Endless Night (Miss Marple Mysteries)

by Agatha Christie

Volume 68 in the Agatha Christie Collection (1967) Limited edition of 1000 copies worldwide Gipsy's Acre was a truly beautiful upland site with views out to sea -- and in Michael Rogers it stirred a child-like fantasy. There, among the dark fir trees, he planned to build a house, find a wonderful girl and live happily ever after, Yet, as he left the village, a shadow of menace hung over the land. For this was the place where accidents happened. Perhaps Michael should have heeded the locals' warnings: 'There's no luck for them as meddles with Gipsy's Acre'.

• ISBN10: 0396087000
• ISBN13: 9780396087007
• Publish Date: 31 October 1985 (first published 27 July 1970)
• Publish Status: Temporarily Withdrawn
• Out of Print: 16 March 2017
• Publish Country: US
• Imprint: G.P. Putnam's Sons
• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English

Reviews

[MurderByDeath]

Well, that was a mind f*ck.     Sort of.  I don't know about anyone else, but the entire time I was reading this I was, in addition to waiting for something to happen, racing down possible scenarios in my head, so at one point or another I'd suspected everyone.     I most consistently suspected Mike, that I was reading a confession after the fact; at one point I started to suspect Ellie because nobody could be that perfect could they?  And Mike's reaction to meeting Greta didn't feel authentic, although I was subsequently sold on his hostility towards her.  It wasn't until Ellie died and he kept Greta around that I went back to thinking he was just another cliche, falling for the secretary.  But boy howdy I did NOT see the very end at all.  That was very dark indeed and the break with reality at the end was also a complete shock. (hide spoiler)   I don't know what I'd call this, but murder mystery would not make the top three.  Psychological thriller, yes.  Horror even.  Suspense at the very least.  But even if you don't know who the killer is until the end, there isn't any emphasis on the mystery.   A lot of questions went unanswered for me, most of them probably inconsequential:  What was up with the impromptu visit by Ellie's uncle at the end - was there a point to that?  And was Lloyd really at the pub with his ex-wife?  Why?  And if the staff were who Mike says they were why didn't they stop the whole thing sooner?  Why let it go on for so long?   Objectively speaking, this is a very good book; it requires a commitment from the reader, to stick with it during that excruciatingly slow build up, but it repays it in spades with that ending.  It's tight, and well written and I sort of suspect Christie had a lot of fun writing it; I picture her at her desk doing a version of the muwahahaha as she constructed that ending.   But subjectively... I didn't like it.  I don't like unreliable narrators, I dislike being kept from the facts and I hate psychological manipulation and the very worst part:  I couldn't put the book down.  I had to know how it ended.  Does that make me more or less crazy than the book?   ;p

[brokentune]

"I’d no real idea that that wasn’t all there was to it. I suppose it happens to everyone sooner or later and it happens suddenly. You don’t think as you imagine you’re going to think: ‘This might be the girl for me… This is the girl who is going to be mine.’ At least, I didn’t feel it that way. I didn’t know that when it happened it would happen quite suddenly. That I would say: ‘That’s the girl I belong to. I’m hers. I belong to her, utterly, for always.’ No. I never dreamed it would be like that. Didn’t one of the old comedians say once– wasn’t it one of his stock jokes? ‘I’ve been in love once and if I felt it coming on again I tell you I’d emigrate.’ It was the same with me. If I had known, if I had only known what it could all come to mean I’d have emigrated too! If I’d been wise, that is."

Endless Night is one of Dame Agatha's lesser known novels. However, it is easily one of her best.

The narrator describes this story as a love story but it is clear from the outset - and obviously knowing that it is an AC story - that not all is well and that there are powers conspiring against the main characters. It is for the reader to follow the narrator into the story of Gipsy's Acre, his story.

I'm not going to give anything away here but just want to say that this book had me hooked and led me down the garden path right until the very end. And for someone who is quick to describe Dame Agatha's mysteries as formulaic, this is not easy to admit. Well, ok, it is. I enjoyed every minute of being mislead by this story.

"In my end is my beginning…That’s a quotation I’ve often heard people say. It sounds all right– but what does it really mean? Is there ever any particular spot where one can put one’s finger and say: ‘It all began that day, at such a time and such a place, with such an incident?’ "

[mitabird]

3.5 stars