It was really fun to read this Agatha Christie in French! And the title was also beautifully translated…..
This book has one of my fave Agatha Christie tropes: murder in retrospect. We are looking back at a death that happened a year ago: a young beautiful woman seemingly committed suicide because she was depressed and alienated from her lover… or did she? Would Rosemary really drink cyanide in her cocktail?
A year later, and her husband begins to have doubts, rumours and poison letters start circulating, and her sister re-examines her sister’s state of mind leading up to her death. It’s a well written piece about how differently the victim was perceived by people, and the figure of Rosemary gets both more in focus and muddier as time goes on.
Things escalate with a second murder, and the investigation, led by Colonel Race and Scotland Yard, unravels a tangled web of relationships, secrets, and anonymous letters. It becomes a classic Christie puzzle of who loved whom, who was deceiving whom, and what really happened. In general, it’s a great meditation on perspectives.
I really enjoyed the characters in this one. Even though it doesn’t feature Christie’s most famous detectives, it still feels like a very accomplished and engaging novel. It’s dramatic, even a bit over the top at times, but that’s part of the fun. There are plenty of clever clues and red herrings, even if the final resolution is slightly convoluted.
Originally published in 1945 and expanded from a short story, this is the final Colonel Race novel, and it holds up well as an entertaining mystery.
It also includes another trope I love: couples who seem mismatched on the surface but reveal a deeper, more complex connection as the story unfolds. Christie is particularly good at exploring the contradictions within marriages, and that adds an extra layer of depth to the mystery.
Read if you’re looking for a glamorous Christie with an edge of romance and danger.
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