Cannonball Read 18

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time


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The Relief of Agatha Christie

The Mirror Crack’d from Side to Side by Agatha Christie

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Bingo: Middle. Miss Marple is in the middle of the old world and the new. The story explicitly contrasts the old world side of St Mary Mead with the new housing development built in the community. Ah, such a relief to enjoy a soothing Agatha Christie. The Mirror Crack’d From Side to Side is a very good Miss Marple book. Taking place in St Mary Mead, the murder capital of the world, Miss Marple is stuck at home with a servant who drives her crazy […]

Slow Start, Fabulous End

Endless Night by Agatha Christie

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Bingo: Wealth  One of the characters is very rich and it is central to the plot. I’m going on a tear of mysteries/thrillers, and Endless Night is a banger. The main character Mike is a bit of a ne’er-do-well. He flits from job to job and does well with the ladies. He comes upon a dilapidated house in the country called The Towers. A Romani fortuneteller who lives near the property warns him the land and its house is cursed, but Mike pays her no […]

Good Mystery, So So Ending

The Moving Finger by Agatha Christie

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Agatha Christie’s The Moving Finger is a Miss Marple mystery that features very little Miss Marple. The narrator is Jerry Burton, who has come to a little village with his sister Joanna to recover from an injury. He unfolds the story and Miss Marple doesn’t show up until sixty percent in. Even then, she plays a minimal role except at the end when the mystery is solved. The village has been plagued with anonymous poison pen letters sent to various residents. Jerry and Joanna even […]

A Poirot without Poirot

The Hollow by Agatha Christie

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I thought I had read every Agatha Christie there is, but I came across one I hadn’t read (or don’t remember having read): The Hollow. It is a Hercule Poirot novel, but he hardly features in the story at all. He appears a few times, including the end, but the book really centers on the characters/suspects. Lady Lucy Angkatell and her husband Lord Henry have an estate called the Hollow. At a weekend gathering (it’s always a weekend gathering, isn’t it?), an unfaithful doctor is […]

“The case does look very black against you. Nevertheless, I accept your assurance.”

The Witness for the Prosecution by Agatha Christie

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Last year I read my first ever Agatha Christie novel and enjoyed the experience so much that I put another on this year’s list. Without a better idea of where to start I hunted up works published by Christie in 1925 and the short story now known as The Witness for the Prosecution fit the bill. I didn’t know much going in about what the story contained and decided that was probably for the best.   This 50-minute audio (read by the incomparable Christopher Lee) is an excellent example of how Christie honed in on the mechanics of writing to tell her […]

Should A Classic Be Discounted Because of the Racist Origins of its First Title?

And Then There Were None by Agatha Christie

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As a teenager, I was a huge Agatha Christie fan. There’s a reason she ranks among the most widely published authors of all time (behind only Shakespeare). The lady can spin a yarn! I’m proud to say I guessed the murderer in The Murder of Roger Ackroyd when I first read it, though I recently reread And Then There Were None and did not guess said murderer. (I haven’t read the book in twenty-plus years, so it feels brand-new). The title has been changed twice […]



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