The Mystery of the Three Quarters: The New Hercule Poirot Mystery (Book Review)

Title: The Mystery of the Three Quarters
Author: Sophie Hannah
Publication: William Morrow, hardcover, 2018
Genre: Mystery

US cover

Plot: The world’s most beloved detective, Hercule Poirot—the legendary star of Agatha Christie’s Murder on the Orient Express and most recently The Monogram Murders and Closed Casket—returns in a stylish, diabolically clever mystery set in the London of the 1930s.

“We Agatha Christie fans read her stories--and particularly her Poirot novels--because the mysteries are invariably equal parts charming and ingenious, dark and quirky and utterly engaging. Sophie Hannah had a massive challenge in reviving the beloved Poirot, and she met it with heart and no small amount of little grey cells. I was thrilled to see the Belgian detective in such very, very good hands. Reading The Monogram Murders was like returning to a favorite room of a long-lost home.”
— Gillian Flynn, author of Gone Girl

Hercule Poirot returns home after an agreeable luncheon to find an angry woman waiting to berate him outside his front door. Her name is Sylvia Rule, and she demands to know why Poirot has accused her of the murder of Barnabas Pandy, a man she has neither heard of nor ever met. She is furious to be so accused, and deeply shocked. Poirot is equally shocked, because he too has never heard of any Barnabas Pandy, and he certainly did not send the letter in question. He cannot convince Sylvia Rule of his innocence, however, and she marches away in a rage.

Shaken, Poirot goes inside, only to find that he has a visitor waiting for him — a man called John McCrodden who also claims also to have received a letter from Poirot that morning, accusing him of the murder of Barnabas Pandy...

Poirot wonders how many more letters of this sort have been sent in his name. Who sent them, and why? More importantly, who is Barnabas Pandy, is he dead, and, if so, was he murdered? And can Poirot find out the answers without putting more lives in danger?

Audience: Fans of Agatha Christie, of the traditional English mystery, the Golden Age of Detective Fiction

Purchase Links: Barnes & Noble * Amazon * IndieBound * HarperCollins

I prefer the UK cover, don't you?

My Impressions: Sophie Hannah is a poet and well known crime writer in her own right, and I have now learned she is the daughter of Adele Geras, who has written a number of young adult novels based on fairy tales that I found compelling and disturbing. Several years ago, Hannah was tapped by the Agatha Christie estate to pen some new Hercule Poirot stories and this is the third one she has produced. Poirot, the finicky Belgian detective, is assisted in Hannah’s three books by a Scotland Yard detective, Edward Catchpole. The actual crime is a sort of variation of the locked room mystery, in which a crime is committed under circumstances that are almost impossible.

While Miss Marple was known for solving crimes by using her knowledge of human nature, Monsieur Poirot is skilled at unravelling puzzles and he does not fail us here. Hannah creates a large number of plausible villains and Poirot, a show-off who always delivers, uses a multi-colored cake (the quarters referred to in the title) to identify the killer in this convoluted story. He is then able to summon all the characters together for one of those famous dramatic conclusions where he explains to everyone how he solved the case.

I read The Monogram Murders, the first continuation written by Hannah, three years ago and enjoyed it. This is also an entertaining read which Christie fans will enjoy. I was always a Christie fan but have not reread any Poirot titles recently: the one thing I felt was lacking in Hannah’s version was humor. Maybe I am wrong but I recall more of an amused tone in Christie’s work (some of the funniest books are her standalones like The Man in the Brown Suit – perhaps my favorite – and The Seven Dials Mystery). In addition, I found Detective Catchpole’s first person narrative disrupted the flow of the story and I would have preferred that his sections were written in the third person.  Two spoilers below:

Source: I was provided a copy of this book by the publisher and TLC Book Tours for review purposes. You can visit other stops on the tour and read the reviews by clicking below:

Tuesday, August 28th: Reading Reality

Wednesday, September 12th: Thoughts From a Highly Caffeinated Mind

Thursday, September 13th: Write – Read – Life

Friday, September 14th: Jessicamap Reviews

Monday, September 17th: I Wish I Lived in a Library

Tuesday, September 18th: 5 Minutes For Books

Wednesday, September 19th: Instagram: @jennblogsbooks

Thursday, September 20th: Instagram: @brookesbooksandbrews

Friday, September 28th: A Bookish Way of Life

Spoilers below:

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First, John McCrodden is portrayed as unclean and unattractive so I am unconvinced anyone fastidious and obsessed with appearance would have had an affair with him.  Second, there was no good reason for the letter Timothy Lavington received saying that his father was not dead – except that it was helpful for the typewriter aspect of the plot.   I wish Hannah had done something to make these elements fit her plot better.