Agatha Christie: The Hollow

I must begin my reviews of the Queens of Crime with the Queen herself, Agatha Christie. I’ve read and loved so many of her books, so I couldn’t decide how to go about doing a review for a while. Then I finished reading The Hollow and knew I had my problem solved.

What stands out to me in Christie’s writing is her expertly deceptive plots and incredibly diverse and realistic characters. Since I can’t go into too much detail about the plot without revealing whodunit, I will focus on the characters.

The characters in The Hollow came so alive for me. It’s a staple of the mystery genre for all the main characters to have a motive for committing the crime. This story is no exception, but the motives, relationships, and personality clashes are above and beyond expectation. Henrietta Savernake and John Christow, in particular, are full of idiosyncrasies and certainly less than perfect, but they are still sympathetic. Even if I didn’t aways care for them, I cared about them.

Another wonderful aspect of the characters is that most of them undergo change throughout the story. While it is essential for every story to have round, dynamic characters, most mystery novels don’t have this many. Even in Christie’s books, side characters tend to be more generalized and less characterized. In this book, however, there were very few characters that didn’t have some sort of change or development by the end of the story. Not only is more and more of the mystery revealed as the plot unfolds, but more and more of the personalities involved are exposed. Just like getting to know someone in real life, my feelings toward the characters in The Hollow changed from the beginning of the story to the end.

Again, I don’t want to discuss plot details, but there are two characters that end up together by the end of the book. Their relationship is so poignant and connected to the deeper theme of the book that it stirred my emotions more than I expected from a mystery novel. That’s one of the amazing things about Agatha Christie. She can write snappy detective adventures or thoughtful commentaries on society that happen to center on a murder. Often, she combines a bit of both.

I’ve neglected to mention this is a Poirot story. Since he’s my favorite Christie detective, that takes The Hollow from gold to platinum in my book. One of my favorite things about Poirot is how he balances a love of truth and justice with compassion. His handling of this mystery demonstrates the depths hidden behind his fastidious, proud exterior.

A Note on the Title

Many Agatha Christie novels are published under two titles: one in Britain and different one in America. The Hollow is the original, but the edition I have is called Murder After Hours.

I do not know who gave it this title or why. It really tells nothing about the story. Sure, the murder took place in the middle of the night, but that’s typical. It also underrates the almost symbolic significance of the estate, also called The Hollow.

Anyway, this is something to keep in mind when building your Christie library. It is easy to get duplicates of a story published under different titles.

Conclusion

I highly recommend The Hollow. It is a great example of the emotional depths Christie is capable of.

I’ll confess that it isn’t technically in the inter-war “Golden Age” I mentioned in the last post; it was written in 1946. That means it’s slightly different than Christie’s earlier works, such as the ones featuring Captain Hastings.

If you’ve already gotten to know Hercule Poirot, however, The Hollow offers a peek at an older, mellower, and more melancholic sleuth.

Next up in my review series: Dorothy L. Sayers and The Nine Tailors. Written in 1934, it is dead-center in the Golden Age.