I’ve been reading a lot of Agatha Christie books lately, but haven’t written many reviews of them on this site, so I thought I’d throw one on here today. I’ve been reading a lot of Agatha Christie books lately, but haven’t written many reviews of them on this site, so I thought I’d throw one on here today. I just finished Three Act Tragedy, a 1934 novel featuring Belgian detective Hercule Poirot.
Actually, I should qualify that last statement: although Three Act Tragedy is known as a Poirot novel, he really isn’t the lead investigator in the book. Instead, he puts in an appearance right at the very beginning and then again at the very end — and that’s all we get of him. The rest of the time, Christie focuses on three other characters: Mr. Satterthwaite, Egg Lytton-Gore, and Sir Charles Cartwright. Those three handle the preliminary investigation and then bring Poirot in to wrap things up.
The basic story is that two men are murdered in exactly the same way just a couple weeks apart. They were both murdered at dinner parties and both parties featured virtually the same guest list. Although the first murder was originally dismissed as a natural death, once the second murder took place, foul play was the obvious conclusion.
Satterthwaite, Egg, and Sir Charles work together to try to figure out who could possibly have had a motive to murder the two victims. When they get stuck, it’s Poirot to the rescue, and he of course solves the case.
I didn’t think Three Act Tragedy was all that great. I’m not sure why Christie would choose to have a great character like Poirot sit on the sidelines for most of the novel. I would rather have followed him through the action like usual than go through the investigation with the other characters. So if you’re a Christie fan and you want to read all her books, then you’ll have to fight through this one. If you’re just looking for a good mystery to read, keep looking!