Evil Under the Sun: Agatha Christie

In this story, Hercule Poirot is on a holiday at the Jolly Roger Hotel, on Smugglers’ Island, Leathercombe Bay, off the coast of Devon. A beautiful, shallow, and self-centered actress, Arlena Marshall, is killed and the murderer must be one of the guests on the island. First the actress's husband is suspected. Arlena has been obviously dallying with a younger male guest. Or maybe it is the younger man's wife, mousy and pale compared to Arlena. There are many possibilities among the guests at the Jolly Roger Hotel, and Poirot works with the local police to solve the crime.

As usual for an Agatha Christie novel, this is a clever and entertaining story. There is a huge cast of characters and it is easy to get confused. The solution to the crime reveals a complex plan which surprised me. This was not one where I even had a clue who was guilty. I had plenty of favorite characters who I did NOT want to be the culprit.

I did like the plot of this book, and the holiday setting and the closed environment, but the emphasis was more on the puzzle than the characters or the psychology. I don't think it will be in my list of top-rated Poirot stories.

I read this particular Hercule Poirot book out of order because we had purchased the film adaptation starring Peter Ustinov as Poirot, and I wanted to read the book first. Ustinov is not my picture of the ideal Poirot but I still enjoyed him in the role. Several other noteworthy actors and actresses are featured in the film, including James Mason, Roddy McDowall, Diana Rigg, and Maggie Smith. The film version keeps to the basic story but does change some things from the novel. The main difference I noticed was that Poirot is pretty much the only investigator, at least at the beginning. The plot moves fairly quickly and dispenses with a few of the secondary characters from the book.

We bought the film of Evil Under the Sun in a set of three movies based on books by Agatha Christie. The other two movies were Death on the Nile (also starring Peter Ustinov as Poirot) and The Mirror Crack'd. My husband preferred Evil Under the Sun to the other two, and my favorite was Death on the Nile. Neither one of us was very impressed with The Mirror Crack'd, although it had some good actors playing many of the roles.

There are plenty of reviews and other opinions of this book available. I found the TV Tropes page for this novel (and the 1982 movie) very interesting. Spoilers are omitted but some of the tropes may point to the solution, so you might enjoy it more if you have already read the book.

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Publisher:  Pocket Books, 1963. Orig. pub. 1941.
Length:     183 pages
Format:     Paperback
Series:      Hercule Poirot, #23
Setting:     UK

Genre:      Mystery
Source:     Purchased at the Planned Parenthood Book Sale, 2017.