![]() ![]() For all its approximation to an Agatha Christie, the book actually bears very little resemblance to one. The failure to ignite him typifies the difficulty with The Monogram Murders. As conceived by Christie he is not a "character" as such, more an impressionistic sketch, but he has absolute vitality on the page and he has the quality of connection with the reader, which is at the heart of his creator's mysterious gift. Meanwhile, Hannah's Poirot does all the right things: chucks in French phrases, assembles his suspects in large rooms and basks comfortably in his own omniscience. This is an echo of the 1942 novel Five Little Pigs, in my view Christie's best, which reinvestigates a crime that happened in 1926. The murders take place in 1929, although the motive proceeds from events some 16 years earlier. The set-up is stunning: three corpses are discovered in different rooms of the same London hotel, each with a monogrammed cufflink placed in their mouths. So her book also conforms to the familiar image of a Christie. At the same time, however, she is required to act as a medium, to create the illusion that a much-loved voice can be heard once more. I had the idea that she would put a clever spin on the Christie template, rather than tamely fitting into it, and indeed The Monogram Murders tells a story of passion, revenge and guilt that could form the powerful basis for a contemporary Hannah novel. She is also a very modern writer a better one, many would say, than Christie. ![]() Her crime fiction is superb, her plotting a marvel of inventiveness. Nevertheless, I expected a great deal from the brilliant Sophie Hannah. The merit or otherwise of The Monogram Murders is irrelevant, in such a context. Rebooting her is akin to rebooting Doctor Who. The Agatha Christie estate held out so long against the trend for authorial regeneration that the fashion has become pretty tired, but that makes no difference to the fact that the book will be a sensation. More accurate, perhaps, to call this "brand new Hercule Poirot mystery" the publishing event of the year. T he blurb for The Monogram Murders proclaims it "the literary event of the year", which is pushing it a bit. ![]()
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