I thought Heart of Darkness was racist in that it was embedded in the experience of the European traveller. You never really got to see the other side of the story of why the natives/local people might have objected to a steamer running through their territory, and it was presented as unexplainable violence and an oppressive terror from people it was impossible to communicate with- except through violence of your own of course, hence 'exterminate all the brutes'. Been a while since I read it, so may have missed something.

Fair enough re: Christie. I think she was technically very good at creating whodunnit puzzles, but if the genre doesn't appeal (it doesn't to me any more tbh) then there's not much reason to go there. Unless you really like the characters or something...

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