34. And Then There Were None (1939)

{also published as Ten Little Indians}

First book I've read in one sitting in... years.

This.

Dear Agatha, I have always thought that The Murder of Roger Ackroyd was my favorite Christie.  Murder on the Orient Express is up, there, too.  But this... this book is different from any of the others I've read.

I'd almost classify it as horror or suspense rather than detective fiction.  Yes, there is a mystery to solve -- who exactly is U. N. Owen? - but it is solved in the context of ten people fighting for their lives.  That definitely brings a horror / suspense element to the normally cerebral cozy mystery that we are so used to from you.

Roger Ackroyd was written early on and certainly established your position as Queen of Deception, but the novels that followed were often formulaic (no criticism intended as I still can never guess the culprit!).  Then, somehow, you manage to do something so creative, so extraordinary with And Then There Were None - in the middle of it all.  It blows my mind simply that you published something like 5 novels in 1938 and 1939 - that alone is a feat of workmanship to be admired - but to come out with ATTWN in the middle? Astounding.

What else can I say?

I love that the mystery is not solved with the final chapter.  Or what you think is the solution is found not to be the solution in the epilogue.  It isn't until the final pages of the novel in one character's confession that everything is wrapped up neatly.  (If it weren't for that confession, we would have no solution!  What if...?)  Even structurally this book transcends norms.

Tonight we get to go see the stage version of the story.  I can't imagine how this will translate into a live production.  And I can't wait!

33. Easy to Kill (1939)

{also published as Murder is Easy}

(I like the American title of Easy to Kill better, dear Agatha.)

I *loved* this book.

It was really outrageous and shocking and twisty and fun.

And while you know I adore Hercule Poirot, it was certainly a nice break from his order and method - in favor of a new sleuth in town (a not very successful one, in the end, mind you) and the lovely heroine (who, as she said, would not die - although it was close!). 

A serial killer with no apparent pattern, no apparent links among the victims... Red herrings and twists and mentions of detective fiction and books and... what is not to love about this book?

And no typos, unlike the previous read. (Forgot to mention that, did I? It *annoys* the heck out of me, Agatha!)

Love!

me

PS:  Oh yeah - I started this book with the British edition on my Kindle.  (1) The title changed - not unusual - but (2) the British version has chapter titles while the American version does not.  Odd.  And (3) one of the main characters' name was changed from Pinkerton to Fullerton.  Hmmm...

PPS:  And... on my cover there is a picture of... someone.  Who?  Not sure, really.  It could be the creeper Ellsworthy (who made me think of Mr. Gold of Once Upon a Time) I guess.  Or maybe Miss Waynflete?  I don't know.  But I *love* the cover art that came up on my Goodreads post.

32. A Holiday for Murder (1939)

{also published as Murder for Christmas}

Dear Agatha,

What if Mrs. Boynton from Appointment with Death had hooked up with Simeon Lee from this book?  Holy cow - talk about dysfunctional families led by a sadistic figure.  This book actually felt very similar to AWD - hated head of the family dies, every member benefits, every family member a potential suspect.  Yet this one went a step further with another common theme of yours - people aren't who they say they are.

It wasn't until a chapter or two in that I realized I'd read this before - and what it was that made me remember was Lydia tending one of her creative garden landscapes.  I am blessed (or cursed, depending on the scenario) with a very bad memory, but it is a blessing when rereading books because I still didn't know the ending, the culprit, or anything!  But yeah - it was part of an anthology I'd picked up a few years ago called Murder for Christmas.

Anyway, dear friend (I would so like to consider you a friend, if I may), thanks again for the fun.  I love to hang out with you and hear your stories.

Always,
Beth

31. Appointment with Death (1938)

Ah, Dame Agatha ~

This novel felt so different to me, at least in the first half.  You really spent that half of the novel in a psychological work-up of the victim that I did find fascinating.  Like Ratchett in Murder on the Orient Express, the "victim" was a despicable human being who, by most accounts deserved to die (although I agree with Poirot - that the despicableness of the person does not warrant our playing God and Judge on their life).

That first half - the psychological study, so to speak, of the Boynton family - is one of the three things I loved about this book.  To be more exact, I'm not really referring to the story so much as the devices I guess.

I love, dear Agatha, when you reference your other works / Poirot's other cases.  Maybe that's not something exclusive to you, but it reinforces this fictitious world as being ... well ... real.  It's like your characters believe (and it makes me grin every time) that *they* are the real world and not fictitious at all.  

Colonel Carbury:  "We might have known he'd be out of it. Being, as in detective stories, the most likely person..." 

   "You read the detective stories, yes?"

   "'Thousands of them,' said Colonel Carbury.  He added, and his tone was that of a wistful schoolboy: "I suppose you couldn't do the things the detective does in books? Write a list of significant facts - things that don't seem to mean anything but are really frightfully important - that sort of thing?"

"Ah, said Poirot kindly. "You like that kind of detective story? But certainly, I will do it for you with pleasure."

I like *that* kind of detective story, too.  * wink *  Also:

"Your position certainly seems impeccable," said Poirot with gravity. "In a work of fiction you would strongly be suspected on that account."

I love your sense of humor, Agatha. Those references to the detective stories make me chuckle, and the references to other cases - the ABC murders, the Orient Express, and Shiatana from Cards on the Table... I just love it.

I'm trying to read these few Christies quickly as I'm seeing And Then There Were None on stage in 9 days and I'm nearly to that book.  I *really* want to read it beforehand and in order.  I've only ever played the video game!  That said, time to get moving on the next...

30. Murder in the Mews (1937)

{also published as Dead Man's Mirror}

(I wonder how it is chosen which short story or novella after which the collection will be named.)

So, dear Agatha, guess what?!

A local theater here is doing And Then There Were None at the end of April.  I am honestly just as excited about seeing it as I am about seeing P!nk in May!  Robert and I are going with Joshua, his girlfriend Nyx, and Christianne.  We just got the tickets last week.

And then I looked at my reading plan and saw that ATTWN is only about 5 books out!  If I book it (haha, pun intended), then I can have it read before we see the play.  Apparently I've not read it!  Even Josh has read it, for some reason.  I have played the PC game, though!

The only dilemma is that I'd just begun Lord of the Rings (to read "with" Josh, although he's way ahead of me), and I have 3 "optional" books to read before the conference I'm attending in mid-April, less than a month away.  Oh yeah, and it's tax season.  And the house is falling apart.  And I could really use one of those nurse/nanny types that you always had to help with your ONE child (remember I have FOUR)... but I digress.

Enjoyed every one of these 4 shorts and I couldn't even pick a favorite.  Learned a few new words along the way - mews (wasn't what a I thought it was), gasper, saloon car, baronet, and more.  I enjoyed seeing familiar friends - Sattherthwaite and Japp.  And I loved that the twisted endings - probably "Triangle at Rhodes" caught me most.

Thank you again, Dame Agatha.

Love,
me

29. Death on the Nile (1937)

This could also be titled The Love Boat, or maybe even What Happens on the Karnak Stays on the Karnak.  Yes, I'm chuckling to myself.

*spoiler alert*

At the end of this book, a number of family secrets and "lesser" crimes are hushed up ("Race sighed. 'That's all right,' he said. 'This is the Hush Hush House.'"), four people are engaged to be married, and five people are dead.  You've got to admit, it has all the makings of a Hollywood movie.  Oh, and looky there - they *are* making a new one to debut in November 2019, following the success of last year's Murder on the Orient Express.

(Actually, as I searched Google for the details on the new movie, I was surprised to find that the 1978 movie version has Angela Lansbury in it!  How I love Angela - another Dame, if I'm not mistaken!  I will have to find this version soon and give it a watch!)

One disappointment in this read - and it had nothing to do with the novel itself.  I was searching my friend Google again to understand a phrase, and my eyes inadvertently traveled to a paragraph revealing the culprit of the story.  I was bummed to know this up front as I was only about 1/3 of the way through the book.  Still... it was fun to see how it turned out, as the solution seemed impossible.

I was talking to Joshua just yesterday I believe about how at times some of your personal experiences and ideas come through in your story.  I talked about how you seemed to admire, if not share, Max's love for archeology and how that was sometimes a backdrop in your stories.  In this one, archeology has nothing to do with the story, and yet it does drop in, with this beautiful description by Poirot of the methodology of solving a mystery:

"Once I went professionally to an archaeological expedition - and I learnt something there.  In the course of an excavation, when something comes up out of the ground, everything is cleared away very carefully all around it. You take away the loose earth, and you scrape it here and there with a knife until finally your object is there, all alone, ready to be drawn and photographed with no extraneous matter confusing it.  That is what I have been seeking to do - clear away the extraneous matter so that we can see the truth - the naked shining truth."

One final comment - this may have been obvious, but I only just realized in this novel what a foil Colonel Race is to Captain Hastings.

Thanks again for the ride, Dame Agatha.  Always a pleasure.

The Agatha Christie Book Club (CA Larmer)

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