What a book! What a Plot! What a build-up! Only Agatha Christie can write like this. She is a brilliant storyteller no doubt.
It is a standalone novel written in three parts. A story that completely sounds normal at the beginning. Two people FENELLA or ELLIE and MIKE or MICHAEL ROGERS meet at a site that is being auctioned. This place is called GIPSY’S ACRE and is rumoured to be cursed. This property has breathtaking views. Mike and Ellie have similar dreams and plans. It’s a beautiful love story of Ellie and Mike that gets propelled into a murder mystery. Mike is a guy who doesn’t believe in working hard but instead has lofty dreams.
The story takes time to lift off. It has love, lies, betrayal, deceit, murders, and whodunit. It is a psychological thriller. The story is very slow at the beginning and then there is a plot twist that is completely stunning and makes one wonder and cry ‘what and why!’
An overpowering character was Greta who is Ellie’s companion and takes care of Ellie in many ways. There are many interesting characters like Ellie’s stepmother Cora, her cousin, and her uncles. Another very interesting character was the gipsy Mrs. Lee, who prophesied the future of Ellie and Mike. Ellie describes Greta at the beginning, and I felt as though she is Rebecca (Daphne Du Maurier), the only difference being Rebecca was already dead in the novel yet overpowering whereas Greta is alive. I suspected everybody, and everybody seemed to be a culprit with an evil motive. Every character seemed wicked and made me think that maybe this person is the creepy one capable of some crime.
When it is an ‘Agatha Christies’, I have a preconceived notion that there will be a murder and I am on the lookout for a killer or a suspect and because the murder doesn’t take place at the beginning, I kept wondering who is going to die? When? And who is going to kill somebody?
The story is written in the first person and Mike is its narrator. The whole story is from his perspective and that was interesting. Every feeling like angst, agony, jealousy, greed, fear is depicted so beautifully.
It is Agatha, it doesn’t need any recommendations! We just read it or else we miss out on all the mystery.