Seven Dials by Agatha Christie

I have managed to get to the ripe old age of 67 without ever reading any books by Agatha Christie, and was starting to feel as though I was missing out on something. This feeling was bought about by a series of programmes fronted by Lucy Worsley that covered the life of Mrs Christie, particularly the period of time when she went missing from home. Everyone Lucy Worsley interviewed spoke enthusiastically about her books, and I suppose not surprisingly, there is even an Agatha Christie Society who can probably recite whole chapters off by heart. Then, last Wednesday when I went to the library, there were two big piles of Seven Dials sitting on the 'recommends' table so I almost felt that fate had intervened.

Anyway, in the end I didn't really enjoy it, although to be fair it was first published in 1929 and the language is very much of its time. The conversation is in the 'what ho!' style with most of the lead characters living in big country houses and having very little to do in the way of work. It's a bit like P G Wodehouse only without the wit, or the charm for that matter. By today's standards, much of the plot is ridiculous, and in order to get though it at all, I had to accept everything as I would if I was reading a Famous Five book.

I used to love the Poirot series when it was on television, but now I'm thinking that the script writers must have taken the basic idea and then created something much more appealing for the screen. The series also had the benefit of wonderful period costumes and plenty of Art Deco furniture, so it was worth looking at just for those.

The basic plot in Seven Dials is pretty much as you would expect: A collection of rich people attending a house party, then one of the guests appears to have died from an accidental overdose of a sleeping draft. It isn't long before foul play is suspected and then a number of the young guests start to play at amateur detectives to discover what really happened on the night their friend died. Predictably, they get themselves in danger, fail to heed the warnings of the detective handling the case, and generally make a nuisance of themselves until the whole case is solved.

There may be better stories by Agatha Christie out there, and the dear lady did write 66 crime novels, 150 short stories and 25 plays, so she got something right and I am probably just being mean.

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