Dumb Witness

During my vacation in Florida, or more specifically, on the plane back, I read Dumb Witness, by Agatha Christie. Frankly, I wasn’t ecstatic to read it, but merely purchased it because my mother was pushing for more “classic” literature. The tale follows Hercule Poirot and Captain Hastings as they try to solve a case for one who is now deceased, Miss Emily Arundell. She trips down the stairs one night, the cause of which is deduced by all around her to be the ball of her beloved dog, Bob. However, inexplicably, she is stultified by the fact that she never felt even the slightest kiss of the ball. She then concludes, correctly, that someone within her family is trying to murder her and take her considerable fortune – in order to quell such a plot from happening, she creates a will that gives all her money to her servant, Miss Lawson. Shortly afterwards, apparently from a chronic liver disease, she expires. Basically, Poirot and Hastings go from character to character that was present at the time of the killing, using many seemingly superfluous details. I will not go into detail, as they investigate seven or eight family members. However, they conclude that Mrs. Tanios tried to make her plummet fatally down the stairs and put lethal doses of phosphorus in her pills. Unfortunately, there is little character development for M. Poirot, as he is the main character of a long series, where he presumably evolves over books, not chapters (I haven’t read any others). One thing I don’t like is that I never learn who the murderer was until the very end – some might argue that that’s good. I, however, beg to differ. It is irritating to read a murder mystery that doesn’t really help the reader have even the slightest idea of who the culprit is. All in all, I found this book quite entertaining. However, I do wish that the characters weren’t so static. If you like mysteries, Victorian-era England, or both, this book for you. If not, you might want to pass.