Customer Reviews
Towards Zero "Book" v Towards Zero "TV Adaptation" - By: Joanne D'Arcy, 16 Aug 2008 
I picked up this book to read because I had recently seen the ITV adaptation of MARPLE (2008). I knew Miss Marple was not in the book, so wanted to see how true to the book they had been.
Agatha Christie is a competent story teller who weaves the criminal with the ordinary everyday descriptions of places, buildings, areas & people. She does not fail here. The set up for what appears to be a very cut & dry case of murder by person or persons unknown starts from the very beginning.
The introduction of Mr Treves & his tale of a previous case immediately has the reader on edge. This tale is repeated later to reiterate some point, when Mr Treves takes an invitation for dinner at Gull's Point, the setting for the murder. All gathered at Gull's Point have a connection there from the past & the present, through marriage & family.
Once the murder has been committed, the appearance of Superintendent Battle leads us to follow him as the clues are discovered & the anomalies that he cannot put his finger on lead us alll towards `zero hour' - when we discover with the other guests & residents of Gull's Point the real perpetrator of the crime & the motive.
Not having read any other Agatha Christie's with Superintendent Battle in, I sensed I was missing some of his back story but this was a mere oversight on my point. I will endeavour to rectify this.
In comparison to the television version, the character Mr MacWhirter has been taken out to enable to slot in Miss Marple's role. This character was an odd diversion within the book, another story completely alien. However as the story progressed, MacWhirter had his own motive for being in the area, his presence is then justified. The TV adaptation stuck true to the characters of Kay Strange, Mary Aldin & Ted Latimer & with some poetic licence there were some slight adjustments to the endings, but in the main I found it was fairly true to the book as it could be when slotting in another one of Christie's infamous detectives, Miss Marple. The book uses the insider knowledge of Hercule Poirot as a reference marker.
If I had read the book first then watched the programme I may have found it was an insult to what is a very good book. Nonetheless I enjoyed both 'versions' but for me the book (and any book) will always outshine any TV/Film adaptation of it.
The murder of Audrey Strange - By: Jane Baker, 03 Feb 2008 
This is without doubt the best Agatha Christie crime novel I have ever read. It surpassess "Roger Ackroyd" for plot, characters, scene, prose. It is a rarity in that more clues are dropped which are "pick-uppable" without losing any intensity. Vocabulary & prose are also on a higher level. Must be her best. BRILLIANT.
An overlooked classic - By: C. Knowles, 09 Apr 2007 I have been a Christie fan for 35 years, & I agree with the previous reviewer. To my mind this is one of the best books she ever wrote. Perhaps because it does not feature Poirot or Marple it never reallly seems to get the attention it deserves. Christie is often criticised for being Plot Plot Plot & precious little atmosphere. It is suggested that creating a convincing atmosphere is beyond her. Well this is the book which disproves that theory. You could cut the atmosphere in this one with a knife. From the word go a strange, menacing, almost dreamlike aura hangs over this book. It is, apart from a (very) tangenital similarity to 'Murder Is Easy' in terms of motivation, quite unlike anything else she wrote. It seems to be one of those Christies that readers come to half-heartedly once they have exhausted the Poirots & Marples but I would place it pretty high on her list of classic titles, in fact I am not sure that I wouldn't place it at number one!
One of Christie's vey best. - By: M. Elliott, 16 Jul 2006 Towards Zero is one of Agatha Christie's very best books. The characterisation is excellent with lots of well drawn rounded characters. The setting of the cornish coast in September is also very atmospeheric.
However this book is so good as Christie places the main murder late on in the book viewing, as is the case,murder being the end of a series of events rather than the start.
The solution is totallly unexpected but if you look back through the book & the characters it is the only possible solution that would work.
A true classic
Towards Zero - By: Rich, 03 Nov 2005 
Disappointing. Christie sets up an interesting plot but fails to do anything with it. The book feels as if it's alll beginning but no middle. When the murders come they feel tacked on.
A real letdown. A good idea wasted due to lack of development.
