I Saw Him Die by Andrew Wilson

I Saw Him Die by Andrew Wilson ISBN-13: 9781501197567 Paperback: 400 pages Publisher: Washington Square Press Released: July 21st 2020

Source: ebook review copy from the publisher through NetGalley.

Book Description, Modified from Goodreads:
Bestselling novelist and part-time undercover sleuth Agatha Christie is looking forward to a bit of well-deserved rest and relaxation when her longtime friend John Davison pleads with her to help him protect a retired British agent turned hotelier who has been receiving threatening letters.

Together they travel to Dallach Lodge, a beautiful estate on Scotland’s picturesque Isle of Skye. There they insert themselves among the hotel’s illustrious guests, including members of the owner’s family, a leading lady of the theater, a brilliant botanist, a local doctor, and two sisters who coauthor romance novels. Early the next morning, the hotel owner's nephew accidentally shoots his uncle in the leg and finds him dead. But it's not a simple hunting accident, and Agatha discovers that each and every one of the residents has a reason for wanting the late proprietor dead.


My Review:
I Saw Him Die is a mystery set in 1913 in Scotland. This is the fourth book in a series, but it worked as a standalone. The murder was set up in a interesting way, but I had already solved the who and how of the mystery shortly after the nephew shot his uncle in the leg. Granted, it was a "ha, wouldn't it be funny if...", but all the real clues pointed to this being true.

I had great trouble accepting the heroine as the Agatha Christie that wrote clever sleuths who didn't get thrown off track by making assumptions. This Agatha Christie was constantly making assumptions, was easily misled, and wasn't very logical. For example, she carries poisons in her suitcase in case she needs to protect herself. Because, yes, poison is so helpful in self-defense when someone's holding a gun or such on you. She was inexplicably worried that someone would realize she (a mystery writer) was trying to solve the mystery. She was also constantly lying, and no one called her on it even when she contradicted her previous stories. It was very obvious when Agatha's actions were going to lead to someone dying, but she never saw it coming.

The story wasn't very well written, either. People were constantly fleeing the room or storming out or refusing to listen. When Agatha and Davison questioned a suspected murderer until he declared that he would tell them anything they wanted to know, we suddenly jumped to a scene where he's in on the scheme to try to flush out the murderer. It reads like they just stopped questioning him. No explanation was given as to why he's no longer a suspect, and it wasn't because his information (which we later learn he gave to them) was key to solving whodunit. Their traps for the murderer mainly consisted of vague hopes that whodunit would do something wrong.

In the end, rather than just telling the detective what they uncovered, Agatha had a big reveal scene where she gave a very lengthy recounting of every false lead and confusing turn. When revealing whodunit, she gave no evidence for murder, just supposition. Agatha made no effort to avoid being whodunits last target and even distracted the good guys from shooting whodunit when it would have saved another person's life. Also, too much of the murder scheme required everything to happen just so, and the motive wasn't a compelling reason for murder. Basically, I found it very unbelievable. There were no sex scenes. There was some bad language.


If you've read this book, what do you think about it? I'd be honored if you wrote your own opinion of the book in the comments.