The Last Death Of The Year by Sophie Hannah

Disappointing. This new Hercule Poirot mystery, written by Sophie Hannah and authorized by the estate of Agatha Christie, fell short, a fan of Christie and Poirot. Despite a great premise, the pace lacked spark and did not adhere to the Golden Age rules of detection. In the end, I didn't care.

Hercule Poirot and Inspector Edward Catchpool of Scotland Yard celebrate New Year's Eve 1932 on the small Greek island of Lamperos. Nash Athanasiou has opened his rustic stone home as the House of Perpetual Welcome, with a creed of complete forgiveness without question, turning no one away. Nash is keen to spread this sect of forgiveness, but the structure is nebulous, other than he is Proti Fonti (First Voice). His kindhearted Oxford friend Matthew Fair is there (as Second Voice) with sisters Rhoda and Olive. Matthew and Rhoda were engaged to be married until flighty Pearl showed up. Brash American Austin and the mysterious Betlinde make up the group with Charles and his fiancée Thirza. For a party game, each person writes down a resolution to be read aloud and the author guessed (highlighting to the reader who was a murderer, but I could not guess). Among the usual wishes is the deadly threat: "We are all resolved to murder Matthew Fair ... at once the first and last death of the year." Assuming it to be a joke, they nevertheless wait until the turn of midnight, but nothing happens. The next day, however, Matthew is dead.

Catchpool learns from Poirot that they were hired to solve a previous murder attempt, and they uncover a nest of spurned lovers, breakups and desires, mysterious deaths, and murderous convictions, for everyone is holding secrets they wish to be absolved of in advance of contrition. This with the society caveat "No Lying." With another murder, local Inspector Konstantinos Kombothekra arrives on the scene.

With many good features, the writing was slack for a Poirot mystery; a good 80 pages could have been cut. I enjoyed the ingenious twist using time, but quirks like the disconnected balconies were not utilized. Even Poirot's eccentric English malapropisms felt off. I felt the greatest flaw at the finale, where Poirot masterfully explains all the events to solve the mystery; however, the Golden Age rule is that the reader be provided enough knowledge to solve it themselves. This introduced whole backstories we were not privy to, which is not fair play. This would have succeeded if it had been written as a Christie-esque mystery featuring a Poirot-type detective, as this sixth mystery in the new Poirot series did not measure up to Christie.

2025 / Hardcover / 288 pages