“Uh, book club book.
That’s the explanation for why.
It’s pretty much what you’d expect, a whodunit with an ending that’s fairly interesting, although you could probably just skip to it and get about the same amount out of it. I DO have a theory that horror movie writers are going back to Agatha Christie for their plot twists, turns, and oddly-positioned stabbings, though. However, the weird machines that drown people in pig’s innards are a fairly novel creation that I’m not prepared to credit to classic literature.
Because I don’t want to spoil the whole thing, I thought what might be useful is to discuss the detective abilities of the main character, Hercule Poirot. And because it is my only cultural reference at the moment, I will compare his methods of detection with that of television detective and star of the Shield, Vic Mackie.
Here are some scenarios and how I suspect each would handle them:
SCENARIO 1: A BODY IS FOUND ON A TRAIN
Poirot: Would work his way through the different passengers and narrow things down to a most likely suspect.
Mackie: Would find the conductor of the train, ask him what he was hiding, then assault him, shoving a piece of the train’s coal in his mouth until he said everything he knew.
SCENARIO 2: A GOVERNESS IS SUSPECTED OF A CRIME
Poirot: Would gently question the lady so as not to put her on the defense.
Mackie: Would question the lady, then threaten to allow a sex tape of her to hit the streets if she didn’t start talking, pronto.
SCENARIO 3: AN ITALIAN MAN IS ACCUSED OF STABBING ANOTHER MAN
Poirot: Would consider this possible, and does put forth the theory that “wops” (his word, I swear) DO tend to stab (this is pulled directly from the pages, I SWEAR to you).
Mackie:…actually, pretty much the same thing.
As you can see, our detection skills have come a long way, baby.
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