45. Sparkling Cyanide (1945)

{also published as Remembered Death}

I loved this one, dear Agatha - especially the structure of it, with the first half-dozen chapters being remembrances of Rosemary (rosemary means remembrance) by different characters.  In fact, I might just go back and re-read the chapter of the murderer now that I know whodunit...

Some of my favorite passages:

Race to George:  "I don't like it, George.  These melodramatic ideas out of books don't work.  Go to the police..."

George:  "These women who have children when they're over forty never seem to learn any sense.  Spoil the brats from the cradle by giving them every damned thing they want!"

"But like most people with an idea, George thought only of that idea."

"'What about the cyanide? Was there any container found?'

     'Yes.  A small white paper packet under the table.  Traces of cyanide crystals inside.  No finger-prints on it.  In a detective story, of course, it would be some special kind of paper or folded in some special way.  I'd like to give these detective story writers a course of routine work. They'd soon learn how most things are untraceable and nobody ever notices anything anywhere!'"

"'Moral:  every murderess was a nice girl once.'"

I loved this book, Agatha.  It definitely goes into the "read it again" file... if there's ever enough time.

Love,

b.

44. Death Comes as the End (1944)

Hello, Dame Agatha ~

Funny how I was able to get 3 of your novels read in January, giving me false hope that that would set the pace for the year.  And then February came, and... suddenly we're 1/3 of the way through March.

I'll be honest - I suspected I wouldn't like this book, set as it is in ancient Egypt.  But I was wrong.  Once I finally got past the first few paragraphs and odd names, I was hooked.  Wikipedia says "it is also the first full-length novel combining historical fiction and the whodunit/detective story, a genre which would later come to be called the historical whodunit."  So yeah - *that's* kind of cool!

One of the things I admire about your writing, Agatha, is the depth of the characters you create in just 175 or so pages, all along crafting a detective story littered with clues and surprises and death along the way.  This was short - but it was absolutely filled with murder and mayhem and twists and turns along every page.  And while it was set thousands of years ago in a completely different region and culture, it just goes to show that there's nothing new under the sun.  People love, people hate, people are inclined to evil and ambition and pride... then or now.

I loved Hori and the ending of the novel... I was worried for a little bit there.  And all the people who died... whatever - except one.  Aw.  :(

I have to say, though - this isn't my favorite cover!

Thanks for the fun again, dear Agatha. 

Hungry for more,
b.