Five Little Pigs by Agatha Christie
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
**4.5-stars rounded up**
Five Little Pigs is the 25th installment in Christie’s beloved Hercule Poirot series, but as you most likely know, these books can be read in any order.
In this one, Poirot is approached by a beautiful young lady, Carla Lemarchant, who when she was only 5-years old had her entire life upturned.
Her mother, Caroline Crale, was accused and subsequently found guilty of killing her husband, Carla’s father, Amyas, an up-and-coming artist with an eye for the ladies.
After her father was killed and her mother imprisoned, little Carla was whisked away to Canada to live with relations.
Growing up she had no real memory of her life before she set foot on Canadian soil, but recently, on her 21st-birthday, Carla received a letter written by her mother, now long deceased, proclaiming her innocence.
Carla returns to the U.K. and seeks out Poirot to implore him to look into the case. It’s been 16-years since the incident took place, but Poirot is intrigued.
Poirot assures Carla he will do his best, but it could be a tough nut to crack. Cold cases are so much more difficult. Nevertheless, Poirot sets to his task with great vigor, interviewing those involved and narrowing it down to five main suspects.
He’ll leave no stone unturned as he craftily pulls together the players from past and tries to reveal the truth behind the shocking death of Amyas Crale.
I loved this one and not just because I solved it!
I loved that everything included here was necessary to get to the bottom of the ‘whodunit’. There was absolutely no BS. Agatha developed a great little mystery within these pages.
It has a bit of an unconventional format, reading more like a case file than a novel. It’s like Christie was actually challenging Readers to solve it alongside Poirot.
I enjoyed that; how it didn’t necessarily follow her traditional format, although it did still have a lot of the classic features familiar to long-time Christie Readers.
Out of all the Christie’s I’ve read, I think this has got to be in my top 5. I enjoyed it that much.
If you haven’t read this one yet, but love the feel of a classic whodunit story, you really should check this out. Have your notebook, magnifying glass and pipe at the ready!
