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Five Little Pigs (Hercule Poirot #25)
by Agatha Christie.
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Most people have other favourites amongst Agatha Christie works, often Murder Of Roger Aykroyd, or Body In The Library. I recall the latter, but need a bit of nudge for the former.
Then there are those remembered for the spectacular settings and the films - Murder On The Orient Express, The Mirror Cracked, Witness For Prosecution, Death On The Nile, .... and those are all remembered too, but for a different reason, the same that makes this one unforgettable, along with Sleeping Murder.
It's about heartache.
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Here, like in Sleeping Murder, it's heartache of a little girl grown up with the past a shadow, and a heartache about parents; sort of reflection across the adult-child bond, from Murder On The Orient Express and The Mirror Cracked, where its the adults in pain over a lost little one.
Here, like in Sleeping Murder, it's heartache of a little girl grown up with the past a shadow, and a heartache about parents; sort of reflection across the adult-child bond, from Murder On The Orient Express and The Mirror Cracked, where its the adults in pain over a lost little one.
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But what one retains in memory most from this, is the description of the last work of art by the famous artist, dying as he was painting the portrait of the young actress - and it remains so because of the solution to the mystery which no one thought existed, except the little daughter who was convinced for no reason that her mother didn't kill her father. And Poirot proves her right.
There was a reason the portrait was as arresting as it was for years.
December 28, 2020.
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