The Hollow – Agatha Christie

 

I am currently reading The Cuckoo’s Calling by Robert Galbraith but as that is taking me a little while I figured I would back track to another novel I have read recently. Do you remember me doing the Prudence and the Crow piece a while back, well this was the novel included.

I’ll admit I have never even considered reading an Agatha Christie as she is not someone who particularly enthralls me but I figured as it was included I would have to give it a go. I did pick crime novels after all! As per many short novels this was a struggle, I don’t know why but I always struggle on novels that are only a couple of hundred pages long, this is 190 pages, I think it’s because the author has to squeeze minute details into as little words as possible. I prefer the longer more drawn out process where you have time to digest the storyline.

Hilariously Poirot doesn’t seem to be a huge part of this novel, he is a neighbour of the Angkatell’s who held one of their ‘wild’ summer parties and low and behold a guest ends up dead. John Christow is the great respected doctor but when he’s found face down in the pool surrounded by his own blood his wife is the main suspect. I personally fancied his lover as the murderer but each to their own.

I won’t spoil the ending for anyone who may want to read this but I have to say the murder mystery aspect wasn’t all that exciting.

Prudence and The Crow

I am on a Facebook page called ‘Bookworms’ and one day we discussed whether there were any book boxes, a bit like Graze/Birchbox/Glossybox etc but with a book instead of food or make up.

One of the girls managed to find one via Prudence and The Crow (here) and I decided I would subscribe but only as a one off for £12, I took the extra £2 hit because I am too lazy to try and remember to cancel my subscription.

 

Above is a photo of the outer wrapping, it is the perfect size for a letterbox and every sticker placed on the front is a handmade touch. It is quite clearly wrapped by someone who has a passion for what they do, and it’s the handmade elements that really sell this product.

This is the next layer, it feels a bit like pass the parcel as I write this, again it is the personal elements like my name and the card that makes it special.

We’re finally inside!!! The wrapped item is my book, the printed material is a lovely and really amazingly handmade book bag, a Prudence and The Crow pencil, a Pukka teabag and a mint.

The book bag: it is so incredibly well made but I have to say I find the two types of material a bit random, I definitely prefer the second design. I don’t keep my books in any bags now but my dad has always commented how me and mum never break the spines of our books whereas my sister and him do, therefore I figure I’m quite neat with them? Saying that my work bag is a bit grotty so this could well be a welcome addition!

Finally, the book, I didn’t really want to break into the wrapping of this as it was so well done. I have never read any Agatha Christie so I am thoroughly intrigued.

All in all a good box as a one off and I love all the handmade touches but there’s one niggling thought in my mind and that’s that I could have bought the book for very little money elsewhere. It is this that has led to it just being a one off, but I have to say it’d make a wonderful present!