Closed Casket - Sophie Hannah

Written by Sophie Hannah
Read by Julian Rhind-tutt
Format: MP3
Bitrate: 64 Kbps
Unabridged

Series: Hecule Poirot Mysteries, book 2
Length: 10hrs 10min
Format: mp3, 64kbps, stereo, chapters
Publisher: HarperCollins, Sept 2016

Hannah’s second estate-sanctioned addition to Agatha Christie’s Hercule Poirot finds the brilliant, amusingly self-centered Belgian sleuth in 1929, attending a house party from hell.

Neither he nor Scotland Yard Insp. Edward Catchpool, the novel’s thoughtful narrator and Poirot’s friend, know why Lady Athelinda Playford has invited them to her County Cork mansion in the Irish Free State.

Other guests include Athie’s children, their significant others, her attorneys, and her ailing secretary. When Athie announces she’s drafted a new will leaving everything to her secretary, Poirot and Catchpool realize their presence is intended to keep the peace. Someone commits murder regardless, and the detecting duo must determine whodunit.

Hannah’s entertaining pastiche is brim-full of character interactions, back-stories, smart chat, and diabolical twists of plot, most of which Rhind-Tutt, performing as Catchpool, delivers in the cool, measured voice of a professional Yard observer. There are moments, however, when the inspector’s almost steely British reserve gives way to self-doubt, anger, sorrow, and even petulance, and Rhind-Tutt shifts his narration accordingly. As for Poirot, Rhind-Tutt’s rendition resembles that of the sleuth’s longtime television interpreter, David Suchet. A wise man doesn’t meddle with perfection.

Note – “Following the phenomenal global success of The Monogram Murders, which was published to critical acclaim following a coordinated international launch in September 2014, international best-selling crime writer Sophie Hannah has been commissioned by Agatha Christie Limited to pen a second fully authorized Poirot novel. The new audiobook marks the centenary of the creation of Christie’s world-famous detective, Hercule Poirot, introduced in her first novel, The Mysterious Affair at Styles.” —–from Goodreads