Having owned this for over a year and not being able to get past the few couple of pages, I girded my leetle grey cell and finished it last night.

My review can be summed up in 3 letters…..WTF?

I’ve been a huge fan of Christie my entire adult life. Especially Poirot.

WHY did this happen? How did this happen?

I don’t know Sophie Hannah’s other work but I do know Christie’s and this iteration is a revenant without excuse.

The books are now Top Sellers and squillions of £’s earned by the author. Good for her. Why not try?

YET.

Ms. Sophie reminds me so much of Kate Mosse who exploded onto the Literary World with Labyrinth. Her book ,based on the findings found in The Holy Blood and the Holy Grail and then Dan Brown’s Da Vinci Code. All of them backed by high powered literary friends and colleagues because today’s book world never punts. They only back solid, sure bets.

Jeebuth. Dickens and du Maurier and Hardy and Dumas and Dunnett must be on the 1500rev Spin Cycle in their graves.

Hey. I’m not the only person who thinks like this.

But – I’ll give the second book a try. Catchpool has potential even though he is colourless and characterless here.