Dear Dame Agatha,
Joshua is taking a Tolkien class at UNC and so I downloaded The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings onto my Kindle to read along with him. Generally, I think I still prefer a physical book, but the size of TLOTR made me think the e-version would be easier to manage. Anyway, I finished The Hobbit last week and was scrolling through the many, many unread titles I have on my Kindle and came across this one - The Agatha Christie Book Club by CA Larmer. Figured I'd have a little fun reading before I get back to diligently working through your writings, and this one was a lot of fun. I don't remember getting it and don't have the gumption right now to go through my Amazon records to see when it was. (I am really enjoying re-discovering my Kindle again, though!)
So this book...
You know how on American Idol when the judges would always criticize people for singing covers of certain artists because there's no way, they say, it would do the original justice? They always said that for people like Celine Dion, Whitney Houston, and Alicia Keys. That was in the back of my mind when I wondered about how Larmer would handle taking this on - not that she was trying to write a Christie, per se, but I'm sure she wanted to do you justice.
In that way, I think the author did well. This is *not* Christie (in caliber or mimicry), but it was reminiscent of Christie in the twists and turns and the handling of the clues and thus I think was a nice tip-of-the hat or homage or however you want to put it... I enjoyed the plot quite a bit and at some point I think I will check out book two in the series.
It was interesting, being Australian - some of the slang was new to me.
I loved all the different Christie novels referenced - Orient Express, Blue Train, Cat Among Pigeons, Mysterious Affair at Styles...
Larmer's mention of Eleven Missing Days by CG Johnson intrigued me - I've looked it up on Amazon and find a similar title by a Jared Cade, but not Johnson (author error, artistic license, or different book?) - and I'm definitely going to be checking that out.
The one thing I could have lived without in this book was the subplot of Claire's fiance. Is that what a "modern" mystery is - including the cultural approval of homosexuality? I just felt like it didn't need to be there, regardless of what I think about homosexuality. Actually, all the references to Perry's flatmate and his quite active sex life - I could have lived without. Even the relationship of Alicia and her crush Anders was kept quite innocent and endearing. Maybe I'm a prude, I don't know; I just didn't think it contributed much at all to the main plot.
I wonder if you would have liked this book, though, Agatha? Larmer uses your real-life mystery to figure more heavily into the plot than the actual mysteries you wrote about. I wonder what you would have thought about that, particularly since you didn't speak much of your disappearance in your own autobiography. I hadn't heard much of the details that were referenced from EMD. It's interesting, anyway.
Anyway, Agatha, I'll be back to your works shortly.
Always,
Beth
Tuesday, January 30
Thursday, January 18
28. Dumb Witness (1937)
{also published as Poirot Loses a Client, Mystery at Littlegreen House, and Murder at Littlegreen House}
(I like the title Dumb Witness best.)
Dear Agatha,
Just simply a fun read.
So this is a wire haired terrier. Funny mention by Hastings of him needing to be "plucked." This is how I envision Bob, which is, by the way, a silly name for the thing. Don't you think something like Spanky or Whipper or even Sherlock would have been cuter?
But that's about all I didn't care for. Every thing else, as usual, is en pointe. I especially loved the way you captured the character of Miss Emily Arundell even though she was with us in this life for only a few chapters. I especially loved the way I could almost hear her talking and understand her agitation in the letter she wrote to Poirot.
Interesting... when the Sisters Trippe came on the scene, all I did was smirk a little at their foolishness. Had I asked myself what was the purpose of including the spiritualism in the novel at all - had I employed my own little gray cells - perhaps I, too, might have deduced the murderer.
Well, not likely. But perhaps the method? Yeah, still not likely.
Anyhoo... Thank you for the fun, Dame Agatha.
Always,
Beth
(I like the title Dumb Witness best.)
Dear Agatha,
Just simply a fun read.
So this is a wire haired terrier. Funny mention by Hastings of him needing to be "plucked." This is how I envision Bob, which is, by the way, a silly name for the thing. Don't you think something like Spanky or Whipper or even Sherlock would have been cuter?
But that's about all I didn't care for. Every thing else, as usual, is en pointe. I especially loved the way you captured the character of Miss Emily Arundell even though she was with us in this life for only a few chapters. I especially loved the way I could almost hear her talking and understand her agitation in the letter she wrote to Poirot.
Interesting... when the Sisters Trippe came on the scene, all I did was smirk a little at their foolishness. Had I asked myself what was the purpose of including the spiritualism in the novel at all - had I employed my own little gray cells - perhaps I, too, might have deduced the murderer.
Well, not likely. But perhaps the method? Yeah, still not likely.
Anyhoo... Thank you for the fun, Dame Agatha.
Always,
Beth
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