Towards Zero by Agatha Christie

At Gull's Point, the seaside residence of an elderly widow, a houseparty unfolds, connecting a failed suicide attempt, a wrongful accusation of theft, and the complicated love life of a famous tennis player. As the past events converge, a meticulously planned murder is exposed, prompting Superintendent Battle and his nephew to embark on the investigation. Towards Zero marks Battle's final case.

Frankly, Towards Zero just didn’t work for me. The pacing was off and the story was incredibly disjointed, especially in the first half where it felt as though this had originally been broken up into a serial format. And, as short as it was, the character introductions and set-up took far too long. Battle himself was really very bland and on the whole this felt more like a daytime soap opera than the Christie mysteries I tend to favor.

Audiobook, as narrated by Hugh Fraser: Fraser did a great job, as always. I am really appreciating, in particular with this installment from Christie's oeuvre, the nuanced ways in which he manages to change his voice for both a large and varied cast and a small group whose individual voices might, in real life, have been fairly indistinguishable.