Stephy Read Murder is Easy by Agatha Christie

 

“No one human being knows the full truth about another human being. Not even one's nearest and dearest.”

About/Summary

First published in 1939, the book follows retired police officer Luke Fitzwilliams as he solves a series of murders in the small village of Wychwood under Ashe.

Content/Trigger Warnings

Period Typical *waves hands* everything (basically 30s type of thinking and speaking might be a bit off-putting to some people, keep that in mind)

Old ladies keep getting called "pussy". I know that word can make some people uncomfortable in some situations. Not sure if this is one of those situations. Also, is this an old slang term I was unaware of? If so, part of me wants it to make a comeback.

Murder (multiple, offscreen)

Murder of a child (offscreen)

Attempted murder

Tropes

Here is a list of tropes used in the book. Now... Let's discuss a couple, I suppose.

Little Old Lady Investigates - I just love the little old lady detective trope. I want to be a little old lady detective. 

Motive Rant - I love a good motive rant. It fills in all the details I missed or weren't shown.

Characters

The main character is Luke Fitzwilliams, a retired police officer. I know nothing about this man. Well, I know his name. And that he's retired.

There's also Bridget (she had black hair... I think...), Gordon (Luke did not like this dude), and various other characters.

My favorite character was the old lady who realized someone was murdering people in the village and went to London to let Scotland Yard know. She died early in the book and I am still sad at the loss.

Honestly, all the characters were a bit meh to me. 

Atmosphere/Setting

The main setting is Wychwood under Ashe, a small village in England. Do itty bitty villages like this still exist, cause I wanna live there.

Writing

Writing was good. Book sucked me in pretty quick. There was a Sherlock Holmes reference, which... I found the first one kind of amusing. After that I was just meh about it. I get it, dude, you're not Sherlock Holmes. 

Plot

The plot is pretty good. A few good twists and turns. The big twist at the end was fan-fucking-tastic in my opinion. I really only had one issue with the book, plot-wise...

Romance

Ugh. That fucking romance subplot. Just ugh. I hated it. The two characters were basically assholes to each other the whole time. 

Like, what is this shit? I hate it... 

Not to mention that they were pretending to be cousins for most of the book.

How diverse is it?

Not very. Bunch of white people having problems.

Overall Thoughts

The book was an enjoyable mystery. But not really something I'm going to recommend to everyone. If you like Agatha Christie's books or mysteries, then yeah. But I dunno. The romance between Luke and Bridget annoyed me so much... But yeah, that plot twist was good. 

And that's all for this one. 

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