Elephants Can Remeber by Agatha Christie(Hercule Poirot #37)

Date Finished: 29th of January 2013
Rating:3.5/5

Edition Details:
Format: paperback | Publisher:Berkley Books | Page Count: 212 | ISBN: 0-425-06782-3

I don’t own this book in my collection. I have borrowed it from one of my friends.
Some day i’ll be purchasing the whole Hercule Poirot collection. I love
the detective even more that Sherlock Holmes. It’s because whenever i
read about Sherlock i get a picture of an eccentric man who is somewhat
arrogant. While Hercule Poirot is entirely opposite of him. He’s  a
person who is sometimes funny and looks like a comic but has a razor
sharp wit. And i personally think he would be more fun to be with.

Now about the book, Elephants Can Remember is a whodunit.And we all know the structure of whodunit. A crime is committed, we have a group of suspects and our detective has to find out the perpetrator of the crime.

Mrs Ariadne Oliver is a famous crime writer and is living a solitary yet happy life. Over the period of years she has been a god mother to many kids and has fulfilled her duty fully and has known when to extract herself out of the lives of her god children. So when a woman approaches her regarding her god-daughter Celia Ravescroft, whom Mrs Oliver hadn’t met for the past five years, and asks her about the tragedy in which Celia’s parents were found dead. She wants to know what really lead to the death of that happy couple. She says that it’s necessary for her to decide whether she can give her permission to her son for marrying here.

Is her son’s love is the reason for Ravenscroft’s request?

And what really happened to Ravenscroft’s parents? Their death has been an unsolvable mystery. So  Mrs Oliver goes to her friend the renowned detective Hercule Poirot for solving the mystery. Will he’ll be able to solve the mystery?

For answering, these questions you’ll have to read the book.

I liked the book. But i’ve to say that i was able to guess at the mystery halfway through the novel. I felt really proud of doing this as i couldn’t do it for any other books written by the queen of the mystery. But when i checked reviews by other people i found that most people had cracked the mystery and thus my pride in solving the mystery shattered. But apart from this i really enjoyed the book. The book has its funny moments which Hercule Poirot brings to the story and makes reading the mystery a fun experience.

Some quotes from the book:

“It would be the most interesting thing to find out,” said Poirot.
“Well,that’s why i’ve come to you,” said Mrs. Oliver. “You like finding out things. Things you can’t see the reason for at first. I mean, that nobody can see the reason for.”


“Human curiosity,” said Poirot. “Such a very interesting thing.” He sighed.”To think what we owe to it throughout history. Curiosity. I don’t know who invented curiosity. It is usually associated with the cat. Curiosity killed the cat. But i should say really that the Greeks were the inventors of curiosity. They wanted to know. Before them, as far i can see, nobody wanted to know much.”

“As one journeys through life,” said Poirot, “one finds more and more that people are often interested in things that are none of their business.Even more so than they are in things that could be considered as their own business.” 

“I am so sorry,” said Poirot, “to troubled you so much. I am like the animal or the child in one of your stories by Mr Kipling. I suffer from insatiable curiosity.” 


You can order the book from the following links:
Kindle | Paperback |  Hardcover