A new Poirot!

Where did August go?!?

I did lots of things (painting windows, making window shutters, sewing, writing textbooks, nothing ...) but also a lot of reading.

And of course I read Sophie Hannah's Poirot murder mystery. Since it kind of qualifies as an Agatha Christie novel, I'll rate it as usual.

84. The Monogram Murders (Poirot by Sophie Hannah)
A new Poirot novel. Yey!
However, I must be honest, I did not really enjoy it. It included way too much explaining, too many lies and too much repetition, basically just too many words. There were not enough clues for the reader and yet I guessed the murder about half way through the book. The mystery was good enough but the book should end about 100 pages earlier with a simple explanation. What I also missed were the witty one-liners by Poirot.

Oh, and the name Patrick Ive is a total miss. Everytime I saw it, I thought it was missing  an apostrophe. Annoying.

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

And the winners are ...

So, this is it. I've read all crime novels written by Agatha Christie.

I've looked and relived so many (fictional) lives, met so many (fictional) characters, loved some, hated others, some bored me and some intrigued me ... I've met some that I would really like to meet in person, some that I would most probably fall in love with them, some that I would find terribly annoying and some that I would avoid at any cost.

I've also relived the majority of the twentieth century. Starting in a Downton-Abbeyesque England, witnessed pre-, through-, and after-WWII Europe and finished in the seventies. I've travelled through Middle East and - I've learned a lot of old English nursery rhymes!

As you know, I've rated all the books. The points were given for mystery, solution, and entertainment factor. Especially the last one is not often considered when looking for the best crime novel, but I read books for fun, so fun-factor is important to me. Sorry, hard-core-serious-literature fans.

Oh, one more thing should also be said in advance (before you disagree with my ratings): my itchy feet make me love more the adventurous books and less the static psychological contemplations.

Anyway, the winners are ...

THE BEST BOOK: And Then There Were None. 
Runners-up: Murder of Roger Ackroyd, N or M?, The Seven Dials Mystery

THE BEST MYSTERY:

And Then There Were None,
The ABC Murders,
Murder of Roger Ackroyd,
Why didn't They Ask Evans?,
The Seven Dials Mystery,
N or M?

THE MOST UNPREDICTABLE SOLUTION:
And Then There Were None,
Murder on the Orient Express,
Hercule Poirot's Christmas,
The Mirror Crack'd from Side to Side,
The Pale Horse,
The Seven Dials Mystery,
The Mystery of the Blue Train,
Murder of Roger Ackroyd,
The Mysterious Affair at Styles,
Parker Pyne Investigates,
Curtain: Poirot's Last Case.

MOST FUN TO READ:
And Then There Were None,
The Secret Adversary,
N or M?,
The Secret of Chimneys,
A Caribbean Mystery,
Nemesis,
4:50 from Paddington,
The Man in the Brown Suit,
Parker Pyne Investigates,
They Came to Baghdad.

I know that some of you will not agree with me. That Orient Express should be on top of the list. But it's not. Just like Another Brick in the Wall is by far not the best song, just best known.

So, if you only read one Agatha Christie novel, read And Then There Were None, not the Orient Express.

Although I strongly suggest you read them both.

Hell, read them all!

That's it!

I finished reading Agatha Christie's novels!

Well, OK, not really, cause I still have the Mary Westmacott romances and the two autobiographies to read but they don't really count, do they? I will certainly read them in the next months but they won't be judged ...

83. The Mysterious Mr Quin
A quite unusual collection of short stories featuring the mysterious Mr. Harley Quin. He always appears just at the right moments before drama begins and helps solving the problems without actually helping... I quite liked the stories, except the last one. Unfortunately, this was the last Agatha story that I read and it's a shame I didn't like it. Oh, well ...

Memorable quotes:
-"A problem is not necessarily unsolvable because it has remained unsolved."
-"There is no atmosphere in the present."
-"Nobody knows what another person is thinking. They may imagine they do, but they are nearly always wrong."
-"Life is lived very much the same everywhere [...] It wears different clothes - that's all."
-"It makes one feel terribly old to have a grown-up daughter."
-"Daughters have a depressing effect upon one, I find." 
-"He wished the world had not become definitely so noisy." 

Favourite Guest Character: Mr Satterthwaite!
Favourite Stories: The Coming of Mr Quin and The Man from the Sea
Mystery: ***
Final Solution: ***
Entertainment: ****
10/15

A short (statistical) summary on all the books will follow shortly.

Almost there ...

82. HERCULE POIROT'S CHRISTMAS (Poirot)
Usually there's a black sheep in the family but Simeon Lee's family seems to have more black sheep than white ones! A grumpy old man who loves diamonds hopes for some 'fun' when he invites all his children to a Christmas party. With such a melange of characters, something is bound to go wrong. Will the police find the murderer or must Poirot help them identify the killer?

Memorable quotes:
-"If we seek to keep the past alive, we end, I think, by distorting it."
-"All men are wicked. The nuns say so ."
-"I do notice things. It's a habit of mine." 
-"Les femmes, they are never slow to form an opinion, Dieu merci." 

Favourite Guest Character: Pilar
Mystery: ***
Final Solution: *****
Entertainment: **
10/15


81. EVIL UNDER THE SUN (Poirot)
A great story to read in the middle of the summer: the sun, the sea, the holidays, beaches and boats... and a murder. A great classic from Agatha.

Memorable quotes:
-"There is no such thing as a really calm sea. Always, always, there is motion."
-"He was accustomed to think of The Husband in three lights only - as 'the Obstacle', 'the Inconvenience' or 'the Safeguard'."
-"Les Femmes. [...] They are capable of complicating life unbearably."  
-"Women always keep letters and then swear they've burnt them."

Favourite Guest Character: Hm. Emily Brewster
Mystery: ***
Final Solution: ****
Entertainment: ****
11/15


80. THE HOLLOW (Poirot)
What happens if you invite someone, his wife and his mistress to your home? Another mistress bursts through the doors! Not a simple situation and sometimes a little help from your friends is just not enough to fool Poirot.

Memorable quotes:
-"It was nice, she thought, to be a human being again ... and not that other thing."
-"The past  is sometimes a very good place to live."
-"How cynical it is that a wife or a husband is always the first suspect." 
-"To the scientific mind, truth comes first."

Favourite Guest Character: Lucy Angkatell
Mystery: ****
Final Solution: ***
Entertainment: ****
11/15


79. A POCKET FULL OF RYE (Marple)
 A pocket full of rye, four and twenty blackbirds, a peg, yew, cyanide, Percival and Lancelot. And another blackbird.

Memorable quotes:
-"I find one must know how to do everything oneself. Then - one need never do it."
-"You can't change people."
-"People aren't always what they think themselves to be." 

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

Approaching the end ...

78. THE MIRROR CRACK'D FROM SIDE TO SIDE (Marple)
A famous yet miserable actress, a friendly but annoying neighbour, a successful albeit deadly party and ... peace at last.

Memorable quotes:
-"After you've fallen in love with a man and married him and got used to his ways and settled down comfortably - to go and throw it all up and start again! It seems to me madness."
-"... bossy women seldom get themselves murdered. I can't think why not. When you come to think of it, it's rather a pity."
-"Children feel things, you know ... They feel things more than the people around them ever imagine. The sense of hurt, of being rejected, of not belonging." 

Favourite Guest Character: Jason Rudd, probably
Mystery: ***
Final Solution: *****
Entertainment: ***
11/15


77. THE THIRTEEN PROBLEMS (Marple)
Two groups of people challenge each other by telling mysteries - but of course only Miss Marple is able to give the correct answer. Mostly because the people everywhere are very much alike and by knowing the psychology of everyone in St. Mary Mead, she can solve just about any problem. Even the ones that haven't happened yet!

Memorable quotes:
-"... so many people seem to me not to be either bad or good, but simply, you know, very silly."
-"Everybody is very much alike, really. but fortunately, perhaps, they don't realize it."
-"I love stories about sinuous Spanish dancers. It makes me forget how old and fat I am." 
-"This is real life; and real life stops just where it chooses."
-"But there are quite a number of people who aren't stupid, and one shudders to think of what they might accomplish unless they had very strongly rooted principles."

Favourite Guest Character: Jane Helier, the actress
Favourite Stories: The Blue Geranium, The Affair at the Bungalow, The Bloodstained Pavement ...
Mystery: ***
Final Solution: ****
Entertainment: ***
10/15


76. ENDLESS NIGHT
Gypsy's Acre, poor Michael, rich Ellie, love at first sight, an eccentric architect, a wonderful house, murder, murder, murder, murder  ... A very enjoyable novel with a great narration by Michael.

Memorable quotes:
-"Two things run together, side by side. Weakness and strength. The weakness of fading vitality and the strength of frustrated power."
-"If a girl is going to have any sense at all, she'll have it at twenty-one."
-"Mothers are like that. Always inclined to be suspicious of daughters-in-law." 
-"Faces are tricky unless you can connect up when and where you'd seen them."
-"Where large sums of money are concerned it is advisable to trust nobody."

Favourite Guest Character: Michael Rogers
Mystery: ***
Final Solution: ****
Entertainment: ***
10/15

Poirot³

75. THE BIG FOUR (Poirot)
Poirot meets his Moriarty! The ultimate evil impersonated by the Big Four. Clever, rich, and fearless. Much too conspiratory for my liking, too many random deaths and too unspecific for a physicist. Besides, for most of the time we have no idea what Poirot is actually doing or thinking, we just read Hastings' rambling ideas. Oh well ...

Memorable quotes:
-"To commit a murder on a Monday is a mistake."
-"I don't think even a Russian would murder another man in order not to be beaten at chess."
-"Poirot has his virtues, but modesty is not one of them." 
-"Do you not know that all celebrated detectives have brothers who would be even more celebrated than they are were it not for constitutional indolence?"
-"Be prepared."

Favourite Guest Character: Achille Poirot!
Mystery: **
Final Solution: ****
Entertainment: ***
9/15


74. THE LABOURS OF HERCULES (Poirot)
Poirot as Parker Pyne! A great collection of Poirot stories based on the twelve labours of Hercules. It really helps if you're familiar with the Greek legend ... but Christie explains enough of the original stories to understand the similarities and inspiration.

Memorable quotes:
-"These blondes, sir, they're responsible for a lot of trouble."
-"If a man poisons his wife in order to travel to the North Pole or to enjoy the peace of a bachelor existence - it would not interest his fellow-villagers for a minute!"
-"A woman needs a lot of looking after when she's travelling."
-"A man's got a right to a little peace in his own home." 
-"The good God had never intended people to live out of tins."

Favourite Guest Character: Dr. Charles Oldfield from The Lernaean Hydra
Favourite Story: Hmmm... The Cretan Bull, probably
Mystery: ***
Final Solution: ****
Entertainment: ****
11/15


73. POIROT'S EARLY CASES (Poirot)
Another collection of short stories. Poirot finds missing jewels, a missing cook, a missing boy, and missing military plans, solves some murder cases and some mysteries... Not very exciting stories, the TV adaptations were actually better.

Memorable quotes:
-"Most of us are selfish, Mr Radnor. Not all of us admit it so freely."
-"In the autumn of a woman's life, there comes always one mad moment when she longs for romance, for adventure - before it is too late."
-"Wherever there is human nature, there is drama."
-"There are many things not called poison which can kill a man."

Favourite Guest Character: Lady Millicent aka the veiled lady.
Favourite Story: The Submarine Plans
Mystery: ***
Final Solution: ****
Entertainment: **
9/15

More Agatha Christie

72. MURDER IS EASY
An elderly lady gets killed on her way to Scotland Yard where she wanted to report just too many accidental deaths in her village. Luckily she tells Luke about it and he starts investigating the 'accidents'. Turns out that murdering is easy - as long as no one suspects you! Plenty of accidents, plenty of digging up the past and two broken engagements.

Memorable quotes:
-"But lawyers never go to law, do they? They know better."
-"Men have courage - one knows that ... but they are more easily deceived than women."
-"I don't think a museum should deal solely with the past, do you?"

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


71. ORDEAL BY INNOCENCE
Although insisting on his innocence, Jack is convicted of killing his mother as the key witness never comes forward. Jack dies in prison and surprise, surprise, two years later the key witness appears when he returns from Antarctica! The case is reopened and if Jack is innocent - it only means that someone else must have done it. Everyone in the family suspects everyone else, so  there's a lot of digging up the past, a lot of suspicion, a lot of family issues, mother-child relations and a lot of thinking. And not much else. Guessed the killer way too early to find the book interesting.

Memorable quotes:
-"One must take responsibility for one's actions and not only one's actions but for the result of one's actions."
-"The answers never are what you think they will be."
-"It must be pretty fair hell to be born a woman and to be born plain and unattractive, especially if that isn't compensated for by having any special talent or brain."
-"There is usually something in one's own children, some kink of temperament, some way of feeling that you recognise and can understand without having to put into words."
-"The truth often does sound unconvincing."

Favourite Guest Character: Phillip Durrant.
Mystery: ***
Final Solution: **
Entertainment: **
7/15


70. THE PALE HORSE
Witches and witchcraft! Black magic seems to be behind several persons dying of unrelated diseases, and yet Mark and Ginger cannot quite believe it. The trail leads them to a local pub, The Pale horse, and further to a professional that helps... people die naturally. A somewhat strange novel with an ingenious solution! According to Wikipedia, this book saved several (real) lives!

Memorable quotes:
-"Retire whilst you can still enjoy life."
-"You don't need to kill your victim. All you need do is - tell him to die."
-"But the science of tomorrow is the supernatural of today."
-"I knew what I wanted. Infinite leisure in which to contemplate the beautiful things of this world, natural and artificial."

Favourite Guest Characters: Ginger. And oddly, Mr. Bradley.
Mystery: **
Final Solution: *****
Entertainment: ***
10/15

Finally another reading post

69. MISS MARPLE'S FINAL CASES (Marple)
A very enjoyable collection of short stories that includes solving the mysteries of a man dying in a church, a buried treasure, a riding accident ... but also two additional non-Marple poltergeist stories!

Memorable quotes:
-"If at first you don't succeed, try, try, try again."
-"There's such a thing as a secret inside a secret."
-"The worst of ill health is ... that one knows what a burden one is to everyone around one."
-"Her love had died and it was I who had killed it..."

Favourite Guest Character: Charmian and Edward from Strange Jest
Favourite Story: Strange Jest
Mystery: ****
Final Solution: ***
Entertainment: ****
11/15


68. THE MYSTERY OF THE BLUE TRAIN (Poirot)
Mimosas! A rich American is travelling on the Blue Train from London to Nice with half-a-million worth of rubies. But before she reaches the Riviera, she is murdered. Surprisingly (or not), her estranged husband and his mistress are also on this train, as is Katherine who unexpectedly inherited a lot of money, and Hercule Poirot. In this story, Poirot is a cat, a dog, a squirrel and a devil. And at the end, he's only Hercule Poirot!

Memorable quotes:
-"Any letters that a lady might write to me I should hold sacred."
-"A woman should be calm and sympathetic, and a good cook."
-"You see, unless you are good at guessing, it is not much use being a detective."
-"... being tied physically gives you lots of scope mentally."

Favourite Guest Character: Katherine, but also Comte de la Roche
Mystery: ****
Final Solution: *****
Entertainment: ***
12/15  


67. BLACK COFFEE (Poirot)
A physicist discovers a powerful (nuclear) explosive and just after he realises that the formula has been stolen, his coffee tastes a bit bitter... Poirot arrives too late but can still solve the mystery in which everyone seems to have something to hide. A family drama with way too much description of static action.

Memorable quotes:
-"... the truth is never horrible, only interesting."
-"Science should be of interest to all of us."
-"One should see the world one lives in."

Favourite Guest Character: probably Sir Claud Amory
Mystery: **
Final Solution: ***
Entertainment: **
7/15

Reading Agatha Christie

66. POIROT INVESTIGATES (Poirot)
A collection of short stories that show Poirot's "day at the office": he finds a missing husband, a kidnapped prime minister, missing jewellry, a map, naval plans and bonds. But he also helps a thief and describes the only time he failed identifying the murderer.

Memorable quotes:
-"You must not underrate the force of superstition."
-"One must seek the truth within - not without."
-"To work against the law, it would be pleasing, for a change."
-"There are many things not called poison which can kill a man."

Favourite Guest Character: Violet Marsh from the Missing Will
Favourite Stories: The Case of the Missing Will, The Chocolate Box
Mystery: ***
Final Solution: ****
Entertainment: ****
11/15


65. THIRD GIRL (Poirot)
A girl - a third girl - thinks she might have committed a murder. Now Poirot has to solve it - time, place and victim unknown ... A story full of rather unrealistic coincidences, in which Ariadne is knocked unconscious and Poirot learns that he is too old. 

Memorable quotes:
-"... people are never like what you remember them. You make them, as the years go by, more and more the way you wish them to be, and as you think you remember them."
-"Mind you, boys can cause you trouble, too. But girls is more worrying, I think."
-"I might go up in the Whispering Gallery and whisper."

Favourite Guest Character: Dr. Stillingfleet
Mystery: ***
Final Solution: **
Entertainment: **
7/15


64. SPARKLING CYANIDE
Exactly one year after Rosemary dies during a dinner in hotel Luxembourg, the same group gathers at the same table. And again, one of them dies. But did the killer get the right person? The solution can be predicted by anyone who understands group theory and symmetry breaking :-)

Memorable quotes:
-"Frightening, really, how little you might know of a person after living in the same house with them!"
-"She couldn't even listen intelligently."
-"He'd never been able to suffer fools gladly - not even fools with pretty faces."
-"These women who have children when they're over forty never seem to learn any sense."

Favourite Guest Character: Anthony Browne
Mystery: ***
Final Solution: ****
Entertainment: ****
11/15

London Calling

My absence is excused.

 

  

Although I failed to see Mousetrap, I managed to find Seven dials and by pure chance crossed Harley Street.

On my way to Baker street, obviously. 

Still reading Agatha Christie

63. A CARIBBEAN MYSTERY (Miss Marple)
Miss Marple travels to the Caribbean and someone almost shows her a photo of a murderer. The next day, he's found dead and the photograph gone. But he isn't the only victim! Miss Marple uses the only weapon she has - gossip - to solve the case. Very predictable novel but at the same time a very enjoyable one.

Memorable quotes:
-"Adventures always seem to happen to other people."
-"Actually, you've got a logical mind. Very few women have."
-"Having brains, you can get most things you want without having recourse to murder. Murder is stupid."
-"One really knows so little about the people one meets when one is travelling ... one only knows, doesn't one, what they choose to tell you about themselves."
-"One should never take exception to one's children's objectionable friends. Usually they
grow out of them naturally."
-"Don't distrust all men because you've met one bad lot." 

Favourite Guest Character: Mr. Rafiel
Mystery: ****
Final Solution: **
Entertainment: *****
11/15


62. PROBLEM AT POLLENSA BAY
A collection of short stories, including:  Parker Pyne on Mallorca does what he does best, colourful tea cups solve a family mystery, a diamond disappears on a ship and a woman knows when it's time to go.

Memorable quotes:
-"No man or woman is actually himself (or herself) till after forty-five."
-"... the law's one thing, and right and wrong are quite another."
-"It isn't a dog's business to think."
-"I'm so tired of being brave."

Favourite Guest Character: Mr Quinn and his questions
Favourite Story: The Regatta Mystery
Mystery: **
Final Solution: ***
Entertainment: ***
8/15

I couldn't find a good photo of Pollenca, so Palma should do.

61. WHY DIDN'T THEY ASK EVANS?
Bobby, a son of a vicar, and Lady Frances try to solve the mystery behind a photograph, stage an accident, spy around a local sanatorium, get kidnapped, try not to get poisoned and of course answer the question who Evans was. Although part of the question lies half around the world, the final answer is much closer than anyone thinks.

Memorable quotes:
-"On principle I distrust people who have alibis."
-"It's extraordinary how men like helpless women."
-"He must have out-Houdini'd Houdini."
-"But if at first you don't succeed, try, try, try again."

Favourite Guest Character: Frances, of course.
Mystery: *****
Final Solution: ***
Entertainment: ****
12/15

Monthly dose of Christie

60. WITNESS FOR THE PROSECUTION (includes one Poirot story)
A collection of short stories with surprising endings. Apparently, this is a US collection so most of the stories appeared in other (UK) collections that I have already read. Oh, well.

Memorable quotes:
-"We go through life like a train rushing through the darkness to an unknown destination."

Favourite Guest Character: Mortimer Cleveland from S.O.S.
Favourite Stories: Witness for the Prosecution
Mystery: **
Final Solution: ****
Entertainment: ***
9/15


59. POSTERN OF FATE (Tommy & Tuppence)
T&T are getting old and they decide to buy an old house in the countryside. In that house they find a mystery message that leads to lots of gossiping, long discussions and a new murder. With the help of a bengal tiger a murder case is finally solved.

Memorable quotes:
-"People did have foreign nurses - what were called Mamoselles as well as Frowlines, whatever a Frowline is."
-"Well, I suppose when you buy an old house there's always something wrong with it."
-"When you talk about old friends, either they are dead, which surprises you enormously because you didn't think they would be, or else they're not dead and that surprises you even more."
-"I suppose without curiosity a man would be a tortoise."

Favourite Guest Character: Hmmm. Hannibal?
Mystery: **
Final Solution: *
Entertainment: **
5/15


58. THE CLOCKS (A little bit of Poirot)
A typist is called to a house only to find a dead body and several clocks all showing 4:13. Did any of the neighbours notice anything? Police loses one clock and Poirot solves the case without visiting the murder scene.

Memorable quotes:
-"... the unlikely happened more often than one would be disposed to believe."
-"Only six happy days in the year for a woman. The first and the last days of the holidays."
-"He's not dead. But I have a feeling he's bored. That's worse."

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

And Again, Agatha

57. THE MOVING FINGER (A little bit of Miss Marple)
A brother and a sister move to a quiet and almost boring English village. But suddenly the villagers start receiving anonymous hate-mail. When one recipient commits suicide, the letters have to be taken seriously. A tiny bit of Miss Marple, who, of course, helps to solve the case.

Memorable quotes:
-"There are questions that you don't ask because you're afraid of the answers to them."
-"The human mind prefers to be spoon-fed with the thoughts of others, but deprived of such nourishment it will, reluctantly, begin to think for itself ..."
-"God doesn't really need to punish us, Miss Barton. We're very busy punishing ourselves."
-"If suicide is your idea of escape from trouble then it doesn't very much matter what the trouble is."
-"How strange that a girl could trouble your inmost soul so long as she kept her mouth shut ..."

Favourite Guest Character: Mrs Dane Calthrop
Mystery: ***
Final Solution: ****
Entertainment: ***
10/15

56. DESTINATION UNKNOWN
Ian Fleming would be proud of Agatha as this is a true James Bond adventure. A proper hero(ine), a proper villain, underground laboratories, pocket gadgets, swapped identities, secret codes, radioactivity, you name it! But what are the odds - I randomly choose Agatha's books to read and end up with two so similar in a row. Anyway, Hilary travels to Morocco to say goodbye to the world. Her similarity to another English girl leads her to an unknown destination. With a known ending :-)

Memorable quotes:
-"When she no longer looked for peace, she had found it."
-"Science is for all, and must not be held jealously by one power or the other."
-"I suppose even in the desert there's nothing you can't do, given water and money - plenty of both of them."
-"Women were adaptable by nature. It was their strength and their weakness."
-"The trouble in this life is that you never really know where you're going."

Favourite Guest Character: Hilary, of course.
Mystery:***
Final Solution: ***
Entertainment: ****
10/15

In the middle of High Atlas, Morocco.

55. PASSENGER TO FRANKFURT
A diplomatic, political and even science-fictionesque novel by Agatha! It has almost no murders - just long mono- and dialogues about serious political issues. And Wagner. But I love the idea of travelling with a bandit's cloak from Corsica :-)

Memorable quotes:
-"One mustn't refuse the unusual if it is offered to one."
-"... politicians have a feeling that they have a kind of divine right to tell lies in a good cause."
-"I ask only to be amused, to live comfortably, to eat, to drink in moderation, to have friends who amuse me."
-"One gets very tired of universities. They repeat themselves so much."
-"Scientists can only think of things for destroying you."
-"We take the risks and the risks are not in what we've discovered, it's the risks of what the people we'll have to tell about it will do with what we've discovered."

Favourite Guest Character: Sir Stafford Nye
Mystery: ***
Final Solution: **
Entertainment: **
7/15

Festspielhaus in Bayreuth

Agatha's Hallowe'en and Christmas

54. THE ADVENTURE OF THE CHRISTMAS PUDDING (5xPoirot+1xMarple)
A collection of long short stories: Poirot celebrates true English Christmas and makes a fool of the kids wanting to play a fool of him; the Baghdad chest is now a Spanish chest but just as good if not better; Poirot has to deal with women's intuition, a stranger's meal and a bad dream. Miss Marple solves a case by knowing the good plants from the weeds.

Memorable quotes:
-"How lovely to be eleven years old and greedy."
-"Peverell in his old age was still the perfect butler. He noticed nothing that he was not asked to notice."
-"He liked women to be women. He liked them lush, highly coloured, exotic. ... But Miss Lemon he had never considered a woman. She was a human machine - an instrument of precision. Her efficiency was terrific. She was forty-eight years of age, and was fortunate enough to have no imagination whatever."
-"Money can quench publicity as well as flaunt it."
-"He was an extremely English-looking person. Tall, cadaverous and unemotional."
-"A young girl was a very interesting phenomenon, George. ... Especially, you understand, if she has brains."

Favourite Guest Character: Bridget
Favourite Story: The Mystery of the Spanish Chest
Mystery: **
Final Solution: ***
Entertainment: ***
8/15


53. MURDER OF ROGER ACKROYD (Poirot)
Mrs Ferrars commits suicide and a few days later the wealthy Mr Ackroyd is killed. His stepson is the obvious suspect especially after he suddenly disappears. Luckily Poirot is in the village to decide who is telling the truth and who is lying. A true masterpiece, narrated by Dr. Wats...Sheppard, that includes plenty of suspects and a superb twist at the end!

Memorable quotes:
-"Everyone has something to hide."
-"All the troubles in the world can be put down to money - or the lack of it."
-"Women observe subconsciously a thousand little details, without knowing that they are doing so. Their subconscious mind adds these little things together - and they call the result intuition."

Favourite Guest Character: Caroline Sheppard
Mystery: *****
Final Solution: *****
Entertainment: ****
14/15


52. HALLOWE'EN PARTY (Poirot)
A girl, who claims to have seen a murder without knowing what it was at that time, is drowned in an apple-bobbing tub. Plenty of kids around, plenty of digging up the past, plenty of digging in an old quarry garden and a lie that was actually the truth in form of a lie ;-)

Memorable quotes:
-"Some children I consider are most unattractive."
-"The past is the father of the present."
-"In my experience the things that children do not tell their mothers are quite numerous."

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

Agatha, again

51. PARTNERS IN CRIME (Tommy & Tuppence)
Tommy and Tuppence read mystery novels and play detectives! Unfortunately I don't know most of the detectives they impersonate, but the whole thing is fun to read anyway. Interesting short stories with clever endings, what else!

Memorable quotes:
-"I was brought up to believe that men - especially husbands - were dissipated beings, fond of drinking and dancing and staying up late at night. It took an exceptionally beautiful and clever wife to keep them at home. Another illusion gone! All the wives I know are hankering to go out and dance, and weeping because their husbands will wear bedroom slippers and go to bed at half past nine."
-"'If you must be Sherlock Holmes,' she observed,"I'll get you a nice little syringe and a bottle labelled Cocaine, but for God's sake leave that violin alone."
-"If you disperse energy in speech, it doesn't leave you too much over for action."
-"It is a great advantage to be intelligent and not to look it."

Favourite Guest Character: Una Drake from The Unbreakable Alibi
Favourite Episode: The Man in the Mist. And The Case of the Missing Lady is funny.
Mystery: **
Final Solution: ****
Entertainment: ****
10/15


50. APPOINTMENT WITH DEATH (Poirot)
An American family with a tyrant mother visits Petra in Jordan. While everyone frowns upon her behaviour, everyone also agrees that something needs to be done. For someone, it needs to be done before it is too late!

A great book but the latest film adaptation is a huge disappointment. Why change the plot? And the motive? And the murder weapon? even the murderer? Also the setting? I was so hoping to see Petra again, but got Syria (or, as a matter of fact, Morocco) instead.

Memorable quotes:
-"To have too much power is bad for women."
-"And I'd very much like to have a look at the Rose Red City of Petra, a most remarkable natural phenomenon, I believe that is, and right off the beaten track..."
-"If anything is to be accomplished, mark my words, it is women who will do it."
-"The illusion that freedom is the prerogative of one's own particular race is fairly widespread."
-"Women do not look their best in the desert."

Favourite Guest Characters: Sarah King, dr. Gerard, and Nadine Boynton
Mystery: ****
Final Solution: ***
Entertainment: ****
11/15


49. DEATH IN THE CLOUDS (Mr. Air Kule Prott)
A plot somewhat similar to the Orient Express - but this time it's in the air! Poirot is one of the passengers on an air-liner, together with some pleasant and some not so pleasant passengers. And a wasp. As an old lady is killed, it's time to dig up the past to find a motive.

Memorable quotes:
-"Oh, my dear friend, when a girl is nervous it usually means a young man - not crime."
-"Nothing can be so misleading as observation."
-"Mon cher, practically speaking, I know everything."
-"Stupid, to read the same thing over and over again.... As though the words might alter their meaning."

Favourite Guest Character: Jean Dupont
Mystery: ****
Final Solution: ****
Entertainment: ***
11/15

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

A title and a plot

45. THE LISTERDALE MYSTERY
Another collection of short stories by Agatha. Stories that include murder, theft, fraud, kidnap, good deed and even James Bond. Yes, James Bond. He does not drive an Austin Martin or drink Martinis, but there he is. The stories are very versatile but they have one thing in common: surprising ending.

Memorable quotes:
-"Just like one of those books that keep you up all night. The heroine always says „I can't explain“ in the first chapter. She explains in the last, of course, and there's never any real reason why she shouldn't have done so in the beginning – except that it would spoil the story."
-"...I'm intelligent and good-looking and well educated. What more does anyone want?"
-"That was the worst of taking girls out, They always wanted everything they saw."
-"The two essentials for a story were a title and a plot - the rest was mere spade-work..."

Favourite Guest Character: Sir Edward Palliser
Favourite Stories: Philomel Cottage and Mr Eastwood's Adventure
Mystery: **
Final Solution: ****
Entertainment: ***
9/15


44. THE MYSTERIOUS AFFAIR AT STYLES (Poirot)
A perfect start to a perfect carrier! Agatha's first published novel in which Hercule Poirot, Hastings and Japp are introduced. Hastings is invited to Styles by his friend John, who would inherit the country manor if his stepmom hadn't married a much younger and suspicious looking chap. One night, she is found dead behind locked doors and it seems that all the leads point to one person. Or do they? Maybe... Luckily Poirot is there to solve the mystery.

Memorable quotes:
-"Never trust a man, Dorcas, they're not worth it!"
-"Two is enough for a secret."
-"With precision of the fingers goes precision of the brain."
-"A man in love is a sorry spectacle."
-"We may hunt together again, who knows?"

Favourite Guest Character: Hm. Cynthia
Mystery: ****
Final Solution: *****
Entertainment: ***
12/15


43. CAT AMONG THE PIGEONS (a bit of Poirot)
A good looking gardener in a School for girls! A prince with jewels from the Middle East. A body in the new Sports Pavilion. A very effective headmistress. And a little bit of Poirot.

Memorable quotes:
-"To know when to go - that was one of the great necessities of life."
-"The awful thing is that one can't go by other people's experience, can one?"
-"Miss Bulstrode had another faculty which demonstrated her superiority over most other women. She could listen."
-"Life would be very dull if we agreed with each other on every subject."
-"A certain amount of tradition is good but never too much."

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

Nothing's too late

42. WHILE THE LIGHT LASTS
A collection of early short stories, including her first one. Some romance, some mystery and a real treasure hunt on the Isle of Man. You can tell that she was not yet her real self but was getting there...

Memorable quotes:
-"It is useful to know the rules - if only to break them."
-"'Do you believe in dreams?'-'I believe in nightmares.'"
-"'Nothing's too late - ever', said the little lady, with the vehement earnestness of the very young."
-"Babies, whatever their mothers may think, do not always photograph well."
-"It is very necessary for a woman to lie, it is a good weapon."

Favourite Guest Character: Olga Stormer
Favourite Stories: The Mystery of the Baghdad Chest, Manx Gold
Mystery: *
Final Solution: **
Entertainment/Interestingness: ****
7/15


41. SPIDER'S WEB (a play)
A master of playing tricks finds herself in a pretty tricky situation. A bunch of friends help hiding a body without knowing who they're really helping. Secret drawers, secret passages, secret messages and a deal too good to be true.

Memorable quotes:
-"Nobody ever believes me when I'm speaking the truth."

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


40. THE MAN IN THE BROWN SUIT
Anne witnesses an accident but something that was left just wasn't right. Her sense of smell brings her to an empty house and the sense for adventure brings her to South Africa. The story has it all: action, drama, comedy, mystery, romance, diamonds, remote islands and very enjoyable characters!

Memorable quotes:
-"It is really a very hard life. Men will not be nice to you if you are not good-looking, and women will not be nice to you if you are."
-"My object in life is to be thoroughly comfortable."
-"He had false teeth that clicked when he ate. Many men have been hated for less."
-"And all women, without in the least meaning it, consider every man they meet as a possible husband for themselves or their best friend."
-"Aqua calda certainly ought to be cold water - not hot."
-"A man who has shot lions in large quantities has an unfair advantage over other men."

Favourite Guest Characters: Anne, Suzanne, and Pagget are good but Sir Eustace Pedler is probably the funniest creature Agatha ever invented! Love him.
Mystery: ****
Final Solution: ****
Entertainment: *****
13/15

Healthy neglect

39. DUMB WITNESS/POIROT LOSES A CLIENT (Poirot)
A will is written and later changed. A letter is received and a letter written. A client is lost but a dog is gained. Poirot discusses psychology of a dog but it is the psychology of the killer that solves the case.

Memorable quotes:
-"Well, what I say is, it's lucky when you're pleased with what the Lord has given you. It's usually the other way about."
-"... I prefer the life of the innocent to the conviction of the guilty."
-"It's a matter of reasoning," said Poirot. "The dog, he argues from reason. He is intelligent; he makes his deductions according to his point of view. There are people who may enter a house and there are people who may not - that a dog soon learns. Eh bien, I who is the person who most persistently tries to gain admission, rattling on the door twice or three times a day - and who is never by any chance admitted? The postman. Clearly, then, an undesirable guest from the point of view of the master of the house. He is always sent about his business, but he persistently returns and tries again. Then a dog's duty is clear, to aid in driving this undesirable man away, and to bite him if possible. A most reasonable proceeding."

Favourite Guest Character: Bob!
Mystery: **
Final Solution: ***
Entertainment: ***
8/15

38. FIVE LITTLE PIGS (Poirot)
Fourteen years after Mrs. Crale has been convicted, her daughter asks Poirot to investigate her father's death, a famous painter who died of poisoning. He hears five different stories, meets five witnesses, reads five narratives, learns that every little word counts and that one should discuss private things in private.

Memorable quotes:
-"Youth is so vulnerable. It is so ruthless - so sure. So generous and so demanding."
-"Trees grow faster than one thinks."
-"The best thing for a child, I am convinced, is to have what I should term healthy neglect on the part of both its parents."
-"The people who do us most harm are the people who shield us from reality."

Favourite Guest Character: Mrs. Crale
Mystery: **
Final Solution: ****
Entertainment: ***
9/15

37. MURDER ON THE LINKS (Poirot)
Things go wrong for Poirot. Things go wrong for the victim. Things go wrong for the victim's wife. Things go wrong for a stranger. Things go wrong for pretty much anyone involved. Except for Hastings who finds the love of his life.

Memorable quotes:
-"A woman, I consider, should be womanly."
-"Man is an unoriginal animal."
-"Poirot's incurable habit of making a mystery out of nothing never failed to irritate me."
-"For whom will a woman lie? Sometimes for herself, usually for the man she loves, always for her children. "

Favourite Guest Characters: Jack Renauld, Mr. Stonor
Mystery: ***
Final Solution: ***
Entertainment: **
8/15

Are you happy? If not, read Agatha Christie.

36. AND THEN THERE WERE NONE
Ten people are invited to an island off the coast of Devon by a certain U. N. Owen. They soon learn they have more in common than they think: they have all been previously somehow involved in deaths of other people. But now - so it seems - it's their turn! One after another they are being murdered following a nursery rhyme. Will they be able to identify and stop the killer before he/she gets them all? A true masterpiece so no wonder this is Agatha's best selling book.

Memorable quotes:
-"Be sure thy sin will find thee out."
-"It's only a question of time."
-"He was not afraid of danger in the open, only of danger undefined and tinged with the supernatural."
-"That's peace - real peace. To come to the end."

Favourite Guest Character: Mr. Blore
Mystery: *****
Final Solution: *****
Entertainment: ***** (in its own way)
15/15


35. PARKER PYNE INVESTIGATES
"Are you happy? If not, consult Mr. Parker Pyne". A bunch of people respond to this advertisement and their stories - albeit a tad predictable - are fun to read. I want an ad like this to appear in my local paper!

Memorable quotes:
-"I am a specialist in every kind of human trouble."
-"Happiness is just as important as bodily health."
-"It is a fundamental axiom of married life that you must lie to a woman. She likes it."
-"His hostess had acquired the Oriental habit of infinite leisure."

Favourite Guest Character: Why, Parker Pyne, of course!
Favourite Story: The Case of the Distressed Lady
Mystery: ***
Final Solution: *****
Entertainment: *****
13/15


34. LORD EDGWARE DIES (Poirot)
A very famous actress asks Poirot to help her get rid of her husband. And the next day the husband is found dead... Poirot realizes that if you're good at something, well, you're good at it all the time. And he also learns that telling Paris from Paris can cost you your life!

Memorable quotes:
-"When planning a murder never depend upon a woman doing what she says she'll do."
-"No human being should learn from another. Each individual should develop his own powers to the uttermost, not try to imitate those of someone else."
-"Girls ought to have men friends. If not there's something wrong about them."
-"Sons never want to marry the girls their mothers want them to marry."

Favourite Guest Character: Hm. Donald Ross?
Mystery: ****
Final Solution: ****
Entertainment: **
10/15