This book has the lengthiest denouement of any Christie book I’ve read so far, as Poirot carefully takes the captive audience through his deduction process before the startling final explanation.įor a while I was thinking that I’d have another chance to figure out the murderer in a rare Christie novel I never read before. Though Poirot doesn’t fully appear on the scene until halfway, when he does he’s as brilliant and perceptive as ever. Monstrous and vile Mrs Boynton is one of Christie’s most memorable creations and Petra is an evocative setting that makes her feel even more grotesque and larger-than-life. He only has twenty-four hours to solve the murder, but Poirot never suffered from false modesty. At first it looks like a heart attack, but some suspicious details warrant the involvement of Poirot, who happens to be passing through Amman. There, Mrs Boynton is found dead one evening.

This novel takes its sweet time to arrive at the murder, but it’s worth the wait and the long build-up as Boyntons, Sarah and a few other secondary characters travel to the camp at the red cliffs of Petra. This sight infuriates Sarah, who develops a romantic interest in Raymond Boynton, though of course she’s unaware of his stepmatricidal intentions. Though most of them are now grown-ups and one of her stepsons is married, they’re too paralysed and socially inept to break free. She’s a former prison warden and a loathsome mental sadist who keeps her daughter and stepchildren in perfect submission to her will and whims, through manipulation, isolation and brain-washing. Mrs Boynton belongs to the tradition of Christie murder victims whose death, in the eyes of most people, makes the world a better place. Instead it switches to the perspective of Miss Sarah King, a young woman on a holiday who’s staying at the same hotel and meets a most peculiar American family, the Boyntons. Reader’s second thought: hmm is this some sort of devious double bluff?Īfter teasing Poirot in the opening chapter, Appointment with Death doesn’t return to our favourite Belgian until about 100 pages after, which might not please everybody. Reader’s first thought: well he’s obviously not the killer then. The book then goes and reveals the identity of the speaker, a young man named Raymond Boynton, who together with his sister Carol discusses their stepmother and the issue of why she must shuffle off this mortal coil. He doesn’t take it too seriously, but remarks to himself that he would recognise this voice again. This dramatic opening line is a bit of conversation overheard by Hercule Poirot during his hotel stay in Jerusalem. You do see, don’t you, that she’s got to be killed?

So while I can’t go there in real life, it was pretty exciting to discover it as the backdrop to one of Dame Agatha’s murder mysteries.

Petra in Jordan is one of my top bucket list destinations in the world.

Mrs boynton appointment with death