Evil Under the Sun - Book Review
Evil Under the Sun - AN IDYLLIC SETTING FOR THE PERFECT MURDER
Agatha Christie is rightly known as the Queen of Crime. As usual in this story you are kept guessing till the end about the
murderer and you get an unexpected twist in the end. I have many of Agatha Christie's books in my college days and in all
stories it the person whom we suspect the least who commits the crime and this story too fits the same category. Obviously we are lead to believe that the most obvious person does the crime and then some lies by some witnesses point us to one person whom we start suspecting as the criminal.
This is a seaside (very apt title Evil under the sun) mystery in a private (Smuggler's) island(near Devon) where our famous Belgian detective "Hercule Poirot" too is enjoying his holiday.
Hercule Poirot goes to Smuggler's island in Devon to spend his holiday and sees and smells Evil (under the sun) in the place.
Everyone believes that Poirot has come to investigate some case and are surprised to learn that he too is enjoying his holiday. They are of the opinion that Evil cannot be committed here in this lovely island. There is sexual tension in this seaside place when Patrick Redfern is attracted to Arlena Stuart(wife of Captain Marshall). Everyone pities Patricks's wife Christine Redfern. Marshall's childhood friend too is enjoying her holiday in the island. Linda, step-daughter of Arlena Stuart hates her step mother and involves in witchcraft.
The wordings at the back of the book go like this:
"It was unusual to find the beautiful bronzed body of the sun-loving Arlena Stuart stretched out on a beach, face down. Only, on this occasion, there was no sun.. She has been strangled.
Ever since Arlena's arrival at the resort, Hercule Poirt had detected sexual tension in the seaside air. But could this
apparent 'crime of passion' have been something more evil and premediated altogether? The alibis appear to be watertight in this bracing seaside mystery?"
The obvious suspects in this case have a perfect alibi and Hercule Poirot is surprised about that. He tries to solve the
puzzle by trying to fit into place the small clues he finds like scissors, a watch, burnt cardboard pieces,a bath(which
everyone denies to have taken one) etc and in the end he uses these clues to solve the case. When the police are of the
opinion of handing over the case to Scotland yard, Hercule Poirot solves this unsolvable mystery by connecting this murder
with previous murders of the similar type (the suspects have perfect alibi).
This is a must read for Agatha Christie fans. A thriller which you stop reading till you reach the last page. As usual Agatha Christie builds excellently on her characters and this books is a very good read.
This is a 219 page crime mystery. I spent around 3-4 hours to complete reading this book.
This is a paperback edition 1993 (reprinted thirty-three times).
I got this from my local library. Hope you will enjoy reading this book. Actually this is the second time I am reading this
book. It is approximately 10 years before I have read this book and to tell the truth as the story was unwinding, I could not
really remember who had committed the crime. Such is the mastery of Agatha Christie's novel.
In Amazon this book costs £4.79.
In the cover page, is the picture of a bronze tanned girl with beautiful blue eyes and blue swim suit with a background of an overhanging cliff and clear blue sky.
