Passive voice in opening sentence? Check. Self-congratulatory tone? Check. Author with whom I've been previously unimpressed? Check. Decision made not to read this book? Check, check, check.
I listened to the first chapter and it was dreadful - opens with dialogue (often an amateur ploy); very slow; painful overdoing of Poirot's desire for symmetry; Poirot sharing a flat with a young Scotland Yard inspector (not a Christie creation); Poirot regularly dining at a café where he interacts with waitresses whose names he's never picked up on...very, very sorry I bought this on audio to listen to on a car trip. One chapter and out.
I'm not surprised at Max's experience; everything about this project is wrong, wrong, wrong--not the least if which is writing a new Poirot to begin with. Sorry to get on my soapbox, but are Christie's heirs in such reduced circumstances they have to add another book to what must be one of the world's most lucrative back catalogs? And, if so, why choose Sophie Hannah to write the new book? Had anyone involved in the decision actually read one of Hannah's so-called mysteries? I can believe they did or they never would have chosen her.
6 comments:
Passive voice in opening sentence? Check. Self-congratulatory tone? Check. Author with whom I've been previously unimpressed? Check. Decision made not to read this book? Check, check, check.
You put it very well, Deb. I agree.
I listened to the first chapter and it was dreadful - opens with dialogue (often an amateur ploy); very slow; painful overdoing of Poirot's desire for symmetry; Poirot sharing a flat with a young Scotland Yard inspector (not a Christie creation); Poirot regularly dining at a café where he interacts with waitresses whose names he's never picked up on...very, very sorry I bought this on audio to listen to on a car trip. One chapter and out.
I'm not surprised at Max's experience; everything about this project is wrong, wrong, wrong--not the least if which is writing a new Poirot to begin with. Sorry to get on my soapbox, but are Christie's heirs in such reduced circumstances they have to add another book to what must be one of the world's most lucrative back catalogs? And, if so, why choose Sophie Hannah to write the new book? Had anyone involved in the decision actually read one of Hannah's so-called mysteries? I can believe they did or they never would have chosen her.
/Dismounting soapbox now!
I can't believe they did or they never would have chosen her.
/Sorry for the mistake, but this new Christie business really irks me!
Max never minces words.
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