When the Official Agatha Christie team invited me to take part in their Read Christie campaign for 2021, I was so excited! As you'll know by now, Agatha Christie is my favourite author, and I'm always looking for excuses to shout about her work!
The Read Christie campaign is designed to get more people reading Agatha Christie stories through a series of prompts over the year. This year, all of the prompts are based around locations and settings, which I love. I think the backdrop of a murder mystery really adds to the atmosphere, and I was really looking forward to choosing my picks!
January began with the prompt: a story set in a grand house
I chose to re-read The Hollow, which was also the main Official Agatha Christie choice for this month too. There are lots of books that fit this prompt, but I've only read The Hollow once, and that was many years ago now. I remembered enjoying it, but didn't rate it among the top Christie stories I'd ever read. I was wondering how I would feel about the book on a re-read!
Read on to hear my answers to the questions the Official Agatha Christie account posed at the end of January, and to see what I thought of the book more generally!
You can find out more about #ReadChristie2021 on the Official Agatha Christie website.
1. What did you like about this story?
I think what I really enjoyed about The Hollow while re-reading it was the simplicity of the story. I've always found that I've gravitated to the more complex stories (such as Death on the Nile, Murder On the Orient Express or Evil Under the Sun) with really intricate puzzles to work out. I've always found that the endings were so much more satisfying when the reveal really shocks you. The Hollow doesn't really have that, so when I first read it, I didn't find that it stood out so much to me.
However, on a re-read, I feel I appreciate the story a lot more. What's great about The Hollow is its simplicity. It isn't overcomplicated, but it's still not an easy mystery to work out because of all the conflicting information. All reveals itself in the end, but the solution is very simple, and in that way it was a very satisfying read. I don't think I appreciated that when I first read it.
2. What did you make of Lady Lucy Angkatell?
This is a really interesting question, because Lucy wasn't actually one of the characters that most stood out to me. I know a lot of other readers of The Hollow felt she really stood out, but I was far more interested in some of the other characters. This made it really interesting and quite difficult for me to reflect on her character after I finished the book.
I think she's a really interesting character because she has so many different layers to her personality. At a first glance, she's definitely away with the fairies. She says what she thinks and she's not quite with it. However, the more you find out about the events of the murder, you more you see that maybe she isn't quite as oblivious as she seems to be. I don't want to spoil anything, but there's a conversation towards the end of the book regarding a gun holster, and in this moment the readers realises that Lucy Angkatell is more perceptive and shrewder than the impression she gives off.
I love when Christie's stories reveal real depth to supporting characters as they progress, and this is a really great example of that.
3. How did you feel about Doctor John Christow?
Well. I think this is a really interesting question, because the automatic reaction is 'eughhhh'. John Christow is not a likeable character. He's arrogant, unfaithful, and generally comes across as a horrible person. When this happens in a Christie story, I'm a little conflicted. On the one hand, it's so easy to be on the side of the murdered when the victim is a dreadful person, and it's enjoyable in that way. On the other hand, I quite enjoy when the victim is likeable; I like the shock factor that comes from it, and the mystery of who is hiding what.
We obviously have the former here, and as a reader we cannot be sorry he's dead. My feelings are quite straightforward in this way, because I don't think John Christow has any redeeming features. This did make it less interesting to read some of the rest of The Hollow, because I wasn't as invested in discovering the context of why the murder had happened.
4. There are some unsympathetic characters in The Hollow. Who did you sympathise with?
Again, this is another really interesting question, because I'm not sure I sympathised with many of the characters at all. There were one or two that I sympathised with slightly, but there was always a reason why I couldn't quite feel it completely.
The first is Gerda. I sympathise with her because her marriage is clearly one sided. John treats her appallingly, of course, but she also allows it. I'm not saying she is to blame, because John is obviously the problem in the relationship, but there were so many times when I wanted to shake Gerda and tell her to stand up for herself! Of course, with John gone, all is resolved...
The second was Midge. She's actually a very minor character but she's also the most hard done by. The rest of the characters have relatively straightforward lives; they have their homes, secure incomes, and they have never had to worry about holding down a job. Midge is the opposite. She has to keep her job, and she gets frustrated when trying to explain to the other characters why that's a necessity for her. As the reader, I got frustrated on her behalf when everybody treated her like a child. She has to have a job - she's not as fortunate as everybody else! Eugh. poor Midge.
The third person I felt some sympathy for was Henrietta. Again, I don't feel entirely sympathetic for her, because she is a very morally grey character. She's sleeping with a married man, and continuing as normal. However, I felt sorry for her because she is clearly in love with a man who just does not feel the same way. I sympathised with her because emotions are awful, and to be in that position of such strong unrequited love must be dreadful. But my sympathy was limited because of tbe betrayal she was encouraging through her behaviour. Again, I'm trying to be mindful of spoilers, but as the plot progresses, we learn more and more about the power John really had over her. Plus, I thought she was such a strong and well-written character that I think she resonated more strongly with me because of that fact.
5. What did you think of Poirot's handling of the case?
I've seen a lot of people pass comments on the fact that Poirot had no real place in this story, and I do see what they mean. Poirot enters the story late, and when he does, it doesn't feel like he really needs to be there. However, I actually disagree slightly. Just because Poirot isn't the main character doesn't mean he doesn't belong there.
He spends the entire book watching from the sidelines, yes, but this is what he usually does. This doesn't make him any less important to the progress of the story. He is the one who sees that there are red herrings being deliberately thrown into the equation, and from sitting on the sidelines he contributes so much to the evolving story.
The best example I can provide of this is the psychology which Poirot uses to crack the case at the very end. This is classic Poirot behaviour! It is psychology that leads him to find the missing revolver, and that allows us to see the puzzle as it really is. I'm sure there could have been a lot of other ways that this case could have been cracked, but I do think it is a genuine Poirot moment. It's all in the mind - the little grey cells!
6. How do the two settings, London and the Hollow, seem to you?
This question caught me off guard, because I never even really thought about the book taking place in two separate places. In my mind, it was all in the Hollow. Looking back, I realised that we do actually spend some time outside the Hollow, at the beginning and at the very end, and with Midge at certain parts in the middle. However, I think the Hollow is such a fantastic setting for the story that I've kind of blocked London out of my mind.
I love the more closed settings in Agatha Christie novels, where the location and suspects are very clear cut. I felt that very few of the characters belonged in London - Midge and Henrietta and probably nobody else - but I could imagine them vividly at the Hollow. That being said, I did appreciate the way the book closed in London, because I felt it all wrapped up very neatly and made sense to me as a reader.
7. What's your rating?
Rating: ✫✫✫✫
This isn't my favourite Agatha Christie, but I do think it is one that does improve on a re-read. It has a beautiful simplicity to it. The characters are direct, the story evolves very gently, and Poirot uses his mind to see the truth. Ultimately, the story doesn't need flair and thrills to really make an impact. It's one that I thoroughly enjoyed.
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