I have been really busy with my own writing and art project this year, so haven’t been posting regularly on my blog. But I did want to share some capsule book reviews of what I’ve been reading lately. Agatha Christie, The Monogram Murders – billed as a “new” Hercule Poirot mystery, by British mystery author Sophie Hannah. It wasn’t a bad read, but was it Poirot? For fans of Christie’s most famous and famously fastidious detective, there were definite pleasant notes scored, with nods to […]
Hang onto your mustache cups! Hercule Poirot is in the house!
I like a good, entertaining mystery once in a while. I bought Agatha Christie’s Murder on the Orient Express and have read a few scattered short stories. I also watched part of the Poirot series, which included an episode about Murder on the Orient Express, so I knew the story. But there’s just something about reading a mystery novel and watching the clues unfold before your eyes. Read the full review on my blog, and tell me what other Christie books I should read! I […]
The Coffee is Unusually Bitter.
Agatha Christie’s Black Coffee is frothy, mildly offensive (much like hyoscine), and formulaic. The miserly, inventive patriarch of the Amory family has called in Detective Poirot because he suspects someone in his family is attempting to steal a formula that is incredibly important. Poirot shows up, but not before the thief murders Sir Amory as well. There are xenophobic undertones, spy hijinks, bemused spinster aunts, and absolutely nothing of any note. Put together, the book’s parts are entirely underwhelming. Read the rest here!
Christie takes a very old trope and makes it work.
I love listening to Agatha Christie books when it’s cold outside. It’s so cozy and comforting and British. This one didn’t disappoint, although it’s not my favorite of hers so far. The dead body found in the library conceit was old even back in 1941 when The Body in the Library was first published. Good old Agatha got ahold of it and decided to make it her own. There is indeed a body found in a library at the start of this book, but in quite […]
Views from a passing train
On her way by train to visit her old friend Jane Marple for Christmas, Mrs Elspeth McGillicuddy is shocked to realise that she’s witnessing a murder in the train running parallel. A tall, dark man in a dark coat is strangling a blond woman in a fur coat and there is nothing Mrs McGillicuddy can do. As soon as the train stops, she notifies the ticket inspector and the station master of what she saw, and when she arrives at Miss Marple’s, the two talk […]
The Adventures of Anne, NOT the Perils of Pamela
Anne Beddingfeld’s father is a famous archaeologist and anthropologist. He dies, leaving Anne mostly penniless, but hungry for adventure. She kindly rejects the proposal of the village doctor and accepts her father’s solicitor’s invitation to stay with him and his wife for a time in London. Shortly after her arrival in the capital, she is witness to an accidental death. A man in a large overcoat reeking of mothballs falls onto the tracks of the train station, and a tall, bearded man claiming to be […]
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