Third Girl. By: Agatha Christie

Time spent reading: 8 Hours 30 Minutes.

I was hankering for a good mystery and my hand invariably turned towards ‘Agatha’. This novel also has one of her favorite characters ‘Hercule Poirot’

Third Girl was Agatha Cristie's first work to be re published

Short Summary

The story is unique in the sense that the murder is announced to the reader in the beginning of the book but the investigation includes finding the crime, which happens late in the novel. ‘Hercule Poirot’ one of the recurring characters in Agatha novel is sitting peacefully in his study after solving a case, when a young lady is introduced to his presence as someone wanting his help. The girl presents an unique case in front of ‘Hercule Poirot’. She claims she has committed a murder or at least, she thinks she has but she is not sure. She looked like any other girl, from any other house, on any other street in the city. There was nothing special about her neither was there something wrong with her, only thing was she was a little frail - sickly. Before she could answer any of his questions or give further details, she ran out of the room yelling “You are too old”, “You will not understand. ‘Hercule Poirot’ brushes it off as weird anomaly, but his curious mind and instincts, coupling with the fact that he had no other case on hand drive him to investigate further.

Without revealing too much let me say that the journey takes us through three continents, two generations, the narrow streets of London along with a journey on a double decker London bus. The plot thickness and just as we discover the crime and the culprit is about to go. ‘Hercule Poirot’ swoops in and saves the day while protecting the innocent and making sure that the guilty are punished and justice is served.

My Review

There is a lot of trivia about this novel. This novel was written under a pseudo name and also was the first to be re-printed as all of the 1st copies were sold out. The interesting thing to me is the idea of writing a murder outside in. There is no body, no evidence or witnesses there isn’t even a hint of the crime, halfway through the book even the girl who came to ‘Hercule Poirot’ for help disappears.

One tiny twist after other the story keeps the reader engaged till the very end. The language is simple to understand, the timelines are easy to follow. Each of the characters are introduce gradually and all of them have backstories.

Set in 60’s London, the novel brings the city to life. Each scene is defined in details and the story grabs you and does not let you go. Such is the pace of the story that you will be find yourself reading the whole book with a raised brow.

The language is easy to follow, at no point was ‘I’ required to turn back the pages to try and retrace my steps or to understand the plot. This novel is yet another example of how to write a classic murder mystery with enough twists to make it a success from the Queen of murder mystery “Agatha Christie”