I love the Bunburry mysteries. They're short little reads/listens that are perfect when I'm not sure what I want to commit to next. This time around, Alfie is enrolled at a writing course at Hallwood Hall - perhaps not the best place for him to go back to. The writers are an odd collection and there's clearly tension in the air, so when one of them leaves suddenly but with no way to get to town or the station, Alfie is suspicious.
Adding to my list of things to not do if I'm in a cozy mystery book: let someone take my phone away because it's a "distraction"
The mystery here is good. It's only 3 1/2 hours long, but we get several suspects and a couple of nice clues. This time, it's up to Alfie and Emma to solve the mystery and I kind of missed Liz and Marge - they're around but not really integral. I do wish...
Tiffany and her husband, Samir, are headed to Bath with their good friend, Thomas Montague. Thomas is engaged to a lovely actress, Rosalyn, but his mother, the Marchioness of Harwood, does not approve. He's hoping Tiffany can help convince her it's a fine match. But of course, Tiffany tends to find dead bodies - this time it's Rosalyn's understudy who is murdered. When an innocent man is arrested, Tiffany starts asking questions.
It's the late 1780s, but Tiffany and her family and friends are modern their views of everything from homosexuality, prostitution, to marriage and the treatment of women. It makes it a more enjoyable story to read, but is perhaps not terribly realistic for the era. I'm not sure that Tiffany wouldn't have been arrested for some of the things she did, even with her husband's approval.
That being said, we have several nice twists and I do like Tiffany's persistence and intelligence. We have several strong female characters...
Poirot has a friend over one evening and the topic of names comes up. The man points out that Hercule Poirot is hardly a Hercules. This gets Poirot to thinking and he decides to prove that he is indeed able to live up to the name by solving twelve cases to rival the Twelve Labors of Hercules. The rest of the book is a collection of short stories featuring cases that connect with each of the Labors. Yes, some of the cases are a stretch, but I enjoyed it.
I won't go into detail about the stories. Like most collections, some are better than others. I've read them before, but only remembered a couple of the solutions. Poirot is Poirot, quirky, overbearing, vain, but his caring side comes through in several of these.
I listened to the audio and Hugh Fraser does a fabulous job as always. It did make me think I should go back and read about Hercules,...
A Disorganised Death is the fifth book in the of the Decluttering Mysteries, and I haven't/won't read any of the others. I actually disliked this one. The set-up is fine. Ellen is a widow who declutters clients’ houses, but doesn’t handle house clearances. Her daughter, Jools, runs the London branch of the company, and in this installment, they're both dealing with jobs that involve wills, in addition to the decluttering.
I listened to the audiobook, which is narrated by the author. And while yes, I do think it's possible for authors to be great narrators and for men to narrate books told from a woman's first-person point of view, but neither worked here. Ellen is a 50-something woman who sounded like an 80-year old man. It's distracting.
Ellen has two adult children. Jools, her daughter, is running her own branch of the decluttering company. She lives with her boyfriend in London. Ellen and Jools don't seem close, but they get along....
