I've been slowly making my way through the Hercule Poirot books, and when I was looking for more books to help me complete the Reading Through The Centuries challenge I discovered that this particular sequel fitted the bill. I liked the sound of the premise of Death In The Clouds, which is basically a locked room mystery with the murder happening on a plane. And I have to say that this is probably one of my favorite Hercule Poirot mysteries to date! I can't say that I'm surprised, because I do have a weak spot for a good locked room mystery... And the murder on the plane was quite intriguing indeed. There are a limited amount of suspects, and most of them seem to be hiding something. Of course, Poirot will do his usual investigating and it was fun to follow him on this journey to discover the truth. He has in fact his own name to clear after all! And while I did suspect certain things about the ending, I never did see the full truth before it was revealed... Which is always a bonus of course. If you like the Hercule Poirot books, this is another nifty little mystery! I imagine this would make for such a great movie adaptation as well. 

Okay, I get that this isn't a GREAT Christie mystery. The sleuthing detours felt haphazard and the ending became very convoluted. Still, I had a fun time consuming it! I've been in a reading rut lately, and this revitalized my interest in audiobooks, and Christie in particular.

What stood out to be about this story: low stakes, excellent cartoonish characters* (much more fun than the usual brooding suspects!), mediocre pacing, a bizarre act three murder and a conclusion so nonsensical that I accepted it because I couldn't keep track of all the convoluted clues and unlikely solutions!

*deadpan flute-obsessed doctor having some kind of affair; zany mystery writer obsessed with the murder weapon; indistinguashable father/son acheology nerd duo turned arranged employer/love interest?; cartoonishly villainous dentist with bipolar behavior who provides internal monologues (!) on multiple occasions; coke obsessed chorus girl turned duchess, and the random horse girl who wants her husband; TWO lost daughters who kind of matter but mostly don’t, plus the bored hairdresser main character you assume is one of those two but is actually a nobody, lol… and a little Belgian detective investigating the case with the police despite his CLEAR conflict of interest as a possible (even likely) suspect! A ridiculous, if occasionally tedious, DELIGHT, I tell you!

Serious side note, though: the version I listened to seemed to censor at least one very extreme instance of racism (and fatphobia!) that occurs as a bonding moment between two main characters. I learned about it later while reading a Goodreads review and was genuinely SHOCKED at its casual, intentional, and blatant awfulness. That lowers the score quite a bit for me and leaves a bad taste in my mouth about the fun and frivolous aspects of the story that I enjoyed.