Explore Destination Unknown Depicted By Agatha Christie Available In Kindle

Agatha Christie Book Reading Challenge

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BOOK: JAN This is not a traditional murder mystery, but rather a political thriller/mystery, It starts with two rather grey men working in a rather grey office, discussing the disappearance of several scientists from various countries, but one in particular from England.
Tom Betterton has vanished recently

without a trace, and his wife has no idea where he has gone,

At the same time, a young woman is so desperately sad at the death of her young daughter and the breakdown of her marriage that she sees no point in going on with life.
Due to several coincidences, she Hilary takes the part of the missing scientist's wife, and travels to meet him in a secret lab under a mountain in Africa.
Now I know this sounds like a James Bond plot, and indeed this is one of Christie's later works, published in, the same year as Fleming's Live and Let Die.
It is nothing like the typical Golden Age country house murders for which we know and love her, However Hilary does meet a reassuringly Marpleesque lady at one point, "In an uncomfortable Empiretype chair Miss Hetherington who could not be mistaken for anything but travelling English, was knitting one of those melancholy shapelesslooking garments that English ladies of middle age always seem to be knitting.
Miss Hetherington was tall and thin with a scraggy neck, badly arranged hair, and a general expression of moral disappointment of the universe, "

Hilary meets up with Tom Betterton and, for reasons of his own, he doesn't denounce her as an imposter, As she gets to know the various other scientists at the lab, she begins to question their political and moral ideals, Christie uses this as a basis for a discussion about Communism, facism and idealism which must all have been prevalent at that time, less than ten years after the end of WW.
She also covers the value of science, with a particular focus on nuclear and atomic weapons technology, Again this was topical in thes following the development and testing of the hydrogen bomb, In particular she talks, through her characters, about whether pure scientific research is valid, even if it leads to death and destruction,

Another issue she deals with in this book is age versus youth, The Director talks of how all the scientists are under fortyfive and how youth should use its energy to overthrow accumulated wealth and prestige, Christie came from a wealthy family herself and would have beenwhen this book was published, so perhaps she is reflecting on the power of the younger generation and also the danger of its youthful ideals being manipulated by charismatic leaders for their own inglorious goals.


It's not all politics, power and pessimism though, far from it, There are hidden clues, clever plotting, mysterious characters who turn out to be not what they pretended to be several of them in fact!, an ingenious escape plan and several people getting a chance of a new life, a new love, or both.


I really enjoyed it and will read it again, even though it was an unexpected departure for this author,

Mayth
This has to be one of my favourite Christie novels, The plot is ingenious, and it twists and turns all over the place, The characters all feel very real, even if mostly unlikeable, I'm sure it would have felt even more relevant at the time it was written, with concerns about the Cold War, weapons of mass destruction and political unrest following the two world wars.
I will be reading this one again, no doubt, I listened to an audio version, read by Emilia Fox, She did a good job of the narration, although the occasional yelling and sobbing were a little hard on the eardrums through my headphones! As always, I felt I missed out a bit, because my attention wanders with audiobooks, but I'll get a print copy soon and enjoy it in that way too.
There are definitely highs and lows in this one overall, it was a Christie book written when she was still in top form, so it's a pleasant enough reading experience.
I enjoyed Hilary amp Peters, but aside from that, this feels pretty stuck in its time, Not a bad time, but not one of her best IMO I struggled all of the way through this Agatha Christie stand alone mystery, I felt it very dry and uninteresting most of the way through, There were a few characters I really wanted to like, but because of the way the story was written, I could not get close enough to them.
Right up to the last chapter in the book, it was hard to see where this plot was going to take me and how it was all going to turn out.
I stuck with it, and admit that the outcome made me smile, I think the conclusion was "all's well that ends well", Is that Shakespeare If it is, then I agree,

The destination, finally, IS known, I loved the premise,
A tragic young woman who has lost everything plans to end her own life, At the last moment, a stranger forces his way into her room and gives her a new option for her death,
Make it count,



Scientists are disappearing and he needs someone to help him infiltrate a culty organization with secret ties to England's enemies, Her job would be to impersonate the wife of a missing scientist and report as much information back to him as she can,
Her chances of survival are slim to none, but since she doesn't value her life, why not spend it for her country



As far as a Christie's thrillers go, this one wasn't as bad as say, sitelinkPassenger to Frankfurt.
But I highly doubt this thing is on anyone's top ten list, either, The idea was good but the execution missed the mark,
Like the majority of the books she wrote in this genre, it goes off the rails quite a bit by the time you've hit the finish line and ends up feeling like a subpar reading experience.




There was also a little love story thrown in for good measure, And while it did feel a little wonky, at least he didn't try to strangle her,
So. They've got that going for them,
Recommended for Christie Completionists, .