I can see why it was cited as such a great example of Agatha’s ingenious ability to craft a murder-mystery plot. The seemingly random plot points all come satisfyingly together too. The crumbs are laid for a trail that seems to go one way, then gives us a huge double bluff curve ball.

The strong prologue perfectly sets the scene, so although we are waiting for that inevitable murder, the suspense is perfectly built up. It refers to there being more than meets the eye. This is a new phrase for me and I love it. Superintendent Battle doesn’t feature hugely through the first half of the book, but he makes his presence known when it counts and deciphers the ‘fine Italian hand’ behind the crime. The true feelings of the parties remain obscure, but in my opinion, there is gunpowder about. Towards Zero spends a lot of time building up the tension and suspense (100 pages in and no murder has been committed yet…) and gives us deeper character studies than we’ve seen in some of Agatha’s other books. Sometimes I have to plan a long way beforehand. You call me a nitwit sometimes – but in my own way I’m quite clever. Kay is painted as vacuous but there’s more to her too… Audrey is a (forgive the pun) strange character: definitely hiding something, she has layers to be unravelled. Strange’s first and second wives are particularly intriguing. Lots of the characters, especially the women, are cleverly put forward as potential suspects. His ex-wife Audrey is also here as they are spending a few weeks at the same place for the summer – Lady Tressilian’s glorious house overlooking the sea in Cornwall near St Loo (where another of Agatha’s stories is set, Peril at End House). We meet professional tennis player Nevile Strange and his wife Kay. ‘But, you know, they begin in the wrong place! They begin with the murder. ‘I like a good detective story,’ he said. Plot does play a huge part in this story, specifically like this: I know of him from Poirot novels, of course, and he does, in fact, give a name-check to the Belgian detective in Towards Zero. Written in 1944, this isn’t a Poirot or Miss Marple novel, it’s actually book 5 in the Superintendent Battle series, which I didn’t know existed until now. Opening sentence: The group round the fireplace was nearly all composed of lawyers or those who had an interest in the law. They both cited it as one of their favourite Christie stories due to its ingenious plotting, so I definitely had to see for myself.Īlso – being a fan of random facts, I actually started reading Towards Zero on 12th September and this is the exact date the murder takes place in the story… Towards Zero was brought to my attention by authors Sophie Hannah and Alex Michaelides during a bookish Zoom event I watched in the summer to celebrate the release of a new Agatha Christie short story collection.

Towards zero book