I think I might have murdered someone.
Third Girl
by Agatha Christie
Genre: Murder Mystery
About: Norma Restarick seeks out Poirot, telling him that she's not sure but she thinks she's a murderer. She soon then goes missing and Poirot is left without much of a case because the person everyone thinks Norma has been trying to kill, is very much alive...
Quick Thoughts
There's a lot going on in this novel. Poison attempts, suicides, mysterious gunshots, missing letters linked to espionage, and then, finally, a stabbing. In the midst of this is Norma. A young woman who presents to all who know her as... not quite all there. She forgets things she's told people, has periods of missing time, and is full of so much hate. She is, on paper, the one and only prime suspect.
I liked the intrigue of this novel. The set-up is a good hook and the answer to the mystery is clever, as always with Agatha Christie. But I didn't really enjoy the novel overall much and I think it was because too much was going on without any clear focus. Norma was a vague character and the plot centred around her vagueness.
Also the romance in this novel is perhaps the worst I've seen from Christie. There's a random one between two side characters that tie up the also random spy element to the story. And the worst one came right at the end. Completely out of nowhere, after a character has been through a truly traumatic ordeal, a marriage proposal gets tossed in there and from someone who - professionally - should know better.
Overall, it was a good mystery but a bit too jam-packed with different plot threads and no clear direction.
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