Cannonball Read 18

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time


Join the CBR18 Book Bingo Reading Challenge—Now Underway!   

A Mysterious Introduction to Agatha Christie

The Mysterious Affair at Styles by Agatha Christie

by Leave a Comment

Having never read an Agagtha Christie book before, I decided it was only appropriate to begin with her first Poirot mystery, rather than a more well known title like Murder on the Orient Express. The reader follows narrator Arthur Hastings, a soldier recently released on sick leave from the Western Front during WW2. He runs into an old friend, John Cavendish, who invites him to stay at his families sprawling estate, Styles Court. There, Hastings is reintroduced to several characters: Emily Inglethorp, John’s stepmother Mary […]

A great time, unless you’re on the death list!

The Pale Horse by Agatha Christie

by Leave a Comment

“All life is dangerous. We forget that, we who have been reared in one of the small pockets of civilization. For that is all that civilization really is…small pockets of men here and there for who have gathered together for mutual protection…They have beaten the jungle – but that victory is only temporary. At any moment, the jungle will once more take command. Proud cities that were, are now mere mounds of earth, overgrown…Life is always dangerous – never forget that.” Those lines from a […]

Most influential murder mystery of all time?

The Murder of Roger Ackroyd by Agatha Christie

by Leave a Comment

CBR15 BINGO: You Are Here, because I got this book from my local library I have long been a fan of Agatha Christie, and of Hercule Poirot in particular. I’m certain I read The Murder of Roger Ackroyd when I was a young teen, but I didn’t remember anything about it. Granted, it was a long time ago, but given that Roger Ackroyd is considered one of the most influential mystery novels of all time, I was surprised I couldn’t recall any of the details. […]

“you underestimate the detective instinct of village life”

The Murder at the Vicarage (1930) by Agatha Christie

by Leave a Comment

Bingo row 2, dwelling–the titular vicarage/crime scene. The vicarage in England is where the pastor of the Anglican Church lives–it’s usually associated with teas with the church ladies and sermon-composing and parish administration, rather than murder–especially the murder of a church warden. The cover of my edition is annoyingly irrelevant–the vicarage is far more important than the graveyard. We find out far more about the vicarage as a crime scene than as a dwelling here; Christie tends to sketch rather than paint a background. We […]

“Sometimes a life is so entirely disrupted, on such a large and ungraspable scale, all one can do is face the ruined day.”

The Christie Affair by Nina De Gramont

by Leave a Comment

This is much more like what I wanted from 2021’s The Mystery of Mrs. Christie, a book which also speculates on what happened to Agatha Christie when she went missing for eleven days in 1926. At the same time, I could not have predicted what avenues this story would take. So really, it’s more like this gave me the feelings I was looking for, even if not in the way I expected. The other book gave me a plot more like I expected but was lacking […]

“And they all liv’d together in a little crooked house.”

Crooked House by Agatha Christie

by Leave a Comment

Ooh, I got really into this one. It’s been a month since I’ve finished so I’ve had some time to think (though I do of course wish I’d written the review right away, but alas) and I think the reason that I loved this one so much is that it’s one of the few non-detective mystery novels to get the mystery part right and have it be believable. A lot of the time, as a mystery fan when encountering books with non-detective main characters, there […]



Help Our Mission

You can donate to CBR via:

  1. PayPal
  2. Venmo