After the Funeral

My first Agatha Christie novel, this has made me a fan! I immediately went to this website to buy more. The murders are splendidly confusing. The plot thickens. The characters are all suspicious but Poirot comes to investigate! He is magnificent as he acquires information that builds until the unexpected conclusion. So satisfying

What "improvements" have been made for the Bantam edition? There are already major differences in punctuation, word choices, and scene breaks between the original Collins (AFTER THE FUNERAL) and Dodd Mead editions of this novel. There are further differences between the Dodd Mead editions republished by Random House/Avenel and the Dodd Mead editions republished by Simon & Shuster/Pocket. There are further additions still in the Signet, Berkley, and Black Dog & Leventhal editions. For every publishing house putting out her works, there seem to be a new batch of editors altering Agatha Christie's words and the sound of her voice. What's the matter with these publishers? Whose voice do they think we want to hear when we sit down to a novel by Agatha Christie? And what will she sound like twenty years from now? It's frightening that her estate has failed to see the importance of guarding her words as she wrote them. Please tell me I'm not the only one here who senses that a crime has been committed.

What "improvements" have been made for the Black Dog & Leventhal edition? There are already major differences in punctuation, word choices, and scene breaks between the original Collins and Dodd Mead (FUNERALS ARE FATAL) editions of this novel. There are further differences between the Dodd Mead editions republished by Random House/Avenel and the Dodd Mead editions republished by Simon & Shuster/Pocket. There are further additions still in the Signet, Bantam, and Berkley editions. For every publishing house putting out her works, there seem to be a new batch of editors altering Agatha Christie's words and the sound of her voice. What's the matter with these publishers? Whose voice do they think we want to hear when we sit down to a novel by Agatha Christie? And what will she sound like twenty years from now? It's frightening that her estate has failed to see the importance of guarding her words as she wrote them. Please tell me I'm not the only one here who senses that a crime has been committed.

After the Funeral is a Hercule Poirot novel that follows a somewhat different structure from most. First, as the title suggests, the story only begins after the funeral of a wealthy man. When the relatives gather at the house afterwards, his sister blurts out that he must have been murdered even though he was known to be terminally ill and no foul play was suspected. When that same sister is brutally murdered the very next day, however, there can be little doubt that something sinister is afoot and this is where Hercule Poirot is called upon. Still, we don't see as much of him as we usually do. The suspects are scattered about England and a number of the interrogations are conducted by other people and reported back to Poirot. In the end, of course, Poirot gathers all the interested parties together and reveals the solution. Normally, I find that any Poirot novel suffers greatly when the Belgian is used sparingly. So I was pleasantly surprised in this instance that the other characters were sufficiently interesting to carry the load. The cast is pretty varied and I definitely found it interesting to see how they interacted with each other in the aftermath of these murders. The story generally moves along at a good pace though it slowed down a touch toward the end. The razor sharp humor that Poirot provides when portrayed at his best is largely absent here but the book doesn't suffer too badly. This is nowhere near the best Hercule Poirot novel but it certainly is a solid effort. I wouldn't necessarily recommend it to first time readers, as they would do be better served to start with one of the very best such as the The Murder of Roger Ackroyd: A Hercule Poirot Mystery (Hercule Poirot Mysteries) or Death on the Nile: A Hercule Poirot Mystery (Hercule Poirot Mysteries). But established Christie fans could do far worse than to pick up After the Funeral. It's got a strong cast and an interesting story that make it well worth reading.

Funerals are Fatal by Agatha Christie is my favorite Christie, even though it is one of her lesser-known works. However, it was my first Christie and as such, will always hold a special place in my heart for introducing me to the genius doyenne of mysteries. The plot revolves around the death of the wealthy Richard Abernethie, a death that no one though was particularly suspicious until Richard's somewhat dotty sister, Cora blurts out the question at the funeral, "It was murder, wasn't it?" This is a Poirot mystery and I remember when I read it the first time I was completely confident that I knew who the murdered was, only to find out at the end of the book that Christie had led me down the garden path by cleverly planting false clues, and I was completely wrong about who the murderer was. The best thing is, she had made those false clues so subtle, so unobvious, while at the same time planting other extremely obvious clothes toward yet another suspect. Here I had been patting myself on the back for not following the red herring and figuring out who the real killer, and instead I had fallen for a second, more subtle red herring. Several years later I read the book again, and I'll be darned if I didn't fall for the exact same trap the second time I read it. That is how much of a genius Agatha Christie was in developing her plot. She could lay false leads upon false leads and make it so subtle that the reader is convinced that s/he's out thought the author. So this is my favorite Christie book. Even if she did fool me twice with it!

I have read about 30-32, A.C novells (there is 55), and this is one of them that I enjojed the most. Why, you may ask...in this book, there is a brutal, murder,,,wich you all know, isn't all that common in A.C:s books. Actually the person who said "well he was murdered wasn't he?" (= after the funeral of a rich relative;Richard Abernethie) is found brutally murdered with an ax the following day. And she was known for such statements, (true, and/but embarrasing). Anyway Hercule Poirot is 2 investigate the case. The plot is very exciting, interesting, and the end unexpected and chocking. When will the next murder happen (if it ever does that is), - find out!