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    Murder on the Links: A Hercule Poirot Mystery: The Official Authorized Edition
    Murder on the Links: A Hercule Poirot Mystery: The Official Authorized Edition
    Murder on the Links: A Hercule Poirot Mystery: The Official Authorized Edition
    Audiobook6 hours

    Murder on the Links: A Hercule Poirot Mystery: The Official Authorized Edition

    Written by Agatha Christie

    Narrated by Hugh Fraser

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    About this audiobook

    In Agatha Christie’s class mystery Murder on the Links, Hercule Poirot attempts to unravel the grisly conundrum of not one, but two dead bodies discovered on a French golf course.

    An urgent cry for help brings Hercule Poirot to France. But he arrives too late to save his client, whose brutally stabbed body now lies face down in a shallow grave on a golf course.

    But why is the dead man wearing an overcoat that is too big for him? And for whom was the impassioned love letter in the pocket? Before Poirot can answer these questions, the case is turned upside down by the discovery of a second, identically murdered corpse.…

     

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherHarperAudio
    Release dateJul 3, 2012
    ISBN9780062231529
    Author

    Agatha Christie

    Agatha Christie is the most widely published author of all time, outsold only by the Bible and Shakespeare. Her books have sold more than a billion copies in English and another billion in a hundred foreign languages. She died in 1976, after a prolific career spanning six decades.

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    Reviews for Murder on the Links

    4/5

    1,374 ratings65 reviews

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    • 4/5
      Loved the book. Much more subtle and intricate than the TV series Agatha Christie’s Poirot (starring the excellent David Suchet). The end of this—the second Poirot book, published in 1923—is quite endearing. Mrs. Christie did really use “the little grey cells” in her stories!
    • 3/5
      This is by no means my favorite Hercule Poirot mystery. I enjoy the plot twists in most of his stories​ but there were simply too many twists stacked on top of one another in this story it doesn't seem realistic and it makes your head spin. Though it does involve​ a love story of Hastings which is enjoyable.
    • 4/5
      Murder on the Links by Agatha Christie - good

      Oops, another Agatha Christie so soon after the last one! My excuse is that I've needed to read things on my kindle recently as I've hurt my arm and am finding holding a book difficult. This was sitting in my TBR folder just tempting me. Sadly, as it was given to me, I think whatever software was used to break the DRM mangled the text a bit as there were a few places which had [missing], thankfully not enough to spoil the read, but a little annoying.

      This one is written from Hasting's perspective and I found that quite different (think it is the first of that style I've read). It was also different from the TV adaptation which was quite refreshing (didn't like the way the TV played up silly rivalries and added comedy).

      Not the best Agatha Christie, not the worst. Certainly worked in the 'keep Chrys occupied without straining her arm' stakes!
    • 4/5
      Lovely cosy mystery that only Miss Christie could write. It's strange to think that this book was written 100 years ago and is still entertaining and intriguing.
    • 3/5
      I can't stand Arthur Hastings. I never loved fussy Poirot with his mustache and his LGC's, so I fully expected to be annoyed by him – but by the end of this book I was longing to slip into an alternate universe in which Hastings became the next murder victim. I assume he's supposed to be an ass (see what I did there?), but good grief, he's an overachiever. Case in point: "Now I am old-fashioned. A woman, I consider, should be womanly. I have no patience with the modern neurotic girl who jazzes from morning till night, smokes like a chimney, and uses language which would make a Billingsgate fishwoman blush!" My ladylike response to this in a Kindle note was "Bite me, Hastings." Also, anyone who can say "My blood literally froze at the sight" - twice - instantaneously loses any lingering respect I might have had. There are just a number of oddities in the writing, which I didn't expect from Christie. Like: "'One can see by his face that he was stabbed in the back,' remarked Poirot." That still makes me smile. Honestly, the whole bent of the mystery just seemed silly, and had me making snide or incredulous notes throughout. In the end, Poirot was so arrogant, and Hastings such a moron, and the plot so ludicrous I was left feeling like I was reading some pastiche instead of the genuine Christie. Something interesting that did pop up: I believe that a well-known anecdote exists to the effect that a young writer, determined to make the commencement of his story forcible and original enough to catch and rivet the attention of the most blasé of editors, penned the following sentence: '"Hell!" said the Duchess.' - I assumed that was a reference to Lord Peter; the very first line of his very first appearance is '"Oh, damn!" said Lord Peter Wimsey at Piccadilly Circus.' But there actually is a book by Michael Arlen – called, in fact, "Hell!" Said the Duchess. I wonder, though: "Hell" came out in 1934, and Whose Body? In 1923 – was "hell" a response to Peter's "Damn!"?
    • 4/5
      This was a good one - kept me guessing right through the end. I'm about as thick as Hastings when it comes to picking out the clues Poirot lays out. Good thing Hastings is a total idiot so that Poirot has to spell everything out for him, and thus, the reader. I love that there was a twist beyond the twist. So at the end I was like, ohhh! But then there were a few more chapters left, whereupon Poirot revealed even more and I was like OHHH! xDAlso, Hastings is a total knob. Poirot is way too cool for him.
    • 4/5
      This audio edition of Murder on the Links is a recording of a BBC Radio full-cast dramatization, not the actual novel, which I've never read. (I prefer Jane Marple to Hercule Poirot.) I've read about and listened to old radio dramas, so I agree that, like books, they're good for the imagination. One advantage over TV and movies is not having to look at an actor who doesn't at all resemble the author's description. The sound effects are good.Almost all of the action takes place in France. Hastings can't begin to keep up with his friend, Poirot's, little grey cells, but neither did I. There's an arrogant French policeman who foolishly believes he's better than Poirot. It's fun anticipating his comeuppance. There are some strong female characters, especially the one who wants Hastings to call her 'Cinderella'. Who murdered the millionaire and why turned out to be more twisted than I anticipated. Murder on the Links is a good listening experience for mystery lovers.
    • 3/5
      In which a panicked note to Hastings leads to murder…

      You can’t go wrong with Poirot and Hastings, although "Murder on the Links" is a complicated affair. Christie wasn’t yet at the height of her powers, but she had mastered these characters in the intervening short stories, so the second Poirot novel proves a strong indicator of things to come. The mystery is solidly written, forcing Poirot’s little grey cells to work overtime, and there are some nice character dynamics. If there’s a flaw, it’s that it feels too perfectly constructed, as if no one could actually commit this murder.

      Amusingly, Christie had already grown tired of Hastings (or, rather, the expectation that he appear as her constant narrator), and the seeds are sown here that will see him gone for Argentina, to return only intermittently, by the time Poirot returns to the novel format in "The Murder of Roger Ackroyd".

      Three-and-a-half stars.

      Poirot ranking: 18th out of 38
    • 5/5
      Classic Agatha Christie! Does not disappoint! We were kept guessing the whole time—which is what you look for in a mystery novel
    • 4/5
      I really enjoyed this plot despite the fact that Hastings is such an annoying character. I really wish he wasn’t the narrator because that would make his story even better.
    • 3/5
      Book itself is not bad, even amusing at times. However, the last few chaprers complicate story too much - you can’t just lean back and enjoy them, you need to pay attention or you will get lost. The worst thing about this is that, at the end, Agatha pulls American cop TV show on us and gives us seemingly (probably) random perpetrator.
    • 2/5
      Great plot, but Scribd skipped twice through key revelations. That was very confusing.
    • 4/5
      A very unusual Poirot. Hastings finds love. Hercule understands. The story twists and turns to a satisfying end.
    • 4/5
      ok... that was messy but cute. poirot is a romantic
    • 4/5
      Hercule Poirot received a letter asking for help, where the surprise thing was it came at once with the death of the writer. He was found in the golf course, almost buried. With the assistance of his best friend, Captain Arthur Hastings, they came to the place of incident. What was the connection between two murders happened during last 20 years? Between the millionaire’s wife and his secret lover lived next door? Between a beautiful entertainer girl and a blackmail? And then worse, the second murder happened. Hercule Poirot should struggle to find the murder before the third one being done. Meanwhile, Captain Hasting could not resist his true love to come.
    • 2/5
      I picked this book up with a few other Agatha Christie novels after reading The Science of Murder: The Forensics of Agatha Christie by Carla Valentine. I read through most of Christie's catalog when I was in junior high, but didn't remember a lot of what Valentine was mentioning, so I decided to revisit a few. This is one of Christie's earlier works and it shows. Poirot vacillates between searching for physical evidence and deriding it before focusing on the work of his "little gray cells." I'm still not entirely sure of how the initial murder took place, though the motive was very clear. I also find Hasting's love story to be overly melodramatic and slightly maudlin - he has had three conversations with this woman and falls in love with her, ugh.
    • 4/5
      Murder on the Links is the second Hercule Poirot book by Agatha Christie. Most of the action is set in Northern France. Dame Agatha does a great job of setting the scene and introducing the characters in this twisty mystery that will have you guessing until the end. It also delves more deep into the friendship between Poirot and Hastings. The plot is a fun one that involves Poirot getting a letter for help to come to France. When he arrives, his would be client is already dead. There is a nice little rivalry between Poirot and the French detective on the case. It’s a fun read for mystery fans.
    • 1/5
      What a letdown after the charming Tommy and Tuppence mystery. Also more tiresome than The Secret Adversary. This one didn't grab me at all. In fact, I couldn't even tell you whoudunit.
    • 4/5
      Poirot was an extraordinary-looking little man. He was hardly more than five feet four inches, but carried himself with great dignity. His head was exactly the shape of an egg, and he always perched it a little on one side. His moustache was very stiff and military. The neatness of his attire was almost incredible; I believe a speck of dust would have caused him more pain than a bullet wound. Yet this quaint dandified little man who, I was sorry to see, now limped badly, had been in his time one of the most celebrated members of the Belgian police. As a detective, his flair had been extraordinary, and he had achieved triumphs by unravelling some of the most baffling cases of the day.Christie, Agatha. Hercule Poirot 3-Book Collection 1: The Mysterious Affair at Styles, The Murder on the Links, Poirot Investigates (Kindle Locations 308-313). HarperCollins Publishers. Kindle Edition.I love Hercule Poirot. Such a great detective. Such a character. There's always a great mystery with lots of twists and turns and red herrings, all of which keep me riveted. The characters are interesting and have complex motives for their actions. That said, not a huge fan of Hastings. He's too busy being on his high horse to be likable. I've read many Agatha Christie books before but not all and not in order so I'm in the process of commencing a reread. Highly recommend to crime lovers.In The Murder on the Links, Poirot and Hastings are called to assist a man who later winds up dead and stay on to help solve the murder. There's love affairs and mistaken identities and lots of intrigue. I had no idea what the hell was going on and it was fantastic. Hastings irritates me with how easily he falls in love - he knows this chick for two seconds and he loves her? Seriously, he met her twice. He's too fickle and it irritates me a lot. Fantastic.
    • 4/5
      The 2nd Hercule Poirot novel. Through it all Hercule is thinking and putting the pieces together. Many twists and turns. Cases of mistaken identity. Very well done. Hasting is a little annoying with his obsession with women. Hastings falls in love very quickly.
    • 4/5
      As complicated as any of the Poirot novels, this one throws all of the characters in as suspects for murder. Not until the final chapters is the true murderer revealed. I love this kind of book, so Hastings' overwrought narration is forgiven.
    • 5/5
      Another wonderful read. Agatha Christie is quickly becoming my cleanser for the ever present bad fiction I come across, much like coffee beans are for olfactory habituation.
    • 4/5
      When detective Hercule Poirot receives a letter from a Paul Renauld asking for his help, he and Captain Hasting quickly travel to France - to Merlinville-sur-Mer. But on arrival they find that they are too late and Renauld is dead. Can Poirot unravel the motives, suspects and clues.
      An enjoyable mystery
    • 4/5
      This year is the centenary of the first publication in the UK of Agatha Christie's first novel The Mysterious Affair at Styles, featuring Hercule Poirot (the novel was originally serialised in the Times in early 1920 and published in book form in the USA in October of that year). Having read that a few years ago, I've now read Murder on the Links, the second Poirot novel, published in 1923. While the golfing reference might suggest the English countryside in which so many of her novels are set, this one takes place mostly in northern France in a fictional town between Calais and Boulogne. Mr Renauld is a British subject living in northern France who has built a golf course at his villa, though the golfing references are entirely incidental to the plot. Having implored Poirot to cross the Channel to help him with an imminent threat he is facing, Poirot arrives with his sidekick Captain Hastings in tow to find Renauld has been murdered during the preceding night. The plot is very complicated, with an abundance of false identities, ambiguous relationships, rival lovers, and a pair of identical twin sisters. The relationship between Poirot and Hastings is very much like Sherlock Holmes's with Dr Watson - though I much prefer the latter as a sleuthing duo.
    • 4/5
      Hercule Poirot shines in The Murder on the Links. The foolishness of Tommy and Tuppence dissolves into an intriguing mystery. The story does not rest on dialogue to move the story along. Characters and setting show more development. The double identity of many characters hints at Shakespeare. And sometimes the reader becomes confused with all the identities. Hastings reveals that a human heart beats within his chest, will this charade continue? I adore the way Poirot recounts the mystery and displays the clues that lead to unveiling the killer. But first, at least two women work to protect the men they love. The elegant eating of Tommy and Tuppence disappears in this story on the links.
    • 3/5
      An after Christmas lunch snooze seemed likely, so I settled down with a book instead. It's a sufficiently convoluted murder, with 2 deaths and two different crimes and two different girls in love with the same boy - apparently. Themystery starts when the rich man who had called on Piorot for help is found dead in a grave in the garden, kidnapped and murdered from his own bedroom. And so the French police investigate. And my goodness, what a palava they make of it. The detective, the poilice, the doctor, the magistrate, there seem to be a cast of thousand suited men - none of then asking the right quesitons. Poirot gets to the bottom of it, not without some false trails being led here and there. And I think he might get annoying in large doses. If I plan to read Poirot in order, I'm going to space them out.
    • 4/5
      I've taken a very random approach to my reading of the Hercule Poirot stories so it felt very interesting to read this early novel (the second in his series?) after having read some of the later ones. It was fun to see ways in which Poirot's character and stories evolved over time. The most notable feeling I had was that Christie was still working out the nature of the relationship between Poirot and Hastings. Their interactions in this novel felt closer to a Holmes/Watson pairing than in later books. At the same time, I appreciate the points in which Hastings took a more central role in the plot (even if he did make a mess of it *spoilers*).As you might expect, the writing is fantastic and the plot is tight. From the initial few chapters you are knocked off balance while thrown into the thick of things. Poirot receives a mysterious letter from a man worried for his life. The day Poirot arrives, the police are there investigating his murder. The French inspector, Giraud, is resentful of Poirot's help and treats him with antagonism and condescension, claiming that Poirot's methods are outdated and useless and that he should leave the job to the professionals and their modern training and methods. Fortunately, some of the other members of the French law enforcement group are a bit more open to Poirot's involvement but it is still a bit of an uphill battle. The interplay between Poirot and Giraud make for humorous and delightful commentary not only on law enforcement but the way professionals in an occupation often view themselves and their competition. I especially liked that Hastings was so impressed with Giraud that he tried to praise him and defend him to Poirot. Naturally Poirot would not change his opinion and instead he set out to show that his methods, and his little grey cells, would prevail.In addition to the core mystery, I found it interesting that Christie create a smaller mystery as a thread to wind throughout the story. Hastings has met a young woman on a train and become infatuated. Even though Poirot chides Hastings for his senseless emotional behavior, there is something mysterious about this girl and so her mystery continues to appear throughout the book. Rather than feeling distracting and disjointed, the working of this second mystery felt like a natural pairing and it was fun to see the two problems proceed to their natural conclusions and watch the interplay of the characters and their involvement in each.This book does fall into the trap of having a solution that relies on specialized knowledge that the reader doesn't have. In fact, this knowledge is so specific that Poirot has to leave the investigation completely to go and do research elsewhere and return with the answer. There is some dissatisfaction in a mystery that can't be solved by the reader picking up on early clues dropped by the author. Fortunately, there are enough other clues that the reader is able to make deductions in logical directions even without the specific bit of knowledge that's withheld from everyone until Poirot reveals it.Probably the biggest disconnect for me was the title. While it's true that the murder victim was found on a golf course, there was no other connection or interaction that tied the story to the golf course. I suppose the title could have been a type of red herring to leave readers expecting some sort of intrigue with the golf course owners or groundskeepers or something (if you're anticipating that, I apologize for spoiling the lack of connection). It's an adequate title, just a little misleading. And as my biggest disconnect, that should let you know that this is a solid novel.I personally found this to be a fun read and an engaging mystery. There were enough questions to keep me second-guessing my assumptions up until the final revelations. I really enjoyed the interplay between the characters, particularly those of Hastings and Poirot. This is classic murder mystery done very well and well worth reading.****4 out of 5 stars
    • 3/5
      This was just too complex, with plots within plots and complicated historical crimes. Most of the characters were morally compromised in some way, and I'm deducting an extra star for Hastings being willing to commit perjury for the 'love' of a woman he had had three short conversations with.
    • 5/5
      Well written. The actual killer is hidden until the very end.
    • 4/5
      Murder On The Links (1923) (Poirot #2) by Agatha Christie. It is hard to imagine this was only the second outing for Poirot. He seems so well formed already, but that is neither here nor there. What matters is the case, the puzzle, the obstacles, the suspects, the police involvement and finally the solution. Point has been summoned by Monsieur Renauld who is certain his life is in danger, which is proved a good hunch as, upon arrival in Merlinville, France, Poirot is greeted with the news of the gentleman’s murder. The victim was struck down at a golf course adjacent to his home. Detective Giraud is on the case, a young, smart, no nonsense “modern” thinker who pooh-poohs Poirot’s methods and stodgy manners. Captain Hastings is along and he falls for the younger investigator’s fast talk, his crawling around on the grass hunting for clues mannerism, and his brilliant, but slightly dubious solutions.There is an arresting cast of characters including a young woman and her mother, the murdered man’s son, yet other young woman that Hastings had met on a train and who mysteriously turns up here, and a few others added for fun.A very good read, plenty of twists for the more experienced reader, and more than one solution offered just for fun. Like so many of Dame Agatha’s works, a darn good read.