Customer Reviews

there is a Tide

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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 (TAKEN AT THE FLOOD) and Dodd Mead (THERE IS A TIDE) 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.

This Agatha Christie novel has a deliciously complex plot with the usual twists and turns which are uncovered by the inimitable Hercule Poirot. A young woman named Rosaleen has married a man named Underway. Upon Underway's death, Rosaleen remarries a wealthy man named Gordon Cloade. He dies two weeks after the marriage, which makes Rosaleen a very wealthy widow indeed. She and her brother come to take over Cloade's home and fortune, much to the dismay of Cloade's family who have lost a fortune to her. Soon a man comes to town and claims that Rosaleen's first husband, Underway, is not dead, meaning Rosaleen is still married to him and so should not inherit Cloade's fortune. People begin to die and one of the Cloade men asks for Hercule Poirot's help in solving the mystery. Poirot interviews the people involved, gets his little gray cells working and puts together the puzzle to solve the murders. This is another wonderful book by the world's most famous mystery author.

This 1948 novel opens as Poirot taking refuge in a London Club tries to take his mind off the bombing going on outside by listening to the club bore tell another of his endless stories. Years later the story and the bore re-enter Poirot's life, leaving the detective to sort out past fiction from fact to solve more recent murders.

The Cloade family had always relied on Uncle Gordon and his money to make their lives more comfortable. In post war England life was no longer comfortable and they needed Uncle Gordon more than ever. Unfortunately for them Uncle has married a much younger woman, then died in an air raid without making provisions for them. Now they needed to ask his young wife and her brother (or is he her brother?) for help...or did they?

Surprise twists happen every few pages making what is seemed certain suddenly uncertain - rather like the post war turmoil many of the characters were experiencing. In typical Christie fashion though, all the clues are there for the reader to ferret out before Poirot reveals all.

I am fascinated by Agatha Christie's ability to create a very down-to-earth readable book with an imaginative plot and a touch of morality.
I had read this book before many years ago and did not remember "who-did-it", so when I reread it, I first read the last couple of chapters to find out who did it and then went back to the beginning in an attempt to analyze how she weaved the story. I couldn't do it: I became too engrossed in the story. Her plots are always fascinating and fast moving.
This book had a little more romance than most of her books, making it a little longer than her typical 50000 words, but it was not sticky or sweet.