Death in the Clouds: A Book Review

Title: Death in the Clouds

Author: Agatha Christie

Genre: Mystery

Reading Level: 13 and up

Summary: After spending a bit of a holiday in Paris, Poirot finds himself on a flight to London with an odd assortment of people. When one of the passengers, Madame Gisele, is murdered during the flight by a poisoned dart, Poirot is asked by Inspector Japp of Scotland Yard to assist with the investigation. Gisele was a well-known moneylender with penchant towards blackmail. Wading through the clues and red herrings, involving a secret daughter, and secret lovers, Poirot uses his keen intellect and logic to unmask the killer amidst the innocent.

My Review: Well I read this particular novel for a silly reason. It was featured in the first Doctor Who episode I ever saw, and also the cover used was the one I have pictured here. I think. Anyway, reading this was a lot of fun. I forgot how much I enjoyed mysteries. I am crazy about them. Even a semi-good Agatha Christie mystery is fun too read. This one wasn't one of her best although the murder was intriguing. Someone's murdered on a plane mid flight, supposedly by a blow pipe and no one saw who did it? I was really interested in finding how this would turn out. Hercule Poirot one of Christie's most famous detective's leads us on a fun little romp in this mystery. He is hilarious. I absolutely love him. A little Belgian man with a mustache running around popping up all over the place confusing the suspects and in the end making them spill the beans to him, Poirot is pure genius. Speaking of the side characters there were a lot of interesting ones here. The maid of Madame Giselle was a good character that was only in the story for a short while but added a lot of depth and of course divulged some clues as well. I enjoyed the scheming Lady Horbury, and there is a romantic couple as well Norman Gale and Jane Grey. I also had fun reading about Mr. Clancy a particularly eccentric mystery writer who comes up with overly fantastic plots and roams the street muttering plot lines to himself. I can only hope to be like that someday. :P This novel is flippy and nonchalant in the same vein as The Secret Adversary was, the end was actually not very shocking, but the ride was tons of fun.