Classic Agatha

I had plenty of time to read in the previous month - and since I have to rest for at least five more weeks, be prepared for more reading posts.

18. NEMESIS (Miss Marple)
Miss Marple is invited to investigate a crime without knowing what the crime is, where and when it happened. She is also invited to the Famous Houses and Gardens of Britain tour, which is then interrupted by a tragic incident. But the hints and leads just keep on coming and the pieces of the puzzle slowly start to come together.

Memorable quotes:
-"...since doctors were usually moderately optimistic, knowing from experience that patients who ought to die within a certain period very often took an unexpected lease of life and lingered on, still doomed, but obstinately declining to take the final step. On the other hand, hospital nurses when in charge of patients, had ... always expected the patients to be dead the next day, and were much surprised when they were not."
-"I don't know what one would do without the younger generation... They are so kind, are they not?"
-"Boulders usually stay where they are, in my experience."

Favourite Guest Character: Mr. Rafiel, although dead through all the story.
Mystery: ****
Final Solution: **
Entertainment: *****
11/15


17. MURDER ON THE ORIENT EXPRESS (Poirot)
Such a classic story doesn't need an introduction, does it? Anyhow, Poirot and a rather heterogeneous bunch of people ("of all classes, of all nationalities, of all ages") are stuck on the Orient Express train somewhere in Yugoslavia when one of the passengers is stabbed. With plenty of clues to go with, if one really wants to solve the problem, one has to speak foreign languages and be familiar with international affairs. But why is the town of Vinkovci spelled as Vincovci?

Memorable quotes:
-"She is cold. She has not emotions. She would not stab a man; she would sue him in the law courts."
-"The impossible cannot have happened, therefore the impossible must be possible in spite of appearances."
-"Ce n'est rien. Je me suis trompe."

Favourite Guest Character: Well, none really. Maybe MacQueen?
Mystery: ****
Final Solution: *****
Entertainment: **
11/15


16. AT BERTRAM'S HOTEL (Miss Marple)
Miss Marple stays in a London hotel that seems to be frozen in the Edwardian times - even the guests. But are the guests really as innocent as they appear? The hotel seems to be just too perfect, there are too many strange coincidences and Miss Marple, as always, knows all the gossip. Although she, like the readers, hasn't got a clue what's going on. Just something isn't right.

Memorable quote:
-"I learned ... that one can never go back, that one should not ever try to go back - that the essence of life is going forward. Life is really a one way street, isn't it?"

Favourite Guest Character: Miss Marple was very enjoyable in this one, otherwise Lady Sedgwick.
Mystery: **
Final Solution: **
Entertainment: ***
7/15


15. 4:50 FROM PADDINGTON (Miss Marple)
Two trains overtaking each other: on one a friend of Miss Marple is sitting and on the other a woman is being strangled to death. As no body is found, police have their doubts on the story. But Miss Marple engages perfect domestic help, Lucy, to do a little research. She meets a large family, the local doctor and finds a recycled sarcophagus. Too many unnecessary deaths in the book but still a classic Agatha.

Memorable quote:
-"Feed the brutes!"

Favourite Guest Character: Lucy Eyelesbarrow, obviously.
Mystery: ****
Final Solution: ***
Entertainment: *****
12/15

Welcome!

Now we're complete :-)


The settings (date and time) of this post have been slightly manipulated to match the arrival of Erik.

Oh, and this is the solution to the riddle posted exactly one month ago. The mystery motive was a stack of cards.

More Agatha

Being ordered to rest and 'do nothing' I believe that there will be many more Agatha Christie's post in the future...

14. SAD CYPRESS (Poirot)
Elinor would inherit a fortune after her aunt's death - unless maybe the aunt changed her will in the last moment giving everything to lovely Mary. When the aunt dies and Mary is found poisoned, Elinor is the prime suspect. But maybe the salmon sandwiches, served tea, broken glass and a rose tree tell a different story than only Poirot can solve.

Memorable quote:
-"To care passionately for another human creature brings always more sorrow than joy; but all the same, Elinor, one would not be without that experience. Anyone who has never really loved has never really lived..."

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


13. DEAD MAN'S FOLLY (Poirot)
Ariadne Oliver organises a murder hunt that goes terribly wrong. A cousin arrives unannounced. A folly that was erected at an inappropriate location. There'll always be Folliats at Nasse House. Will say no more.

Memorable quotes:
-"You can't get away from facing truth just by running away from it."
-"Although a foreigner, I understand you are One of Us."
... brings back memories of Cambridge, when I was One of Them.

Favourite Guest Character: Etienne de Soussa
Mystery: ****
Final Solution: ***
Entertainment: ***
10/15


12. THE BODY IN THE LIBRARY (Miss Marple)
Colonel Bantry wakes up one morning with a dead platinum blonde in his library. The identity is established once an old guest of a neighbouring hotel reports a young show dancer missing. But there is another body found! Who could that be? Nosy Miss Marple solves the case by seeing what men do not notice and we learn that while plane crashes are dangerous, so can be adoptions.

Memorable quote:
-"Married people, I have noticed, quite enjoy their battles and the-er-appropriate reconciliations."

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


11. THEY DO IT WITH MIRRORS (Miss Marple)
Miss Marple visits and old schoolfriend who runs a home for delinquent boys with her third husband. A row breaks out between the husband and his assistant - but the victim is actually someone else at the other end of the house! The beginning is interesting but it becomes quite obvious who the killer was quite early in the book. Besides, there are some unnecessary deaths and you have no idea what the title means until the very end of the book.

Favourite Guest Character: Gina, of course.
Mystery: ***
Final Solution: **
Entertainment: *
6/15