Evil Under the Sun [Import] [Paperback]

Agatha Christie (Author)

Product Details

• Paperback: 224 pages
• Publisher: HarperCollins; New Ed edition (1995)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0006170048
• ISBN-13: 978-0006170044
• Product Dimensions: 7 x 4.3 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 5 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (47 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #6,013,537 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Agatha Christie was born in 1890 and created the detective Hercule Poirot in her debut novel, The Mysterious Affair at Styles (1920). She achieved wide popularity with The Murder of Roger Ackroyd (1926) and produced a total of eighty novels and short-story collections over six decades.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

15 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Murder Never Takes A Holiday When Poirot Travels, May 3, 2001

By 

Antoinette Klein (Hoover, Alabama USA) - See all my reviews
(TOP 500 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Evil under the Sun (Hercule Poirot) (Paperback)

In this novel, Agatha Christie does what she does best: assembles a group of diverse characters on holiday, has one of them murdered, and provides the rest with plenty of opportunity and motive to have committed the crime.

Arlena Marshall is a beautiful woman known for her affairs with men, both before and during her marriage. While on holiday at the Jolly Roger Hotel on England's South Coast, she openly cavorts with Patrick Redfern while her husband and his wife watch helplessly. Tragedy is inevitable and few are surprised when Arlena is murdered.

What sets Christie apart from other mystery writers is the wonderful skill she exhibits with characterizations. This novel, one of her best in my opinion, is complete with many well-developed ones which make for a believable crime. Miss Rosamund Darnley, a talented dress designer, and Mr. and Mrs. Odell Gardener, the outspoken American woman and her long-suffering husband, are just a few of the many who fill this story. And of course, the famous detective Hercule Poirot also happens to be on holiday here at the time of the murder. Everybody is a suspect as voodoo practices, drug-smuggling, religious mania, and two murders from the past add intrigue.

The book was adapted to the big screen in 1982 with Peter Ustinov as Hercule Poirot, Dianna Rigg as Arlena Marshall, and Maggie Smith, Roddy McDowall, James Mason, Colin Blakely, and Jane Birkin also starring. A new made-for-tv version will air in 2001 with David Suchet as Poirot and Hugh Fraser as Arthur Hastings.

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars a great mystery, April 29, 2002

By 

Laura (Rhode Island) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Evil under the Sun (Hercule Poirot) (Paperback)

This book is set in a lonely seaside resort in England with a very mixed cast of characters, from the rich clothing-designer Rosamund Darnley to the garrulous American Mrs. Gardner to the beautiful man-chaser Arlena Stuart and her husband Captain Kenneth Marshall. Arlena's reputation of beauty and ruining marriages precedes her and indeed she does have an affair with young Patrick Redfern at the resort, despite his marriage to Christine Redfern. Therefore, when Arlena is killed, there is a long list of suspects: Kenneth Marshall, Patrick Redfern, Christine Redfern, and Linda Marshall (Arlena's step-daughter). Hercule Poirot, the famous Belgian detective, is at the resort and discovers the murderer in a completely unexpected ending.
I love the suspense of this book and the way all of the little seemingly insignificant clues eventually come together, leaving me amazed at the brilliance of Agatha Christie. I read this book in about two days because I couldn't put it down. This is definitely one of the best Agatha Christie books that I have ever read and I highly recommend it to anyone who likes a great mystery.

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Classic Agatha Christie Whodunnit!, October 5, 2004

By 

Lealing (London, England) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Evil under the Sun (Hercule Poirot) (Paperback)

The beautiful and flirtatious Arlena Stewart is holidaying in the South West Coast of England with her husband, Captain Marshall and her stepdaughter Linda, staying at the Jolly Roger Hotel on an exclusive island. There she carries out a not too discreet affair with the handsome Patrick Redfern, husband of poor quiet Christine Redfern. Amongst the hotel guests are an American couple, a retired priest, a longwinded army chap, a spinster, a female friend of Captain Marshall and Hercule Poirot.

One bright sunny morning, Arlena is found dead, strangled at Pixy Cove. Hercule Poirot and the local police are called in to investigate the matter. Could the jealous husband have murdered her or perhaps it was the long suffering wife. Could it be that Arlena was blackmailed by some unscrupulous cad? Could she have stumbled across a smuggling operation at the cove? Hercule Poirot fits the pieces of the puzzle together. Amongst the clues are a pair of scissors found at the scene of the crime, pieces of a green calendar and wax in the fire grate in one of the guests rooms, an empty bottle thrown out of a window, the sound of bath water draining from a tub at midday.

This is classic Agatha Christie at her best. The scene is set, the characters introduced, the clues planted. As always the reader wil be left wondering right up to the end of the book as to who comitted the crime. As with all Agatha Christie novels, there are as many twists and turn in the plot to keep you changing your mind as to the identity of the killer. Agatha Christie is always a joy to read and this is no exception.

Lea Ling Tsang