Other editions of book 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 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 Hercule Poirot. Five Little Pigs is unusual in the way that the same events are retold from the viewpoints of five people present on the day of the murder sixteen years earlier.The novel was received positively at the time of publication. The "author's uncanny skill. The answer to the riddle is brilliant." and its "smashing last-minute showdown(s) . . .well up to the standard" sum up the reactions of two reviewers. 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 used stronger terms of praise, of "the-murder-in-the-past plot" as being the best of Christie's use of that device, and "All 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."