1956 Book Club: Dead Man’s Folly by Agatha Christie

Dead_Man's_Folly_US_First_Edition_Cover_1956

My Interest

I enjoy doing these Year-Book Club challenges hosted by Stuck in a Book. So fun to see what people were reading back then. I posted here about the books I’ve already read from 1956 (six years before I was born). I was able to locate a few books from this era to try. Happily, today’s book was even on audio.

The Story

A murder treasure hunt at the fete? Well, well! For the record, I absolutely loathe this type of thing in real life, but Dear Agatha makes it work and work very well. The former lady of the manor house is now a tenant. The new owner of the manor house is Sir George who has a wife who is either not-quite-a-golddigger or “rather slow and simple” depending upon who is asked. Sir George’s secretary is in love with him, so naturally loathes his wife who is the antithesis of her own competent, independent, and always efficient self. A long-lost cousin cruises up on a yacht. A mystery writer is in residence. So, which one of them murdered the Girl Guide volunteering as the “corpse” in the murder game?

Only Hercule Piorot could untangle a mystery that only Dear Agatha could write!

My Thoughts

Sometimes opinions in books outlive their acceptance. I was appalled by one conversation in which rape is a possibility and a man asks if she was an attractive girl. Sadly, people still think about this today. Another thing that “shocked” my modern, p.c., mind were ethnic slurs–very common in my childhood, but which I haven’t heard commonly used in at about five decades.

I loved the whole village fete at the Manor House scene though. Classic. The secretary had to be my favorite character perhaps because hers is the only life I could almost relate to. I certainly have nothing in common with a “Sir Anybody” or a man with a yacht!

Dear Agatha wrote such fun books. Perfect for the reading doldrums or a break from serious reading. Plus, I have had a renewed interest in returning to a long, long-ago goal of reading all of her books. It was fun to add another title to my “finished” list.