The Killings at Kingfisher Hill is the fourth book in the New Hercules Poirot Mysteries by Sophie Hannah and a great addition to this excellent series .

The characters are complex , complicated and well fleshed out.

The story reminded me a lot of the original Agatha stories which is a compliment of the highest caliber to this author .

There were clues , twists and multiple red herrings, and lies and deception that made this an incredible read .

Good for those who like extremely complicated plots and do not need any character development - the characters' personalities are not particularly relevant. Long-winded monologues and dialogues and myriad extraneous details bogged down the plot for me. I found it a bit of a slog to get through.

A Poirot mystery in the true spirit of Agatha Christie. The book is set in an English Manor house, as Poirot and Catchpool are summoned to investigate a murder in a houseful of suspects. The plot twists in most unexpected ways, as Hercule interviews the various family members and guests to arrive at the truth. Are either of the women who confessed to the crime guilty? It was always a delight to read Hercule Poirot's detecting adventures in the original books, and this one does not disappoint! I enjoyed the book! Looking forward to reading others. I did receive a complimentary copy from Netgalley.

I think Sophie Hannah did a very good job capturing the character of Agatha Christie’s Hercule Poirot. I’ve read Hannah’s books before but this is the first time with Poirot. This was a good story with interesting characters and different storylines. She brought Hercule Poirot to life again.
Thank you to Harper Collins and NetGallery for my ARC of this ebook.

I’ve loved Agatha Christie’s books since the first time I read The Body in the Library at the age of eleven, and I love Sophie Hannah’s psychological thrillers, so I really wanted to love this one. Unfortunately, I found the story difficult to get into. There’s a lot of dialogue and little action. While I didn’t expect the book to read exactly like one of the original creator’s, I did look for similar pacing and tight plotting, and this book just doesn’t have those. I wish the author had used the device of reverting to past action as it took place, rather than having a present-day character simply talk about what had happened. The names of the houses on Kingfisher Hill were also confusing, since they all contained “Kingfisher”—Kingfisher ‘s View, Kingfisher’s Rest, and so on, causing me to constantly check back in the story to see which house belonged to whom. The plot was also so confusing that I found it hard to care what the solution was, in the end. All in all, I found the story disappointing.

I received this ARC via Netgalley and Harper Collins Publishers, in return for an honest review. This is the fourth book in Sophie Hanna’s Hercule Poirot, as authorized by the Christie estate. While it ends with a complete clarification of the who/what/when/why as told by Poirot, there’s a great deal of story in order to get there. Poirot and his ‘Watson’, e.g. Inspector Catchpool, are headed by motorcoach to an exclusive housing estate, where they’ll be incognito to determine who murdered a man in the preceding December. Starting with a woman who is obviously distraught at the initial gathering of passengers, they are confounded when she claims that her life is threatened if she sits in a certain seat on the coach. The woman in the next seat belittles her and claims there must be something wrong with the first woman. When Poirot and the first woman change seats, Catchpool can make nothing out of what she tells him. The second woman tells Poirot that she has committed a murder. When both women disappear at the mid-point stop, the two men continue to Kingfisher Hill. From there, the people under investigation are unpleasant and not sympathetic characters. When their ruse is discovered, Poirot and Catchpool are summarily dismissed until a murder occurs and they return in an official capacity. Everything is very complicated in the building of the story. I applaud the author as she tried to keep all of it straight. I skipped several pages, such as when Catchpool writes down all of his questions to give Poirot. Adding in extraneous characters didn’t help all of the mess.
Mrs. Christie was so unique and special in what and how she wrote that it’s hard for anyone to meet that high standard. Ms. Hanna does a valiant attempt but I, like some other reviewers, really didn’t care by the end as it was so hard to get to that point.

The Killings at Kingfisher wraps up in classic Hercule Poirot whodunit fashion, but getting there is an exhausting, long-winded process full of obfuscating dialogues and a myriad of details that seem included purely for complicating the storyline and confusing the reader. The beauty of so many of Christie's stories is that by the end of them you wonder how you didn't see the details and guess the killer as Poirot exposes them, because it feels like you had everything you needed to know all along and it seems to simple in hindsight. There is nothing simple about the way this story unfolds, characters and storylines seem inconsistent and overly complicated, there's a character that introduced that seems to serve no purpose and is never wrapped up. It feels like when Catchpool and Poirot encounter several ladies on a bus ride to investigate a murder and one is afraid of being murdered and the other is openly confessing to committing one that there are going to be a lot of complications ahead. You would not be wrong. I can't say that by the end I even cared about who committed the murder that led Catchpool and Poirot out to Kingfisher Hill in the first place. This just doesn't live up to the brilliance in simplicity of many of Christie's originals.

This is the first of the new Agatha Christie’s by Sophie Hannah that I’ve had a chance to read, but I greatly enjoyed it! She’s really done. Lovely job sticking to Christie’s Poirot, but it doesn’t feel stale. Now I’ll need to go back and read the others!

Hannah’s fourth Poirot brings the Belgian detective with the young Inspector he mentors, Catchpool, to the gated community of Kingfisher Hill, to investigate who really pushed wealthy Frank Devonport over a high banister. Perfect for fans of Christie, Art Deco mysteries, and Poirot, Hannah’s twisted plot is her most complex yet.

I really enjoyed this new reincarnation of the Hercule Poirot character. I’m a huge Agatha Christie, and while no one can touch the master, this was well done and done in the spirit of her work. I liked the twists this book offered and I didn’t guess correctly at the outcome. Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for a sneak peek at this title! 3.5 stars

Poirot and inspector Catchpool are on a bus trip to the Kingfisher enclave where they’ve been hired to exonerate a woman who admits to killing her fiancé. On the bus they meet two unrelated strange women with problems of their own. Once arrived at the home in Kingfisher they’re met with a big cast of characters all with their own motive to have committed the murder As well as one of the women they never expected to see again. I enjoyed the complex plots, and the description of the characters, but felt the book bogged down a little in the middle.