Book Review: The Mystery of Three Quarters

Having been a massive fan of Agatha Christie and her supremely clever whodunits, it was going to be a given that I will be reading Sophie Hannah's resurrection of the famous Belgian private detective no matter the outcome. But I'm happy to say that The Mystery of Three Quarters, the third in the new series, is a marked improvement over the previous, while retaining all the requisite tropes that can be easily traced back to the originals: a large countryside manor, scandalous secrets, shifty characters, and of course Hercule Poirot, who at the start of the mystery is baffled at being confronted by four random strangers, who are equally enraged and mystified by Poirot's accusations of murder — that of a Barnabas Pandy — through a letter purported to have been sent by him to each one of them. What's more, the Barnabas Pandy mentioned in the letters had already died months ago, after having drowned while sleeping in his bathtub. As Poirot delves into the question of why someone would go to extreme lengths to impersonate him and send letters in his name, it becomes clear that that someone wants him involved and take a stab at the suspicious circumstances surrounding the man's death. While comparisons to Agatha Christie are inevitable, Hannah does quite a masterful job of concocting a labyrinthine puzzle, even as she gives a more pronounced humorous spin that makes it both lively and fun.