Book Review: Sad Cypress (Hercule Poirot) by Agatha Christie. Genre: Mystery. Hardcover: 256 pages. Publisher: Black Dog & Leventhal Publishers. Description: A woman stands accused of murder. Only Hercule Poirot is convinced of her innocence. But his fight to save her life takes him into the shadows of her dreadful family secret. My Review: I like to call Agatha Christie books my brain reliever. I feel as if I am reading something intelligent, and I suppose I am. I am saturated with sub-par writing and books. I feel as if authors are not even really trying to produce something unique or extremely well thought out. With AC I feel as if I could actually learn something about writing or plotting from her work. I learn to look at things from a different angle. I learned about the unreliable narrator from Agatha Christie. The fact that I love mysteries is an added bonus. From the AC books I have read so far romance isn't a huge element.
So I was happy to see some romance going on in this book. Not that anything much happened. But I was happy to see a kinda/sorta happy ending for a certain someone, especially after pining after a certain d-bag. I always try to guess who the baddie is, but I always fail. I sort of guessed it. But I always doubt myself. Or I like to keep speculating until the very end. Even if the evidence points strongly to one person or the other. People did complain about the repetition. And I did feel like the book dragged itself along (like a beaten, broken and bloodied puppy) a bit in the beginning. But I am not complaining too much. It wasn't a huge issue with me. I had the time. Rating: 8/10. Agatha Christie is always a winner, even if I don't love love love the book in question ecstatically. Her work is a palate cleanser and a relief for my sad brain, despite this book not being best I have ever read (I don't mean this as a backhanded compliment, nope).