Here we go again...

10. THE SECRET ADVERSARY (Tommy & Tuppence)
An agent carrying important diplomatic documents is on a ship that sinks. Fast-forward. Tommy and Tuppence start The Young Adventurers, Ltd., "willing to do almost anything". Soon they find themselves in the middle of an action-adventure, actually looking for Jane Finn but finding that all leads lead to a mysterious Mr. Brown. He is everywhere - but than again nowhere. Almost like Keyser Söze.

Memorabe quotes:
-"Never tell all you know - not even to the person you know best."
-"Never underestimate your adversary."
-"The French, for instance, are much more sensible in the way they look at things. They keep romance and marriage apart."

Favourite Guest Character: besides Tuppence? Annette.
Mystery: ****
Final Solution: ***
Entertainment: *****
12/15


9. THE UNEXPECTED GUEST (a play)
An almost literal transcript of a theater play. Michael's car breaks down one foggy night. As he is looking for help in a nearby house, he finds the owner dead and his wife holding a gun. Despite the circumstantial evidence she seems to be innocent and Michael, a complete stranger to the house, offers to help. Why does he do that?

Favourite Guest Character: hmmm, Starkwedder? Sergeant Cadwallader?
Mystery: **
Final Solution: ***
Entertainment: **
7/15


8. ELEPHANTS CAN REMEMBER (Poirot)
Ariadne Oliver is asked one question about one of her god-daughters: "Did her mother kill her father or was it the father who killed the mother?" Interviewing anyone who could know something, Poirot finds out that elephants do remember, just sometimes have different perception of the truth, and that dogs bite, but at least they do know whom they bite.

Memorabe quote:
-"Old sins have long shadows."

Favourite Guest Character: Celia
Mystery: ****
Final Solution: *
Entertainment: **
7/15

I'm getting repetitive...

More Agatha Christie's books:

7. BY THE PRICKING OF MY THUMBS (Tommy & Tuppence)
Tommy and Tuppence, now in their sixties, visit his old aunt in a nursing home and talk to a fellow resident who rumbles about a child buried behind a fireplace. When the aunt dies, they inherit a painting with a country house that seems strangely familiar to Tuppence. What mystery lies buried in this house? A rather macabre Christie.

Memorable quote:
-"That's where all the trouble in life comes from. Thinking."

Favourite Guest Character: Mrs Boscowan, although I didn't really fancy anyone except Tommy and Tuppence.
Mystery: ***
Final Solution: **
Entertainment: **
7/15


6. PERIL AT THE END HOUSE (Poirot)
Poirot and Captain Hastings spend their holidays in Cornwall where they meet a girl, Nick, who claims that she had three near escapes from death in three days! Poirot finds out that a bee can be a bullet and a girl in a black dress can be another girl in a black dress. Or not.

Memorable quote:
-"And the fact that the boulder was dislodged at the wrong minute, and consequently missed Mademoiselle, is more suggestive of feminine agency." You just have to love Agatha!

Favourite Guest Character: Nick
Mystery: ***
Final Solution: **
Entertainment: **
7/15


5. HICKORY DICKORY DOCK (Poirot)
Auberge Espagnol a la Agatha Christie. A lot of students in one house, a lot of missing items, a lot of sub-plots, everyone suspects someone and everyone knows a bit too much. And Miss Lemon becomes human as we meet her sister.

Favourite Guest Character: Mrs Hubbard.
Mystery: **
Final Solution: *
Entertainment: *
4/15

Flying time

How quickly time flies!

I spent the last weeks sorting old family photographs. Plenty of them. Several shoeboxes of old photographs, with no date, no names... But now I'm finished. I scanned them all first and put them in a photoalbum. Here are two examples:

My great-aunt, 1930.

My grandmother and my mother, 1950.