The Murder on the Links (Hercule Poirot Book 2)

I'm not sure where this version comes from, but a comparison with my copy of "Links" from the official hardbound collection shows that about ten percent of it is missing, ranging from sentences to several paragraphs. It's not enough to notice by itself, but it does eliminate the flavor and some of the more in-depth emotions.

Publisher: LBA (August 25, 2019)Publication Date: August 25, 2019Sold by: Amazon Digital Services LLCASIN: B07X1D5QLDThis review is for the above product, which is currently free. The story is typical Christie, not her best but not her worst either. But this edition is horrible. Unless it's free and you don't mind putting up with all the mixed up and missing content, don't bother downloading it. There are better editions available.

Murder on the Links is a strong but slightly flawed sophomore effort by Agatha Christie. Unlike the Mysterious Affair at Stykes, Murder on the Links provides a hint of the exotic locations that Agatha Christie later perfected in Murder on the Orient Express and Death on the Nile. The characters are further developed than her first book but the mystery is maybe a little too developed.Most of Christie's mysteries hinge on multiple events happening at the same time as the murder to ensure everyone is a suspect and has something to hide. In Murder on the Link - the event that forces suspects into falsehoods is borne after a coincidence and lacks the deliberation that Poirot is so fond of.The plot itself is well done - the characters' motivations are reasonable even if some of the characterizations are incredible dated by modern standards. There are some twists and turns that forces some life in Poirot's inscrutable facade -- to the betterment of the narrative. The one item that seems a little out of place is the legacy of Sherlock Holmes. Poirot pairing up with Capt. Hastings is a little too close to Holmes and Watson. More egregious is the presence of a French detective that is a parody of the manner and investigative techniques that Holmes made famous. I expected better.Ultimately, Christie had a high bar to clear in Poirot's second outing. She clears it despite a few stumbles. The combination of exotic locations, devious murders, and a detectives insistence that man is a creature of habit that are present in Christie's best works shows are present but still in their infancy in Murder on the Green. Recommended.

The second book in the Hercules Poirot series. My actual rating is a 4.3, I enjoyed it more than the first book. I read this book in about a day, needing to know who did it! The story flowed well, and I enjoyed the characters and of course Hercules was amazing. I know Hastings takes a lot of criticism for being annoying; I rather enjoyed him for this trait. I will be interested to see if he develops more assuming he stays in the series. I give him a slight pass in this book considering the circumstances leading to his actions.A quick summary, Poirot receives a letter from a client who is fearing for his life. The detective and his friend, Hastings show up and investigate! A classic whodunnit from the queen of mystery. This is quickly becoming a must read series recommendation from me to anyone who enjoys classic whodunnit books.

Although I love Agatha Christie, this early effort was simply dreadful. There were inconsistencies, inexplainable actions, and results that made no sense whatsoever.

A grand story. Many characters, many story lines, a great read. Agatha Christie always spun a web that draws you in,

Very food story telling. Especially the arch of Hastings and Cinderella. Romantic and wild and slightly unhinged. I loved it.

It has been one of my all time favorites for many years now, it's great to actually own it.

This book is incomplete. Words are frequently replaced by such terms as ‘garbled’ and part of one chapter is missing. This should not be for sale at all.

This will teach me not to buy an ebook, based on the price! If you pay 77p, you get an edition that is worth less than a Mars Bar. Chunks of text are missing, sentences end in [missing] or [unreadable] or [garbled]. I gave up when the [square brackets] announced that [start of chapter is missing]. So, c'mon Amazon: either flag this as 'garbled and unreadable' or pull it from sale. It's an insult to customers and readers.

I could just about forgive the occasional missing word, replaced by [garbled] or [incomplete] although I can’t understand how that can be in a book that’s been in print for nearly 100 years. But when I got to the middle of Chapter 13 to find half of that and the whole of Chapter 14 missing enough was enough! I have requested a refund and will buy it elsewhere. This has put me off buying any cheap Kindle editions ever again. Very very poor.

I thought the 77p price for this Kindle book was too good to be true. I was right. The entire book reads like a translation of a transcription of an audio reading - lots, and I mean lots, of brackets noting ‘garbled’ or ‘unclear’ where text is missing....including the start of Chapter 14. Parts of the text are also repeated, which doesn’t help. The whole thing was so dire I persisted, mainly because the awfulness became funny. And the story itself? From what I could make out of it was a kind of overwrought, juvenilia. Avoid, unless a serious Christie fan.

This edition had been published with misssing words , proof reading errors and, in places, missing sections. This makes it rather uncomfortable to read. The header on the chapter titles index at the end in in Cyrillic, and it has rather the feel of a film pirated by being filmed on a camera over the shoulders of the crowd in front. Nice to read a new Poirot tale, but this should never have been allowed onto the market in this state.