Dead Man's Folly / Elephants Can Remember

by Agatha Christie

Genres: Mystery

Hardcover

Published January 1, 1978

About the author

Agatha Christie also wrote romance novels under the pseudonym Mary Westmacott, and was occasionally published under the name Agatha Christie Mallowan.

Dame Agatha Mary Clarissa Christie, Lady Mallowan, DBE (née Miller) was an English writer known for her 66 detective novels and 14 short story collections, particularly those revolving around fictional detectives Hercule Poirot and Miss Marple. She also wrote the world's longest-running play, the murder mystery The Mousetrap, which has been performed in the West End of London since 1952. A writer during the "Golden Age of Detective Fiction", Christie has been called the "Queen of Crime". She also wrote six novels under the pseudonym Mary Westmacott. In 1971, she was made a Dame (DBE) by Queen Elizabeth II for her contributions to literature. Guinness World Records lists Christie as the best-selling fiction writer of all time, her novels having sold more than two billion copies.

This best-selling author of all time wrote 66 crime novels and story collections, fourteen plays, and six novels under a pseudonym in romance. Her books sold more than a billion copies in the English language and a billion in translation. According to Index Translationum, people translated her works into 103 languages at least, the most for an individual author. Of the most enduring figures in crime literature, she created Hercule Poirot and Miss Jane Marple. She atuhored The Mousetrap, the longest-running play in the history of modern theater.

Associated Names:
Agata Christie
Agata Kristi
Агата Кристи (Russian)
Агата Крісті (Ukrainian)
Αγκάθα Κρίστι (Greek)
アガサ クリスティ (Japanese)
阿嘉莎·克莉絲蒂 (Chinese)

Reviews

[Anne · Rating 3 out of 5]

Contains two of Christie's Poirot stories.
Both of these also have Ariadne Oliver, which is why I'm assuming they were put together in a collection.
I've left links for longer reviews of each story if anyone is interested in a particular one.

Elephants Can Remember
Elephants.
Amazing creatures as long as they stay out of rooms.



When a rude woman asks a highly impertinent question about the death of Ariadne Oliver's goddaughter's parents, it piques her interest in what was originally thought to be a murder-suicide.
And if anyone can help her get to the bottom of things, it's her old friend Hercule Poirot.


Dead Man's Folly
Ariadne Oliver has a bad feeling about the murder she's planning.



Of course, Mrs. Oliver is only killing for charity. As a famous mystery writer, she's been asked to plan a fake murder and organize the hunt for clues.
But there's just something indefinably wrong with the situation. And when she thinks about it for a second?
Hey! I know a guy...



Dead Man's Folly is a pretty good story, but Elephants Can Remember was written toward the end of Christie's life and tends to ramble on too much.
Recommended if you find it on sale.

[Connie · Rating 2 out of 5]

This was a 2 novel book. I have to say, considering her success at writing, I expected it to be better.
Both of the books were so messily written and just all over the place; jumpy, one might use to describe it. After reading the first one, in which the motive and murder etc was fairly clever, the second book was easy to predict who murdered who etc. She used a very similar layout to the first one. Probably won’t bother reading any more of her work. I finished the book feeling that it was anti-climactic and rather disappointed.

[Jaclyn · Rating 3 out of 5]

I love Agatha Christie mysteries, especially those featuring Poirot. These ones are set much later in the detective's life, and heavily feature Ariadne Oliver.

Dead Man's Folly was kinda interesting, with all the red herrings about who could have been the murderer and why.

Elephants Can Remember had a kernel of an interesting cold case mystery, and I think I enjoyed the TV adaptation of it. But the book itself got a bit too metaphorical with all the references to elephants.