Five Little Pigs

Five Little Pigs is a work of detective fiction by British writer Agatha Christie, first published in the US by Dodd, Mead and Company in May 1942 under the title of Murder in Retrospect and in the UK by the Collins Crime Club in January 1943 although some sources state that publication occurred in November 1942. The UK first edition carries a copyright date of 1942 and retailed at eight shillings while the US edition was priced at $2.00.The book features detective Hercule Poirot investigating five people about a murder committed sixteen years earlier. Caroline Crale died in prison after being wrongfully convicted of murdering her husband, Amyas Crale, by poisoning him. In her final letter from prison, she claims to be innocent of the murder. Her daughter Carla Lemarchant asks Poirot to investigate this cold case, based on the memories of the people closest to the couple. The novel was received well at the time of publication, with two critics citing the "author's uncanny skill", saying that "(t)he answer to the riddle is brilliant,", and praising its "smashing last-minute showdown(s) . . .well up to the standard". Another said the author presented a "very pretty problem for the ingenious reader" and felt that the clue to the solution was "completely satisfying". Later reviewers praised the "murder-in-the-past plot" here as Christie's best use of that device, and said "(a)ll in all, it is a beautifully tailored book, rich and satisfying" and possibly her best novel. The solution of the mystery was "not only immediately convincing but satisfying as well, and even moving in its inevitability and its bleakness."