Elephants Can Remember by
Agatha Christie
pbk out January 02
(HarperCollins)
at £5.99
In this novel, Hercule Poirot and Ariadne Oliver work together for the last time. The
story opens at a literary luncheon when a charmless woman called Mrs Burton-Cox
reminds Mrs Oliver of a long-forgotten god-daughter called Celia Ravenscroft. Celia
is due to marry Mrs Burton-Cox's son and the startling question put to Mrs Oliver is:
did Celia's mother kill her father or did the father kill the mother? As the title
suggests, this is a book about recollections of the past and it must be said that some of
the characters in the story have memories that are maddeningly vague. There are
inconsistencies, too, that are sometimes deliberate on the author's part, but sometimes
evidently not (for example in the case of a forensic detail, and as regards when the
Ravenscroft killing actually occurred.) All the same, there are pleasing touches of
humour and of ingenuity. Hardly a classic, but agreeable light entertainment.
(
Martin Edwards
- author of the highly acclaimed Harry Devlin Mysteries)
Elephants Can Remember by
Agatha Christie
