Graphic By: Allen Blickle

This little pig went to market,
This little pig stayed home,
This little pig ate roast beef,
This little pig had none,
This little pig cried 'wee, wee, wee' all the way home...

In Agatha Christie's mystery novel Five Little Pigs, we are introduced to a tale of love, jealousy, redemption, revenge and . . . the truth. This is a murder in retrospect mystery, where we must look into the past in order to discover the truth in the present. Caroline Crale is accused of murdering her philandering husband, Amyas Crale, and no one thinks she is innocent. After Mrs. Crale dies in jail after being tried and convicted, the murder is laid to rest. Sixteen years later, her daughter, Carla Crale, who was sent to Canada and raised by her aunt and uncle, is given a letter from her mother that was written before her death, explicitly saying that she was not guilty of the murder. Carla wants to know the truth, and she hires Hercule Poirot (a recurring series character).

Throughout the story we are given different points of view from five different characters who witnessed what occurred in the house during the summer when the murder was committed sixteen years ago. First, Poirot interviews the counsel for the defense, counsel for the prosecution, solicitors and the police. Then detective Hercule Poirot talks to each suspect and makes them write an account of what they saw all those years ago. Remember, there is no physical evidence like fingerprints or any dropped clues. We go back in time through the memories of the surviving witnesses.

Why is the title Five Little Pigs? Well, we meet five characters—five suspects who had motives to murder Amyas Crale, and these five characters are somehow related to the actual nursery rhyme:

Philip Blake—best friend to murdered victim Amyas Crale

Meredith Blake—brother to Philip and also dabbled in poisons.

Elsa Greer—a greedy and selfish woman who falls in love with Amyas and doesn't find anything wrong with stealing him from his wife and daughter, which is one of the reasons why Caroline Crale kills her husband.

Cecilia Williams—a governess in the Crale household who taught Mrs. Crale's younger sister, Angela. Also, she disapproved of Amyas wanting to leave his wife.

Angela Warren—disfigured by her older half-sister, Mrs. Crale, when she was a baby. She had a paperweight thrown at her, which disfigured her for life. She did not get along very well with her sister's husband, Amyas.

Five Little Pigs is a beautifully written classic book with deep characterization and well-crafted characters. Even though Caroline and Amyas Crale are both dead, Agatha Christie still provides us vivid descriptions of their personalities that comes alive not from their mouths, but from memories of the witnesses. Pay special attention to the dialogue and the written accounts from the "five little pigs."

Overall, Five Little Pigs is a powerful, haunting masterpiece with a poignant and tragic ending that will make you think even after you read it. It might take multiple times to read the book to fully grasp the story and the ending. When I re-read the book, the ending was still powerful and maintained the effect that it's meant to have on the reader. A review can never substitute the actual book, so read the book, even a chapter or two, and just give me your opinion. If you're into a really good mystery, Five Little Pigs is the answer.