Appointment with Death - Agatha Christie

★★★★★★★★★★ (8/10)

Agatha Christie is now my go-to author if I wanted to be very, very dizzy at the end of a novel.  That's not to say that I don't like her mysteries (as you can tell by the rating I gave this novel), but I end up feeling as though I've been physically turning in circles by the time I find out whodunit.

In today's mystery, everyone is in Jerusalem on vacation.  An American family and a family friend, a French psychologist, and a British young lady (a recent graduate with a degree in medicine).  The strangeness begins when Sarah, the young graduate, notices that the American family, the Boyntons, are a bit peculiar.  All of them, except their mother, are very tense and wear pained expressions, as well as the fact that they seem to follow their mother's orders as if she were their military commander.  Sarah is disturbed by the Boyntons' behavior and attempts to befriend two members of the family, Carol and her brother Raymond, but their behavior is so erratic, Sarah can't seem to make heads or tails of their situation.

So, we find Sarah, the psychologist Gerard, and two new characters on an excursion to Petra (I'd love to go someday).  Sarah wants to forget the family and enjoy her vacation, but this is not to be.  When their group arrive at the camp for Petra tourists, they find that the Boyntons are already there. This is when the fun begins.  After everyone's comments on the strange behavior of the family, and the evil, commanding personality of the mother, what should happen, but that a servant in the camp should find Mrs. Boynton dead!As luck would have it, M. Hercule Poirot is a guest of a Colonel who is staying nearby, and he is asked to investigate the death.  The psychological means that Poirot uses to determine guilt and innocence always astound me, and I can only imagine that Ms. Christie must be the most brilliant author, with endless research resources. She uses a great deal of scientific evidence, and the tiniest of details to compose her mysteries so that no matter who I am convinced the murderer is, it turns out to be a person I hadn't even considered. 

This is no exception.  I'll try not to give away too much, but my original conclusion was that the eldest son, Lennox, was the murderer.  I had nothing to go off of except the fact that he was so apathetic, I didn't think that Poirot would initially suspect him.  I was wrong, but it was both confusing and amazing to go through Poirot's thought process to get to who the real culprit was.  It seemed like he accused each person, one at a time, first solidifying their guilt, then proving their innocence.  As he moved from person to person, I kept imagining that this next person would be the murderer, only to be disappointed as he explained why they were innocent and then explained the guilt of the next person.  It is his way of putting forth his information that makes me dizzy.  He keeps bringing in the same facts, under new lights.  I will think that I know every possible piece of information, and then I'll be sent spinning as a new perspective comes about.

Agatha Christie mysteries are probably books everyone should read, whether because you like mysteries or because you just like good books. I haven't found another mystery author as exceptional as Christie at keeping me guessing up the the very end, and the solving of each mystery wraps up everything very neatly, and explains things in such a way that the resolution is quite clear.  It's also charming that in her Poirot mysteries, it seems that everyone has heard of him, making it feel that I'm the only one left out.  Then again, I'd rather not be in a situation where I'd need to meet him, because then I might become a suspect!