Sleeping Murder

 By Agatha Christie

This is my first Agatha Christie novel. It sat on my shelf for about a year before I actually chose to embark on the adventure. The catalyst was this; if you are familiar with enneagram personalities, I am a 5 (sometimes showing characteristics of an 8). I came across an enneagram post discussing famous 5s and Agatha Christie's name appeared. I know this stuff isn't a perfect science and every personality quiz has pros and cons. But I took this notion as a suggestion that I would really like her writing as she and I have similar operating systems. 

I used to love mysteries. It used to be my only genre. So reading a Christie novel felt like I was paying homage to my 5th grade mystery-loving-self. I haven't stopped loving mysteries, I just drifted to other genres as I aged. (My hypothesis is that I became increasingly aware of the predictabilities that some children's authors gravitate towards.)

Sleeping Murder did not disappoint. Like I said, I had high expectations (a dangerous situation), but Christie came through and delivered as a delicious conclusion was reached.

The premise is basically a cold case set in the England countryside. We go through the usual suspects (one of my favorite movies), and narrow the suspicion to three candidates. Naturally, a good mystery author is likely to 'trick' the readers and so the three candidates that are presented are not typically viable for being the actual murderer. Personally, I was banking on the murderer being the wife of one of the suspects. And maybe the art of Christie is that while she overtly presented us these three options, she was really trying to frame the wife. 

I shared the book with a friend recently and after she was done we discussed our suspicions and found that we both suspected the wife instead of the three men presented.

Verdict below:

The murderer was so greatly convoluted in presentation that only in the middle of the book, briefly did I suspect him. Only when the matter of Kelvin Halliday's state of potential drugging and where such drugs could be acquired did I suspect the killer. I am sure you could look up who killed Helen all those years ago (since this book was written in 1976 and published post mortem) if you must know. I was greatly pleased with the killer's identity as he was not overtly suspected and there was only a small hint of suspicion that was quickly overlooked. 

I will be reading more Agatha Christie very soon!

Happy Reading, Bookworms