Closed casket : the new Hercule Poirot mystery

Enhanced descriptions from Syndetics:

Hercule Poirot returns in another brilliant murder mystery that can only be solved by the eponymous Belgian detective and his 'little grey cells'. 'What I intend to say to you will come as a shock . . .' Lady Athelinda Playford has planned a house party at her mansion in Clonakilty, County Cork, but it is no ordinary gathering. As guests arrive, Lady Playford summons her lawyer to make an urgent change to her will - one she intends to announce at dinner that night. She has decided to cut off her two children without a penny and leave her fortune to someone who has only weeks to live . . . Among Lady Playford's guests are two men she has never met - the famous Belgian detective, Hercule Poirot, and Inspector Edward Catchpool of Scotland Yard. Neither knows why he has been invited . . . until Poirot starts to wonder if Lady Playford expects a murderer to strike. But why does she seem so determined to provoke, in the presence of a possible killer? When the crime is committed in spite of Poirot's best efforts to stop it, and the victim is not who he expected it to be, will he be able to find the culprit and solve the mystery? Following the phenomenal global success of The Monogram Murders, which was published to critical acclaim following a co-ordinated international launch in September 2014, international best-selling crime writer Sophie Hannah has been commissioned by Agatha Christie Limited to pen a second fully-authorised Poirot novel. The new book marks the centenary of the creation of Christie's world-famous detective Hercule Poirot, introduced in her first book The Mysterious Affair at Styles.

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Publishers Weekly Review

Hannah's second estate-sanctioned addition to Agatha Christie's Hercule Poirot finds the brilliant, amusingly self-centered Belgian sleuth in 1929, attending a house party from hell. Neither he nor Scotland Yard Insp. Edward Catchpool, the novel's thoughtful narrator and Poirot's friend, know why they've been invited by Lady Athelinda Playford to her County Cork mansion in the Irish Free State. Other guests include Athie's children, their significant others, her attorneys, and her ailing secretary. When Athie announces she's drafted a new will leaving everything to her secretary, Poirot and Catchpool realize their presence is intended to keep the peace. Someone commits murder regardless, and the detecting duo must determine whodunit. Hannah's entertaining pastiche is brim-full of character interactions, backstories, smart chat, and diabolical twists of plot, most of which Rhind-Tutt, performing as Catchpool, delivers in the cool, measured voice of a professional Yard observer. There are moments, however, when the inspector's almost steely British reserve gives way to self-doubt, anger, sorrow, and even petulance, and Rhind-Tutt shifts his narration accordingly. As for Poirot, Rhind-Tutt's rendition resembles that of the sleuth's longtime television interpreter, David Suchet. A wise man doesn't meddle with perfection. A Morrow hardcover. (Sept.) © Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.