eBook Endless Night (G. K. Hall's Agatha Christie Series) download

This is the second time I've read this novel, the first was many years ago, when I was a girl. I remember being completely blown away. Even though this was a re-read, I felt the same this time. Is it as long and complex as the newer mysteries? No. Does it have tons of gory details? No. Is it clever and twisty? Yes, absolutely.

This is one of my top five Christies, and I've read them all.

This is my first Christie novel...I've read some other reviews saying that this book isn't recommended as an introduction to her work since it's not typical of her usual mysteries...but I have to disagree. This novel only makes me want to dive head first into another one!
It had me from start to finish...I quite enjoyed the inner monologue and first person narration and about halfway through I was held in the grip of the most uneasy sense of creepiness that started colouring the story. There were points in the book where I actually looked over my shoulder...
The suspense, character development and smattering of clues that only made sense as such at the end all make for a superb, edge of your seat portrayal of the inner workings of a mind gone horribly wrong.
If you enjoy character development over plot happenings, glimpsing into a personality driven by darkness and a book that will have you thinking about it days after you've finished, then this is the novel for you.

Wow, this book is unlike any other Agatha Christie book I have read and I've read a lot of her books. I loved this book and stayed up well into the night finishing it. The main character, Michael, stayed with me for a while. I loved the first person narration from Michael, it was so interesting getting into his mind. This book is one I could read over and over again.

ENDLESS NIGHT, published in 1967 in the UK as a Collins Crime Club selection, was the 60th detective/mystery novel written by Dame Agatha Christie (1890-1976) who wrote 66 such works. It is a standalone novel (not a Poirot nor Miss Marple) written in three parts.

Part One introduces the four main characters: Michael Rogers, a young drifter currently employed as a chauffeur, has a chance meeting with the lovely Ellie Goodman. He dreams of building a magnificent house on a particular spot of land along the Devon coast. Unknown to him, she is actually a wealthy American heiress and can make his dream come true. With the help of her efficient German companion, Greta Andersen, they marry and build a memorable home designed by noted but ailing architect Rudolph Santonix.

Naturally the plot thickens... the land the couple purchased is known as "Gypsy's Acre" and is said to carry a curse. Mysterious accidents pile up, a self-proclaimed gypsy haunts the grounds, and after a midnight accident, Greta moves in with the couple to nurse Ellie back to health, much to Michael's resentment. And all the while the few relatives (a stepmother and a few cousins) and many trustees, guardians, and attorneys disapprove of their young ward's marriage.

A crime novel? Not so far. But read on as I did after thinking Dame Agatha has lost her marbles. What starts as a romantic thriller becomes a mild literary success for the Queen of Mystery receiving some of the warmest critical response of her career. The London Times Literary Supplement states in 1967 that ENDLESS NIGHT written " in the persona of a working-class boy who marries a poor little rich girl...(is) a pleasantly gothic story of gypsy warnings" and that Christie "brings it all off, together with a nicely melodramatic final twist." Robert Bernard, mystery writer and critic, considers ENDLESS NIGHT a splendid late flowering and the best of the late Christie. He notes in his work, A Talent to Deceive: An Appreciation of Agatha Christie, that the plot contains a combination of patterns used in THE MURDER OF ROGER ACKROYD (1926) and DEATH ON THE NILE (1937) and similarities in the "treatment of heiress/heroine's American lawyers in NILE...suggesting she had been rereading." He adds, "The murder occurs very late, and thus the central section seems desultory, even novelettish (poor little rich girl, gypsy's curse, etc.). But all is justified by the conclusion."

Regardless of your reaction to the novel's ending, I believe you will find that ENDLESS NIGHT is a very good read. I agree with the laudatory review in the UK newspaper, The Guardian: "The old maestrina of the crime-novel (or whatever is the female of 'maestro') pulls yet another out of her inexhaustible bag...quite different in tone from her usual work. It is impossible to say much about the story without giving away vital secrets: sufficient to warn the reader that if he should think this is a romance he couldn't be more mistaken, and the crashing, not to say horrific suspense at the end, is perhaps the most devastating that this surpriseful author has ever brought off. "

Very atypical story by Dame Agatha; in fact, if her name wasn't on it, and if you have read her Miss Marple / Hercule Piorot stories, I'd guess that you wouldn't identify her as the author of this one. A rather slight plot, and much more of a character-driven story than is usual in her writing. An atmospheric beginning, with warnings of a gypsy curse, turned into a rather sluggish narrative. It is one of her later books, and, sadly, she seems to be slipping here.

This is truly a departure from the whodunits everyone is familiar with from Dame Christie. In some ways I liked it--it is a brooding novel that sort of captures you; but in some ways I felt a little disappointed with the story line since I am so familiar with her other works that are always so special to me. This novel was written in the 1960s and I feel that she perhaps wanted to distance herself from the Poirot, Marple, and other characters she had created in the past. If written by anyone else, I would probably have given it five stars. The character development and plot are fairly good and the ending has a bit of a twist, although I must say I couldn't really follow the reasoning completely. Unlike her other novels, this is one that I don't feel I would read again, but I'm glad that I had the experience of enjoying another look into the wonderful, creative, and sometimes devious mind of Agatha Christie.