Book Club

Non-Series Novels & Stories

For those of you wanting to discuss Agatha Christie's standalone books, such as And Then There Were None. 

Beware spoilers and remember we'll be able to add the most insightful comments to the stories section. 

If you can't find your favourite one, don't worry, we'll be adding them in the coming weeks.

Warning: These discussions may contain spoilers!

Passenger to Frankfurt

Moderator1 16 Nov 09 at 1:21 p.m. GMT

There are some powerful, corrupting forces at work, trying to destabilise the world.  Sir Stafford Nye is enlisted in the fight to quell the violence and expose the people behind the scenes, but knowing friend from foe is already proving very difficult.

This is widely considered to be one of Christie's poorest novels.  What do you think?  Does it deserve its reputation for being convoluted and rather silly?

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25 replies

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JKS 05 Jan 10 at 10:45 p.m. GMT

I'm halfway though and still can't decide if I'm enjoying it or not.  It's very "out there", hard to take seriously.  I'll push on though and make a decision at the end.  So far it's kind of along the lines of the Big Four but even more fantastical and without Poirot to make you smile.

JKS 16 Jan 10 at 3:05 a.m. GMT

Nope!  Didn't like it, sorry.

Tommy_A_Jones 16 Jan 10 at 1:56 p.m. GMT

Nor did I JKS

WindowsNT 16 Jan 10 at 5:19 p.m. GMT

I don't like it either and I actually didn't finish it.

Tommy_A_Jones 25 Jan 10 at 3:47 p.m. GMT

Oh, I finished it but I had to really force myself to and nothing in the world could make me read it again, Pity really because I liked Stafford Nye, it is a pity he is thge only good aspect of the book.

Truman 03 May 10 at 3:54 p.m. GMT

I see some negative comments here...Well, I'll started reading it yesterday and I ill finish it. For now on it's ok...we'll see what will happen 'til end.

Truman 05 May 10 at 10:46 a.m. GMT

Yeah...now I see. End is really bad. Like deus ex machina. This is just a mediocre spy thriller.

go_leafs_nation 05 May 10 at 4:21 p.m. GMT

Mediocre? You're being kind. This is just plain bad. I don't often say this about AC's novels, but I hated, hated, hated, hated, hated, HATED this one. To be fair, it has a good situation at first (and a great introduction), but after a few chapters, this degenerates into a rambling, nonsensical book, that made me want to chuck it out a window. It's very poor, and you don't care even slightly about the guilty party's identity.

Onapi11 06 May 10 at 9:46 a.m. GMT

Out of all the Agatha christies ive read, this is definatly the worst. it was weird and rambled, in one spot i thought that their must be a page missing it was so confusing, but there wasent.

cristina86 12 May 10 at 5:50 p.m. GMT

Er... I finished reading it in english yesterday and rather liked it *gets ready to dodge stones and tomatoes* I know a lot of things were unexplained, some others solved a bit too tidily and the ending maybe didn't make the greatest sense, also I thought that Stafford and the woman would solve the mystery so effectively it was a deus ex machina,.. for all these reasons the book should have failed, and yet it never did - I kept flipping the pages, I was entertained and amused by the story and even a little creeped by Project Benvo, even though it made for an hilarious ending - that is, if the new organist is who I think it is. I shouldn't have liked this book, but for some reason I did. It was never boring or failed to keep my attention engaged. Some things that I had found annoying in other books as the Da Vinci code (which for a moment I thought was going to have a similar ending to this one) here made for a light but enjoyable read. And to think that, when reading it in Italian several years ago, I had stopped somewhere around the one-quarter mark, not because I disliked it but because my interested had been swayed by other Christie books. I had a consistent list of books to read, but they never swayed by attention from "Passenger to Frankfur" this time. Honestly I wasn't expected to like it as much as I did, though I recognize that it's far from perfect and has some serious flaws. But I felt that never detracted from my joy of reading. *goes in a corner shame-facedly*

On to The Secret Adversary now...

Read more about this story: Passenger to Frankfurt

NightRayDuck 19 Aug 10 at 2:45 a.m. GMT

I am in agreement with cristina about this book. It's certainly not the kind of murder mystery or even interesting trick that one usually associates with Christie's works. Not, perhaps, a very vigorous and exacting exercise for the little gray cells. Taken as a book by itself, however, it is a global conspiracy (!! like some of the very lengthy novels by Tom Clancy or Robert Ludlum) presented rather two or three steps away from the bloody revolts and coups.. ending up a fun, light story.

*runs out of sight from poison darts, hypodermic syringes, rifles, and nuclear missiles"

HeiseiHolmes 23 Sep 10 at 2:17 p.m. GMT

~~Spoilers!~~ Very big, dramatic, shocking spoilers! (And I'm not actually talking about those things that go on the backs of some cars!!)

Okay, that should be enough space so that people don't see it on the front. Does anyone know exactly what happened in the book? It was kind of crazy, especially the stuff about Hitler. If it wasn't for Hitler, this book would have been far more believable. Now, it's not a bad book. It was, in fact, really entertaining! I was really drawn into it, even if it was a little strange in places. It was kind of hard to tell what side the characters were on, but most of them were very likeable. (Especially Aunt Matilda, and the Panda! Infact, I think the panda was the most likeable character of all.)

It's come under a lot of wild abuse, but overall this is a fun book, so don't take it too seriously! Just enjoy it. (Also, I think that Amy Leatheran from Murder in Mesopotamia is in it, but it could just be someone with the same name, since I haven't read MIM yet.)

NightRayDuck 12 Oct 10 at 5:42 a.m. GMT

I agree with you, Heisei, it is a very fun book!

Also, I would like to say, for readers who like to take stories seriously... bloody revolts were a widespread phenomenon, and conspiracy theories about Hitler and many other topics were circulated among ordinary citizens and tabloid magazines. The book uses a fantastic premise of such and such persons coming together to organize all of these revolutions... and strings together the revolutions, the indoctrinations, the political anxieties, and the reaction of a diplomat who just wants to have some fun. The story ends up being entertaining and the book is still in publication, and the events in the story do get rather disturbing because one'd hope it's not so in real life, but it may very well have been so... I think that's success for any spy thriller.

Lone_Wolf 14 Oct 10 at 9:18 a.m. GMT

Yeah! These anti-Vietnam war protesters, obviously manipulated by a Hitlerlet to be used against freedom! Evil Nazis are obviously behind all revolutions against the obviously benevolent Western rule.

"conspiracy theories about Hitler and many other topics were circulated among ordinary citizens and tabloid magazines."

It's not a conspiracy, it's a fact - Barack Obama is an anti-colonial Nazi Communist Muslim Hitler who wants to end freedom and Second Amendment Rights in America FOREVER. Listen to that Glenn Beck guy, he knows everything, I tell ya.

"and the book is still in publication,"

Every Christie book is still in publication, even Pоstern оf Fаte. The name on the cover ensures that they'll be bought - and why should the publishers care about anything else?

HeiseiHolmes 14 Oct 10 at 10:52 a.m. GMT

Oioi, it's just a fictional book... It's not trying to say that all these things were happening- it's more of a "What if?"-type scenario."What if all the protesting, and the violence in today's world was part of something bigger?" It's that kind of thought that was taken, and turned into a piece of light escapism. (And where did Barack Obama come into it?!)

Lone_Wolf 14 Oct 10 at 11:56 a.m. GMT

What if anti-war demonstrations are really caused by madmen who want to control the whole world? Sounds like an interesting idea...not.

"(And where did Barack Obama come into it?!)"

Because he's the person who causes all the protesting and violence in today's world though his socialist policies!

I don't blame Christie for the book, because her talents clearly started to slip in her last years. But it's still a bad piece of work.

Lone_Wolf 14 Oct 10 at 1:53 p.m. GMT

Huh, I guess I was too snippy here, my apologizes. Sorry! *pats Heisei on the back* That's the reason why you shouldn't post after a tiring day in the Uni.

My main point stands, however - that something doesn't become less bad from phrasing it in a "what if" way.

HeiseiHolmes 15 Oct 10 at 5:46 p.m. GMT

Ahh, that's okay! A bit of heated discussion every now and then is a good thing, I think.

Apparently, the publishers insisted this book be subtitled "An Extravaganza". I don't think 'extravaganza' even begins to cover it... ¬_¬

murder_in_candlelight 01 Dec 10 at 5:10 a.m. GMT

Just finished it. Well to be honest I bought a book that had five AC stories and i started with this one because it was the most modern one and the plan was to go back in order of date of publication finishing with the oldest novel- my plan was to leave the best for last- since i like the older novels better. Well, I forced myself to read most of it skipping large parts until it came to the point where the whale of a woman was introduced and the super boy came in, that ended up being too much for me. I guess i couldn't picture all those soldiers acting so silly at the entrance and departing of the super boy. That's where I stopped for a while and didn't come back to it until I was done with all other four stories. Then I must have been in a better mood or maybe I just knew what to expect because i started enjoying it more. I really liked Aunt Matilda and the idea of an old lady being more informed and better connected than some of the higher officials. The ending was very dissapointing. I ended up with a lot of questions... then the part where it hints that the super boy was going to be the new church organ player brought a smile to my face and made the book worth reading.

Number3 01 Dec 10 at 12:45 p.m. GMT

I rather enjoyed this one.  But then again I grew up with the Bond books and "39 Steps."

I have always loved espionage and spy thrillers.  To me it read more like a novel that could be set anytime during the 20th century.  Just change a few things here and there then you could have a WWI thriller or a WWII two thriller.

I did love the allusion to the H.G. Well's story/film "Things To Come." 

I will say this though.  With Christie's espionage stories you either like them or don't.  Personally, I enjoyed them all.