REVIEW: Evil Under the Sun

 Evil Under the Sun
Author: Agatha Christie 

Evil Under the Sun is a Hercule Poirot mystery first published as a serial in Collier's Weekly in December 1940. It appeared in novel format in the both UK and US in 1941. 

I'm working my way through all of Agatha Christie's writings in publication order. Taking my time, and enjoying myself, so this endeavor may take me a good long while to complete!

As usual, I read an old paperback copy from my shelves while listening to an audio book. It's enjoyable to have the story read to me, I can look for changes in the text, and any French or other foreign words are pronounced correctly by the audio book narrator, rather than being totally mangled in my head as I read. :) 

My paperback copy (pictured above) is from 1975 (Pocket Books, $1.50). It's in relatively good shape for being 50 years old. The pages are brown with age, but the spine is nicely intact. Despite this, once I've read the book, I'm going to recycle it.  I have owned this paperback for years. It has moved here and there with me, but I never read this copy in all that time. I've read this book before, but it was a library copy and not the old paperback taking up space on my bookshelves. Now that I live in an apartment, and look to downsize in a couple years, my shelf space is at a premium. So, I'm reading these old paperbacks and then letting them go. The audio book version I listened to is from HarperAudio (2012, narrated by David Suchet, about 6.5 hours long -- very thankful for my local library and Hoopla!!)

Now, on to the story!

Although I had read this book before and watched the 1982 movie in the past, it had been long enough that I didn't remember the identify of the killer. The only thing I could remember is the murder happened at a beach resort. As usual, Christie starts out developing the characters and hints at the reason for the murder before the actual dead body shows up. There are plenty of suspects (like nearly everybody in the story lol) and lots of investigation by the police and Poirot. At several points I was pretty sure I knew who the culprit was....and then changed my mind....changed it back.....changed it again lol  Christie set it up perfectly, making me unsure who was going to be revealed as a murderer at the end. 

This is not my favorite Christie mystery, but was a very enjoyable classic Christie whodunnit. The pacing was perfect. The book kept my attention from start to finish. 

I feel so sorry for Poirot. Every time he tries to go on vacation, someone has to commit a murder and ruin his trip!!

This novel has been adapted several times:

BBC Radio 4 - In 1999, BBC radio presented an audio drama starring John Moffat as Poirot.  The story is 2 hrs 16 minutes long. Moffat does a great job as Poirot. This is a full cast performance with some well done added sound effects. Very enjoyable!

1982 Movie - Peter Ustinov stars as Hercule Poirot in this movie adaptation. As usual, a lot of changes were made (and not for the better), and IMHO Ustinov is just not right for the part of Poirot. The changes start at the very beginning and just muddy the plot of the book for no reason. As a big Christie fan, for me, the 80s Poirot movies starring Ustinov are pretty bad, to be honest. I watched this for Diana Rigg, Maggie Smith and Roddy McDowall.

Agatha Christie's Poirot - The long-running television show had a episode based on this book in 2003 (Episode 1, Season 8). The episode makes some changes such as adding in Captain Hastings, Inspector Japp and Miss Lemon to the story. All in all, a very good episode!

Les Petits Meurtres de Agatha Christie - A French television series aired an episode based on this story. Many changes were made to the characters, the setting and some minor plot changes. The main plot points are followed relatively closely, however.

Video game - In 2007, The Adventure Company released a PC video game based on this story. Captain Hastings features as the player's character in the game, even though Hastings is not in the actual novel. 

I'm almost to Agatha's second Jane Marple novel!!! I read Murder at the Vicarage in 2020 and have been wanting more Miss Marple ever since!  Just one more book to go....  N or M (a Tommy and Tuppence Mystery)   I already have the old paperback copy pulled from my bookshelf and I'm starting on it tonight!