Five Little Pigs: A Hercule Poirot Mystery (Agatha Christie Mysteries Collection) [Hardcover]

Agatha Christie (Author)

Book Description

Series: Agatha Christie Mysteries Collection | Publication Date: September 17, 2007

It was an open and shut case. All the evidence said Caroline Crale poisoned her philandering husband, a brilliant painter. She was quickly and easily convicted and sentenced to life in prison.

Now, sixteen years later, in a posthumous letter, Mrs. Crale has assured her grown daughter that she was innocent. But instead of setting the young woman's mind at ease, the letter only raises disquieting questions. Did Caroline indeed write the truth? And if she didn't kill her husband, who did?

To find out, the Crale’s daughter asks Hercule Poirot to reopen the case. His investigation takes him deep into the conflicting memories and motivations of the five other people who were with the Crales on the fatal day. With his keen understanding of human psychology, he manages to discover the surprising truth behind the artist's death.

Editorial Reviews

Review

“As usual, Mrs. Christie hoaxes us with a double twist at the denouement, and provides excellent entertainment.” (Punch (UK) )

“Agatha Christie never fails us, and her Five Little Pigs presents a very pretty problem for the ingenious reader.” (Manchester Guardian (UK) )

“A brilliant piece of detective fiction, in which character plays an important part.” (Daily Telegraph (London) )

“Straightforward bamboozling from start to finish.” (New Statesman (UK) )

“The answer to the riddle is brilliant.” (Times Literary Supplement (London) ) --This text refers to the Paperback edition.

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. Twenty-four of Christie's best whodunits are now available from Black Dog & Leventhal as part of their bestselling hardcover Agatha Christie Collection.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 256 pages
• Publisher: Black Dog & Leventhal Publishers (September 17, 2007)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1579127347
• ISBN-13: 978-1579127343
• Product Dimensions: 8.5 x 6.3 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 13.6 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (18 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #607,894 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Poirot on the way to find out the inevitable (3.5 stars)..., November 21, 2007

By 

Antonio Robert (Slovakia, Europe) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Five Little Pigs (Hercule Poirot) (Paperback)

... but it's almost guaranteed that, as always with Dame Agatha, you just can't see the inevitable soon enough but only in the last pages. The story is partly told in retrospect, in letters from those involved in the drama. The Great Detective is motivated to investigate a suspicious death of painter Amyas Crale, apparently a womanizer. At the beginning everything looks clear. But Amyas' daughter, although years have passed since the death of her father, is not so sure about the guilt of her mother, who was sentenced for the crime, and asks Poirot to help. This is one of the more psychologically-based Poirot novels, not too suspensful, but the ending is as surprising as ever and sheds a whole new light on the seemingly clear drama. And, as the title indicates, it's one of those Christie speciality novels where a murder takes place according to a nursery rhyme (And Then There Were None and One, Two, Buckle My Shoe are two other good examples of this).

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars A lesser entry in the Poirot canon, September 30, 2007

By 

Joseph Boone (Irvine, CA United States) - See all my reviews
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Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Five Little Pigs: A Hercule Poirot Mystery (Agatha Christie Mysteries Collection) (Hardcover)

Five Little Pigs follows Hercule Poirot as he tries to solve a murder from sixteen years in the past. A young woman comes to him and tells him the story of her parents. It seems that her mother was convicted of the murder of her father and died in prison a year later. The young lady was just a little girl at the time but she strongly believes that her mother was innocent and wants Poirot to prove it. Poirot then approaches the five key witnesses one at a time and interviews them about the events surrounding the murder to piece together what happened.

In some respects, this is a very typical Poirot novel. The murder occurs at an estate, there are a relative handful of people who could have done it, etc. But Christies attempted a major change in structure by setting the murder sixteen years in the past. I wish I could say that this was more effective but there were some very negative ramifications of this choice. First, readers must read descriptions of the same events, almost word for word, several times over as Poirot hears from each witness in turn. These conversations and events are not sufficiently fascinating to make this enjoyable. Second, in many of these interviews, there is a definite detachment to the narrative due to the amount of time that has passed. Despite the tempestuous nature of the husband/wife relationship this makes for a story that has no real emotional core. Third, a lot of the natural interplay between characters is lost and the worst casualty in this regard in Poirot himself. I always love his little observations and interjections during a case. These often come in moments of high tension and his humor is all the more effective at those times. But in these formal interviews, most of the opportunities for his little asides are lost and what is here lacks the usual bite.

Overall, I didn't find Five Little Pigs to be one of Agatha Christie's better efforts. The decision to place the murder sixteen years in the past was an interesting one but it robbed the story of a lot of its impact. This book also sports one of her weaker casts. The two most interesting characters (the victim and murderess) are present only in narrative provided by others and lose a great deal of their vitality in the process. Granted, this is not Christie's worst novel and it is still an adequate read. But I would recommend this book to true fans and not to first time readers. Hercule Poirot appeared in some truly great novels, but this is not one of them.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A Little Slow, But A Nice Deduction by Poirot, February 19, 2009

By 

Alan M. Polansky "Martingale" (Creston, IL United States) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Five Little Pigs: A Hercule Poirot Mystery (Agatha Christie Mysteries Collection) (Hardcover)

I have always been a bit torn over this book. The underlying plot and the solution and reasoning the Poirot comes up with is rather fascinating, but the retrospective format of the book makes it a tough read at times. I am a Christie fan, but this is certainly not one of her better books.

In this book Poirot is engaged by a young lady whose mother was convicted of murdering her father some years ago. The child grew up with relatives, and was too young to remember the incident at the time. When she comes of age, she finds out the "truth" and wants Poirot to clear her mothers name before she gets married. The reminder of the book is mostly composed of either written accounts of the murder, or interviews with the principal characters. The problem is that much of the information is almost given twice, in that Poirot interviews the subjects, and then has them provide a written account. The book moves slowly, and is really not very interesting even when Christie throws out some obvious clues. The one thing about this book is that the mystery is very solvable by the reader. I head guessed at least some of the major points before the classic Poirot wrap-up. I did, however, still find the final solution interesting and Poirot's reasoning interesting as well.

Overall, not a great Poirot book, but not a waste of time!