime novelist, short story writer and playwright. She is best known for her 66 detective novels and 14 short story collections, particularly those revolving around her fictional detectives Hercule Poirot and Miss Marple. She also wrote the world’s longest-running play, a murder mystery, The Mousetrap, and six romances under the name Mary Westmacott. In 1971 she was elevated to Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire (DBE) for her contribution to literature.
Reading this book contributed to these challenges: