Adapted and illustrated by Bruno Lachard
Publisher: HarperCollins
The small English village of King’s Paddock is being rocked by a series of deaths: Murder? Suicide? Natural causes? Hercule Poirot wanders into the midst of events by inadvertently retiring to a small cottage in King’s Paddock next door to Doctor Sheppard and his sister, Caroline. Sheppard assumes the role of Hastings throughout – dispatched on missions by Poirot, picking up bits and pieces from the man himself, wondering exactly where Poirot is going with his cryptic comments, until the final reveal that…ah, that would of course be telling. Told in first person by Sheppard, the mystery gradually unfolds before our eyes, including all the clues the reader needs to beat Poirot to the answer – one such clue is perhaps a little obvious fairly early on, but it’s easy to overlook or forget (or not be able to work out the significance) until Poirot makes his trademark last chapter reveal.
What works exceptionally well about this graphic novel are the plot and the format – the plot is one of Christie’s finest, and when I read it for the first time in the original novel it fulfilled for me one of my many regrets about detective fiction to that point (you’d need to read the book to see why). It’s a device I’d never seen used before, but dearly wanted to read, and Christie came up trumps in her novel. In this graphic novel version, it’s fully present and correct, and works just as well as in the book. The format is gorgeous – an oversized A4 hardcover book, endpapers, glossy pages, great binding, excellent design, the whole package is superb, feels great and looks a treat on the shelf (the other books in the series (there are eight so far) fit in with the design, making them all an attractive addition to any graphic novel collection.
What doesn’t work so well is the art and the comic strip interpretation – the figures are a little too alike at times, it’s not entirely clear who is who at one or two points, and occasionally events pass by in the pictures which are not overtly referenced in the (lots of) dialogue – the return of Ralph is one example. Whilst this isn’t a problem in your standard graphic novel, here there is a lot of dialogue which makes it easy to overlook the accompanying art – pay attention! Also, there are a lot of characters introduced in short order at the start – and you are really rewarded if you read the first four pages twice before the rest of the book.
These are minor quibbles – the plot carries the day, and if you’re not a Christie fan already this is the perfect introduction. For fans, it’s a smart version of an old favourite, and one for all ages – this book was enjoyed just as thoroughly by my 10 year old son as myself.
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