I wasn't quite convinced at first, because for me, it's always hard to keep reading at the beginning of the book. Until the tension rises, which it did in this case.
Of course, the tension came together with a murder and - even more importantly - a mystery.
The dying Mrs Davis leaves tells Father Gorman about some names which are important to remember, and then dies. Straight after, Father Gorman is killed on the streets. The detectives didn't really understand why he was killed, but it must have had to do with the names on the list he hid in his shoe. What were those names about? It was certain though, that some of those names were surnames of people who had just died, and people with the remaining surnames kept dying, from natural causes, apparantly. As Mark Easterbrook, our protagonist, hears about this place called the Pale Horse where there were supposed to be witches, he tried to find out more about it. Soon enough, he learns that there is a whole business behind it, and it had to do with the people dying. According to his theory, this guy in Birmingham, Bradley, bet on the lives of people with relatives who wanted them to die, which seems completely legal. Thyrza Grey and the other women of the Pale Horse then put a curse on them to make them become ill. Also, there must be a brain behind it, and since the old pharmasist Osborne had seen someone following Father Gorman right before he was killed who looked like Mr Venables, he was the main suspect - although he had atrophied limbs.
To find out more, Mark and his friend Ginger decided to trick them and look behind what was happening. Mark told Thyrza Grey he wanted Ginger, who played his wife who had disappeared years ago and now suddenly was back, dead and so they have a séance at the Pale Horse, a black magic ceremony. And a while later, Ginger actually becomes ill.
As Mark found out that she was losing hair, his friend Mrs Oliver told him that the previous victims also were losing hair - it wasn't a curse, but a thallium poisoning. D.I. Lejeune, his sergeant and Mark go to Mr Venables house, witness Osborne coming with them. They explain the whole business to Venables just to then turn to Osborne and state that he was the brain behind it, that he was just suspecting Venables to hide that he actually killed Father Gorman and had people go to the victims' houses and place thallium there.
What. a. plot twist. Wow.
I have to admit, I'm a really bad reader so this book actually took me some weeks, although it's not really long. But, despite the fact I'm not really into detective novels, this one was really interesting and provided surprises for the reader. Ginger and Mark decide to marry at the end, but I'm glad it wasn't utterly romantic, because that wouldn't have matched with the rest of the story. I hardly could identify with Mark, to be honest, but I guess most readers just want to get behind what's happening at the Pale Horse if they're reading this book. I might read more novels by Agatha Christie, I actually have another one here!
Now I need to start reading a French book though, ugh. English was so easy, it was wonderful! But I'd like to get to this point with all my languages. So be sure that more reviews will be coming!
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