New take on Poirot feels like a pale imitation

FICTION: The Mystery of Three Quarters, By Sophie Hannah, Harper Collins, €17.25

Agatha Christie often felt like she’d had enough of Hercule Poirot. “A detestable, bombastic, tiresome, egocentric little creep” was how she once described the Belgian detective who solved his first case in The Mysterious Affair at Styles almost a century ago. Christie also created an alter ego called Ariadne Oliver who says of her own fictional sleuth: “How do I know ...