The Killings at Kingfisher Hill: The New Hercule Poirot Mystery (New Hercule Poirot Mystery, #4)

by Sophie Hannah

The world's greatest detective, Hercule Poirot-legendary star of Agatha Christie's Murder on the Orient Express and Death on the Nile-returns to solve a fiendish new mystery.

Hercule Poirot is travelling by luxury passenger coach from London to the exclusive Kingfisher Hill estate, where Richard Devonport has summoned him to prove that his fiancee, Helen, is innocent of the murder of his brother, Frank. But there is a strange condition attached to this request: Poirot must conceal his true reason for being there.

The coach is forced to stop when a distressed woman demands to get off, insisting that if she stays in her seat, she will be murdered. Although the rest of the journey passes without anyone being harmed, Poirot's curiosity is aroused, and his fears are later confirmed when a body is discovered with a macabre note attached...

Could this new murder and the peculiar incident on the coach be clues to solving the mystery of who killed Frank Devonport? And if Helen is innocent, can Poirot find the true culprit in time to save her from the gallows?

• ISBN10: 0062792377
• ISBN13: 9780062792372
• Publish Date: 15 September 2020 (first published 20 August 2020)
• Publish Status: Out of Stock
• Publish Country: US
• Publisher: HarperCollins Publishers
• Imprint: Collins
• Format: Hardcover
• Pages: 288
• Language: English

Reviews

[annieb123]

Originally published on my blog: Nonstop Reader.

The Killings at Kingfisher Hill is the 4th book in the new Hercule Poirot mysteries by Sophie Hannah. Released 15th Sept 2020 by HarperCollins on their William Morrow imprint, it's 288 pages and available in hardcover, audio, and ebook formats. It's worth noting that the ebook format has a handy interactive table of contents as well as interactive links. I've really become enamored of ebooks with interactive formats lately.
Despite not being in any way reminiscent of Dame Agatha's oeuvre, this is undeniably a well written, well plotted, readable mystery in the fashion of the golden age. Read on its own merits, it does admirably and I enjoyed it a lot. The characters are classic, archetypal even, rich society matrons, captains of industry, spoiled socialites, village busybodies, salt-of-the-earth charwomen, butlers, maids, and others in service, and Poirot and Inspector Catchpool (Capt. Hastings v. 2.0) rounding out the dramatis personae.

The plotting is rather slow, built up over time rather than explosive. The narrative arc is deliberate - stately even, and the denouement is less of a crescendo than an inescapable inevitability when it finally comes. There were a number of outlandish plot twists which interfered with my suspension of disbelief (no spoilers - never fear), but in the end, the plot threads resolve, clues are deciphered, mysteries are solved, and Poirot sallies forth in search of the next mystery.

I love golden age British mysteries and this one fits in quite well as an homage to the genre. I've read Christie's canon many many times and I liked this book a lot more when I wasn't trying to read it as a Poirot mystery or find similarities with Christie's original work.

Four stars. Not Christie, but quite readable.

Disclosure: I received an ARC at no cost from the author/publisher for review purposes.