Book Review: Appointment With Death by Agatha Christie

Appointment with Death
by Agatha Christie

I'm terribly behind in writing up my book reviews. I'm going to try to catch up in the near future.

I'm guessing my regular readers weren't expecting a review of an Agatha Christie novel on RetroBrett. Surprise! Honestly, it wasn't something that was sitting on my to read list so picking it up was kind of a whim. Here's what happened.

With the birth of Jesse, the labor was induced. That meant it was scheduled and we had time to plan, pack, and prepare. I knew we'd likely have a decent amount of down time in the hospital while we waiting for labor to actively begin so I packed It's Superman by Tom DeHaven. With Jonah, it wasn't so scheduled. Oh, we had plenty of time to get ready but my picking out a book from my shelf wasn't a top priority. The plan, actually, was to grab a Narnia book but I completely forgot about it.

Anyway, we're in the hospital...waiting. I needed to run out for some lunch and contemplated a stop at Target or Barnes & Noble to pick up...I don't know...something to read. Instead, I opted for Goodwill. I knew I could find something there. I knew it would be cheap. And I knew stopping at a bookstore would overwhelm me with choices. I wanted something engaging but still something I could put down/pick up/put down/pick up/etc as needed. Something fun but still with some meat to it. I wasn't sure what I'd find. What I walked out with was this Agatha Christie book.

Now, I'd read Christie before but it's easily been a decade since. The book fit what I was looking for perfectly. I found myself wrapped up in the mystery. It easily passed the long hours of waiting at the hospital. And it was actually fun to read. I haven't read many mysteries so I don't know how it compares to others. Now, I'm not really one to play Clue with the novel. I don't try to pick out the culprit as I read. Really, I'm more along for the ride. This was even more the case when I was sitting in a chair, anxiously waiting for our second child to arrive. Regardless, it was a good ride...to be along...for.

Anyway, I really enjoyed the book. Probably the biggest testament to this has been the direct results of reading it:

1. I've since read another Christie book (yet to be reviewed).
2. My wife and I have gotten hooked on Poirot DVDs from the local library (I'll post more on this later).