I thoroughly enjoyed Mrs. McGinty's Dead. This time around Superintendent Spence brings Poirot a case. A man has been convicted of Mrs. McGinty's murder based on Spence's investigations, but Spence is convince the man is not guilty. Poirot heads to the small town of Broadhinny to investigate. He stays in a poorly run guest house, which leads to several entertaining moments. We know how much Poirot loves comfort and good food, neither of which he gets here. Ariadne Oliver is also in town, working with a young playwright to adapt one of her books for the stage. Ariadne just makes me smile. She's the opposite of Poirot and yet they get along well. I love how Ariadne talks about her fictional detective, giving us a bit of insight into how Christie feels about Poirot.
The plot was put together well, of course. The killer has to be one of the village residents, but Mrs. McGinty herself is rather uninteresting. Poirot,...
Our story opens with Mrs. Dolly Bantry being woken up by a maid and told there's a dead body in the library. She, in turn, wakes her husband, Colonel Arthur Bantry, who takes a bit of convincing before he will go down and check for himself. Sure enough, there's a dead girl in the library, a stranger wearing a rather cheap dancing dress. Mrs. Bantry immediately calls Ms. Marple and states if there has to be a murder in her house, she intends to enjoy it. The two women end up heading to a nearby hotel, where one of the staff has disappeared.
I enjoy Miss Marple. She's so observant and maybe a bit cynical. She allows people who don't know her well, to believe she's just a harmless, quiet older village lady when she is really quite shrewd and intelligent. She sees everything and bides her time, asking seemingly innocent questions and making seemingly absurd comparisons until she has...
The Sittaford Mystery is a stand alone that doesn't feature and of Christie's usual characters. The book starts off with a party held in a stately manor in the middle of nowhere during a snow storm. The guests are an interesting mix and they decide to try table-turning, a way of contacting the spirits based on the movements of the table they are all sitting around. The table soon announces that the owner of the house, Captain Trevelyan, who is not present, has been murdered. Everyone assumes it is a joke in very bad taste, but Trevelyan's friend, Major Burnaby, decides he need to walk six miles in the snow to the house Trevelyan is renting, to check on him. Trevelyan has, of course, been murdered.
We get a nice mix of amateur and official investigation here. Our amateur sleuth is Emily Trefusis, the fiancée of the man being held for the murder. She is determined and clever. She teams...
I thought a Christmas romance would be a fun read for December. This one was like a paperback version of a Hallmark movie with a bit more spice. It was good enough, but I'm not much of a romance reader and found it dragged a bit. I do appreciate that for the most part Kira and Ben actually did communicate decently. The reasons their romance didn't proceed as smoothly as it could have made sense and were minor in the grand scheme of things. And the happy ever after was cute enough....
I loved this book. But I adore Poirot and I do think you need to be a fan to want to read it. The book is broken down in decades, from Poirot's first appearance in 1920 in The Mysterious Affair at Styles through Kenneth Branagh's movies. Aldridge discusses the books, plays, films, television & radio stories in a straightforward way that can be a little dry at times. He summarizes each story, but but without giving away any spoilers. He includes excerpts from Christie’s journals and correspondence, and talks about the interactions between Christie and her publishers, which weren't always positive. He also shares reviews from newspapers regarding the stories. There are a lot of illustrations, including book covers, movie posters, and photos of actors, but all in black and white.
For me, this was an absolutely fun book. It's thorough and well-researched and was a joy to read....
We all know I'm a huge Christie fan, so of course, this collection of twelve new Marple mysteries has been on my wishlist since I heard about it. I appreciate the variety. Each of the stories is written by a different contemporary female crime writer doing her take on the iconic Miss Jane Marple. Miss Marple is a force to be reckoned with, and these writers captured her intelligence, her wit, and her tenacity. Granted some of the stories are more successful than others, but that's to be expected. Overall, it's fun.
The stories:
Evil in Small Places - Lucy FoleyThe Second Murder in the Vicarage - Val McDermid: This one might have been my favorite. A second murder occurs at the vicarage in St. Mary Mead. Luckily, Jane Marple lives right next door. Miss Marple Takes Manhattan - Alyssa Cole: Miss Marple visits Manhattan with her nephew. A play base on his work is being performed - off-Broadway. I liked seeing...
