Customer Reviews

Endless Night

5 star:		(28)
4 star:		(10)
3 star:		(7)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

Critics tend to debate what era can most appropriately be called Agatha Christie's "golden era"--and there is much to be said for her work in the 1930s, the 1940s, and the 1950s. But like her earliest works of the 1920s, her later works of the 1960s are negelected. And in the case of ENDLESS NIGHT this is an oversight indeed.

ENDLESS NIGHT presents us with Mike, a restless young man who has drifted from job to job without seeming to find any true satisfaction--and a young man who is fascinated by "Gipsy's Acre," a plot of land in rural England said to be cursed by the Gipsies who once lived there and who were driven away. While walking the property, which has come up for sale, he meets an attractive young American woman, and a whirlwind courtship ensues. It is not until well into the relationship that the woman, Ellie, discloses that she is rich. And not just rich: she is the heiress to a fabulous fortune.

The two marry and hire a noted architect to construct the perfect home on Gipsy's Acre--but no sooner are they installed then the property's legendary curse begins to unfold. A local gipsy woman warns them of bad luck; rocks are flung through windows; a bird is found pinned to the front door with a dagger. And they are surrounded by Ellie's relatives and business relations, all of whom seem to have hidden agendas and none of whom like the fact that Ellie has been torn from their control.

Many Christie novels can be read in a single sitting, but ENDLESS NIGHT has an unusually slow build--and Christie defies her detractors, who often accused her of purely mechanical construction, by creating an atmosphere that collects into deepest darkness before the novel's startling conclusion. As she often did, Christie lifts a plot twist from a previous novel for this later tale, and those who have read her more famous books may spot the trick; even so, this is not a copy of an earlier work, for the device upon which the inevitable crime hangs is used in a remarkably different way, and instead of the neatly drawn crime-detection-solution path of most of her works, ENDLESS NIGHT is a multiple character study that gradually descends into a Hitchcockian horror. Perhaps the finest of her late work, and strongly recommended.

--GFT (Amazon.com Reviewer)--

I must be very careful with what I say for fear of ruining this book or possibly other Agatha Christie's for you. The reviews that are here have the potential to spoil more than one great mystery of hers. I suggest not reading any of the reviews on this page. Look simply at the average star rating for this book and go off of that.

To give you what you're looking for without comparing this book with others, I found Endless Night to be a fantastic mystery. It is the only Christie that I have read more than once. It's wonderfully creepy, although not a traditional "murder mystery." A few very well placed surprises catch you off your guard and make this one of the most original books she's written. I highly recommend it.

I also recommend that you move on to another web page. You've got to be careful when reading reviews of mysteries. Someone's bound to say too much, which is the case here. I strongly, STRONGLY urge you to read no further in these critiques.

Endless Night is not Agatha Christie's best mystery, nor is it ranked among the favorites by Agatha Christie fans. Judged by the standards of the genre it is easily dismissed, most commonly with a reference to her reuse of a plot technique she introduced many years earlier. But whatever it lacks as a mystery, Endless Night is among the best stories Christie ever wrote.

While Christie's own legacy may have precluded her branching out creatively, if indeed she had any desire to do so, her popularity afforded her over half a century to hone her skills as a writer. In terms of the depth of her characters, Endless Night is the pinnacle of her career. In contrast to her earlier works where a cast of stock characters are carried by a continuous stream of plot twists and (in most cases) the strong central character of Poirot or Miss Marple, Endless Night gives us characters than can stand on their own. The tragic central figure of Michael Rogers is illuminated by the plot not simply swept along as a piece of it.

At heart this story is not a murder mystery but a tragedy. Having purchased enough Agatha Christie books to fill three shelves I mean no disrespect when I say that I am certain that an element of her massive sales lies in the fact that most of her books are not ideal for a second reading, at least until sufficient time has passed that the details of the plot have been forgotten. But by 1967 Christie had matured as a writer and gave us Endless Night, a novel that resonates all the more deeply upon a second reading. It is no wonder that she listed it among her personal favorites.

The "Endless Night" is a fine novel written outside the famous Poirot series. Agatha Christie did a marvelous job on the setting and the main theme of the novel. The novel is a two-prong approach to a mystery/thriller and a mystery/horror. The reader remains wondering and awaiting for the murder and in the process attempts many guesses. However interesting is the setting, end is that much disappointing. I say this because as the reader ventures towards the end, the conclusion becomes obvious. But then again it is the case with majority of the novels by Agatha. I, therefore, believe that her novels should be read for variety of interesting ideas and past time reading rather than a nutcracker mystery. I am a fan of Agatha, especially when it comes to early 20th century settings and the adventures Poirot.

I do not link this book to others by this writer, but judge it on its own merits. The book is narrated by an intelligent and (moderately) educated working class man who becomes involved with a seriously wealthy and sheltered young woman. The book is a successful psychological study of this relationship but in the second half of the book mystery genre requirements kick in. I enjoyed much more the first half, which some have called slow, than the second, which some have called predictable. You should read this if you are interested in what it might have been like for both parties for a young working class man to go out with an heiress at that time when it was starting to become fashionable for young upper class ladies to go for a 'bit of rough', (some may remember the relevant Monty Python sketch), though Agatha's Christie's older generation take on this is inevitably about ten years out of date.

I can't say it's not a good book, it's a pretty nice book, gets your attention - this author knows what she's doing, that's for sure. But she isn't very honest with the readers in this piece. When you write a mistery book, you have to give some and hide some, but there's some stuff you just can't hide, otherwise the books looses its sense. Good book, but kinda disappointing.

"Endless Night" was written late in Christie's career (1967), yet it is one of the best things she ever wrote. The murder happens very late in the story, and Christie's ability to surprise her audience, even after fifty years, is as strong as ever. She does re-use old tricks (what magician does not?), but her sheer ingenuity is as evident here as in anything she ever wrote, and there is an atmosphere of evil about this one that Christie was not always able to create. Not to be missed!

One of Christie's later novels (first published in 1967) "Endless Night" was written well before her literary powers began to wane, and ended up being one of her personal favorites.

Initially "Endless Night" reads a little bit like a fairytale. Michael Rogers is a poor but ambitious young man who writes of his fascination for a stretch of wooded land known as Gipsy's Acre, said to be cursed by the gypsies that were turned off it (and is in fact based on a real legend of a similarly named patch of land in Wales). A chance meeting with a beautiful young woman under the fir trees leads to a whirlwind romance, an elopement, and the revelation that she is in fact a very wealthy heiress. Suddenly all of Michael's dreams are within his reach, and together he and Ellie build their dream house on Gipsy's Acre.

But from the very first page of his narrative, Michael makes it clear that disaster is on the horizon. It is impossible to say much more without giving away the entire book, (even the identity of the murder victim should be kept under wraps) but "Endless Night" ends up being one of Christie's most haunting novels, and certainly the best of her late work.

Readers who are ploughing through Christie's books in chronological order (or who are at least familiar with her writing) may recognize some of the techniques she utilizes in order to shape the plot. There is one plot device in particular that she has used to great effect in the past, and some long-time readers may pick up on it as they read. However, even if one does figure it out, the realization does little to sully the enjoyment of the story; if anything, it simply makes the slow build-up even more disturbing.

But the story is unique in other ways. With a deft hand Christie ramps up the suspense by leaving the murder until quite late in the story, and there is no "detective" character whatsoever. Instead the cast is relatively small, with only a small pool of suspects made up of Ellie's extended family and a few locals. Where most of her characters are usually stereotypes, here they are given life and relationships that come before the needs of the plot, a result of "Endless Night" being more of a character study than a whodunit.

It is quite different in tone and structure from her usual work, and the atmosphere is impeccable. It's creepy and forbidding, with an almost gothic ambiance to it thanks to the gypsy folklore and isolated country setting. Dread permeates every word, and I actually felt physically cold when reading it. I'd recommend a hot drink and a warm blanket if reading on a winter's night.

The less you know about "Endless Night", the more enjoyable your read will be. As such, be very careful perusing some of these reviews, as I'm sure at least some of them will give the game away, even if it's just by referencing other Christie novels. With its slow burning setup and devastating dénouement, "Endless Night" is easily one of my favorite Christies, as well as one of her strongest works.

If I could use one word to describe the overall tone of this book, it would be...haunting. And in the end, disturbing. But oh so worth the read! I won't bore you with the details of the plot, but trust me. This book will stay with you long after you read it. It's definitely not in the same vein as Christie's other works, but perhaps all the more brilliant for it. A must read, if you are a fan of mystery novels in any sense.

This mystery is a small masterpiece. Though it doesn't feature Christie's beloved detectives, Miss Marple and Hercule Poirot -- in fact, it doesn't have a detective in it at all--it's a stunning depiction of what M. Poirot is fond of calling "the psychology" of a murderer. This isn't a book to begin with if you've never read any Christie, but if you're already a fan, it's definitely worth a read. (Christie, in her own quiet way, was also quite a social commentator, and this book, along with some of her others written in this period, will show you what she thought of the "sixties.")