This was the first time I read Agatha Christie - somehow, I could not see why I'd want to do that. I was pleasantly surprised. Like any murder mystery worth its salt, MotOE compels you to read further until you know the solution to the riddle. Unlike its more contemporary progeny, the book does not venture into minute psychological characterizations, or social commentary: the plot is completely at the service of the riddle, scattered with clues - true and false ones - meant to lead and mislead the readers to the murderer, almost setting them up in a race with Monsieur Poirot as to who gets there first.

As a side note, peoples are stereotyped is pretty hilarious (and perhaps a reminder of just how ridiculous stereotypes are, once we are able to lack back at them from an outsider perspective). For example, all Brits are uptight and clever, and all Americans are friendly and loud. Oh, and Poirot literally acquits an Italian on the ground that the crime is thought-through too well to be the product of an impulsive, Latin mind.