A later reading of Brad’s review at Ah Sweet Mystery revealed that my thoughts weren’t exactly novel. “This is a story that just happens to contain a mystery,” I thought to myself. The emotional punch isn’t at the level of Five Little Pigs, but The Hollow offers a deep tale that pulled me in immediately. On the back of this recommendation, I decided to delay my voyage on The Orient Express a little while longer and instead headed into The Hollow. Published four years after Five Little Pigs, this is the first Poirot novel in as many years, and the characterization was rumored to pack a similar punch. I was tipped onto The Hollow by a few helpful souls haunting these boards. It’s a rare story that takes it the extra mile and sticks with you beyond the cleverness of the trick or misdirection. When I normally approach a GAD novel, I’m looking for a nice brisk read with a killer hook and an even better solution. John Dickson Carr was less effective at it, but he had his moment with books like He Who Whispers and She Died a Lady – titles in which some element of the story pulls at the mind long after the book is set down. Christianna Brand has a certain knack for it – creating a cast of characters so richly painted that it becomes anguishing in the end when one of them is revealed to be a killer. It’s a rare thing for me to really be impacted by a mystery book. It’s been several months, and yet my thoughts continually drift back to the characters, the setting, and paint drying on a canvas. There was something that she captured between those pages that my mind couldn’t leave alone – the tragedy of it all. Christie, who often admitted that she did not like Poirot (a fact parodied by her recurring novelist character Ariadne Oliver), particularly disliked his appearance in this novel.My last encounter with Agatha Christie, Five Little Pigs (Murder in Retrospect), really stuck with me.
The novel is an example of a “country house mystery” and was the first of her novels in four years to feature Christie’s Belgian detective Hercule Poirot-one of the longest gaps in the entire series. Overall, this is a near fine copy of an increasingly scarce title. The text blocks are also markedly clean, considering said paper stock, though with some slight foxing, particularly to the top edge.
The boards are characteristically thin due to poor paper stock post-war, and so are so very slightly worn, but remain highly presentable in light-red cloth. It has not been price clipped, showing the original 8s. There is a minor tear to the tail of the spine, with some light scuffing to top and bottom edges throughout and mild sunning. The dust wrapper is markedly clean and bright on both front and rear panels, though there are slight handling marks to the rear. Published by Collins Crime Club in London, 1946.
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