Peter Ustinov

Advantages: The best Crime Writer ever to have lived.
Disadvantages: There are no disadvantages

...This is one of the best that Agatha Christie has written. While reading this, I thought that the murderer was one of several people and as I read it, my theory kept changing. Everyone had a grudge about someone else, they could all have done it. It wasn't until I got to the end of the book that I realised who it was. Whenever Agatha Christie writes a book, she makes you think that you know who it is but it is only a red herring. You have to wait until the end. Once you've started reading this book, then you can't put it down, it's full of intrugue and suspense. The film version of this book is just as good but it has to be played by Peter Ustinov.... Read review

Ciao members have rated this review on average somewhat helpful

Advantages: highly entertaining
Disadvantages: none

...It was love at second sight. When I first saw the book in the English section of my German bookshop, the colour of the cover sprang into my eyes and hurt them, the ugliest violet you can imagine. I went nearer to have a closer look (so it fulfilled its function!) and saw Peter Ustinov’s name, in pale yellow with fine red lines (what are designers paid for?). Ustinov was an asset, to be sure, I had already read and enjoyed his autobiography, but the title of this book didn’t appeal to me at all: “Monsieur René”. Things French don’t appeal to me anyway, knowing neither the language nor the country, and why should I read an English book about a Frenchman? So it was 2-1 against the purchase. When I browsed through the bookshop again some weeks later, the book was still there, not a good sign, so it hadn’... Read review

Ciao members have rated this review on average helpful

Advantages: Some intriguing insights
Disadvantages: Not great literature

...and variation, and non-verbal emphasis. To read “and that was the end of him” comes over flat when read from the page…but consider, say, Peter Ustinov finishing an oration with those words, consider the twinkle in the eye, the gestures that might accompany those words….and don’t just Herodotus too harshly for the lack of literary finesse. For those of us not certain that we really want to plough through 800 pages of pre-common era Greco-Persian politics, but might like a taste of what life was like, a mere eavesdropping on Herodotus rather than having to listen to the entire performance…those nice people at Penguin have included some of his digressions in their “Great Journeys” series. No. 1 in the collection, which in 20 slim volumes samples some of the greatest travel writing across the centuries, gives us Egypt and Libya circa 415 BC... Read review

Ciao members have rated this review on average helpful

Advantages: The best Crime Writer ever to have lived.
Disadvantages: There are no disadvantages

...This is one of the best that Agatha Christie has written. While reading this, I thought that the murderer was one of several people and as I read it, my theory kept changing. Everyone had a grudge about someone else, they could all have done it. It wasn't until I got to the end of the book that I realised who it was. Whenever Agatha Christie writes a book, she makes you think that you know who it is but it is only a red herring. You have to wait until the end. Once you've started reading this book, then you can't put it down, it's full of intrugue and suspense. The film version of this book is just as good but it has to be played by Peter Ustinov.... Read review

Ciao members have rated this review on average somewhat helpful

Advantages: highly entertaining
Disadvantages: none

...It was love at second sight. When I first saw the book in the English section of my German bookshop, the colour of the cover sprang into my eyes and hurt them, the ugliest violet you can imagine. I went nearer to have a closer look (so it fulfilled its function!) and saw Peter Ustinov’s name, in pale yellow with fine red lines (what are designers paid for?). Ustinov was an asset, to be sure, I had already read and enjoyed his autobiography, but the title of this book didn’t appeal to me at all: “Monsieur René”. Things French don’t appeal to me anyway, knowing neither the language nor the country, and why should I read an English book about a Frenchman? So it was 2-1 against the purchase. When I browsed through the bookshop again some weeks later, the book was still there, not a good sign, so it hadn’... Read review

Ciao members have rated this review on average helpful

Advantages: Some intriguing insights
Disadvantages: Not great literature

...and variation, and non-verbal emphasis. To read “and that was the end of him” comes over flat when read from the page…but consider, say, Peter Ustinov finishing an oration with those words, consider the twinkle in the eye, the gestures that might accompany those words….and don’t just Herodotus too harshly for the lack of literary finesse. For those of us not certain that we really want to plough through 800 pages of pre-common era Greco-Persian politics, but might like a taste of what life was like, a mere eavesdropping on Herodotus rather than having to listen to the entire performance…those nice people at Penguin have included some of his digressions in their “Great Journeys” series. No. 1 in the collection, which in 20 slim volumes samples some of the greatest travel writing across the centuries, gives us Egypt and Libya circa 415 BC... Read review

Ciao members have rated this review on average helpful