BOOK OF THE MONTH MARCH 2015 - FIVE LITTLE PIGS

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This month we have chosen Five Little Pigs as our Book of the Month as Agatha Christie's former holiday home, Greenway Estate, is opening its doors for the season this week.

Whether you are reading the book for the first time or re-reading, share your thoughts on it here with other readers.

Tommy_A_Jones

I find this book, average, Good but not great.

tudes

I like this book a lot. I read it four times and each time I like it much more than the first time. I think the idea of solving a crime that took place sixteen (I think) years earlier is amazing and I enjoy a lot how Poirot puts together all pieces of the puzzle.

Tommy_A_Jones

I do like the Cold Case aspect.

maryamalbulushi

Guess what?!! I finally bought this book I am so happy but currently I am reading a murder is announced

LeopoldoAtila

I will read it. I hope enjoying it.

tudes

Guess what?!! I finally bought this book I am so happy but currently I am reading a murder is announced

Two amazing books! I wish you like both of them!

Tommy_A_Jones

A Murder Is Announced is an Excellent Book, ENJOY :-)

tudes

Besides the cold case aspect, I also like the characters. They seem very real. They wish something and they can never reach it. And their lives were marked not only by the murder, but also by their unsatisfactory (and sometimes painful) life. In general, they're a bit "tragic".

SPOILER:

For instance, Elza murdered her lover and she has never been discovered until Poirot solves the crime. Besides, Caroline was considered the culprit. But, Elza never felt alive again. She has suffered for all these years even having commited a "perfect crime" (until Poirot shows up, of course).

maryamalbulushi

I enjoyed it ,it was worth it I finished the book in 2 days but I pissed off at the end it's like no one but that tiny group knew that elza is the murderer and she refused to admit it in front of the law ,also I felt very sorry about Mr. and Mrs. cril ( I don't know the spelling because I read it in Arabic) :-(

Daphne

In his last interview with Angela, Poirot deduced that she had been reading a life of Goguen prior to the murder. This never comes up again. Is there a reference or an inference that I am missing?

LeopoldoAtila

I liked the book. I don't think it was amazing, but nice.

TuppenceBeresford

I really love this book. It's one of my favourites but not for the reasons I usually love crime fiction.

I suppose all murder mysteries are tragedies because someone does, usually but not always someone who is loved. I'm usually more interested in the murder and the murderer than the people who are left behind. But this is the one that has really stood out as being genuinely heartbreaking. It's too late to save Caroline. Caroline died believing her sister was a murderer - and you can only imagine how that makes Angela feel. The governess knowing too late that she could have saved Caroline. A whole group of people, some of whom have moved on to an extent but all forever damaged. 

Tommy_A_Jones

I had never thought of that side of it, I will think of the book in a different way now next time I read it Thank you Tuppence Beresford.

ChristieFanForLife

Five Little Pigs is one of my absolute favorite A.C. mysteries and not just for the mystery aspect of it but for the writing itself which is beyond your ordinary A.C. mystery. It has such beautiful prose and for me who write stories, the writing in that book is something that I really aspire to reach for. The  story is not only like a tragic Shakespearean play but the writing sparkles and it's very poetic. I can tell a beautiful line(s) of narrative and Five Little Pigs has it.  

What are some of your favorite lines of narrative in the story? 

Griselda

I like the references to youth in Romeo and Juliet. AC is spot on, in my opinion, in her analysis of the selfish passion of the young. She knew a man on whom she based Amays, didn't she? I suppose it is the way in which he behaved on which the whole story hinges.

ChristieFanForLife

Griselda said:

I like the references to youth in Romeo and Juliet. AC is spot on, in my opinion, in her analysis of the selfish passion of the young. She knew a man on whom she based Amays, didn't she? I suppose it is the way in which he behaved on which the whole story hinges.

Seems as if Amyas Crale could be based on Agatha Christie's first husband Archie Christie......coincidentally the character shares the same initials as him. Coincidence? I don't believe so. But the thing is, with Amyas Crale, he still stayed with his wife, whereas, Archie Christie didn't. 

Griselda

Interesting. Even though they did not behave in the same way, they may have shared the same characteristics. I shall enjoy re-reading the novel with this interpretation of the initials in mind.

ChristieFanForLife

I've been leafing through John Curran's volume of Agatha Christie's Secret Notebooks and looked through it to read an entry on Five Little Pigs. I sat there thinking that Five Little Pigs is so beautifully written and the characters so wonderfully drawn and I wondered how long it took for her to conceive of this plot. Well, Agatha Christie was already an established writer at the time, already produced a massive body of work. You would think that her ideas for Five Little Pigs just flawlessly sprouted into the air at the first moment and didn't take much effort and thought. Well, I was wrong. In his book, John Curran said, "It was a long and frustrating process before she arrived at the masterly plot. It is not until 60 pages into the plotting that the plot she eventually used took serious shape. Before that, she had considered a different murder method, a different murderer, and different suspects; in fact, a different story altogether." 

Oddly, this encourages me because right now I'm working on a story idea and it's been growing and growing but I'm kind of at a roadblock with it. Well if it takes time for an established writer like Agatha Christie to pull through to a satisfying plot, I don't have to beat myself up for not getting it right the first time. It takes trial and error and eventually you'll come to a great, satisfying plot --you'll come to one that will click. And fortunately for Agatha, she didn't jump on the first crop of ideas that she had in her mind or else we wouldn't have had a masterpiece such as Five Little Pigs.

Griselda

What is the sticking point in your story - is it the means of doing it, or how to make it puzzling enough? That is, if it is a mystery.

ChristieFanForLife

@Griselda: it's a mystery/suspense. It's not your routine mystery with a detective looking around for clues. How about I private message you with the details.

Griselda

How can we share messaging addresses? 

ChristieFanForLife

On the top page in the upper right hand corner you'll see your name, and then you'll see three tiny icons. One is a globe icon, the second one is an envelope with an arrow pointing in the middle. Click on that 2nd icon and you'll see my message in there. 

Griselda

I got it sent to my email, thank, ChristieFanForLife, and replied on a link added. I though you'd sent it to my email - hope I did it right. 

Ajisai

I just read this book recently and it's one of my favorites now.

ChristieFanForLife

@Ajisai, it's such a poignant, beautifully written book and you'd think that she spun this story on the first try but it took a lot of hard work and thought and it resulted in this masterpiece. In John Curran's volume of Agatha Christie's Notebooks which explores her thought/writing processes he said, "As the Notebooks reveal, the journey to the book we now know was neither straightforward nor obvious . . . . It was a long and frustrating process before she arrived at the masterly plot. It is not until 60 pages into the plotting that the plot she eventually used took serious shape. Before that, she had considered a different murder method, a different murderer, and different suspects; in fact, a different story altogether." 

Ajisai

ChristieFanForLife said:

@Ajisai, it's such a poignant, beautifully written book and you'd think that she spun this story on the first try but it took a lot of hard work and thought and it resulted in this masterpiece. In John Curran's volume of Agatha Christie's Notebooks which explores her thought/writing processes he said, "As the Notebooks reveal, the journey to the book we now know was neither straightforward nor obvious . . . . It was a long and frustrating process before she arrived at the masterly plot. It is not until 60 pages into the plotting that the plot she eventually used took serious shape. Before that, she had considered a different murder method, a different murderer, and different suspects; in fact, a different story altogether." 

That's impressive.  Thanks for the link!  The precise and unique characterization of the suspects, Poirot's thoughts, his almost crusader-like outlook, the revelations, and the fact that I had no clue whodunit (as usual!) is what helps make this a favorite.