63. Ordeal by Innocence (1958)

 Dear Agatha,

Apparently I read this 8 years ago this month for the reading circle I joined for about... 2 books.  I think I enjoyed it more the first time, to be honest, although I still loved this read.  It just felt repetitious in spots to me this time.

Being an adoptive parent (I wasn't in 2013 and it wasn't even remotely something I had considered), this struck me:

It was an article of faith with her (Rachel Argyle) that the blood tie didn't matter.  But the blood tie does matter, you know.  There is usually something in one's own children, some kink of temperament, some way of feeling that you recognize and can understand without having to put into words.  You haven't got that tie with children you adopt. One has no instinctive knowledge of what goes on in their minds. You judge them, of course, by yourself, by your own thoughts and feelings, but it's wise to recognize that those thoughts and feelings may be very widely divergent from theirs. -- Leo Argyle

Food for thought, anyway.

Again, a wild and inventive plot, wonderful characters, a twisty road, and great fun.

Always,

b.

62. What Mrs. McGillicuddy Saw! (1957)

 {also published as 4.50 from Paddington}

Dear Agatha,

You know, oftentimes when you read a lot of books, a lot of plots seem to get recycled.  "There is nothing new under the sun," Solomon said, and a lot of times it feels like the story you are reading you have read a hundred times before, and many of those times the author is unapologetic about it.  Nevertheless, I have never read any plot before like these two books I read this week.  This is amazing, Agatha.

One of the many things you do well, Agatha, is create likable, strong female characters.  Miss Marple, honestly, is not one of my favorites, but she didn't annoy me in this book, and I loved Lucy Eyelesbarrow.  Even old Mrs. McGillicuddy was pretty cute.

On another note, someone on Goodreads posted this in their review and it made me laugh out loud:

I always forget about that brief section in 4:50 from Paddington that feels like the beginning of the dreaded story problem: “if two trains are traveling…”

On a practical note, zero stars for the publisher of the edition I got, Pocket Books by Simon & Schuster.  There were numerous typos - once they called our Jane Miss MarBle! - and there were about half a dozen pages which were folded and bound in that way... strange and annoying!

I have missed you!

b.