Not normally the sort of book I would read, but it was free and I enjoy Agatha Christie detective novels so I tried it. The back describes the Mary Westmacott books as “as compelling and memorable as the best of her work”. I have to agree with this book.

I enjoyed reading this so so much!

This was unusual, and not just for the author, who was probably striking out to do something different. The characters are very complex, even complicated, but the scenario is a bit melodramatic.
Some of my favorite things about Agatha Christie’s writing are also evident here, namely her way with amusing descriptions of people which are sharp but not mean.
So. Glad to have read her other work, still want to try Absent in the Spring…but this was not my favorite.

The Westmacott books seem to be Agatha Christie exploring issues of emotional abuse, which has little to do with murder mysteries. This one didn't feel deeply personal, but Isabella is not well, even though everyone treats her as if she were. It's only normal to be this passive if you're a woman in 1945, and only then because society had very skewed opinions about what a woman was and should be. It's an angry book.

“We all start out as the central figure of our own story. Later we wonder, doubt, get confused. So it has been with me. First it was my story. Then I thought it was Jennifer and I together… and then in my darkness and disillusionment, Isabella sailed across my vision like the moon on a dark night… Now again, the pattern has shifted. This is not my story, not Isabella’s story. It is the story of John Gabriel. The story ends here, where I am beginning it. It ends with John Gabriel. But it also begins here.“

The Rose and the Yew Tree is the fourth of six books written by Agatha Christie under the pen name of Mary Westmacott, and I am reading them with @lindabookmania for her Instagram read along, #readingallofagatha, whereby we are on a mission to read everything dear Agatha wrote, as well as books written by others about her.

What can I say about this book? Wow, it was really some deep stuff! From a psychological perspective, this book is on par with Daphne du Maurier’s works. It reminded me a little of Rebecca with the unreliable narrator and that unsettled feeling that comes over you when you realize that you’ve trusted a character’s narration only to realize that perhaps he misled you, purposefully or not, or that he didn’t have all the facts at hand.

I loved all the literary illusions contained in this story—the T.S. Eliot quote, the fairy tale elements, the reference to Shakespeare’s Iago and his comparison to one of the characters, the concept of the circle of life—it was all pure brilliance on Agatha’s part!

Possibly the only thing that put me off this one was the pacing. I felt like it was super slow getting to the point and then the end felt a bit rushed. It’s only in the last third of the book that the focus shifts from the political scene to the personal plot, and when it does it really takes off. All in all, though, I found this to be an enjoyable read!

“And I remembered another thing—Robert saying that there had been no bad fairies at Rupert St Loo’s christening. I had asked him afterwards what he meant and he had replied, ‘Well, if there’s not one bad fairy—where’s your story?’”