The Sittaford Mystery by Agatha Christie * * * *

The Sittaford Mystery (1931) was my final December pick for the 2025 Agatha Christie Reading Challenge. This one was chosen by vote, and I did vote for it, even though at the time I had slightly the wrong idea about what kind of book it was. For some reason, I was convinced it was a Poirot mystery. When I realised it wasn’t, I briefly wondered whether it had at least been adapted as a Poirot story, but as far as I can tell, it has been adapted as a Miss Marple episode instead. Or perhaps I was mixing it up with something else entirely. Either way, it wasn’t what I expected, but that didn’t end up being the main issue.

What makes this novel stand out in Christie’s body of work is its protagonist. The character we mainly follow is Emily Trefusis, a woman determined to prove the innocence of her fiancé, who has been arrested for murder. Rather than waiting passively for events to unfold, Emily actively investigates, travelling, questioning people, and pushing the case forward. I actually liked her quite a lot. She feels capable, determined, and refreshingly proactive for a Christie heroine of this period.

She is assisted by Charles Enderby, a journalist, but Emily is very much the driving force of the investigation. The perspective is different at the beginning of the novel, with some more detached narration, but once Emily enters the story, she largely becomes the focal point.

I listened to this as an audiobook narrated by Hugh Fraser, and that created a small disconnect for me. Hearing a male narrator for a story that is mostly centred on a female perspective felt slightly odd, even though Fraser does his usual competent job. This ties into a broader issue I have discovered this year while listening to Christie almost exclusively as audiobooks. Her novels often have large casts, and I struggle to keep track of characters without visual anchors. Names blur together, personalities overlap, and unless a character is particularly distinctive, my brain tends to lose them. That definitely affected my experience here, especially towards the end.

The resolution itself left me conflicted. Christie uses a classic reveal structure, with everyone gathered together and the solution explained. Which is all fine, but what came afterwards left me, and I would guess a lot of readers, disappointed. Talking about it in detail would veer into spoiler territory, so I will leave it at that.

That said, overall this is a solid mystery. Despite my issues with character overload and the ending, I think The Sittaford Mystery is one of Christie’s better non Poirot novels. Emily alone makes it worth reading, and the investigation itself is engaging.

This book also confirmed something useful for me as a reader. While I enjoy Christie’s plotting, audiobooks may not be the ideal format for her work, at least not for me. With so many characters and such subtle distinctions between them, I often found myself confused rather than intrigued.

Still, taken on its own terms, The Sittaford Mystery is a capable and interesting entry in Christie’s catalogue. It may not be one of her most famous works, but it has enough strengths to make it a worthwhile read, especially for those exploring beyond Poirot and Miss Marple.