Reviews with content warning for Racism - The Sittaford Mystery

I can always count on Agatha Christie to help me complete the Reading Through The Centuries challenge, and this time I decided to turn to a stand-alone mystery I've been meaning to read. As much as I do love my time with Hercule Poirot, I was curious to see what I would make of The Sittaford Mystery. Especially with the blurb mentioning a seance and a winter countryside setting... And as a whole, this turned out to be a solid murder mystery. The pace was a tad too slow in points, and there were certain parts of the plot that were too drawn out. Emily made for an interesting character to replace the role of Hercule Poirot though, and I liked how she worked together with the journalist to try and uncover the truth. The plot and plot twists are typical Agatha Christie, and if you have read a few of her books it will be easy to guess who was behind it all (always the one you expect the least). That said, I still enjoyed the journey, and the revelation of the secrets of the different characters/suspects was quite clever.

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silver_valkyrie_reads's review against another edition

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funny mysterious relaxing medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.0

Book fourteen of my personal read through of Agatha Christie in publication order!

I must have read this before because I knew almost immediately was the solution to the mystery was (though I did doubt myself a few times along the way). Not quite a personal favorite because I don't LOVE any of the characters, but it was just perfectly wintery, cozy Agatha Christie mystery feel through the whole thing, and nearly every character was entertaining to read about.

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poirot's review against another edition

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mysterious medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

3.75

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sunny_not's review against another edition

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adventurous mysterious medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

3.0

I didn't feel much about the plot, the resolution was a bit weird

Spoiler

I didn't expect it to be Burnaby since they kept claiming that it couldn't be him or the other ones in sittaford.

I really liked Emily she was such a cool character and I'm glad

Spoiler

she stuck with Jim since I didn't want her to end up with Charles

Other than that there were a lot of racism and colonization in this book and I particularly hated the treatment of Abdul. Overall not her worst but definitely not her best.

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the_procrastinating_ace's review against another edition

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adventurous mysterious fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

3.25

Spoiler

The solution, while perfectly plausible, and kinda unpredictable, fails to impress too much because of the motive. I wish instead of going for the element of surprise and making *that person* the killer, Christie actually chose a culprit with a more fleshed out motive. The whole convict plotline was also rather unnecessary, and a lot of the characters could've been cut and have no affect on the plot whatsoever (Captain Wyatt, for instance; his exclusion would've also removed the blatant racist comments Christie, via her characters, makes towards Abdul, his Indian servant). There were also some rather unnecessary romantic subplots, though they didnt distract from the main plot, thankfully, and some points which were explained in the last chapter and bore no connection to the major mystery also seemed forced at times. Overall, not Christie's best work, but also not her worst. Maybe I would've enjoyed it less had I not read the absolute trainwreck that was the Passenger to Frankfurt right before it.

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ariel_isais's review against another edition

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lighthearted mysterious medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.5

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breezer's review against another edition

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3.5

Great female viewpoint (for once 😅), wanted more winter atmosphere though

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