Which book have you found hard to penetrate yet worth persevering with?
This discussion was prompted by some interesting comments that arose on the "what are you reading now" thread.
Which Christie have you picked up, began, and found difficult to engage with? Did you persevere, and were you glad that you did?
Were there other off-putting factors, such as cover image or title, that made you avoid a certain book for a long time, only to find that when you did start it, it was well worth the wait?
I am going to start this discussion by answering the latter question: when I was a teenager I was given a copy of The Pale Horse. I did not want to read it, as my copy had a picture of a shrunken head and other various witch-doctor type paraphernalia on the cover. I was not interested in that subject matter at all, preferring the cosy English village style murders. I also thought the "Pale Horse" may have been some animal involved in the plot, when it turns out it is the name of the village inn!
Only a few years ago I finally picked it up and decided to persevere. I was pleasantly surprised that, even though there was a bit of hocus-pocus in it, it was actually a cosy village style murder with an entertaining and clever plot.
Comments
By The Pricking of My Thumbs
They Do It With Mirrors
Taken At The Flood
Sad Cypress
Ordeal By Innocence
With both The Secret of Chimneys and Third Girl I didn't finish Chapter one first time but many years later finished both books.
That is a shame, I think it is Great
I never abandon a book, no matter how much I do not like it. I really hated Death comes as the End. Until the middle of the book i forced myself to read it. But then the 8th murders saved the situation.
By the way Lucy G Lemon, the bulgarian version of the cover of The Pale Horse is also stupid and ugly. And I also didn't want to read it, but still it's Agatha Christie, so I've decided to start it. It's not one of my favourite, but still not so bad.
Lord Edgware for me too...I had hoped that with Poirot, a dinner party, lots of suspects, and an old English Manor it would be a book that would be great, however it just falls flat for me.
It often does take me a little while to get used to a new story and a new set of characters but this usually only takes a chapter or so.
Some take longer. I found Death on the Nile a bit slow to begin with, partly because I didn't like any of the characters but it's one of my favourites now. Cat Among the Pigeons improved once the teachers started dropping dead.
Then there are some that started brilliantly but disappointed me later like They Came to Baghdad and Postern of Fate, though the latter has some wonderful moments of comedy all the way through.