Published in 1967 towards the end of Agatha Christie’s illustrious writing career, Endless Night was written by the then 76 year old Christie in a short 6 weeks. It’s a stand alone novel (no Poirot or Marple here), and reportedly was her favourite of her 66 mystery novels.
Described by one reviewer as being “best viewed as a work of literary fiction in which there is a crime” this isn’t your traditional puzzle plot with lots of clues to solve. That’s not to say that there aren’t signs to suggest the twist at the end, and certainly when the full, troubling story is revealed there are more than a few “oh, that’s what that meant” moments in the book.
Written (unusually for Christie) in the first-person we’re treated to the life story of the penniless Michael, his discovery of the beautiful house at Gypsy’s Acre and his romance with Ellie, an heiress. There’s an old woman’s curse to contend with and an ominous sense of evil throughout the novel. We won’t give away spoilers in this review, but rest assured there are dead bodies, and a definite twist to be had in this tale.
We felt that this novel very much reflected the time in which is was written, with it’s portrayal of the “old gypsy woman” and the damsel in distress heiress. We discussed the comparison between this and other Agatha Christie novels, and the impact of the unreliable narrator. We also talked about the impact of Christie on crime fiction and TV detective series.
The novel split our group with some vehement dislikers- “it was like an adult Enid Blyton story”, and some die-hard Christie fans. Equally we had sleuths in our midst who guessed all of the twists and turns, and some who were happily misdirected by the queen of crime.
Our resident Christie fans recommended reading other titles, and we all agreed it was an easy, quick read, but that a degree of suspension of disbelief was required to enjoy it thoroughly. You can read some other reviews here:
https://www.theguardian.com/books/booksblog/2018/nov/13/endless-night-agatha-christie-1967-novel
At the end of our meeting we always announce the next novel, one of our readers told us that finding out what they’re reading next is the highlight of their month. Our next novel is The Wife by Meg Wolitzer. The blurb tell us “A husband. A wife. A secret. Behind every great man, there’s always a greater woman.
Pick up a book in the Library at GETEC and join in!
Find out more about our reading groups here
Take a look at the blog posts for our previous reads here.
