A review by kailey_luminouslibro
Appointment with Death by Agatha Christie

5.0

A family group are visiting Jerusalem, and they make the trip to see the ruins of Petra. Their fellow travelers notice that the family seem on edge, nervous, and even afraid. Their mother, Mrs. Boynton, controls every aspect of their lives, and she takes delight in cruelty, torturing them emotionally and mentally for years until they are almost crazed.
When Mrs. Boynton is poisoned at Petra, suspicion falls on each of her children. They are relieved that she is dead. They must have killed her to escape from her brutality. Only Poirot can discover the true killer and sift through the timeline of events that led to Mrs. Boynton's death.

I loved this mystery so much! It's a psychological enigma with many layers. There are the Boynton family themselves with their nervous personalities and years of bitterness. Then there are the fellow travelers who observe the family from the outside, speculating on their slow descent into madness. And there is Poirot, who sees past all the lies into the truth.

I really liked exploring the relationships between the characters. There is a married couple who might split up. There is a young man who falls in love with a stranger on a train. There is a strong bond between brother and sister who are willing to lie to protect each other. The dynamic between these characters keeps changing throughout the story and their relationships develop.

I always love Christie's writing style! The mystery has many red herrings, but the clues are all clearly laid out at the end. And the backdrop of the mystical Petra and the long history of Jerusalem is just perfect to explore these deep themes of life and death and mental anguish and love.