Third Girl (Hercule Poirot, #40) in Appointment With Agatha

Aug 17, 2023 Teresa rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: agatha-christie

Another good read in the Poiret collection. There are twists and turns aplenty. This one also has Ariadne Oliver and I love when she's in the stories! She's such a great character and deals well with Poirot and all his little foibles.
There is a tv adaptation of this but in this case the book is better.
I listened on audio and it was read by the ever excellent Hugh Fraser. ...more

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Nov 13, 2015 Obsidian rated it liked it

Well I admit I like the cover of this book. Some of the Christie covers by HarperCollins have been pretty great. Other than that, this was a pretty average mystery novel.

The character of Poirot has descended into even more pompousness if possible. After a young woman comes to Poirot saying that she has murdered someone, and runs away after realizing that he is old (yeah that happened) Poirot is aggrieved by the encounter. A chance phone call by Mrs. Oliver leads Poirot to figuring out who the my Well I admit I like the cover of this book. Some of the Christie covers by HarperCollins have been pretty great. Other than that, this was a pretty average mystery novel.

The character of Poirot has descended into even more pompousness if possible. After a young woman comes to Poirot saying that she has murdered someone, and runs away after realizing that he is old (yeah that happened) Poirot is aggrieved by the encounter. A chance phone call by Mrs. Oliver leads Poirot to figuring out who the mysterious girl is and who is it that she has murdered.

The secondary character of Ariadne Oliver who helps Poirot ferret out the truth has gotten less ridiculous in these books. What will always be really funny about this character is that she is a stand in for Agatha Christie. Mrs. Oliver writes very popular detective stories starring a Swedish detective. And just like Agatha Christie, criticizes her creation because she one hundred percent dislikes him. Frankly I think that is pretty apparent in the last couple of Poirot books where you have other characters criticizing Poirot either by how he looks (a very old man with dubious dye on his head) or that he has gotten rounder over the years.

When we have Poirot and Mrs. Oliver investigating this mysterious girl who is a third girl living in a flat with two other girls (a new living arrangement that started in the 1960s with young women living together into converted flats) Poirot and Mrs. Oliver seemed to have stumbled onto something dark and mysterious.

The writing was good, I did laugh a few times at comments that Mrs. Oliver and Poirot made of the younger generation living in London at the time. Apparently neither literary character were fond of people dressing as if they were homeless or dirty. And there were a couple of comments made about beatniks and the Beatles that had me laughing. One does feel for Poirot since his character seems lost in this new post War World II society. I am realizing that at this point Poirot has to be in his 70s or 80s. Reading about the drug using youth in England at the time was definitely interesting.

The flow was off though and I think that was because we had so much going on with an additional character that was plopped in (Dr. John Stillingfleet) and we had Poirot and Mrs. Oliver subtly interviewing people around the mysterious third girl.

The setting really doesn't come into play here. I always think that in most Christie books except for a handful she really doesn't play up enough about the surroundings the characters inhabit unless it is a house or train. I miss her locked door mysteries a lot. She seemed to take more care in planning them and making them plausible.

That leads to the lackluster ending. The last few Poirot books have been kind of annoying to me as a reader because Poirot always reveals something that it is not known to the reader. I think of it as a cheat, because if you had the same information you could have figured out who did it and why as well. That is the most fun part for reading these books for me. Trying to figure out the who and the why. As it was once again the plot was reduced to absurdity when you figure out the who and the why. And we have seemed to resurrected another plot element she has used in the last few books. Considering that there is only one more Poirot book to go, Elephants Can Remember, before Curtain, I wonder if old school Christie is going to pop up soon. ...more

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Nov 19, 2021 Lorna rated it it was ok

I feel terrible because I was enjoying the story throughout but the reveals were just too ridiculous and far fetched to rate it any higher sadly.

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Dec 03, 2018 Mike Finn rated it it was ok · review of another edition

Shelves: audiobook, crime-series, crime

"Third Girl" was a strange and dispiriting journey for me.

At the start of the book, I was pleasantly surprised at the contemporary (1960's) feel of the novel. There was much more humour in it than I'd expected but there was also more violence and a deeper sense of threat than in other Poirot novels I've read.

I loved the opening where Norma, (a young woman who is constantly referred to as a girl) interrupts Poirot's breakfast, insisting that she needs to talk to him about a murder and then leaves "Third Girl" was a strange and dispiriting journey for me.

At the start of the book, I was pleasantly surprised at the contemporary (1960's) feel of the novel. There was much more humour in it than I'd expected but there was also more violence and a deeper sense of threat than in other Poirot novels I've read.

I loved the opening where Norma, (a young woman who is constantly referred to as a girl) interrupts Poirot's breakfast, insisting that she needs to talk to him about a murder and then leaves without giving him any details, telling him that, having met him face to face, she can see he's too old to聽be able to help her. 聽This was a splendid inversion of the Philip Marlowe type of opening scene where the femme fatale uses her allure to get the hard-bitten gumshoe's help. It was also perfectly calculated to ensure Poirot's enthusiastic engagement.

I also greatly聽enjoyed seeing the inimitable and indomitable Adriadne Oliver playing detective. She was a complete hoot, a wonderful example of misplaced confidence arising from a broad imagination married to narrow experience.

All the best scenes in the book had Adriadne in them. Her presence brought the dialogue alive. She's so much easier to like than Poirot 聽and her pen sketches of the young people in the allegedly swinging London of 1966 were refreshing: the young man with the pretty hair and the gaudy clothes that she calls "The Peacock", the artist working in oils that she refers to simply as "The Dirty One" and the young model who she describes as throwing herself into Burne-Jones poses with admirable flexibility. There's no malice here, just a naive observation by someone who has no qualms about not being in tune with the times.

聽I had no idea what was going on or how the plot strands would come together but I was enjoying the journey.

By the time I was midway through the book, my disappointment had begun. I continued to enjoy Poirot's dry wit, Ariadne's blustering slapstick and the carefully nuanced descriptions of people's characters but those things began to be outweighed by the large chunks of clumsy plot exposition that even Hugh Fraser's narration couldn't make interesting. I was also starting to be irritated by the聽deeply conservative attitudes towards gender and mental health. I felt as though I was dipping blindly into a box of Bertie Bott's Every Flavour Beans: I might get something that made me smile or something that made me want to wash the taste away.

The last third of the book was a chore. There were repeated attempts at sharing Poirot's thought processes, which was irritating as they were mostly plot recaps, lacked any analysis and reached no conclusions. The psychiatrist who is instrumental in resolving the plot managed, despite having all the credibility of a cardboard cutout, to be deeply offensive both as a person and as a mental health practitioner.

The plot, when it finally emerged from the detritus-ridden undergrowth we had all wriggled through, was moderately clever but was spoiled for me by one of the early Mission Impossible TV Series moments when a mask is pulled off a main character and he or she is instantly revealed to be someone else. This was limp at best.聽

What disappointed me even more than the cheat in the big reveal was the way in which Norma was treated. The outcome stretched my willingness to suspend disbelief and angered me because it so demeaned the woman who, as the novel progressed moved from main character to semi-plausible plot-device, to the punchline of a French farce.

If this has been my first Agatha Christie, it might well have been my last. As it is, I'm going to read "The Murder Of Roger Ackroyd" in the hope of demonstrating to myself that Poirot stories once had substance.
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Mar 20, 2024 Roseli Gomes rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: agatha-christie, desafio-2024

Bom novo ano para todos leitores e leitoras!
Sim, 茅 minha primeira resenha de 2024 - muito atrasada com as leituras, mas quem liga? risos
Como sempre, n茫o sou muito criativa e sempre prestigio outros leitores de AC para n茫o me sentir sozinha nessa "tietagem"....
Segue a resenha de uma das melhores blogueiras liter谩ria que conhe莽o: MARIANA FONTANA SZEWKIES - vai l谩 visit谩-la, vale a pena.

Resenha de Mary: A Terceira Mo莽a

鈥淭amb茅m achava, cada vez mais, que havia Bom novo ano para todos leitores e leitoras!
Sim, 茅 minha primeira resenha de 2024 - muito atrasada com as leituras, mas quem liga? risos
Como sempre, n茫o sou muito criativa e sempre prestigio outros leitores de AC para n茫o me sentir sozinha nessa "tietagem"....
Segue a resenha de uma das melhores blogueiras liter谩ria que conhe莽o: MARIANA FONTANA SZEWKIES - vai l谩 visit谩-la, vale a pena.

Resenha de Mary: A Terceira Mo莽a

鈥淭amb茅m achava, cada vez mais, que havia maldade verdadeira em algum lugar. Ele conhecia a crueldade. J谩 deparara com ela antes. Conhecia seu lado picante, seu gosto, os trejeitos que tinha. O problema era que n茫o sabia ainda exatamente onde estava localizada. (...) Algo estava acontecendo, algo estava em andamento, algo que ainda n茫o estava conclu铆do. Algu茅m, em algum lugar, estava em perigo." (CHRISTIE, 2012, p.227).

Hercule Poirot, 鈥渙 mais verdadeiro dos detetives de verdade鈥� (pag.41), est谩 tomando seu caf茅 da manh茫 tranquilamente quando uma mo莽a pouco bonita e muito desesperada requisita alguns minutos da sua aten莽茫o e faz a mais estranha das confiss玫es: ela acredita que talvez tenha assassinado algu茅m. Depois disso, foge e desaparece. Intrigado, e percebendo que a mo莽a realmente precisa de ajuda, Poirot tenta encontr谩-la e descobrir o que est谩 acontecendo, afinal, ter assassinado algu茅m 茅 algo que sabe. Ou se fez ou n茫o se fez. Nessa aventura, ele conta com a ajuda de sua amiga de longa data, a escritora de romances policiais Ariadne Oliver.

A alegria e o bem-estar de voltar para casa. 脡 assim que me sinto cada vez que leio um livro de Agatha Christie. Talvez com 鈥淎 Terceira Mo莽a鈥� isso tenha se intensificado j谩 que h谩 muitos meses eu n茫o tinha a oportunidade de ler nada dessa que 茅 uma das minhas autoras favoritas desde que eu tinha 12 anos. E estamos falando de Agatha Christie, portanto, 茅 claro que eu encontrei nessa aventura tudo que eu esperava.

Se eu adoro incondicionalmente a autora, isso se duplica quando se trata de um caso do Poirot que, al茅m de genial, exc锚ntrico e incompar谩vel, 茅 absolutamente hil谩rio. Se ler Agatha 茅 voltar para casa, ter Poirot na aventura 茅 ser recepcionada por um dos meus melhores (e mais antigos) amigos. Em 鈥淎 Terceira Mo莽a鈥�, o detetive e Ariadne Oliver (prov谩vel alter-ego de Agatha) precisam encarar as mudan莽as advindas da d茅cada de 60, em especial o comportamento (e as roupas!) da juventude da 茅poca, a independ锚ncia das mo莽as e os relacionamentos. Inclusive nesse livro s茫o abordados temas que n茫o recordo ter visto com frequ锚ncia nos livros de Agatha, como uso de drogas.

O mist茅rio 茅 magistralmente arquitetado. O inusitado 茅 que, ao contr谩rio dos casos que t锚m mortes e suspeitos, esse n茫o tem uma morte. N茫o tem o crime. Apenas um poss铆vel crime que o detetive nem mesmo sabe qual 茅, onde ou quando ocorreu. De certa forma, esse 茅 um caso que n茫o 茅 um caso. Ent茫o do que se suspeita?

A mocinha que pode, ou n茫o, ser louca; o namorado que pode, ou n茫o, ser um interesseiro; as colegas de quarto independentes; o pai ausente que h谩 pouco voltou para casa trazendo consigo uma madrasta indesej谩vel; o tio rico, desmemoriado e cego e sua jovem e bela secret谩ria que pode, ou n茫o, ser uma esp茅cie de espi茫 ou simplesmente uma interesseira; s茫o os personagens que desfilam por essas p谩ginas.

Agatha manipula seus leitores como ningu茅m e 茅 a rainha da pista-recompensa. Por isso sempre encerro uma leitura com orgulho de mim mesma quando consigo desvendar suas artimanhas (quem j谩 leu os livros da autora divide o sentimento comigo, tenho certeza). Nesse caso, descobri o quem, o como e o porqu锚, mas ainda assim a autora aprontou algumas que eu n茫o captei.

Leitura deliciosamente fluida, intrigante e bem amarrada. 鈥淎 Terceira Mo莽a鈥� poderia ganhar muitos elogios, mas para mim basta um: 茅 um Agatha Christie. ...more

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