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A Study in Spoilers

The Murder of Roger Ackroyd by Agatha Christie

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(I realize I’m crossing fictional detective streams here with my review title, but it felt appropriate.) The Murder of Roger Ackroyd is often considered one of Agatha Christie’s best novels, and I’ve been excited to get to it as I work my way through all the Poirot novels in order. However, when I started reading it, I realized I was already familiar with the story. While the first two Poirot novels and short story collection are narrated by Poirot’s friend, Captain Hastings, the captain doesn’t appear in this book. Instead, The Murder of Roger Ackroyd is narrated by a Dr. […]

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8/3/2019 | 's CBR11 Review No: 23 |

“Arrange your ideas. Be methodical. Be orderly. There is the secret of success.” – Not Hastings

The Murder on the Links (Hercule Poirot, #2) by Agatha Christie

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Okay, first of all, Hastings is an *idiot*. I don’t think I quite realized that in the other books I’ve read with him in them. He’s supposedly modeled after Watson from the Sherlock Holmes stories, an audience surrogate character, but Watson gets an unfair rap about his bumbling—a side effect of his characterization on film rather than evidence in the canon—whereas Hastings is genuinely a boob, and one that doesn’t realize the extent of his boobitude. In this one, not only does he get everything wrong, hide evidence from Poirot, and bumble about mucking things up, but he also “falls […]

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7/23/2019 | 's CBR11 Review No: 70 |

When It Feels Like It’s Getting Late, I Will Reveal You

Death on the Nile by Agatha Christie

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As much as I love mysteries, I’ve never really gotten into the classics of the genre. I read And Then There Were None at far too young an age and it scared the absolute crap out of me–that was it for Agatha Christie, up until a few months ago when there was a Kindle sale on Murder on the Orient Express. I read it and thoroughly enjoyed it. Hercule Poirot’s mannerisms tickled me, and I loved the big cast and the bottle episode feel of the setting. When I read that Death on the Nile is considered one of the […]

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4/13/2019 | 's CBR11 Review No: 11 |

The first Christie book I haven’t liked.

The Big Four (Hercule Poirot, #5) by Agatha Christie

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At first listening to this audiobook, I was enjoying myself quite a bit. Poirot was there, Hastings was there, back from Brazil, and aren’t we all having a good time now that this mysterious man has shown up in the bedroom, and then expired. Except pretty quickly after that, I realized in fact that the book was not good, and I was not enjoying myself, and even though I did listen to the whole thing in its entirety, I did not *listen* to the book in its entirety. (Quick note: Hugh Fraser remains a great Christie narrator, I always love […]

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1/26/2019 | 's CBR11 Review No: 14 |

If you confront anyone who has lied with the truth, he will usually admit it – often out of sheer surprise.

Murder on the Orient Express by Agatha Christie

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Inspired by the recent movie adaptation I figured I should finally pick this book up and read it. I… can’t think of a single thing to say about it, except to say that I feel like a bad person for not liking it more. I tried, I really did, but I honestly think this is one of those books that only works if you don’t know the ending. As the ending of the book is one of the most famous who-done-it twists in all of murder mystery that train has long since left the station. (do you see what I […]

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4/5/2018 | Post by

Speaking of Mustaches …

Murder on the Orient Express by Agatha Christie

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I have been into thrillers lately … Murder on The Orient Express, by Agatha Christie, 1934 I had to re-read this classic Agatha Christie novel after recently seeing the Kenneth Branagh movie version. I have always been a huge fan of David Suchet and his version of Christie’s most famous detective, Hercule Poirot. I was initially horrified at the promotional photos of Branagh’s take on the inimitable Belgian’s famous ‘stache, but I actually enjoyed his lively take on the character. Maybe some of that enthusiasm carried over when I was reading the novel, which is not as smooth or fast-paced […]

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3/31/2018 | Post by

What a Suave Cat

Murder on the Orient Express by Agatha Christie

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I have never read a Hercule Poirot book, and I have not seen the movie version of this Agatha Christie classic. Thus, this is an untainted review. Let me go ahead and solve the mystery for you – this is a very fun book. It’s especially fun if you get the audio version narrated by Dan Stevens (Downtown Abbey et al.).  For the other three of you who haven’t read this bottle episode of a mystery – famous Belgian mystery solver Hercule Poirot is on a European train ride when the train gets stuck in snow and…someone is murdered! I […]

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1/31/2018 | Post by

We Get to See Early Poirot and Hastings in This One

The Murder on the Links by Agatha Christie

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I realized this year that I have never read this book. I could have sworn I had since I did my Poirot readings a few years back, but then realized nope that I must have confused this book with another. Either way, I am thrilled that I got a chance to immerse myself back into the world of our egg-head shaped detective and his “little gray cells.” Told in the first person POV by Hastings (Poirot’s mostly bumbling and honestly dumb as anything assistant) in this one. We have Hasting and Poirot go off to investigate after Poirot receives a […]

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2/21/2017 | Post by


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