The Mystery of Mrs. Christie is historical fiction, imagining what may have happened when Agatha Christie "disappeared" in early December 1926. The facts are there, the car, the letters, the search, but around this Benedict wraps a fictional story of the Christies' first meeting through their married life.
The majority of the book alternates between a manuscript Agatha wrote chronicling their lives together and the events around the disappearance, starting with the discovery of her empty car. The problem is no one is likable. Archie is a jerk. Agatha is too desperate to please him and right until the end too gutless to stand up for herself. I couldn't even really care about the daughter, Rosalind, who when she showed up in the tale, was too calm and pulled together.
The grand reveal at the end wasn't really grand or much of a reveal. It did redeem the rest of the book a bit, making you look a little differently at...
A British country house Christmas party may be my favorite setting for a murder. Joseph and his wife, Maud, live at Nathaniel's grand home. Joseph has organized a Christmas party, even though he seems to be the only one in a festive mood. Like any good Christmas party, we've got a ill-matched bunch of relatives, significant others, a family friend, and a business partner. Nathaniel is a difficult and argumentative man, who has fights with just about everyone at the house. When he is killed, there are a plethora of suspects and plenty of motives, mostly revolving around who inherits Nathanial’s fortune. The murder obviously puts a damper on the Christmas celebrations.
This was a good read, clever and funny. We've got a locked room mystery that makes for a good puzzle for the investigator. I adored Maud, placid, unruffled, unwilling to play hostess. She just wants to find her missing book. And how can you not enjoy a mystery that...
Behold a Fair Woman is the last in the Mordecai Tremaine series and I'm a bit sad to be finished with it. I like Mordecai. He's unassuming, observant, solves crimes and reads romance stories. The books are typical for the era, in a good way.
Mordecai is on vacation, staying with friends. He meets several of the residents and guests on the island before the inevitable murder occurs. There are several suspects. The dead man was not as well-loved as he wanted everyone to believe. And the people on the island are not all as care-free as they would seem. Mordecai has a well-known reputation for solving mysteries and is invited immediately by the local police to sit in on interviews and is encouraged to find out what he can on his own and report back.
The plot is a little convoluted and we never actually meet one of the main players. The characters were fine, but I just don't think this...
Mailbox Monday is the gathering place for readers to share the books that came in their mailbox during the last week. Warning: Mailbox Monday can lead to envy, toppling TBR piles and humongous wish lists.
Tell us about your new arrivals by adding your Mailbox Monday post to the linky at mailboxmonday.wordpress.com.
Amber and I stopped at Barnes and Noble the other day to buy a gift for my brother and of course I couldn't leave without a book for myself.
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Miss Buncle's Book is delightful. Barbara Buncle needs to make some money and decides that writing a book is the perfect solution, much better than raising hens, but all she knows is her small town, so the people she sees every day become the characters, simply re-named. Miss Buncle sees her neighbors quite clearly, though, and not everyone is happy with their portrayal. Happily she wrote under a pseudonym, otherwise, her life would be miserable.
Miss Buncle's book, Disturber of the Peace, is also charming. She takes this regular English town, and introduces her Golden Boy, and the townsfolk allow themselves to follow their passions, marry the neighorbor women, leave their husband, go off on an adventure. And some of the actual people find themselves doing the same things, more or less. So her fiction imitates life which then imitates fiction in the most enjoyable way.
I loved Miss Buncle. It's a light read perfect for this time of year. It's funny...
I've been reading a lot of vintage mysteries lately, Hercule Poirot, Roderick Alleyn, Sherlock Holmes. Mordecai Tremaine is one of the lesser-known detectives of the era, at least now, I'm not sure about when the stories were originally published. I like him though; I'm glad the books are being reissued. Mordecai is a retired tobacconist, a bachelor, and a bit of a romantic. He's an amateur detective who solves mysteries by observing, by understanding people. He also blends in well, he's unobtrusive and people tend not to notice him or not be threatened by him, which allows him to sometimes learn things quicker and easier than the police.
In In at the Death, Mordecai is actually invited by his friend Chief Inspector Jonathan Boyce to tag along on an investigation, beginning to end. Mordecai can be rather introspective too. "It was when you came up against the thing in its actuality that its atmosphere changed; from being a fascinating problem to intrigue the brain,...
