48. The Pale Horse by Agatha Christie (Mystery) 288 p.

Although one of Christie’s recurring characters, Ariadne Oliver, does make brief appearances in this novel, its hero and narrator is Mark Easterbrook, a young writer and historian. Through a series of coincidences, he becomes aware of a sinister business which apparently uses the occult to arrange “natural” deaths, in exchange for money.

Christie creates quite a creepy atmosphere in The Pale Horse. The plot relied unusually heavily on coincidence; from reading the book, you’d think Much Deeping was the only village outside of London and that England had a population of about 150! Still, the story was engaging, and even though I predicted some parts of the solution, I really didn’t figure out the most important parts, or see the end coming at all.

All in all, quite a good mystery, and a thoroughly enjoyable read.

Pages read: 13,403

Tags: 50 Book Challenge 2008, Agatha Christie, Anything Agatha Challenge, Ariadne Oliver