Customer Reviews:
 WILL SOMEONE LET THE WOMAN SPEAK? May 9, 2008
1 out of 2 found this review helpful
What "improvements" have been made for the Black Dog & Leventhal edition? There are already major differences in punctuation, word choices, and scene breaks between the original Collins and Dodd Mead (FUNERALS ARE FATAL) editions of this novel. There are further differences between the Dodd Mead editions republished by Random House/Avenel and the Dodd Mead editions republished by Simon & Shuster/Pocket. There are further additions still in the Signet, Bantam, and Berkley editions. For every publishing house putting out her works, there seem to be a new batch of editors altering Agatha Christie's words and the sound of her voice. What's the matter with these publishers? Whose voice do they think we want to hear when we sit down to a novel by Agatha Christie? And what will she sound like twenty years from now? It's frightening that her estate has failed to see the importance of guarding her words as she wrote them. Please tell me I'm not the only one here who senses that a crime has been committed.
 Better than average Poirot novel October 19, 2007
8 out of 8 found this review helpful
After the Funeral is a Hercule Poirot novel that follows a somewhat different structure from most. First, as the title suggests, the story only begins after the funeral of a wealthy man. When the relatives gather at the house afterwards, his sister blurts out that he must have been murdered even though he was known to be terminally ill and no foul play was suspected. When that same sister is brutally murdered the very next day, however, there can be little doubt that something sinister is afoot and this is where Hercule Poirot is called upon. Still, we don't see as much of him as we usually do. The suspects are scattered about England and a number of the interrogations are conducted by other people and reported back to Poirot. In the end, of course, Poirot gathers all the interested parties together and reveals the solution.
Normally, I find that any Poirot novel suffers greatly when the Belgian is used sparingly. So I was pleasantly surprised in this instance that the other characters were sufficiently interesting to carry the load. The cast is pretty varied and I definitely found it interesting to see how they interacted with each other in the aftermath of these murders. The story generally moves along at a good pace though it slowed down a touch toward the end. The razor sharp humor that Poirot provides when portrayed at his best is largely absent here but the book doesn't suffer too badly.
This is nowhere near the best Hercule Poirot novel but it certainly is a solid effort. I wouldn't necessarily recommend it to first time readers, as they would do be better served to start with one of the very best such as the The Murder of Roger Ackroyd: A Hercule Poirot Mystery (Hercule Poirot Mysteries) or Death on the Nile: A Hercule Poirot Mystery (Hercule Poirot Mysteries). But established Christie fans could do far worse than to pick up After the Funeral. It's got a strong cast and an interesting story that make it well worth reading.
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