It took me an unusually long time, but I finally finished reading Murder is Easy (also published as Easy to Kill) by Agatha Christie. This particular novel wasn’t any longer than Christie’s other works; the reason it took me so long to get through it is the fact that I was incredibly bored by the entire thing. The characters, the plot, the murders… none of these elements were up to the standards I’d come to expect after reading 25 of Christie’s previous novels. But I guess an author as prolific as Christie is entitled to leniency for a few missteps during her career!
Plot summary (with possible spoilers): The novel opens with Luke Fitzwilliam, a retired police officer returning to London after several years spent in the Far East, stuck in a train compartment with a talkative old woman. The woman, named Lavinia Fullerton, tells Luke that she’s on her way to Scotland Yard to report a strange series of deaths in her village of Wychwood. The local police wrote the deaths off as the results of accidents or illnesses, but Miss Fullerton knows better. In fact, she knows who the killer is and knows who the next victim will be. She must get someone at Scotland Yard to believe her story so the murderer can be stopped in time.
Luke listens to Miss Fullerton’s story politely enough, but it’s clear that he thinks she’s just rattling on about a bunch of nonsense. He thinks nothing of the incident until a couple days later when he reads of an accident in the newspaper. Miss Fullerton was mowed down in a hit-and-run just outside of Scotland Yard. Luke wonders if the accident was merely a coincidence, or if Miss Fullerton was actually on to something and was killed because of what she knew. When he subsequently reads that the person Miss Fullerton identified as the killer’s next victim did in fact die, he decides she was right, and readies himself for a visit to Wychwood.
With the help of a friend, Luke is able to go to the village with a cover story. He poses as the cousin of Bridget Conway, the fiancée of Lord Easterfield, the most prominent man in town. Luke’s story is that he’s there to do research for a book on old time folklore surrounding death (or something like that), which gives him the perfect segue for talking about the recent deaths in Wychwood.
The rest of the novel then follows Christie’s typical pattern of investigation, clues, interviews, speculation, and red herrings, until the murderer is finally uncovered at the end. There’s also a bit of romance in this one, as Luke and Bridget end up falling for each other, prompting Bridget to break off her engagement with Lord Easterfield.
My Reaction: As I said, I found this book to be incredibly boring. I usually sit down to read twice per day: once right after lunch and once right before bed. I try to read as much as I can during those sessions so that I can get through my books in a reasonable amount of time. But with Murder is Easy, it seemed like I could never spend more than 5 minutes on the book in one sitting, which is why it took me more than three weeks to get through the whole thing.
One of the problems I had was with the main character, Luke Fitzwilliam. With a stable of beloved detectives like Hercule Poirot, Jane Marple, and Tommy and Tuppence Beresford at her disposal, I just have to wonder why Agatha Christie chose to create a new character for this book. In looking back over the other Christie novels I’ve read, there’s no question that the ones featuring recurring characters were 10 times more interesting to me than the ones featuring brand-new amateur sleuths.
Getting back to Luke Fitzwilliam, I never got a feel for what this man was like. I was completely confused about his age, because at first Christie describes him as “retired” after a long career in the Far East, but then she has him falling in love with the young Bridget Conway — while telling Bridget that Lord Easterfield was far too old for her. So how old was Luke, exactly? At the beginning, I pictured him as being in his late fifties or early sixties, but then I had to revise that mental image to accommodate for the love affair with Bridget.
Another reason I didn’t like this book was that there were far too many victims. One of the things Christie does best is give in-depth background information about the murder victim, which helps readers understand the motivation behind the killing. But the numerous victims in this novel prevented the usual profile from emerging, which detracted from the overall experience. Moreover, when the killer was finally revealed, I found her motive to be flimsy at best.
The bottom line here is that Murder is Easy is not a shining example of Agatha Christie’s usual writing style. I recommend skipping this particular title and going straight for the good stuff instead! (Murder on the Orient Express, And Then There Were None, Death on the Nile, The Murder of Roger Ackroyd, Murder at the Vicarage, etc.)
I told you last week that I’ve started watching Season 1 of Bones on DVD. Well, I’ve already watched 9 episodes in that time because I really love this show! It’s more or less a cross between Cold Case and CSI, which is cool because I enjoy those types of crime procedurals anyway. Plus, I think Bones has some great characters. All of them are likable thus far (which is rare in a TV show these days), and they all contribute some good things to each ep.
Last night’s episode of How I Met Your Mother was called Little Boys, and once again dealt with Robin and Ted trying to move on after their breakup. I can understand why we need to see Ted’s shenanigans in the dating world (since the show is all about how he meets his future wife), but I’m getting tired of all the time being spent on Robin’s dates. She’s had, what, 3 different guys in the first four episodes here? Enough already! Why not give Lily and Marshall a decent plotline once in a while instead?