Evil Under The Sun - Agatha Christie

Hercule Poirot is enjoying a well-deserved holiday on Smugglers’ Island holiday resort off the coast of Devon until the strangled body of glamorous actress Arlena Stuart is found. As Poirot becomes caught up in the murder investigation he discovers that nearly all the guests have a connection to Arlena. But which of these suspects, including her family, felt strongly enough about Arlena to kill her?

 

I really, really love Agatha Christie's stories and on my vacation I read quite a few. Evil Under The Sun was one of them. It is a Poirot mystery and it has a limited number of characters. They, the characters, come together at a seaside resort. With his particular interest in the human character, Poirot analises each personality and it's really interesting to see them through his eyes.

One person that stands out is Arlena Stuart, an actress who seems to captivate every male around with the exception of her husband. At present she is apparently involved with another visitor of the resort, a married man staying there with his wife. When Arleena is found murdered it seems obvious that the murderer has to be one of the guests. Several people have motives; Arlena's cuckolded husband, the betrayed wife, the unhappy stepdaughter... and there are more suspicious behaviours. Poirot has to rely on his little grey cells to discover what really happened and who the murderer is and he does that brilliantly.

I was quite surprised by the conclusion- I thought that there were some characters with a suspicious behaviour and a real motive and I kept thinking one or another had been the guilty one. The fun thing is that they were really likeable characters, I kept wishing that I was wrong and fortunately, regarding my guesses, Poirot indeed proved me wrong. This is a very suspenseful story, a real page turner, with lots of clues being given but you don’t really connect the dots till Poirot comes along with the solution. Loved it!

Grade: 4.5/5