Hugh Fraser

Book Review: The Mystery of the Blue Train

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The Mystery of the Blue Train
Hercule Poirot #6
 by Agatha Christie
read by Hugh Fraser

My rating: 3 / 5
Genre: Classic mystery

I know I haven’t been the biggest fan of this series so far, but this one felt even messier and a bit more convoluted to me. Lots of red herrings and potential suspects are trotted out, there are conversations that amount to nothing, and in the end, the solution is a lot simpler than all of that set-up made it seem like it would be. I actually found the story interesting when the different characters are being introduced and I’m trying to guess who is going to be found dead and who would be the culprit. But the second half or so seemed to slow way down, and that’s where the filler came in. 

What’s funny to me is that while I was listening to this audiobook (narrated very well by Hugh Fraser), I decided that here is where I would end my attempts to go through this series. But afterward, I decided to keep going for now. I think I’m still hoping something will suddenly click and I’ll see what everyone else sees in these books. We’ll see.

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Book Review: The Big Four

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The Big Four
Hercule Poirot #5
 by Agatha Christie
read by Hugh Fraser

My rating: 4 / 5
Genre: Classic mystery

In some ways, it seems like this story would have been better suited to a different protagonist. The grand crime syndicate spanning continents is bigger than anything I’ve seen so far in Poirot books. That being said, though I can see that this isn’t a favorite of many other readers, I found myself intrigued by the connections throughout the book. It still felt like it went on a little long, with some minor crimes being thrown in that I don’t think were strictly necessary. The climax and sections leading up to it are, again, pretty grand and dramatic for this series, but since I’m not a Poirot purist, I enjoyed it. Hugh Fraser continues to be a great narrator, so I hope to be able to continue to listen to him going forward.

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Book Review: The Murder of Roger Ackroyd

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The Murder of Roger Ackroyd
Hercule Poirot #4
 by Agatha Christie
read by Hugh Fraser

My rating: 3 / 5
Genre: Classic mystery

All my life, I’ve heard of Agatha Christie and her most famous character, Hercule Poirot. As a reader of mystery novels all the way back to my school days, I always thought I was missing out on something by not reading any Christie, yet for whatever reason, I couldn’t bring myself to do so. Now that I have read 3 of her novels, and now one of the most loved of the Poirot stories, I find they’re a bit of a letdown. It seems to be a common theme for me when I read highly acclaimed classics, but it often seems like I’m missing what others are seeing. With each of these books, I realize more and more that there’s just way more story than I feel is necessary. I tend to zone out while I’m listening and then realize I don’t really know what’s going on. That’s my own fault, I know, but I think it’s mostly due to me not connecting well with the prose.

I do understand why this book is one of the most acclaimed Poirot story, and I’m not going to pretend I figured out the ending before we got there, but it was just a little too late to make the rest of the story more interesting. I’m also not sure how I feel about the blatant trickery Christie used throughout this book (blatant after the fact, not during). I do still think that Hugh Fraser does a great job narrating. I’m not giving up on the series yet, but I have a feeling it won’t be long.

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Book Review: Murder on the Links

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Murder on the Links
Hercule Poirot #2
 by Agatha Christie
read by Hugh Fraser

My rating: 3.5 / 5
Genre: Classic mystery

When Poirot is summoned to France by a man that is already dead when he arrives, he attempts to detangle a twisty mystery. This story threw me a couple of times. At least once, I thought the mystery was solved, only for it to take another turn. I don’t know if that’s because I was listening to the audiobook and maybe missed something or if they were intentional twists. There were so many potential answers to the mystery that seemed to be real and then were later shown to be false, though, that I’m certain I will look back on this story and either not be able to remember who the actual culprit was or remember it wrong. I’m also not a fan of the insta-love trope that happens with Hastings in this book. It’s a bit of a stretch to believe that this woman made such a big impression on him in the small interaction they had, though it weirdly seems to be a common trope in fiction written in this general time period.

I listened to the audiobook narrated by Hugh Fraser and thought he did a great job. I don’t know that I’ll read this entire series in the end, but I certainly plan to keep going.

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Book Review: The Mysterious Affair at Styles

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The Mysterious Affair at Styles
Hercule Poirot #1
 by Agatha Christie
read by Hugh Fraser

My rating: 4 / 5
Genre: Classic mystery

This is the first Agatha Christie book I’ve ever read, and now I’m wondering what took me so long, especially since I’ve been a fan of mystery books all my life. I think when I was younger, I figured older books would just be boring, but as an adult, I definitely appreciate the simplicity of books written or set in historical time periods. Though I think the narrator, Hastings, needed more development as a character, Poirot is an interesting detective-type character, and I look forward to getting to know him more. I had some theories about the mystery, though I don’t know that the clues to the true answer are really given to the reader. Poirot plays things pretty close to the vest, allowing Hastings, who acted as his sidekick, to go down quite a few wrong paths. Though some say it’s not the best idea to start with this book if you’ve never read any in this series before, because Christie was still figuring out who Poirot is or for other reasons that might keep someone from liking the series enough to want to keep going, to me, that just means it’ll get better from here. And though Poirot may have over-explained after the mystery was solved, I enjoyed the story overall. I listened to the audiobook narrated by Hugh Fraser and thought he did a great job. I’m looking forward to continuing on in this series!

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If you’ve read this book, or read it in the future, feel free to let me know what you think!