Everand Logo

Welcome to Everand!

  • Discover millions of ebooks, audiobooks, and so much more with a free trial

    Only $11.99/month after trial. Cancel anytime.

    Unavailable
    The Pale Horse
    Unavailable
    The Pale Horse
    Unavailable
    The Pale Horse
    Audiobook6 hours

    The Pale Horse

    Written by Agatha Christie

    Narrated by Hugh Fraser

    4/5

    ()

    Unavailable in your country

    Unavailable in your country

    Read the ebook instead

    About this audiobook

    A dark offering from the Queen of Crime.

    This represents the world-famous author’s most successful foray into the dark world of murder and black magic.

    To understand the strange goings on at The Pale Horse Inn, Mark Easterbrook knew he had to begin at the beginning. But where exactly was the beginning?

    Was it the savage blow to the back of Father Gorman’s head? Or was it when the priest’s assailant searched him so roughly he tore the clergyman’s cassock? Or could it have been the priest’s visit, just minutes before, to a woman on her death bed?

    Or was there a deeper significance to the violent squabble which Mark Easterbrook had himself witnessed earlier?

    Wherever the beginning lies, Mark and his sidekick, Ginger Corrigan, may soon have cause to wish they’d never found it…

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherHarperCollins
    Release dateApr 2, 2007
    ISBN9780007256112
    Author

    Agatha Christie

    Agatha Christie is known throughout the world as the Queen of Crime. Her books have sold over a billion copies in English with another billion in over 70 foreign languages. She is the most widely published author of all time and in any language, outsold only by the Bible and Shakespeare. She is the author of 80 crime novels and short story collections, 20 plays, and six novels written under the name of Mary Westmacott.

    More audiobooks from Agatha Christie

    Related to The Pale Horse

    Crime Thriller For You

    View More
    View More

    Related podcast episodes

    Related articles

    • Article

      Cracking The Case

      Mar 25, 2020

      Cracking The Case
      3 min read

    • Article

      Death On The Nile

      Jan 8, 2021

      Death On The Nile
      1 min read

    • Article

      Life In The past Lane

      Aug 27, 2021

      Life In The past Lane
      5 min read

    • Article

      The Man I Should Have Married

      Dec 29, 2019

      The Man I Should Have Married
      11 min read

    • Article

      J. Jezewska Stevens

      Dec 15, 2017

      The party was a failure. I can’t even tell you what a failure it was. There are no words. Only a great pain in my chest when I wake up. On the veranda. It’s better when I sit in the chair. Oh, but then I can see around. The gauzy curtains, pushed by

      15 min read

    • Article

      All Of Us Here

      Jun 4, 2020

      All Of Us Here
      6 min read

    • Article

      Last Orders

      Jul 28, 2021

      Last Orders
      5 min read

    • Article

      Righteous

      Jan 22, 2019

      Righteous
      8 min read

    • Article

      Addicted To Books

      Jun 1, 2022

      The plaque on the door of my hotel room said ‘Superior Room’. Once inside, I searched for evidence for this rather grandiose claim. None was apparent, though there was a chocolate on the pillow. And the toilet paper had been folded into a neat point

      5 min read

    • Article

      Ghost Girl, Banana

      Aug 21, 2023

      By the time I was 25, there were only two things I remembered about Mumma. The first was that she smelled of watermelons, the second was that we were happy. We’d taken our father’s name of course, but a name is only half a story. The other half exist

      6 min read

    • Article

      Four Of A Kind

      May 3, 2023

      Four Of A Kind
      4 min read

    • Article

      The Grand Canal, Venice, 1970

      Mar 1, 2024

      The Grand Canal, Venice, 1970
      8 min read

    • Article

      A Year in Reading: Tim Lane

      Dec 8, 2021

      We stopped at the Topaz Internment Camp, where my wife’s family was held during World War II, near the tiny town of Delta, Utah. We found the apocalyptic remnants of one of our country’s great shames. The post A Year in Reading: Tim Lane appeared fi

      7 min read

    • Article

      Roundtrip For One

      Nov 1, 2019

      Roundtrip For One
      5 min read

    • Article

      Sweet Sorrow

      Aug 19, 2019

      Sweet Sorrow
      8 min read

    • Article

      It Happened to Me…

      Jun 16, 2022

      A genuine miracle occurred at the art opening of the Blinky 40th Anniversary Exhibition at California State University Northridge Gallery in Southern California on 2 February 2019. An artwork by Erika Ostrander of the “Shroud of Blinky” was found wee

      6 min read

    • Article

      Excerpts From The Works Of The 2024 Whiting Award Winners

      Apr 10, 2024

      The 2024 Whiting Award winners were announced Wednesday night. Below are excerpts from their work.

      19 min read

    • Article

      In the Prison of Your Skin

      Feb 1, 2019

      In the Prison of Your Skin
      11 min read

    • Article

      The Pearl Pavilion

      May 10, 2022

      The Pearl Pavilion
      6 min read

    • Article

      One Word: Salty

      Jan 2, 2019

      One Word: Salty
      6 min read

    • Article

      Woman About Town

      Jul 28, 2022

      Woman About Town
      5 min read

    • Article

      Dark Tales

      Dec 2, 2021

      Dark Tales
      6 min read

    • Article

      The Leather Coat

      Apr 4, 2024

      The Leather Coat
      6 min read

    • Article

      Table Talk

      Jun 1, 2023

      Table Talk
      11 min read

    • Article

      Speedboat

      Mar 24, 2022

      Nobody died that year. Nobody prospered. There were no births or marriages. Seventeen reverent satires were written – disrupting a cliché and, presumably, creating a genre. That was a dream, of course, but many of the most important things, I fi nd,

      14 min read

    • Article

      The Duplex

      Jun 9, 2020

      I moved to Los Angeles to sing. When was this? August? June? I was twenty-nine, and those were shapeless months, when the days blended together and I refused to pull them apart. My landlord was unusually close to her adult son. His name was Jeffrey,

      21 min read

    Related categories

    Reviews for The Pale Horse

    4/5

    572 ratings30 reviews

    What did you think?

    Tap to rate

    Review must be at least 10 words

    • 4/5
      This was the first of Mrs. Christie’s book of which I didn’t enjoy the beginning. It took me several pages to get into it, but since it was Agatha Christie I kept reading—and am glad I did: I thoroughly enjoyed it. I watched two movie versions of this book and they have very little resemblance to it. One of them even gets Miss Marple in the story! Highly recommend the book. (When the Lamb opened the fourth seal, I heard the voice of the fourth living creature say, “Come!” I looked, and there before me was a pale horse! Its rider was named Death, and Hades was following close behind him. They were given power over a fourth of the earth to kill by sword, famine and plague, and by the wild beasts of the earth. — Revelation 6:7-8)

      1 person found this helpful

    • 4/5
      My first time with one of Agatha's novels in about 40 years. I'm pretty sure I read something as a schoolboy, though Lord knows what. I have read a collection of Marple short stories a fair few years back - Miss Marple's Final Cases. Anyways I'm long past due checking out the widely acknowledged Queen of Crime.

      Well, The Pale Horse then. Not Poirot, Not Marple, but a standalone maybe - unless anyone can advise differently.

      A priest is killed in the fog shortly after visiting a woman for a death bed confession and to offer absolution. The deceased Father had a list of names concealed in his shoe that offers only the slightest hint that it concerns his death. (Undoubtedly it does.)

      The one eyewitness to the incident preceding the attack on the priest - a man pursuing him - is a chemist named Zachariah Osborne. He offers some assistance to the police and is positive he can identify the mystery man.

      Mark Easterbrook, a local historian and author (how or why he gets involved, I can't actually remember) is fascinated by the priest's list - some of whom seem to have become fairly recently deceased and he tries to identify the others. The police pursue other lines of enquiry.

      Seances, a dodgy bookmaker, The Pale Horse - an inn in Much Deeping - the mere mention of which causes a frightened reaction to some who obviously fear it, a man in a wheelchair, fighting girls, an amateur investigation, a cunning plan, an eventual outcome and a bit of romance to boot.

      Quite a moody book. Very atmospheric and dark in places. There's a touch of the present day in the attitudes and behaviour of some of the younger characters, almost a precursor to the Swinging Sixties. I think I was a bit surprised by that.

      Overall I enjoyed it. I think my aversion over the years to Agatha Christie and other GA mystery authors is a preconception that they write about a certain class of character, people rather well-to-do, Lords and Ladies of the Manor with servants and butlers and wealth. I'm not especially interested in reading about such people. Here our cast comprises some more earthy sorts.

      I have to say I had my suspicions about the murderer which proved correct. Some of the other elements that surrounded the mystery left me a bit puzzled though. One of the weaknesses of reading via Audible is a difficulty in stopping and pausing and rewinding to listen again to an incomprehensible bit of narrative. ie I didn't particularly understand the involvement of the bookmaker and how he did or didn't connect to the crime. Smoke and mirrors or was he a red herring? Similarly I didn't really vibe how the murderer gained from his crimes. I understood perfectly how he committed them and there's a sort of hiding in plain sight scenario which is ever more obvious once it's was revealed.

      That apart and courtesy of a silky narration by Hugh Fraser, I had a good time with this one. So much so I started another Christie immediately afterwards.

      3.5 from 5

      Read - (listened to) August, 2021
      Published - 1961
      Page count - 275 (6 hrs 42 mins)
      Source - Scribd trial
      Format - Audible
    • 5/5
      Brilliantly read as usual, love the different accents and voices.
      What an intricate story!!!!
    • 5/5
      Brilliant story, wonderfully read by Hugh Fraser.
      Completely different plot from the recent BBC production. IMHO I much prefer Christie's version, although I would watch Rufus Sewell in anything at all.
    • 4/5
      In which two deaths bury a gruesome secret – but not forever…

      The cover of "The Pale Horse" always scared me as a child. That’s the first thing that comes to mind when I think of this novel. It’s a story in which threats of the supernatural merge with both the detective and the thriller genre. Nowhere else has Christie combined all three of these so well and – while it isn’t as tightly constructed as her earlier novels – "The Pale Horse" is pretty damn adept. This really isn’t a Poirot or a Marple; in fact, it’s a Tommy and Tuppence novel, if anything. Instead, the investigation is led by a young historian, Mark Easterbrook, who makes for a forthright and surprisingly invigorating lead. Amongst the supporting characters is one of Christie’s most sublime creations, Ariadne Oliver (not all that surprising ,given that she’s an echo of the author herself). Oliver, too, enlivens the story. Both the puzzle and the investigation are sound.

      From an historical standpoint, "The Pale Horse" is a precursor of the two classic 1960s novels – one of which features Mrs. Oliver, and the other uses a supernatural undertone in a similar manner. Most of Christie’s ’60s and ’70s output would be forgettable, but when she tried to experiment, the Dame could still do quite well.
    • 5/5
      Excellent!
      I could listen to Hugh Frazer reading Christie all day every day.
      His characterisations are stunning!
      Well worth a listen!!!
    • 4/5
      My favorite author, I have read every mystery she has written. That said, I must confess I prefer the little Belgian to any of the other 'detectives'. This book however is very engaging and shows why Christie is the granddame of mystery writing.
    • 3/5
      This was an enjoyable read that focuses on the adventures of Mark Easterbrook as he attempted to solve the mystery of a young girl's death, which appeared to be be connected to several other deaths. The story also features the mysterious activities which took place at the Pale Horse, which may or may not be responsible for the deaths.Nice twists throughout the whole story.
    • 3/5
      In many murder mysteries, the question of 'who did it' is less important than 'how they did it' - and that is certainly the case with this book. I came to read it because I knew how it was done; I had read about that while doing research for my own next book. But I had no idea who did it. Now I know.This is not one of Christie's best books. Written when she was 70 years old, and features as its central character a forgettable figure, vaguely described as a historian of sorts, who stumbles through the story, not understanding things that the average reader would spot fairly quickly. He is no Hercule Poirot, who sees everything and understands everything.But in books like this one, the mystery is everything, and two mysteries here -- who did it, and how -- are interesting enough.
    • 4/5
      Christie's books are some of my first mystery/thriller reads and as such they always hold a soft spot in my heart. They have their problems with racism, classism, etc. that is not to be denied. I still however enjoy the mystery itself. The pale horse is a twisty story and I like the layers and mis-directs in this one!
    • 5/5
      A series of coincidences centred on the Pale Horse in Much Deeping convince the historian Mark Easterbrook that a sinister organisation has achieved the seemingly impossible: to kill people by occult means. Together with his friend Ginger Corrigan and Detective Inspector Lejeune he is determined to stop the criminals and to bring them to justice.I first read this novel years ago and, to be honest, I couldn't remember much of the plot, but the overall atmosphere had impressed itself on me. It seems such a departure from Agatha Christie's usual fare of murder mysteries, but it is exceedingly well executed. In a way I feel that with this novel the author was able to explore the mindset of someone living in Britain at the time the novel was written (1960/1961): despite the rapid advance of science (for example, radiation, computers, antibiotics, things which would have been unthinkable even a generation before) in everyday life, the old beliefs and superstitions are still very much in evidence, even if they've been channelled into the subconscious. Mrs Dane Calthrop rather illuminatingly I think here represents the author's opinion: 'My father said that airships were nonsense, and my great-grandfather probably said that railway trains were nonsense. They were both quite right. At that time they both were impossible. But they're not impossible now' (p. 92) and 'Something works. That's what we've got to face. A lot of it, most of it, I think, is trappings. It's just to create atmosphere—atmosphere is important. But concealed amongst the trappings, there must be the real thing—the thing that does work' (p. 223).The murders at the heart of the story are cleverly done and have a rather sinister edge to it, and Agatha Christie once more tries to direct the reader's anticipation of the murderer in certain established ways.
    • 4/5
      The Pale Horse (1961) by Agatha Christie. Murder by witchcraft. The dead die a natural death, but only after the witches do their magic. And what jury would convict the three culprits and admit to the world that they, the jury, believe in such things.As for the police, if you brought them a tale of magic, seances, a cockerel’s fresh blood dripped into a fiery caldron, and subsequent death, you would hopefully only be warned off for wasting their time.Where is the proof, the evidence, the witnesses? The objects of the spells have never come in contact with the spell casters, there is no link at all between the two parties, yet the victims die and the witches claim they are the cause.This is the problem presented in The Pale Horse, which is also the name of the former tavern the witches inhabit. And this is the problem faced by the police when a London priest is killed. In his shoe is a list of names which soon appear to be a group of individuals, totally unrelated to each other in any manner, who’ve died in the past year.Mark Easterbrook is an author who is currently stymied in his writing. On a whim he sets off from his digs in Chelsea and settles into a small coffee shop. There he witnesses a girl-fight. Later he is talking to the owner of the cafe and discovers a little more about the girls involved, including their names. A few days later he reads the obituary of one of the girls.This is an ingenious murder-for-hire scheme that can not possibly be happening. This is also a springboard for Dame Agatha to voice her own opinions, through her characters, of the life of a writer in the 1960’s when so many things were changing rapidly. At a guess, her Ariadne Oliver character, now in her fifth outing, is an outlet for many of the author’s feelings.No matter, The Pale Horse is quite the puzzler that will lead you down a merry path.
    • 5/5
      An excellent mystery. Most of the book is Mark Easterbrook's narration, but some sections are told in 3rd person. Mrs. Oliver appears briefly and provides key information. The twist at the end was unexpected and really good.
    • 3/5
      A Catholic priest is murder on his way home from giving the last rites to a woman. He has a list of names in his shoe of unconnected people who have all died resonantly from natural causes. Mark Easterbrook witnesses fight between two woman in which the hair comes out in clumps without noticeable pain. Then there is the mysterious Pale Horse Inn now closed and occupied by three strange woman who proclaim to be witches and spiritualists. What are the connections amongst these people that lead Mark and the police to suspect murder but how and why.This another Christie novel that is cluttered with unusual British place names and equally fascinating characters.
    • 4/5
      There’s something special about reading an old paperback that has been read more than once by a loved one, and wondering what life was like when its pages were first turned. These types of murder mysteries are not my usual cup of tea, but I liked this one for its characters, the dark and sinister nature of the crime, and that wonderful way of speaking that British people have. It’s also one that can be readily followed without having to backtrack in the book to remember people or events, which is nice, though a part of that is due to repetition, which can also be a bother. Agatha Christie is a clever writer though, and it’s easy to see why she is so popular.Quotes:On love, and men and women:“Being in love has a very bad effect on men – it seems to addle their wits. Now women are just the opposite – on top of the world, looking radiant and twice as good looking as usual. Funny, isn’t it, that it should suit women, and only make a man look like a sick sheep?”And this one, from Revelation 6:8:“And I looked, and behold a pale horse: and his name that sat on him was Death, and Hell followed with him…”
    • 4/5
      I was discouraged at the beginning of this story because I forgot it had Ariadne Oliver in it. She is not my favorite Agatha Christie character. Fortunately, she plays a minor role so she didn't drag the storyline at all. The mystery was intriguing and the ending was unexpected. Another classic Christie novel to enjoy.
    • 3/5
      Audio book read by Hugh Fraser
      3.5***

      Is it possible to kill someone by remote control – that is, black magic?

      A woman on her deathbed asks for a priest – a Roman Catholic priest to be exact. After he leaves her bedside he stops in a café to ponder what she told him. He scribbles down a list of names on a scrap of paper, and because he has a hole in his pocket, puts the paper inside his shoe. On his way back to the parish, however, he is brutally murdered – a seeming robbery. But that scrap of paper wasn’t found by the robber, and it piques the interest of the police, and that of Mark Easterbrook and his sidekick, Ginger Corrigan. The mystery involves three middle-aged women living in a former tavern – The Pale Horse – and dabbling in the occult, a disbarred attorney who likes to take odd wagers, a wealthy industrialist crippled by polio, and a list of people connected only by the fact that they are all deceased. Mrs. Ariadne Oliver makes a brief appearance, and does provide some valuable assistance. Still, I was caught completely unawares at the ending. I just love how Agatha Christie weaves her plots. She really deserves her reputation as the Queen of Mystery Writers.

      Hugh Fraser – known to millions as Captain Hastings, assisting Hercule Poirot in A&E’s [i]Poirot[/i] and in the Agatha Christie [i]Mystery![/i] series on PBS – does a fine job of narrating. He has good pacing and an expressive voice which he moderates wonderfully to distinguish the various characters.

    • 4/5
      "Evil is not something superhuman, it's something less than human."A priest takes a confession from a dying woman in a boarding house. How much of what he's just heard is true and how much is delirium. What he does know is that he must write down a list of names the woman has given him before he forgets them which he does at a small cafe. However, on his way home, he is murdered but the culprit does not find the list secreted in his shoe. This then becomes the only clue into his murder.Mark Easterbrook is friends with the police pathologist working on the case, Jim Corrigan, and finds himself drawn into the mystery by a few mysterious coincidences. Moving from chic Chelsea coffee houses to an old inn known as The Pale Horse in the sleepy countryside outside of Bournemouth. The inn has closed and is now lived in by a trio of women akin to the witches in MacBeth who claim to have super-natural gifts. Easterbrook realises that something sinister is linked with the Pale Horse and suspects that there is a criminal mastermind behind the operation so along with a female friend sets out to try and unmask this murdering maniac. All appears to be failing until a chance remark suddenly sets everything into place with typical Agatha Christie twist and style.The book was first published in the early 1960's and the reader clearly gets a feel for place and time. You can just imagine yourself sat in the chic coffee houses of Chelsea surrounded by their "cool" clientele but also the rural countryside where the vicarage becomes the centre of village life with their fetes etc. Most of the characters are well developed and perhaps best of all there is no Marple or Poirot in sight. There is no flowery sequences and the plot line is taut throughout. I felt like a fish on a hook being methodically reeled in. What the three witches profess to be able to do initially sounds totally far-fetched yet as the action progresses you cannot help but wonder as to whether or not there really is any truth in it.I did NOT guess the identity of the killer and was totally caught out by the final twist. Each time I thought that I had worked it out I was proved wrong which is as it should be. If I had one complaint it is that the end came a bit too quickly. Murder mysteries are not really my usual fayre but all the same I found this an enjoyable read and believe that any real fans of the genre will do so too.
    • 4/5
      The Pale Horse by Agatha Christie, originally published in 1961, is a tale of murder by black magic. This is the authors’ take on the supernatural and she has included séances, witches and an old 15th century inn called The Pale Horse. The novel is a stand alone although one of her reoccurring characters, Ariadne Oliver is featured and other characters from previous books also make an appearance. I recognized the vicar and his wife from The Moving Finger and Colonel Despard from Cards on the Table.The main character, Mark Easterbrook stumbles into a reference that The Pale Horse is a place of evil, and that, along with a list of names that turn out to belong to people who have recently died starts him and a friend, Ginger, on an investigation. Meanwhile, from a slightly different angle, the police are also taking an interest due to a recent murder of a priest.I found this appropriately chilling and original and enjoyed it very much. The author starts her story slowly, but as the pages turn, she amps up the tension and moves her story along quickly. Typically there were a few red herrings along the way and an interesting twist at the end which made The Pale Horse a very satisfactory read.
    • 5/5
      The Pale Horse, written by Agatha Christie, author of 82 novels, is a dark mystery story that deals with a great deal of death through the means of something quite different than Agatha Christie's usual way of going about murders. The main character, Mark Easterbrook, senses something slightly fishy about the coincidental mentions of "The Pale Horse" and decides to investigate the topic. In the process, he finds out things he is quite skeptical about at first, but later takes part in a risky plan to put his mind at ease about the truthfulness behind "The Pale Horse". Ginger, the brains of the plan, helps Mr. Easterbrook uncover a whole load of truth behind the "The Pale Horse" and is very keen on getting the truth out to the police and restoring justice. That was, however, before her life was at stake. The Pale Horse is a truly well developed mystery written in third person point of view, mostly following Mark Easterbrook and occasionally following Detective-Inspector Lejeune's side of the story. The great thing about this particular mystery novel was that there was more than one villain (villain, not suspect), which made it all the more satisfying to read. The process of how the case gradually unravelled and how the character who found out who the felon was revealed it was absolutely perfect. It really finalized his personality which is great, especially since the reader does not get much about that specific person's characteristics as they are reading. Even though most characters got his or her own personality, the novel did not contain much (or maybe even any) character development. This point however, does not have anything to do with the goal of the story; it is just something I usually look forward to when I am reading. As a reader, I find amusement in observing how a character changes whether it be gradually and with time or quickly and instinctively, for the worse or the better, from a minor character or a major character; it's just always fun to read. The Pale Horse however, simply did not have that. The novel was also quite choppy at times; it was not given enough sentence variation at times. I found this was a a bother to me most in the dialogue parts of the story. There would be about three or four consecutive sentences that were about four words long, which definitely put me off. I do have to say though, it was compensated for with the great plot line and brilliant plot twists. Near the end of The Pale Horse, one of the characters says something that I sincerely think should be widely quoted: "Evil is nothing superhuman, it's something less than human. Your criminal is someone who wants to be important, but who will never be important, because he'll always be less than man". I realize that this isn't exactly a deep saying and there's not much more to it than what is given, but that is exactly what attracted me to it. It is so frank and straight-forward and I find that absolutely wonderful. I recommend this novel to all the mystery lovers out there who want a good read, but don't want to have a dictionary next to them to check what every other word means. It had a great plot twist that I thought was executed beautifully. The Pale Horse will definitely be worth your time if you're a fan of the classics.
    • 5/5
      This novel takes the form mainly of a narrative written by Mark Easterbrook whose curiosity is peaked by a list of names found in the dead Father Gorman's shoe. Mark recognises two of the names as belonging to people who are dead and begins to suspect that most of the people on the list are either dead or are in danger of being killed. See a full plot description on Wikipedia. - SPOILERSAs Mark investigates links between The Pale Horse, formerly a pub but now a private residence, and the names on the list, he puts his associate Ginger Corrigan in real danger.There are rather a lot of references to Shakespearean plays in this novel, in particular to the three witches of Macbeth.There are some creepy passages as Christie explores what a seance might be like and how a person might cause death through the powers of suggestion. Mark Easterbrook can't make up his mind whether he is a "believer" in the occult or not. The rational, sensible part of him says it iall poppycock, but the atmosphere of the seance he attends at The Pale Horse strikes real fear into him.The novel not only discusses the power of suggestion in causing people to die, but also plays with the idea of the reliable (or unreliable) witness - but I won't spoil things by telling you which character it is.There are a number of characters who appear in more than one Christie book, including the novelist Mrs Ariadne Oliver, often thought to be Agatha Christie's view of herself, although I think Mrs Oliver is much scattier.Hugh Fraser does an excellent job of the narration.
    • 4/5
      One of my very favourite Agatha Christies. (Loved the television adaptation from ITV in 1997 - worth checking out if you haven't seen it). Complex plot involving witchcraft and murder, it's atmospheric and maintains a sense of internal logic (which can't be said for every Agatha Christie novel). Very enjoyable.

      © Koplowitz 2012

    • 4/5
      Once again, Agatha Christie completely fooled me! All the clues were there - and she misdirected me as always! One of the reasons I love reading her books so much!
    • 4/5
      I read this entry in the summer cool down with AC challenge ahead of viewing the Masterpiece movie that is currently available online. Strangely, they added Miss Marple to the movie version. I am not quite sure why they did that and that threw off my viewing of the movie. In any case this book centers around the mystery as to whether a coven witches really can cause people to die by casting a spell on them. This book does not have Poirot or Miss Marple but Ariadne Oliver who was featured prominently in Hallowe'en party does make a cameo here. There are really two separate story lines at work here. The first one that is introduced involves a priest who is murdered shortly after hearing a dying woman's confession. A list of names of people who are also deceased is found in his pocket. This story is set aside and then the storyline about the witches is concentrated on. Both story lines are brought together in a brilliant way at the end of the book where everything is finally explained. I could not figure out the whole witch thing and when the answer was revealed it was definitely an oh! moment for me. The last twist I did not see coming at all. I enjoyed the two lead characters of this novel, Mark and Ginger. This novel was a high point for me on the summer reading challenge. As an interesting side I learned that this novel has actually saved several people's lives by alerting them to certain symptoms. Check it out when you have finished the book.
    • 4/5
      I really liked this. It was a bit like a Jonathan Creek storyline. There was always a hint of something supernatural going on, and though Christie's mysteries always have a logical explanation at the end, it was always at the back of my mind that maybe something magical really was going on.....
    • 3/5
      Nice later Christie, some interesting post modern references to earlier works too. Vey enjoyable
    • 3/5
      This was an enjoyable read that focuses on the adventures of Mark Easterbrook as he attempted to solve the mystery of a young girl's death, which appeared to be be connected to several other deaths. The story also features the mysterious activities which took place at the Pale Horse, which may or may not be responsible for the deaths.Nice twists throughout the whole story.
    • 4/5
      Christie has several titles that are sort of similar, so I guess I had this book confused with another. As I started reading, I realized that I couldn't remember what happened in this one. I know that I read it before, but it must have been a long time ago. The book opens with a man having a meal in a tea shop. He sees two girls get into a fight. Later he asks a waiter about them and learns their names. The next day he reads that one of the girls is dead. The book then jumps to a dying woman who asks for a priest. The priest arrives and counsels with the woman. She then dies and as he is leaving, he is struck down in the street. How these two incidents connect is the focus of the book. Mark Easterbrook becomes convinced that someone is using a very unusual method of murder - and what's more, it's a very successful method. There are plenty of suspects, as well as plenty of red herrings, and the plot twists several times. Ariadne Oliver appears in this one, but none of Christie's regular detectives do. I really enjoyed this one and I would be happy to read it again. I'm glad I found it!
    • 4/5
      Mrs Oliver appears briefly in this one, but this is one of Christie's books without Poirot or Miss Marple. Mark Easterbrook becomes intrigued by the activities of three women who live at The Pale Horse. He discovers that they are offering murder by 'remote control', which seems to be a strange mix of the occult and science. The revelation of how it is all done is satisfying and neat with the biggest surprise left for the discovery of the brains behind the activities at The Pale Horse.
    • 3/5
      This was a spooky book. There are a lot of mentions of 'malevolent powers' in the book, even though they are scoffed at by most of the characters. There are no famous Christie characters in this book, except a small part played by Ariadne Oliver. I have to laugh at Ms. Oliver, because as she discusses writing her murder mysteries, she may very well be expressing some of the frustration Ms. Christie felt at times while she was trying to write. Anyway, I did not like the spiritual references, but otherwise it was a great mystery with a great twist at the end.