This is my first time reading Sophie Hannah's interpretation of Agatha Christie's famous Belgian detective Hercule Poirot. These are big shoes for Hannah to fill, and I think she does a fairly good job in Closed Casket. I very much enjoyed the murder, the clues, the eccentric cast of characters and the way the story develops.
The one weakness is the actual solution of the murder mystery. It feels somewhat unbelievable at times, both in the explanation of some of the more outrageous details and in the motivations for murder. Also, while Hannah sticks to Christie's format of having Poirot gather all the characters in a room to explain and unveil whodunnit, Hannah takes more than 50 pages to do this (about 1/6th of the book), making that part drag on unnecessarily.
In the end, while this book falls short of its lofty goal in the inevitable comparisons with the queen of mystery, I feel it is an enjoyable book in its own right, and I look forward to reading more from the author.
Readaroo Rating: 3 stars
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