Dead Man's Folly (1956)

I have always love detective stories from the old periods. Only i get muddled up in the words and references they make that either seems out of date or has been converted entirely.
Toilet actually also means dressing up.
A quote from Adriane Oliver:
“It's never difficult to think of things,” said Mrs Oliver. “The trouble is that you think of too many, and then it all becomes too complicated, so you have to relinquish some of them and that is rather agony. ( )

Ariadne Oliver’s intuition sets Poirot on a course for village murder.

One of Christie’s few classics from her later years, “Dead Man’s Folly” is a book that she clearly enjoyed writing. Ariadne Oliver sparkles, Poirot is written with a mix of satire and genuine affection, and the murder mystery – as with many of the best Golden Age writers – turns the bucolic atmosphere of a country fete into a bloodbath. Good fun, and a welcome respite for readers during Christie’s patchy later years.

Poirot ranking: 12th out of 38. ( )

We first met Mrs. Oliver in "Cards On The Table" and the mystery writer appears again in this book. She has come to a small town to throw a "murder party" for a local fate. She calls up Poirot because she feels that she's being cleaverly engineered into something, but she can't say what, but she tells him that if there is an acutal murder she wouldn't be suprised. Of course, there is an actual murder, but the real cleaverness of this book is how long Christie keeps you from looking at the obvious. Pulled me in from the start. ( )

Ok read ( )

Ariadne Oliver, the well-known crime novelist, is staying with Sir and Lady Stubbs at their home in Nassecombe, Devon, engaged to organise a murder hunt for the summer fete. Feeling that something isn't quite right and that someone is subtly manipulating her, she rings up Hercule Poirot and asks him to join her under the pretext of handing out the prizes. On the day of the fete the murder hunt takes a tragic turn when the young village girl who was playing the murder victim is found strangled to death, and the lady of the house vanishes without a trace, presumed dead. Hercule Poirot asks questions and inevitably is the only person to see the connections.

This is a highly enjoyable and rather complex murder mystery, where Hercule Poirot, rather unusually, doesn't immediately have the answer to the puzzle to hand. While the solution makes sense within the confines of the novel, it is – like the solutions in a lot of Christie's novels – rather far-fetched. There are plenty of red herrings, while the few clues are expertly placed. The atmosphere at the house is well executed, even if the characterisation is occasionally painted with somewhat broad brush strokes.

Some readers may find the liberal and casual use of terms such as 'subnormal', 'mentally undeveloped' and 'feeble minded' for characters of lower intelligence offensive, a clear sign that the novel has dated (originally published in 1956) and these are no longer acceptable. ( )