Taken at the Flood (1948)
(in America as There is a Tide)
Blurb:
My review:
This middle-period (1948) Christie is under-rated by everybody except Robert Barnard. The tone is brisk and humorous—Christie at her best, although the mood is one of bleakness and despair, as Britain recovers from her victory in the War; the post-war village setting is skilfully depicted, Christie vividly evoking the times. The characters arwe well-drawn, particularly the dotty Mrs. Lionel Cloade, the heroine Lynn Marchmont, the nervy and "innocent" Rosaleen; and the romantic complications are not too many. The plot, which relies on timing, identity, impersonation and legal complications (Gordon Cloade's will and marriage left his family penniless, but the widow's husband—presumed dead—apparently turns up as "Enoch Arden" and is killed, proving his wife a bigamist) is solid and complicated, although Poirot appears only in the Prologue and Book 2.