Have Your Say

Discuss Poirot

Talk about everything Poirot related!

Rate Five Little Pigs

detectivepauljohn 03 Feb 09 at 10:03 a.m. GMT

I rate it 9/10. This book is really good! The plots, characters, settings and twists are amazing! It was a bit(just a bit) boring. Almost all scenes are really wonderful and excellent! Some scenes are romantic. The ending was very surprising! My favorite characters are Cecilia Williams and Meredith Blake. I didn't suspected the murderer but at first I suspected him/her but later I didn't but when Hercule Poirot revealed all the secrets I was surprised!

How about you? What do you think, girls and guys?

Login or register to add posts and reply

36 replies

Reverse order

Tommy_A_Jones 03 Feb 09 at 3:13 p.m. GMT

I wouldn't call it boring it just perhaps lacks a little something (Although I don't know what it is) That Cards On The Table, ABC Murders and Death In the Clouds has, Mind you, it does have that cold Case aspect that I like.

Lone_Wolf 04 Feb 09 at 3:10 a.m. GMT

This reply contains spoiler information. Show reply

9/10. An unknown materpiece.

Agatha Christie liked the "classic love triangle is not what it seems at first glance" plots.

major_pallgrave 04 Feb 09 at 11:49 p.m. GMT

I've tried to like Five little pigs, i don't DISlike it but i just never could get into it somehow. I don't like "cold cases" i prefer my mysteries to be more immediate. Amyas Crale wasn't a very nice charachter, sort of hard to have sympathy for him though thats no excuse for murder.

Tommy_A_Jones 05 Feb 09 at 4:43 p.m. GMT

It is odd bits of the story being told by people other than Hastings but I like Cold Cases so I loved that aspect of the book.

squatty 05 Feb 09 at 6:42 p.m. GMT

In my humble opinion, this is the best of the cold cases and certainly streets ahead of the ones AC tended to concentrate on in later life. I thought it was really interesting getting the five suspects to write their accounts of the fateful day. When I read the novel back, I saw how cleverly AC had revealed the truth but it was so concealed amongst other information, that trying to find the murderer was like looking for a needle in a haystack.

Lone_Wolf 08 Feb 09 at 5:16 a.m. GMT

I disagree about Amyans not being sympathetic enough. While he had many dislikeable qualities, he didn't cross the Moral Event Horison for me.

squatty 15 Feb 09 at 11:32 a.m. GMT

Around the time AC wrote Five Little Pigs, she often had a murderer or the victim who was a good looking man; slightly feckless but with lots of charm that many of the female characters found a turn on. I think Amyas fits into this category. I certainly dont see him as a bad man - cocky and a bit heartless perhaps.

pghfan 20 Feb 09 at 2:22 p.m. GMT

There has been comment on the fact that Amyas Crayle was based on Christie's first husband, Archie Christie. Both cheated on their wives and both had the same initials. Perhaps this book enables Christie to take "revenge" on Archie for his infidelity. This book is considered one of Christie's best, not only for a surprising conclusion but for far-better-than-usual characterizations.

sapphire_arisa 10 Mar 09 at 3:37 a.m. GMT

well...i'm reading it right now. and i think it's pretty good. i like the setting where 5 suspects did the same as 5 little pigs. I just finished 'Mrs McGinty Is Dead', and that was based on an old children's game. I loved that one.

lava 11 Mar 09 at 6:20 a.m. GMT

i love five little pigs iratr 9.5?10 its one of my fav HP

devilgal19 21 Mar 09 at 7:36 p.m. GMT

I give it 9/10... a really good mystery!

count_andreny 22 Mar 09 at 1:27 p.m. GMT

I'd rate it between 7 and 8.There's a great atmosphere and I  really like Elsa

ArlenaSMarshall 22 Mar 09 at 9:53 p.m. GMT

I would rate 5 little pigs a 9/10. It is a really intricate mystery, and the reader dosen't los intrest while reading it.

knottyceltic 29 Oct 10 at 11:20 a.m. GMT

I give it an 8 out of 10.  I would have gave it 9 out of 10 but it gave me a hard time to read it even though it was an excellent mystery that had me fixed on ONE suspect all the way through to the end.  I was WRONG hahaha!

knottyceltic 29 Oct 10 at 11:28 a.m. GMT

One thing I neglected to mention was in reference to the original poster's comment that this book was "romantic".  I found nothing at all "romantic" about this book.  I wonder what the original poster was thinking of when they said that?

knottyceltic 29 Oct 10 at 11:52 a.m. GMT

Lone_Wolf

I disagree about Amyans not being sympathetic enough. While he had many dislikeable qualities, he didn't cross the Moral Event Horison for me.

 Really?!  He violated the sanctity of marriage not once but multiple times with multiple women he didn't even care about, he was self-absorbed, primitive and selfish and brought a woman he was sleeping with into his home where his wife and child lived and even allowed that woman to bad-talk & throw nasty glances at his wife.  If that doesn't cross any moral lines for you then I wish you the best of luck with any current or future relationships.  Good Grief and *sigh*. 

go_leafs_nation 29 Oct 10 at 2:28 p.m. GMT

Now that's rather unfair. I personally agree with LoneWolf here. Crale was a silly man who did silly things in a fit of passion, but he genuinely loved his wife. He's a bit like Dr. Christow in The Hollow- people are also generally unfair to both characters.

InspectorGrant 29 Oct 10 at 2:39 p.m. GMT

I wonder if Christow and Crale aren't both based on Archie Christie - Dame Agatha getting him out of her system a bit. 

Personally I love Five Little Pigs - I think that it is one of her best novels, the characters are great and the plotting, atmosphere and pacing are superb.  Definitely a nine out of ten.  I would give it a ten out of ten except that nothing's perfect..

MissQuin 29 Oct 10 at 2:41 p.m. GMT

This reply contains spoiler information. Show reply

HUGE FIVE LITTLE PIGS SPOILERS:

My personal view is however badly Amyas behaved, he didn't deserve to die in that  horrific manner. To be paralysed and not be able to cry out, to see the woman you once had passion for, sit and watch you die? It's unthinkable.

It's a truly moving book. The plot does revolves around different types of love- the twisted kind, sisterly protective love, the love between Amayas and his wife.

Yes he did love her. He acted badly and if I was in his wife's shoes, I wouldn't have forgiven him. He made mistakes. But she loved him back and she died in prison loving him. When the murderer speaks about "she took him from me" it's what I find one of the most moving statements in Chrisite. There's so much behind it. Amyas and Caroline were untied in death and Elsa couldn't touch them there.

How many times have I heard "Chrisite wrote two dimensional carboard characters?" They should read Five little pigs and see for hemselves.

knottyceltic 29 Oct 10 at 6:08 p.m. GMT

I agree Miss Quin, he shouldn't have died that way or died at all for his behavior but he's still the #1 pig.  I feel the same way of John Christow in the Hollow.  NO DOUBT in my mind that AC wrote these books/characters based on her own life experience.  Once you've experienced the insult and disrespect of infidelity on the part of your spouse it changes you.

No dis GoLeafsNation but I don't believe it *IS* "love" when a spouse is having intimate relations with other people while you are married.  No unfairness about it.