I can’t quite remember why this was on my TBR list (perhaps I heard of an adaptation of the book?) but it was on hold and I’m not going to turn down the opportunity to read a Christie when it arises.

The Pale Horse is a standalone Christie mystery, belonging neither to the Poirot nor Miss Marple series, though Ariadne Oliver plays a pretty big role. In this book, we follow Mark Easterbrook as he investigates a most perplexing case: can someone really commit murder via occult rituals? At the same time, the police have decided to investigate the murder of Father Gorman, a priest who was killed after conducting last rites for a woman in need.

Honestly, this one was pretty exciting. Christie writes sceptical characters don’t want to believe that you can kill supernaturally. But at the same time, they have doubts – what if they are wrong? While less ambiguous than the Mr Quinn series, this mystery plays more with the bounds of possibility than her other mysteries, which make it feel quite different from the usual.

But while the mystery is fresh and the characters interesting, I can’t help but feel like the denoument was a little rushed. The explanation, while convincing, felt hidden from us and I’m not too sure if we could have guessed who the mastermind was without any help. Parts of the murder method might have been within the reach of a reader with a good knowledge of herbs and/or chemistry, but the rest… well I’m not sure that Christie was being entirely fair with us.

Still, I can give Christie this slightly unsatisfying reveal. After all, the premise was good and the characters were interesting to follow. Perhaps more unusually, I thought the romance was actually quite well-done and not sprung on us like some other Christie novels (in some cases, I really don’t see it coming, though I wonder if it’s because of a difference in culture).

Overall, this was a fun and interesting mystery, one that shows that Christie did not always turn out cookie-cutter cosy mysteries.