Boek

Zoek de moordenaar

Zoek de moordenaar

Auteur Agatha Christie
Eerste Uitgave1956
Uitgave1974
UitgeverijA.W. Sijthoff
Vormroman
TaalNederlands
Bladzijden187 bladzijden
Gelezen2003-12-26
Score8/10

Inhoud

De detectieveschrijfster Ariadne Oliver heeft op zich genomen voor een feest op een Engels landhuis een 'Jacht op de moordenaar' te organiseren. Ze vraagt Hercule Poirot of hij ook wil komen. Zogenaamd als extra attractie, maar in werkelijkheid omdat ze gelooft dat er gevaar dreigt. En haar instinct blijkt haar niet te hebben bedrogen. Als het moordenaarsspelletje goed en wel aan de gang is valt er een slachtoffer, een ècht.

Bespreking

A solid detective story

Miss Lemon, Hercule Poirot's "perfect machine", receives a telephone call from Mrs. Ariadne Oliver, the famous detective writer. Ariadne is busy organizing a murder hunt as part of a big charity event being held on the grounds at Nasse House. It seems that she is not completely in charge of the script of the murder, because people are constantly giving suggestions and hints on where and how to plan this fake murder. Ariadne truly fears that she is being used to hide a real crime that is about to take place and calls upon her old friend Hercule Poirot to sort things out. The famous detective finds all of this a load of silliness, but nevertheless starts to get a little curious.
Dead Man's Folly is a typical Agatha Christie mystery. The setting feels familiar, the characters are most of the time trying to deal with their past and the crime is as mysterious and complex as you can get. A generation conflict between the old folks and the teenagers is added to spice things up. As an extra bonus the reader is treated on a denouement is far from realistic, but is fair enough seen the number of hints you get throughout the story. The only problem that stops the reader from finding it out for himself is the enormous number of red herrings.
Noteworthy is that Nasse House is based upon Agatha Christie's favorite residence: Greenway house, the Devonshire home Christie occupied during most of her married life. The character of Ariadne is a caricature of Agatha Christie herself.
All in all, this book gives the reader a solid example of a good detective story.