The Hollow audiobook

The Hollow (Hercule Poirot #26), Agatha Christie The Hollow is a work of detective fiction by Agatha Christie, first published in 1946. On the morning that he and his downtrodden wife, Gerda, are due to travel down to the country to weekend with friends, Dr John Christow, a successful physician, leading researcher, and very tired and irritated by his current life, allows his little daughter to tell his fortune with cards. When the death card is drawn, he pays no attention, but the appearance of an old flame at The Hollow seems to be the final link in a chain of fatal circumstances. Lady Angkatell, intrigued by the criminal mind, has invited Hercule Poirot to her estate for a weekend house party. The Belgian detective's arrival at the Hollow is met with an elaborate tableau staged for his amusement: a doctor lies in a puddle of red paint, his timid wife stands over his body with a gun while the other guests look suitably shocked. عنوانهای چاپ شده در ایران: «جنایت در کریسمس»؛ «قتل در تعطیلات»؛ «جنایت در تعطیلات»، نویسنده: آگاتا کریستی؛ تاریخ نخستین خوانش روز ششم ماه نوامبر سال2011میلادیعنوان: جنایت در کریسمس؛ نویسنده: آگاتا کریستی؛ مترجم: گیتی مرزبان؛ تهران، صدوق، سال1374؛ در376ص؛ موضوع داستانهای نویسندگان بریتانیا - سده20معنوان: جنایت در کریسمس؛ نویسنده: آگاتا کریستی؛ مترجم: مهوش عزیزی؛ تهران، هرمس، کتابهای کارآگاه، سال1388؛ در268ص؛ شابک9789643636036؛ چاپ سوم سال1392؛ عنوان: قتل در تعطیلات؛ نویسنده: آگاتا کریستی؛ مترجم: مجتبی عبدالله نژاد، تهران، هرمس، کتابهای کارآگاه، سال1390؛ در314ص؛ شابک9789643637132؛ چاپ دوم سال1393؛ این کتاب با عنوانهای: «قتل در تعطیلات» با برگردان جناب «مجتبی عبدالله نژاد»، «جنایت در کریسمس» با برگردان سرکار خانم «مهوش عزیزی»، و نیز با عنوان «جنایت در تعطیلات، با برگردان «ک.ن آرش (1321)» نشر افشار در سال1372، در224ص» نیز منتشر شده استهرکول پوآرو؛ مشهورترین کارآگاه تاریخ، و نامدارتر از «مگره»، «شرلوک هولمز» یا «خانم مارپل» است. خانم «آگاتا کریستی» نویسنده‌ ی «انگلیسی»، این شخصیت را از روی یک پناهنده‌ ی «بلژیکی» کوتاه‌ قد که در «انگلستان» ایشان را دیده بودند، الهام گرفته و او را به مهم‌ترین شخصیت داستان‌های خویش در صدر مجلس کارآگان خویش بنشانده اند؛ مردی باهوش با ذهنی بیمانند که بیشترین جزئیات را می‌بینند، و با توانایی‌هایش خوانشگران داستانهای پلیسی را هیجان‌زده می‌کنند. خان «کریستی» سال‌های سال «پوآرو» را به سراسر جهان فرستادند، تا راز قتل‌های گوناگون را کشف کند؛ اینبار نیز در کتاب «قتل در تعطیلات»، «پوآرو» به مبارزه‌ ی معمایی دیگر می‌رودداستان «حفره (د هالو)» یکی از داستان‌های مرموز و جذاب خانم «کریستی» است که نخستین بار سال1946میلادی در «ایالات متحده» و چند ماه بعد در انگلستان منتشر شد؛ نویسنده بعدها عنوان این کتاب را به «قتل بعد از ساعتها» تغییر دادند؛ و در ایران نیز آن را با عنوانهای «قتل در تعطیلات»، «جنایت در کریسمس»؛ و «جنایت در تعطیلات» می‌شناسیم؛ داستان «قتل در تعطیلات» نیز با حضور کارآگاه «پوآرو» رخ می‌دهد اما به گفته‌ ی خانم «کریستی» حضور «پوآرو» در این داستان اشتباه بود، و در واقع آن را خراب کرد؛ آگاتا کریستی بارها درباره‌ ی اینکه از پایان دهه‌ ی سی دیگر به شخصیت «پوآرو» علاقه نداشته، و گاهی او را به اجبار در داستان‌هایش به کار گرفته حرفها زده بودند؛ داستان کتاب «قتل در تعطیلات» داستان مردی به نام «جان» است، که همراه همسر خویش قصد رفتن به تعطیلات، در کنار دوستانش را دارد؛ او پیش از تعطیلات از دختر پنج ساله‌ ی خویش می‌خواهد، برایش فال ورق بگیرد، و دخترک کارت مرگ را بیرون می‌کشد؛ هرچند کسی توجهی به آن رویداد نمی‌کند اما «جان» در تعطیلات با مرگ روبرو می‌شود؛ مرگی که در نهایت پای «پوآرو» را به ماجرا باز می‌کند؛نقل از متن: (بعد، خیلی ناگهانی در اتاق مطالعه را باز کرد، و پوآرو را راهنمایی کرد داخل اتاق؛ با خوشحالی فریاد زد: این هم آقای پوآرو؛ دور پوآرو چرخید و رفت، در اتاق را بست؛ سروان گرینج و گاجن پشت میزی نشسته بودند؛ مرد جوانی هم در گوشه ی دیگری از اتاق نشسته بود، و داشت یادداشت برمی‌داشت؛ گاجن با ورود پوآرو مؤدبانه از جا برخاست؛ پوآرو فوری شروع به معذرت‌ خواهی کرد؛ - نه خواهش می‌کنم؛ من الآن می‌روم بیرون؛ اصلاً نمی‌دانستم که خانم آنکاتل...؛ - نه، نه؛ بمانید؛ امروز سبیل گرینج آویزانتر بود؛ پوآرو تحت تأثیر تصویری که خانم آنکاتل از او ترسیم کرده بود؛ با خودش گفت: لابد زنش زیادی تمیزکاری کرده، یا یک میز برنجی جدید خریده، و خانه شلوغ‌تر شده، طوری که جناب سروان، توی خانه نمی‌تواند تکان بخورد؛ بعد با عصبانیت، این فکرها را از سرش بیرون کرد؛ خانه ی تمیز ولی شلوغ سروان گرینج، همسرش، بچه‌ هایش، عادتشان به آجر بازی...؛ همه این‌ها توهمات ذهن شلوغ خانم آنکاتل بود؛ ولی چنان زنده و واقعی به نظر می‌رسید، که برایش جالب بود؛ واقعاً ارائه چنین تصویری مهارت زیادی می‌خواست؛ - بفرمایید بنشینید، آقای پوآرو؛ چیزهایی هست که مایلم از شما بپرسم؛ و کارم در اینجا هم تمام‌ شده؛ رو کرد به گاجن که مودبانه ولی با حالت اعتراض دوباره سر جایش نشسته بود، و با چهره‌ ای بی‌حالت به‌ طرف گفتگویش می‌نگریست؛ گفت: - چیز دیگری یادت نمی‌آید؟ -نه؛ قربان؛ همه‌ چیز کاملاً عادی بود؛ هیچ‌ چیز غیرعادی و ناخوشایندی وجود نداشت؛ -تو پاویون کنار استخر یک شنل خز بود؛ این شنل مال کیه؟ - منظورتان آن شنل خز نقره‌ ای است؟ دیروز که سینی و لیوان را بردم توی پاویون؛ دیدمش؛ ولی مال هیچ‌کدام از افراد این خانه نیست؛ آقا؛ -پس مال کیه؟ لابد مال خانم «کری» است؛ خانم «ورونیکا کری»، هنرپیشه ی سینما؛ چون اینطور شنلی پوشیده بود؛ - کی؟ - دیشب که آمده بود اینجا؛ - نگفته بودی که او هم دعوت داشته؛ - دعوت نداشت؛ قربان؛ خانم «کری» تو «داوکوت» زندگی می‌کند؛ همین ویلای ته خیابان؛ بعد از شام آمد اینجا که کبریت قرض کند.)؛ پایان نقلتاریخ بهنگام رسانی 01/10/1399هجری خورشیدی؛ 21/01/1401هجری خورشیدی؛ ا. شربیانی

Choose Your Own Adventure!You are Dr. John Christow and you are not having the time of your life. Women, women everywhere, and not a drop to drink. There's the mistress who won't have you, the wife you don't want, the secretary who sees it all, the female patients you could care less about, and that one sad case you wish you could save... it is time to get away, maybe go out to the country and enjoy some clean air by the poolside. But the country has its own share of female trouble. It all becomes simply too much. What's a virile young physician to do? Perhaps just lay your weary head by the pool and let all your cares bleed out. But then what will become of your patients, your mistress... your wife? Do not fear, good doctor: the family will take care of its own!If your poolside dreams lead you to a faraway land full of intrigue, exotic women, and of course the usual death toll, choose:https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...If you find you can't wake from your erotic yet troubling dreams, despite the ever-tolling clocks striking urgently, choose:https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

This one was a little slower than most of Christie's novels but I still thoroughly enjoyed it. And I was fooled by the murderer's identity. What else can I really ask for in the murder mystery?

“I hate the dreadful Hollow behind the little wood.Its lips in the field above are dabbled with blood-red heath;The red ribb’d ledges drip with a silent horror of blood,And Echo there, whatever is ask’d her, answers ‘Death’”—Tennyson, quoted by Poirot “He is dead and gone, ladyHe is dead and gone;At his head a grass-green turfAt his heels a stone”—Shakespeare (Hamlet), quoted by Midge “Everything matters”—PoirotThis book has a slightly lower Goodreads rating than other Poirot books, but I will disagree and say this surprised me and is, #25, one of the best I have read, maybe not quite in the upper echelon, but pretty great. I fully expected to dislike this, as I had heard that it was written at a time when Christie begins to really dislike her own internationally famous character Poirot. She said, "I had got used to having Poirot in my books, and so naturally he had come into this one, but he was all wrong there. He did his stuff all right, but how much better, I kept thinking, would the book have been without him." She felt he was already in 1946 beginning to be an albatross, in part because of his very popularity, and because of the limitations she had placed on his character right from the beginning. She thought in retrospect that this book in particular was "ruined" by including Poirot! But I beg to disagree, Madame! But I implore you, let me make my case!Trust me, I know how annoying the pompous Belgian can be at times, but let me just say: I think the opening (and closing) pages, focused on the artwork of Henrietta Savernak, is some of the best writing you have done thus far. I noticed in this book, too, your conscious attempt at highlighting some of the literary dimensions of your work. You're at this point internationally famous as a mystery writer--I do not mean to merely flatter you, Dame Christie--and you have almost singlehandedly elevated the public's respect for mysteries, though you for a long time only claimed the work as “mere entertainment.” Yet in The Hollow you make references to literature more often than usual, to works such as Ibsen’s Peer Gynt, Shakespeare, and (see above) Tennyson. Maybe this is one reason you later regretted the inclusion of Poirot. The silly little Belgian was hard to integrate into the more serious tone of this work you began to develop. Maybe for us it is a strength of this book that Poirot actually comes in later in this book than he usually does, and is actually less a central character than he usually is, but he is still integral to the story.The story features a truly (but not without flaws) good man, Dr. John Christow, married to Gerda. He is devoted to her, in ways she doesn’t fully realize, but he also “sees” Henrietta, and Veronica, a woman he had once dated who also makes her way into the tale. So Christow is killed, shot, just as Poirot arrives as an invited guest. As expected we get lots of false leads, red herrings, all sort of misdirection from you, the mystery magician, which we also are expected to . . . suspect, of course. In this one, though, we try to anticipate your obvious setups, but still get the tables turned on us, with a really terrific resolution. We think we can outsmart you, but think again, we must! I like in The Hollow reflections various characters make about how Christow is somehow more “real” than anyone else. There’s a lot of shallow (or, less real, or maybe even "hollow"!) people in the book; Lucy is one of them, one of the batty women you like to give absurd dialogue in her books, such as what she says as they eat dessert after Christow’s death: "We are only moderately fond of carmel custard. There would be something gross, just after the death of a friend, in eating one's favorite pudding. But carmel custard is so easy, and then one leaves a little on one's plate." But several of the characters reflect on their shallowness and seem to make commitments to better themselves and live more principled or “real” lives as Christow had done. There’s some nice reflections on grief, too, and how we might live and grow from it. Some consider suicide, and consider their life purposes. Well, it's not Hamlet, but I appreciated your attempts at being a little more thoughtful than usual about life! Christow says to Henrietta, “If I were dead, the first thing you'd do, with the tears streaming down your face, would be to start modelling some damned mourning woman or some figure of grief.” Which in fact seems to be true, in the end; Henrietta turns to her art after Christow! Anyway, I liked the someone more serious tone and some of the writing in this one quite a bit! Maybe part of it is that it exceeded my expectations.

This is an absolutely superb book. Agatha does it again.A country house weekend where the highlight was going to be Sunday lunch with Hercule Poirot who was staying nearby. The Angkatells own The Hollow and invite assorted guests and family members for the weekend. In the hands of Agatha Christie, you know someone isn't going to make it to Monday morning. For me, there were two mysteries. The first was - who was going to be murdered? The death doesn't occur until Page 101 (in my version) and so there was a debate going on in my mind as to who was going to be the victim. I thought I knew and I was right, because this was the character most featured in the introduction. Then there's the murder scene when Poirot arrives. He thinks it's been staged for his benefit and he's half right, but then he realises he's not been considered and that it's a coincidence that the highly staged murdered scene is in front of him as he arrives. As to who did it - well I couldn't decide between three of the characters and it turned out not to be any of those three, so I was wrong about that. The characters are without exception interesting, have quirky characteristics, and also 'know' more than they let on. There are family secrets aplenty. This book is recommended.

Whilst attending Lucy Angkatell’s invitation at her English country house, Hercule Poirot arrives just in time for what appears to be a mocked murder scene by the swimming pool.On closer inspection our favourite Belgium detective discovers that in fact our victim John Christow whilst gasping ‘Henrietta’ as his final last words blood is slowly dripping into the pool.I loved the description of this death, it felt so vivid and real! Along with this great setting of this memorable murder also sees a strong array of interesting side characters.During the confusion amongst the guests a gun is knocked into the pool which destroys any evidence of the culprit.Literally everyone is a suspect...With plenty of red herrings throughout the story I was constantly changing my mind on who the murder was, it’s another really strong psychological mystery that has a satisfying conclusion.

Jacques Barzun called this novel "a triumph of her [Christie's] art" and I enthusiastically second that judgment. In-depth characterization is perilous in a detective story, where the main interest is the mystery. But with Christie characterization is an integral part of the plot, thus the "art" Barzun refers to. In The Hollow, for instance, a romance is superbly delineated and of great interest by itself. It is also interwoven with the crime both in terms of motive and metaphorically.A detective story, being a genre work, can perhaps never be great art. But The Hollow certainly gives something of the same satisfaction great art can give.

** spoiler alert ** An unusual Christie novel in that the murder victim is not initially killed. Poirot is also not introduced until a third way into the novel. Great characters especially the absent minded Lady Angkatell. The Hollow is set in the Autumn countryside near London. The murder appears open and shut with a few twists and turns. I reread this novel because Brian Blessed is directing a play based on the story and I am hoping to see it. I did not like the ending as it was a bit to tidy for my liking. The family all know that Gerda is the murderer and try to rally round. A nice touch with Poirot rearranging the tea cups so Henrietta does not drinks the cup meant for her.

Personally, after reading many many many many of Christie's books, The Hollow is undoubtedly my favorite. The characters are so well developed and I love the way they all interact. My favorites of her books are always set in the big country house with enigmatic people, and of course the one and only Hercule Poirot. Pure enjoyment.

This is one of Christie's rare works that has well-rounded characters and psychological interplay between the characters. This was also one of my earliest Christies and I remember not understanding a lot of it. At the age of eight or nine, I was not familiar with certain concepts and did not quite understand what was happening. But I was attracted to the slow pace and the complicated relationships. As an adult, I find this book brilliant. Also, finally glad to have read how Midge, Edward, and Henrietta ended up because my copy did not have those last couple of pages!Lucy and Henry Angkatell are having guests over the weekend. Midge, a relatively poor relative who works in a dress shop is going to enjoy herself. She is in love with Edward, who himself is in love with Henrietta. Henrietta is in love with John, who is married to Gerda. The Angkatells have only two neighbours: Veronica Cray, a famous actress and ex-lover of John, and our beloved Hercule Poirot. The stage is set for murder! Gerda and John Christow are off to spend a weekend with the Angkatells. Their relationship is extremely patriarchal and one-sided. Gerda worships her husband, and John takes her for granted. He also has a mistress in Henrietta Savernake, who is supposedly independent and wonderful but her role in life is to love John and do his bidding. In short, John is a brilliant doctor, and a bit of a jerk but the whole world appears to revolve around him. Until it doesn't.This might not be to the taste of many Christie fans but she did experiment with a lot of different styles. Some failed but I think this turned out quite well.

I love mysteries. I read them and watch them and one of my favourite things about them is when you're introduced to the characters and one is so awful or has riled up so many people that you just know, there's your murder victim. Dr. John Christow, upon introduction, came screaming off the pages that he was that guy and it was all I could do not to skip forward to his demise (very end of chapter 10) to see how it was going to be done and who among the characters would be the one to send him on his way (preferably to cheers & accolades). But alas, this is a mystery, things must proceed in order and in their due time. Hercule Poirot, as it happens, is invited to the Angkatells this weekend also so that's was a highlight. Hercule is ever himself and I quite enjoyed that. There are plenty of suspects and misdirects and truth be told, I thought this mystery was beneath him but of course, he solves it. What really stands out here is the close look in at so many characters. My favourites turned out to be Lady Angkatell, Midge and Edward. The only disappointment I found was the repetitive push that John was a good man. He was a skilled doctor but perhaps it was the passages that were from his perspective that really made his "goodness" hard to take in. Definitely worth the read even though Hercule isn't the best thing going on here.