REVIEW: The Murder on the Links

The Murder on the Links
Author: Agatha Christie

The Murder on the Links is the second Hercule Poirot mystery written by Agatha Christie and published in 1923. I'm reading my way through all of Christie's books in publication order. Ever since the summer I turned 9 and found a box set of Poirot novels at a garage sale, Agatha Christie has been my favorite author. I spent that entire summer reading about Poirot's little gray cells and fabulous mustache. :) Been hooked ever since! As I read each Poirot book, I'm hunting up the television version of the story. David Suchet is magnificent!

In The Murder on the Links, Poirot and his sidekick Hastings are on the case again. This time, Poirot receives a letter requesting his help....but his client is already dead by the time he arrives on the scene. Mystery women on trains, bodies buried at a golf course, strange secrets, local police who underestimate Poirot's skills.....this is definitely classic Christie.

I listened to the audio book version (Dreamscape Media, LLC) of this novel. Narrated by Charles Armstrong, the unabridged audio is just short of six hours long. I like Armstrong's voice. He reads at a nice pace, giving proper suspense and adding the proper personality and accents to each character. I have significant hearing loss, but was easily able to hear and understand this entire audio book.

I did have one problem while listening to this book on audio as I did housework and worked outside. Over the span of almost 100 years, some words lose meanings or fall out of common usage. My husband and son fell into giggle fits or smirks each time the book said something like "I know who the killer is, Poirot ejaculated.''  Sigh. One line that was something like "They stood by and listened as Poirot strongly ejaculated'' ... caused snorts and hoots at my expense. That one word was used frequently by Christie in this novel....and I had to listen to 50 Shades of Poirot jokes for several days. There were frequent comments about my listening to "cozy porn'' and a whole host of bad jokes. The more I tried to explain that the word also means to exclaim quickly or excitedly, the worse it got. Hopefully, in the next book she chose exclaim, blurt, blab, gush or reveal. :)

Moving on! The Man in the Brown Suit is up next ..... Colonel Race, 1924!