Third Girl by Agatha Christie
Rating: 3.5 of 5 stars
Book Summary:
Poirot is approached by a girl who shared a flat with two other girls in London. She is convinced she is a murderer. With rumors of weapons and blood stains and no hard evidence can Poirot determine whether she’s guilty, innocent or mad?
Book Review:
Poirot being protective is my fave side of his persona.
I see I haven’t reviewed a Christie book in a long time, which is a shame and I’m all out to rectify it. She is one of my favorite authors – and with good reason. Her knowledge of human psychology, the way she can subtly lead you on – a master trickster. I know one must separate the art from the artist, but it is difficult for me in this case – I want to believe that she was a wonderful person too.
These are the kinds of books that I breeze through, and I’ve read so many of them, and yet there are always so many more to read. It will be a bittersweet day when I will have finished her bibliography. But then I’ll probably have forgotten the ones I read earliest and so I can start again!
Back to the Third Girl. It’s a good fun book with a different premise. It isn’t set in a country house or an exotic locale. Nobody has even hired him to do it. It is solely his concern and protectiveness towards Norma (the titular third girl) that makes him want to dig in and hold on tight to what comes up. This is the girl with the iconic “You’re too old!” dialogue. She’s ditzy and confused and not all there upstairs. Scatterbrained and absent minded. Is she being taken advantage of? Is this a set-up? Or did she really do all that? Who knows?
A wonderful story. I had guessed what happens at the end, and who the ‘bad guys’ were. However, I’m not sure if I’m just getting better at figuring it out, or if I’d read the book before and some dim memory was making its presence felt.
Either way, it was a good read. Something different than the usual Christie stories. Although there isn’t anything ‘usual’ much about her tales, but you know what I mean!