Name: Endless Night
ISBN: 9780007422326

Agatha Christie

Agatha Christie’s disturbing 1960s mystery thriller, reissued with a striking cover designed to appeal to the latest generation of Agatha Christie fans and book lovers.

Endless Night

Endless Night (Agatha Christie Collection)

Kandhila N P

Smart!! I didn't even predict the mind twist.

Colleen

2 Stars
 
It kills me to give an Agatha Christie book only two stars. While some of her books are better than others, I have never ever disliked any of them. Until Endless Night that is. It was so mind-numbingly boring. I can’t believe this is by the same writer as classics such as And Then There Were None and Murder on the Orient Express. Maybe since this was written late in her career, she was running out of ideas. But the blurb claims that Endless Night was a personal favorite of Christie’s. It won’t be getting near my favorites list with a ten-foot pole.
 
The blurb sounded great. The story is narrated in first person by Michael Rogers telling the cautionary tale of how he came to be at the cursed lands of Gypsy’s Acre. It sounded like it was going to be a spooky mystery / psychological suspense story. In actuality, it was a terrible drag. Even though it’s only novella length, the majority of the story is background information. It’s slow and tedious and full of unpleasant family drama. Everything is supposed to be building up to these alleged terrible events, but it went on and on and on with no action. It’s basically 95% buildup followed by a rushed, flimsy twist ending. The climax was so far-fetched that I actually flipped back a couple pages and reread it because it seemed so nonsensical. Honestly, this might even only deserve one star.
 
You’re killing me, Christie. And not in your usual mind-blowing murdery way. Endless tedium is more like it.


RATING FACTORS:
Ease of Reading: 3 Stars
Writing Style: 2 Stars
Characters and Character Development: 2 Stars
Plot Structure and Development: 1 Star
Level of Captivation: 1 Star
Originality: 2 Stars

Ofelia

Sarà anche uno dei lavori migliori di Agatha Christie ma io non sono riuscita proprio a farmelo piacere. 
Il punto migliore del romanzo è il finale, ma per raggiungerlo bisogna affrontare un intero libro di noia assoluta.

Sarah Escorsa

Jen Estrella

I probably shouldn't have started with this one. I liked the first few chapters, but the plot just meandered after that. I appreciated the gothic atmosphere, but I honestly was hoping that the gipsy lady would just kill one of the characters already so something would happen. Too slow for me

Morgana

** spoiler alert **
           Parte iniziale e centrale del libro veramente lente e pesanti.
Mi sarebbe piaciuto ci fosse un po' più di trama in mezzo e non solo avvisaglie sparse che comunque il lettore non può veramente capire ( la zingara era stata pagata da lui, ma non mi sembra che ci sia mai un segnale che lo faccia capire). Il finale tira su un po' la storia anche perché non avevo capito chi era l'assassino ma ho faticato per arrivarci.

I think the hardest part about this book, that holds it back from being perfect, is the issue of the buildup to the murder being so very long. It was definitely the first of its kind for an Agatha Christie novels that I have read, delving more into the Gothic aspects than a mystery, and once the climax and the 'twist' occur it turns into a rather brilliant idea of a book.

I just wish it were a bit more engaging in the beginning, or that there were hints something was amiss. It just seemed like she could have fed us a little more hints of the sinister before moving into the truth, to make it seem all the more clever.

Either way, another great book by Agatha Christie.

Amit Gawande

** spoiler alert **
           [Spoilers ahead, possibly] Nah, not letting the ending influence the overall rating for the book. It is easy to get wowed by the intelligent ending and rate this book highly. But it wasn't a good read for me.

Right from the start, I didn't trust the narrator. I guess I've been fooled by many first-person narrations for my liking. Michael is a poor narrator - not sure if it was intentional on Christie's part. None of his actions, his reactions made sense to me, further heightening my suspicions about what I was being told by him. So the twist towards the end fell flat - it was as if I already knew deep down and was just waiting for it to be revealed. 

Oh, and I was waiting a lot of time throughout the book. 2/3rds in and there is hardly anything that takes place. To me, the love story between Mike and Ellie was not interesting. The way it played out was dull. It got tiring at one point to read Mike tell what was happening. The suspense around Gipsy's Acre wasn't built at all. It was supposed to be a "gothic story with gypsy's warnings" - wasn't the case.

This may have been a brilliant psychological thriller for its time. But a lot has happened since 1967 and too many have been inspired by the style of surpriseful narration from this mystery master for this style create the necessary impression. This read was so unlike any other from Agatha Christie - and this time it is not in positive sense.

Debbie

Awalnya saya pikir cerita kali ini bakalan sama dengan ‘And Then There Were None’, cerita detektif tanpa detektif. Ternyata buku ini berbeda. Dari beberapa buku AC yang sudah saya baca, biasanya kasus pembunuhan terjadi di awal, tapi tidak demikian dengan ‘Endless Night’. Sempat bertanya apa ini kisah romance biasa, karena sampai masuk pertengahan buku dua kok masih belum ada kasus pembunuhan sama sekali. Saya sedikit merinding membaca buku ini, dan jujur saja saya tidak berani membacanya di malam hari karena membayangkan tanah gipsi yang terkutuk dan wanita gipsi dalam buku ini membuat saya takut 😅 Seperti biasa, saya suka menebak-nebak siapa sih yang ada dibalik tindak kriminal dalam kisah ini. Dan ya, akhir cerita ini cukup membuat saya terkejut. 
Rating ⭐️: 3.5/5

Jana Pashovska

Chilling, in a way that not that many of Agatha's works have been, so I can definitely see why this was one of the Queen of Crime's personal favourites. It has everything the perfect crime novel has to have in my opinion: enough mystery and a suspenseful atmosphere, psychological tensions that torment both the story-teller and the reader, a type of romance-gone-wrong, and of course, unreliable characters that you love to hate. All in all, a thrilling book that I highly recommend.

The Towers is a site that was once known as Gipsy’s Acre. Michael Rogers dreamed of having a new house on the old site - something built by his young architect friend. The story ends in a revelation of a horrific crime…