"Equal parts charming and ingenious, dark and quirky and utterly engaging. Reading The Monogram Murders was like returning to a favorite room of a long-lost home" -Gillian Flynn, #1 New York Times bestselling author of Gone Girl
Since the publication of her first novel in 1920, more than two billion copies of Agatha Christie's books have been sold around the globe. Now, for the first time ever, the guardians of her legacy have approved a brand new novel featuring Dame Agatha's most beloved creation, Hercule Poirot.
'I'm a dead woman, or I shall be soon...'
Hercule Poirot's quiet supper in a London coffeehouse is interrupted when a young woman confides to him that she is about to be murdered. She is terrified – but begs Poirot not to find and punish her killer. Once she is dead, she insists, justice will have been done.
Later that night, Poirot learns that three guests at a fashionable London Hotel have been murdered, and a cufflink has been placed in each one's mouth. Could there be a connection with the frightened woman? While Poirot struggles to put together the bizarre pieces of the puzzle, the murderer prepares another hotel bedroom for a fourth victim...
"Equal parts charming and ingenious, dark and quirky and utterly engaging. Reading The Monogram Murders was like returning to a favorite room of a long-lost home" -Gillian Flynn, #1 New York Times bestselling author of Gone Girl
Since the publication of her first novel in 1920, more than two billion copies of Agatha Christie's books have been sold around the globe. Now, for the first time ever, the guardians of her legacy have approved a brand new novel featuring Dame Agatha's most beloved creation, Hercule Poirot.
'I'm a dead woman, or I shall be soon...'
Hercule Poirot's quiet supper in a London coffeehouse is interrupted when a young woman confides to him that she is about to be murdered. She is terrified – but begs Poirot not to find and punish her killer. Once she is dead, she insists, justice will have been done.
Later that night, Poirot learns that three guests at a fashionable London Hotel have been murdered, and a cufflink has been placed in each one's mouth. Could there be a connection with the frightened woman? While Poirot struggles to put together the bizarre pieces of the puzzle, the murderer prepares another hotel bedroom for a fourth victim...
Reviews-
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Starred review from June 9, 2014
Hannah (The Orphan Choir) does a superb job of channeling Agatha Christie in this wholly successful pastiche authorized by the Christie estate. One evening in February 1929, Hercule Poirot is dining alone at a London coffee shop when a woman arrives who looks as if she had "come face to face with the devil." Poirot joins the distraught woman, known at first as Jennie, who tells the sleuth that no one can help her because she's "already dead," and that no one should search for her killer. "The crime must never be solved," she proclaims. Another cryptic remark Jennie makes before fleeing into the nightâ"please let no one open their mouths"âresonates with Poirot and Insp. Edward Catchpool, the Scotland Yard detective with whom he rooms, after two women and a man are found poisoned in a hotel near Piccadilly Circus, each with a monogrammed gold cuff link inserted in his or her mouth. The rest of the novel lives up to the promise of the opening, complete with dazzling deductions, subtle cluing, false endings, and superb prose. After the first chapter, Catchpool, who brings his own psychological baggage to the case, serves splendidly as the book's narrator. Lovers of classic whodunits can only hope Hannah continues to offer her take on the great Belgian detective. -
September 1, 2014
Hercule Poirot requires a rest for his "little grey cells" and anonymously rents a comfortable room not too far from his well-known address. The Belgian detective settles into his vacance with a new Thursday night routine--a light meal and two cups of Pleasant's Coffee House superb namesake. On one such evening, Poirot's rituals are disturbed by a terrified young woman entering the cafe as if all of hell is behind her. Thus begins a search for a macabre triple murderer who lines up the dead and places monogrammed cuff links between their lips. Edward Catchpool, Poirot's fellow boarder as well as a Scotland Yard policeman, begrudgingly allows the detective to lead the case. VERDICT Almost 40 years after Agatha Christie's final Hercule Poirot mystery, Hannah (The Orphan Choir), with the authorization of the Christie estate, has re-created the sleuth's voice and character as true to the original as anyone could. The egotistical little Belgian, interested in his "order and methods" and employing the "little grey cells" is back. Edward Catchpool is no replacement for the well-intended and captivating Capt. Arthur Hastings, yet fans of all formats of Agatha Christie and Poirot (the BBC TV series as well as original books, plays, etc) will delight in this new foray into the Christie canon. [See Prepub Alert, 3/3/14; see also Hannah's essay on p. 78.]--Jennifer Funk, McKendree Univ. Lib., Lebanon, IL
Copyright 2014 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.
- Washington Post "Christie herself, some might say, could do no better.... Enough twists, turns, revelations and suspects to cook up a most satisfying red-herring stew. Literary magic."
- Alexander McCall Smith, New York Times bestselling author of The No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency "Does Sophie Hannah's Poirot live up to our expectations? Yes, he does, and markedly so.... As tricky as anything written by Agatha Christie. The Monogram Murders has a life and freshness of its own. Poirot is still Poirot. Poirot is back."
- Tana French, New York Times-bestselling author of The Secret Place "Perfect...a pure treat."
- Boston Globe "Terrific.... uncanny. As Hercule Poirot himself would say, 'Bravo, Madame Hannah. Bravo.' "
- Laura Lippman "Sophie Hannah is a prodigious talent. I can't wait to see what she does next."
- Mathew Prichard, grandson of Agatha Christie "Sophie Hannah's idea for a plot line was so compelling and her passion for my grandmother's work so strong, that we felt that the time was right for a new Christie to be written."
- Gillian Flynn, #1 New York Times bestselling author of Gone Girl "Equal parts charming and ingenious, dark and quirky and utterly engaging...I was thrilled to see Poirot in such very, very good hands. Reading The Monogram Murders was like returning to a favorite room of a long-lost home."
- Charles Todd, New York Times bestselling author of An Unwilling Accomplice "Sophie Hannah's The Monogram Murders does Christie proud. Our favorite detective is back and in impeccable form!"
