Agatha Christie is the mistress of bait & switch! She led me right up to the solution and then abruptly changed the question. As usual, I was bamboozled. I continue to be impressed with how much she could accomplish in so few pages.
Mark Easterbrook is an young man with imagination but a bit lacking in gumption. Ms. Christie supplies him with an investigative partner, namely Ginger, who is a bit bolder. Christie often gives the role of instigator to a plucky young woman. I did also enjoy the presence of Christie's alter-ego Ariadne Oliver. It must have been fun, writing Oliver as the absent minded and occasionally incoherent author of mysteries. Making fun of the public’s stereotype of the writer.
Of course the silliest part of the story concerns the inhabitants of the Pale Horse, the three witchy women who claim to eliminate people through magic. I wonder if Christie was aware of Gerald Gardner, the self-proclaimed restorer of witchcraft to the British Isles? He published a couple of books on the subject in the 1950s. He and his coven pranced about skyclad, i.e. naked, and practiced what is now known as Wicca. That was what these women put me in mind of.
It may have been silly, but the denizens of the Pale Horse played their part effectively. Christie fit the many pieces of her plot together neatly, letting DI Lejeune reveal all, rather like Poirot in other books. I enjoyed the goings on quite a bit, though I don't think it's one of her better outings.
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