A great book, I love it. Not sure about the title, though. Why dumb witness? For once I prefer the italian title Due mesi dopo: two months later, because that's important.
I like the story, I like everything. The beginning where we get to know our old lady Miss Emily Arundel of Market Basing and the people around her. Miss Minnie Lawson, a maid and a cook are at her service, and then there are her relatives. Theresa and her brother Charles are her dead brother Thomas' daughter and son. Bella is her dead sister Arabella's only daughter, and she's married to greek doctor Tanius. Emily knows very well that the four of them are not visiting her out of love but only to ask her for some money, but one day she has a fight with Charles, and two days later a bad accident happens to her: she falls down the stairs and everybody thinks the dog's responsible, but thinking about it Emily realizes this is impossible and rightly suspects her relatives. She writes a letter to Hercule Poirot but forgets to send it. Shortly afterwords, she dies and her maid finds the letter and decides to post it. It so happens that Poirot receives a letter on June 28 with written on it the date April 17! He is intrigued and takes the case, and nothing changes when he learns that she's dead. On the contrary, this is even more reason to keep investigating, because he suspects she's been murdered. I think this is a great start, very well written, full of interesting characters . Miss Lawson is a simple, not very bright woman who inherits all her lady's money, really a lot. Theresa is a "bad girl" who likes to spend a lot, go out, during, and do all she calls "living". Charles is a nice scoundrel, a little criminal with a charming personality. Bella has little money because her husband lost it, and seems to have no other interest than her children. I liked every character, I liked Theresa's love story with a serious and ambitious young doctor, and also her relationship with Charles. I liked old Miss Peabody, old friend of Emily. The only thing I didn't like is that it is narrated by Hastings, so here and there we're forced to listen , well, read, his ridiculous considerations, always very stupid because he goes by sympathy, most of the time, and always thinks that nobody would ever do those things he considers dishonorable, like listening to doors and such. He's the common man, I know, but still, he bores me.
Fortunately this time he doesn't have many ideas, and I was relieved that he only had one towards the end.
Spoilers!!! For those of you who haven't read it, and also for future me:
The end was clear only after the mirror episode, but I was a little confused when Bella died. If she was the murderer, then what happened to her? Well, it's another one of those cases when a suicide is thought to be the best way to end it avoiding a scandal that would involve not only the family name but also her children.
It's amazing the way in such stories murderers accept defeat and kill themselves...
One last thing: at one point Poirot stops to think at "charming, young Norman Gale, nice Evelyn Howard, kind and lovely dr Sheppard, Knighton so trustworthy"... and I was like: Gale-check Shepard-check Knightong-check Evelyn Howard... no, no idea what book is she from, but I'd better stop reading Christie's books now, at least until I forget that name :-p
Ita: Due mesi dopo
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