22. Parker Pyne Investigates (1934)

{also published as Mr. Parker Pyne, Detective}

"The Case of the Middle-Aged Wife" - This, the first short story of the detective Parker Pyne... Agatha, while I could appreciate very much his character and his knowledge based on a life of statistics, I did not find his solution for this woman's happiness to be very agreeable.  While it was a happy ending, I found myself disliking Parker Pyne very much, and not really looking forward to reading more.

"The Case of the Discontented Soldier," ...on the other hand, was pretty great.  Still Pyne functions with deceit, but this was a happy ending bringing two lonesome people together for a happily ever after.  The fact that they didn't even connect the dots made me smile.  Also! -- this is the first appearance of Ariadne Oliver -- and I even caught it myself!

I loved "The Case of the Distressed Lady"!  Turned the tables on the bad guy - oh, justice!

But "The Case of the Discontented Husband" was much like "The Middle Aged Wife" - too much - except for the ending.  It surprised me that you said in the introduction that this was one of your two favorites in the tome... maybe -- because of that ending.  I'll admit, I liked it.

"The Case of the City Clerk" was fun, and I was glad that I really enjoyed "The Case of the Rich Woman" since you listed it as well as one of your favorites.  That said... I'm still not sure how I feel about Parker Pyne! He even says his occupation is "the confidence trick" in "The Gate of Baghdad"...

I took exception to Pyne's words in "Have You Got Everything You Want?" - "What is truth?" he says, reminding me of Pontius Pilate!  "...It is a fundamental axiom of married life that you must lie to a woman.  She likes it!"  Really?  That story for me was just okay.

Back to "Baghdad"...  Hmmm... This was the most detective-ish story I've read so far (maybe also "HYGEYW") - and I admired Pyne's powers of observation in solving the murder *as well as* solving the case of a worldwide thief.  It also inspired me to some research on these lines of Flecker and the "four great gates of the city of Damascus" - a poem which must have meant something to you as it seems this is where you got the title for Postern of Fate.  (I can't say I fully understand the poem, but I am planning to look at it more at a later time.)  The only flaw in this work is the racial stereotypes and epithets.  But really, I enjoyed this story quite a bit.

The best part of "The House at Shiraz" was the humor - especially this gem when Pyne has trouble understanding the language of customs officials:

"What have I said?" he asked of the German.
"That your father's Christian name is Tourist, that your profession is Charles, that the maiden name of your mother is Baghdad, and that you have come from Harriet."

"The Pearl of Price" - twisty and ironic.  But my favorite part is this one sentence describing Petra:  "The 'rose-red' city was indeed a freak invented by Nature in her most extravagant and colorful mood."  That could certainly be said of the colorful rock formations we pass as we drive through Colorado and Utah.  (Hey, also... I didn't know the term no-see-ums went as far back as the 30s!)

Enjoyed "Death on the Nile."  Wondering if it has anything to do with the novel of the same name.  And the final story, "The Oracle at Delphi" - such fun.  You are definitely a master of the twist!

This collection of short stories, dear Agatha, I think is my favorite short story collection so far.  I even began to like Parker Pyne, at least somewhat, by the end.

... And October 2017 now marks the month in which I've read the most Christie - 5 books!

Good night, dear Agatha.  Thanks for the fun.

b.

21. Why Didn't They Ask Evans? (1934)

{also published as The Boomerang Clue}

Ah, dear Agatha,

I loved loved loved this book!  Frankie and Bobby reminded me a little bit of Tommy and Tuppence.  I loved their friendship, their banter, the wise(r?) female half, their wit, their perseverance, their bravery, their smarts.

From the very first chapter, this book had me hooked. "Why didn't they ask Evans?" the dying man asked.  Indeed, why not?  And who the heck is Evans?  And what difference does it make?  Ah, so many questions from the get-go.  AND... when the mystery begins to unravel, they have a chance to find out who Evans is, and the bad guy denies them the solution!  HA!

Chapter 2 talked much of the relationship of Bobby and his father - pure brilliance.  I loved every word.

Such suspense at the Grange in the evening of chapter 15!  Honestly usually I'd say your stories are more cozy than suspenseful, but you really had me entirely drawn in with that chapter.

The only thing that really dates this novel is the use of terms such as "dope gang."  It did make me chuckle, I have to admit.

{I don't however, understand the meaning of the American title, The Boomerang Clue...}

Thanks again for the wonderful fun!

b.

15. Peril at End House (1932)

Dear Agatha,

HOW DID I MISS THIS?  Now my well-ordered Poirot-would-surely-approve system of chronologically reading all your works is completely messed up!  I am so disappointed in myself.

And not only did I miss this book... it took me 5 other books to realize it.  UGH.

This was a quick read for me.  I am in the Agatha Zone, I suppose. I am kind of challenging myself to see how many more I can read before the end of the year, because at the rate I'm reading, it will take me like 6 or 7 years to finish them!  At this stage of my life, I'm not guaranteed that long.  HA.

Once again, I did not see the culprit coming.  I commented to Josh and Ro yesterday, that out of the 20-something books I've read of yours, I've never figured out the murderer that I can recall.  If this continues through the rest of the next 60-something books, it will either testify to your genius, or my idiocy. 

Not that my idiocy is hard to imagine, Agatha.  Robert and I worked on an escape room yesterday with some friends.  We had an hour to spend solving puzzles in a couple of rooms in hopes of finding a pirate's hidden treasure map.  Yeah, we failed.  We weren't even close.  And my contribution?  I did put one thing together that worked out, surprising (I felt) the team.  The rest of the time, I felt like an idiot.  (To be fair, the greatest difficulty was in working under a time limit.  I'm sure if we'd had half a day instead of one hour, we might have ... gotten farther along.)

Anyway, what I loved about this book:  references to other past works (Blue Train, Roger Ackroyd), Poirot (how I love his character!), the ultimate culprit (gasp!), subtle humor and snark here and there... so much fun.

"Poirot," I said, "I have been thinking."
"An admirable exercise my friend. Continue it."

Methinks, Agatha, we would have been friends.  Thanks for the fun.

b.

20. The Listerdale Mystery (1934)

Dear Agatha,

I honestly didn't expect too much out of this collection after reading Hound of Death.  I had just chalked it up to preference for your novels over your short stories - but I LOVED this book!

Of the 12 stories, all were decent, but of course some better than others. 

"The Listerdale Mystery" was unsurprising.  Although, I am surprised it became the title for the collection.  "Philomel Cottage" was great - I loved the heroine, her intelligence, and the twist.  It seemed like it was a 1934 version of Forensic Files.  "The Girl in the Train" was silly - not my fave.  I liked "Sing a Song of Sixpence," though I never would have figured out that mystery. (But then again, what mystery do I ever figure out?*) 

My favorite in the collection, though, was probably "The Manhood of Edward Robinson."  It had a little bit of Walter Mitty (written later) feel to it, and it wasn't even a mystery, but I loved it and thought it was fun.  So fun, that if I were teaching a freshman English lit class, I would love to include it for analysis.

I also loved "Accident"!  Great, unexpected ending.  

The story of "Jane in Search of a Job" didn't do very much for me, but I still greatly enjoyed your writing, especially this little gem:

"In moderation Jane did not object to crime.  The papers had been full lately of the exploits of various girl bandits. Jane had seriously thought of becoming one if all else failed."  

In moderation!  HA!

"A Fruitful Sunday" was just all right.  "Mr Eastwood's Adventure" was odd.  Really? A cucumber?  "The Golden Ball" equally odd.  But then comes "The Rajah's Emerald."  This was wonderful!  I loved the conundrum that poor James was in upon finding the stolen emerald.  Indeed, what would I do?  (Another teaching idea for a future class writing prompt?)  And justice in the end with his snobby girlfriend.  Great read.

And then, dear Agatha, you closed out with "Swan Song."  This story was so perfectly written that it might indeed vie for my favorite slot after all.  I looked up the opera La Tosca - one doesn't need to know it to follow the plot, but the background information did make the plot that much more rich.  It was really wonderful.

One complaint:  starting at about the last three stories, typo errors abound! In one of them, the wrong name is even used!  This really drives me batty.  Books are not cheap - and that's what editors are for.  Sheesh!  <end rant>

*This Sunday Robert and I are going with the Hoovers to an escape room!  I've never done one before and I am completely intimidated by the fact that I can't solve any of your mysteries and I'm only an average logic puzzle solver at best.  I will do my best to employ my little grey cells, but Agatha, I feel like I'm going to be the dumbest of the bunch!

Also, the other day I was reviewing the list of your works to see what is coming up next and I was HORRIFIED to realize that I'd missed one!   I'm glad I did not find the error when I was like on book 75, but still.  I will have to go back and renumber my posts.  I began reading it last night - Peril at End House.  Now they will be out of order.  :(  Sad, sad day.

That is all, Agatha.  Hungry for more ~

b.

PS:  The cover of my edition is beautiful, and I loved that I was headed to Las Vegas with it in hand.  That said, none of the stories were about dice, or gambling, or... I guess there were 12 stories, but, uh... Ah well.  It looks cool. 

PPS:  I learned about ostrich digestion because of this book!

19. Murder on the Orient Express (1934)

{Also published under the title Murder in the Calais Coach}

Dear Agatha ~

This is the second time I've read Orient Express - the first, according to Goodreads, in 2013.  I think this time I was able to keep track of all the characters better than the first time, and I enjoyed it more.

Great timing, this next book on my chrono list.  A movie is coming out in a few weeks of this, so my book club agreed to read it together.  Two of the girls had never read you before; one had only read And Then There Were None.  I'm not sure Rene enjoyed it, but Alex and Leslie seemed to.  I recommended Roger Ackroyd to them if they want to read more.

Alex and I want to get together and watch the older movie version with Lauren Bacall.  I'm looking forward to that and to the new one which has Johnny Depp, Michelle Pfeiffer, and a bunch of others.  I'll let you know what I think.

Josh is taking a detectives in lit class at UNC and they recently read Ackroyd.  He loved it.  He is going to read this one next and hopefully we'll go see the movie together.

It's early October.  I was thinking I should get 4 more Christies read by the end of the year.  I've read 8 novels and finished your autobiography in 2017.  But even at reading one of your books each month, it would take like over 6 YEARS to read them all!  I've got to step it up in 2018.  Two a month.  At least.  Holy cow - you put out a lot of work, Agatha!