Half-time

One year has passed since I started reading Agatha Christie's collection of books. I've managed to read about half of them and I'm looking forward to the other half!

48. MURDER IN THE MEWS (Poirot)
Four short stories with Poirot: Sir Chevenix-Gore commits suicide and breaks a mirror. But someone hears a gong a few minutes too early. Plans for a bomber disappear from the desk but noone could have taken them. A widow commits suicide on Guy Fawkes night. Did she really? A love triangle at Rhodes - when Rhodes was still Italian - is not quite what it seems.

Memorable quotes:
-"Life is only one of the Great Illusions."
-"As you are on the scene, it probably would be murder."
-"One's always hearing this nation and that is bankrupt! But they carry on just the same."
-"I think a woman smothered in cheap scent is one of the greatest abominations known to mankind."
-"Murder can sometimes seem justified, but it is murder all the same."
-"Men are so wonderfully loyal - that's what I like about them."

Favourite Guest Character: Hmmm. Valentine Chantry?
Favourite story: Triangle at Rhodes
Mystery: **
Final Solution: ***
Entertainment: **
7/15


47. SLEEPING MURDER (Miss Marple)
A house seems strangely familiar to Gwenda who moves to England from New Zealand. She knows immediately how to furnish it, which wallpaper to use - only to find out that exactly the same wallpaper has been used here before. But it's not just the wallpaper she remembers - she remembers someone being killed! How? Who? Why? Miss Marple's advice is to let sleeping murder lie, but Gwenda won't listen to this. Not until it's too late.

Memorable quotes:
-"Children are odd little creatures."
-"Skeletons should be kept in their cupboards."
-"You know, a nice safe person to marry - but you don't really want to."
-"Children give life to a house, that's what I feel."
-"Women causes a lot of trouble in a man's life."
-"It really is very dangerous to believe people."

Favourite Guest Character: Gwenda
Mystery: ****
Final Solution: **
Entertainment: ***
9/15


46. CROOKED HOUSE
A crooked man in a crooked house full of ruthless family members. He is eighty, has plenty of money and a wife fifty years younger. When he suddenly dies, it's kind of obvious who did it. Or is it? Charles becomes involved as he wants to marry into the family but she refuses to do so unless the murderer is found. One word of advice: If you don't know who the killer is, ask your dad :-) Because really, anyone could be the murderer.

Memorable quotes:
-"Does the real thing ever have the perfection of a stage performance?"
-"Curious things, rooms. Tell you quite a lot about the people who live in them."
-"I think people more often kill those they love than those they hate. Possibly because only the people you love can really make life unendurable to you."
-"There's often something about a second child - they start handicapped."
-"Women never have any faith in mechanical things working properly."

Favourite Guest Character: Hm. Josephine?
Mystery: **
Final Solution: ****
Entertainment: **
8/15