Short Stories

While waiting for my next Canada Reads selection to come in to the library, I finally got a chance to read one of my Christmas books. I decided to go with something short and sweet and chose Poirot's Early Cases by Agatha Christie.

This is a selection of short stories featuring Christie's master detective and his loyal friend Captain Hastings. They are cases from the beginning point of Poirot's career in England (and a few from his time in Belgium) and before Hastings moves to Argentina. They recount Poirot's early successes in England. Most of the stories deal with murder, but there are a few robberies thrown into the mix.

I have previously written that I don't like short stories. And, usually, I don't - or at least I don't choose to read them all that often, which isn't really quite the same thing. However, I do enjoy Christie's mystery short stories. You can read a bunch before bed without getting scared: the mystery is solved quickly and you don't have to finish the whole book before you go to sleep. They're also good reading on the bus because you can polish off a few on your journey but not have to stop in the middle of an exciting chapter.

These are quite enjoyable stories from Christie. Her debt to Sherlock Holmes/Arthur Conan Doyle is seen clearly here, as the stories read very much like the Holmes/Watson stories with Poirot and Hastings rooming together in London, solving crimes. Of course, Poirot and Holmes are quite different detectives. Poirot's career began during World War One and Holmes' career ended about this time. I wonder if any writer is brave enough to try and tackle these literary behemoths in one story!

It is here, too, in a short story that we meet Poirot's Irene Adler: the Russian countess Vera Rosakoff. She stars in the story "The Double Clue". Other stories that involve theft instead of murder are "The Adventure of Johnny Waverly" and "The Submarine Plans". Mysteries involving a theft can be just as convoluted as murder mysteries, and it is nice to see Poirot turn his talents here, for a change. A theft is probably not enough plot to hang a novel-length mystery on, but it suits the quick pace of a short story. We also learn about one of Poirot's early cases in Belgium that very nearly ended in disaster in "The Chocolate Box". An interesting case is "Wasps' Nest", in which Poirot uses his talents to solve a murder before it happens.

These stories are classic Christie and are a must for any serious Christie collector. Now that I seem to have most of her Poirot and Marple novels, I will start on collecting her short story collections. This is hopefully only the first of many.

Mini-Marsh

Agatha Christie will always be my Queen of Crime. However, the runner-up (Princess of Crime, maybe?) surely has to be Ngaio Marsh. This New Zealander out-Christies Christie with her elegant murders set in typical British settings such as drawing rooms of grand country mansions and the theatre. Her detective protagonist, Alleyn, is a gentleman detective in the truest sense of the word, and is young and attractive to boot! (At least, that's the impression I get from Marsh.)

I have not read a Marsh mystery in some time as I was caught up with Christies in the fall. Imagine my surprise when, strolling aimlessly through the mystery section at my local library, I spotted Death on the Air: And Other Short Stories by the Princess of Crime herself, Ngaio Marsh! I had no idea that Marsh did short stories - I had thought that the sole provenance of Christie. I grabbed the book immediately.

Death on the Air is more than just short story mysteries. And they are not all about Chief-Inspector Alleyn either. In fact, not all of them are even mysteries! It is an excellent collection for the devoted Marsh fan, or for newcomers to this great mystery writer.

I very much enjoyed the opening biographies of Alleyn, and, sniff, his wife Troy. Sadly, I had thought him to remain single forever in the grand tradition of Holmes, Poirot, and Marple. I was a little annoyed that Alleyn's future had been spoiled for me in this manner - I wish I could have found out about his wife by reading the novels, rather than finding out in a collection of short stories. That said, it was really interesting to read how Marsh came up with Alleyn and the genesis of the first Alleyn mystery.

As much as I enjoyed learning about Alleyn's antecedents, and reading the short stories in which he was featured, this book is much more than an Alleyn-fest. Marsh's first love was the theatre, and included in the book is the sad play "Evil Liver", written for a BBC Television drama that had the audience, as members of the jury, decide the case. In that respect, it is somewhat unsatisfying to read, because there is no ending - the reader decides. And while there was enough evidence for the case to go either way, I made my decision fairly early on who the guilty party was. I would, however, have appreciated some commentary from the author as to her choice for the guilty party. I call it a sad play because of the nature of the crime(s) which involve the death of animals - always a sad moment for me in fiction, and usually something which I don't like to read about.

While the majority of Alleyn's novels are set in England, and Marsh herself spent a lot of time in England, New Zealand was her home. This comes out beautifully in two stories: "Morepork" and "Moonshine". "Morepork" is a mystery story, not featuring Alleyn, but is worth reading for its beautiful opening paragraphs alone. I felt like I was there, in the forests of New Zealand, with its exotic bird and tree species. Beautiful. "Moonshine" is a lovely little short story about Christmas in New Zealand, which always seems so exotic to someone for whom Christmas is synonymous with ice and snow.

And finally, Marsh closes with a humourous and thoughtful letter to a budding young writer. Her advice is good for all aspiring writers and I hope it helped the young (unnamed) author. She very carefully helps the young man along and lets him down gently when needed, while giving good advice for all writers throughout the letter. A very useful piece for any aspiring writers.

This book was an excellent little read. It is a good introduction to Alleyn and Marsh for those of us new to Marsh's world, but is also a must have for any Marsh completist out there. A good read for all who love mysteries.

Happy Hallowe'en!

In honour of Hallowe'en, I will once again turn to my favourite mystery author - the Queen of Crime - Agatha Christie. Today's selection from the Christie canon is Miss Marple's last case: Sleeping Murder.

The novel begins with the arrival of lovely young Gwenda Reed to England. She has recently married a young man, Giles Reed. Giles has some sort of foreign service job that will necessitate a lot of moving around; occasionally accompanied by Gwenda, but sometimes not. The couple need a home base and have decided upon England. While Gwenda is from New Zealand, Giles is from England and it seems appropriate to establish themselves in that country. Both Giles and Gwenda are orphans but are fairly well off. Gwenda arrives in England to find a house and wait for Giles' arrival.

Gwenda leisurely tours the south coast of England, looking for the perfect house. She arrives at the seaside town of Dillmouth and immediately spots a house that is "her" house. After a brief tour in which Gwenda feels more and more at home, she impulsively buys the house and gets settled in. However, there are strange happenings in Gwenda's new house. A feeling, almost, like Gwenda has been there before. Gwenda hires are gardener to move the terrace steps over from the other side of the terrace to under the drawing room window. The gardener informs her that it will be an easy job, as someone has merely planted over the steps that were there before. Gwenda also has hired a contractor to make some renovations. However, Gwenda has another request for the contractors. She feels that there should be a door between the dining room and the drawing room, so that one does not have to go around by the hall. In fact, she is always trying to get into one room by going to a certain spot on the wall, as if there were a door there. She indicates to the contractors that they must make a door between the two rooms in that spot. The contractor agrees, and later confirms to Gwenda that the renovations will be really easy because there was already a door there that had been bricked up.

The last straw involves Gwenda's little bedroom. She is waiting for Giles to return before she moves into the master bedroom, so in the meantime she's staying in a comfortable little bedroom upstairs. The cook informs Gwenda that this room was probably a nursery at one point and Gwenda imagines what it might look like when she and Giles have children one day and picks out a lovely imaginary wallpaper: poppies alternating with cornflowers. One of the cupboards in the room has been painted over, and Gwenda must have the contractors pry open the doors. They do so, and Gwenda is shocked to find on the inside remnants of the original wallpaper on the walls: a pattern of poppies alternating with cornflowers.....How is Gwenda able to know so precisely about the previous state of the house? Gwenda is scared and accepts an offer to go stay with friends.

Gwenda travels to London to stay with friends: Raymond West and his wife Joan. Raymond is also entertaining his aunt, the sweet, elderly Miss Marple. West, Joan, Miss Marple and Gwenda go out to a play. Gwenda is enjoying herself until the last line of the play: "Cover her face; mine eyes dazzle: she died young." Gwenda screams and bolts from the theatre. Upon arrival back at the house, Miss Marple goes in to comfort Gwenda. Gwenda explains that upon hearing those words she had a flashback of a memory: a voice saying those words and, looking through the banisters, seeing a dead woman lying out on the floor with her gold hair spread all around. Who is the dead woman? "Helen" Gwenda answers. But Gwenda does not know any Helens. Who is the mysterious Helen? Who murdered her? Why? Why does Gwenda know so much about a house she just bought? Miss Marple helps the pair (Gwenda and Giles) solve all these mysteries about an unsolved crime stretching back over 20 years.

This is an excellent and suspenseful Miss Marple. Gwenda's feelings about the house drive the suspense in the opening chapters, and an atmosphere of faint malice settles over the book as a whole. It is an excellent Marple - and one I don't always remember because it isn't in my omnibus collection.

However, there is also a sort of disjointed, out of time feeling surrounding the book as well. When World War Two came to London, Agatha Christie wrote two mysteries: one with Hercule Poirot (Curtain) and one with Miss Marple (Sleeping Murder). In the event that she was killed in the Blitz, these novels could be published as conclusions to both series. Fortunately, Agatha Christie survived and went on to write many more lovely Poirot and Marple stories.

When she did reach the end of her life, in the 1970's, Christie authorized these older works for publication. Curtain was published before her death in 1975, whereas Sleeping Murder was published after, in 1976. Interestingly enough, while Curtain really does effectively end the Poirot series, Sleeping Murder is less cut and dried as the end of the Marple series and seems to be more of a stand-alone mystery in the Marple canon.

Anyway, the publication out of time leads to some interesting inaccuracies in the book because it doesn't take into account all of the changes that took place in Miss Marple's world after the war which Christie so eloquently addressed in her post-war Marples. As such, it is an interesting little anomaly and probably should be read when it was written - in the 1940's, as opposed to when it was published. Chronologically it fits in much better with the earlier Marples.

The true final Marple is Nemesis, which I also reread recently. It sort of draws from some of the characters that Marple met in A Caribbean Mystery, but spins off a new story. To solve that mystery, Miss Marple must also go back into the past. Miss Marple is more frail in Nemesis than she is depicted in Sleeping Murder, and I think that Nemesis makes a more fitting final Marple than does Sleeping Murder.

Marple Two

One more Christie post and then I'll quit, honest! That will be helped by a large number of books that came in to the library this week that I have to go pick up tomorrow. There are a lot of exciting things coming up, so stay tuned!

But for now, we turn back to everyone's favourite old maid detective - Miss Marple, and the second collection of her works: Miss Marple Omnibus Volume II.

Miss Marple Omnibus Volume II
Again, there seems to be no rhyme or reason for the organization of these novels, so, again, I just read them in the order presented.

A Caribbean Mystery
This first mystery takes Miss Marple away from her usual milieu of a quiet country village, and puts her down at a resort hotel on a lovely Caribbean island. At first, Miss Marple is disoriented by the steel drum band, endless supply of paw-paw at breakfast, softly swaying palm trees, and lovely sand beaches. However, she soon gets her feet and spots some village parallels - just in time to help in a murder investigation!

Despite the rather exotic setting (for a Miss Marple mystery - unlike Poirot, Marple is not a world traveler and her mysteries usually stay firmly on English soil), this is a usual Miss Marple story with the usual village parallels. The murder is not suspected to be murder first, so Miss Marple and her ally (the extremely old, extremely ugly, and extremely rich Mr. Rafiel) must do some creative digging to uncover a murderer. This is a good Christie story, and almost wants to make you take a vacation. (Although if I arrived at any resort that had Marple or Poirot as a guest, I would be checking out the next day!)

A Pocket Full of Rye
Just as Poirot had a number of mysteries which centred around a nursery rhyme that helped to solve the case, so here does Miss Marple. In this case, the nursery rhyme is as follows:

Sing a song of sixpence, a pocketful of rye,
Four and twenty blackbirds baked in a pie.
When the pie was opened the birds began to sing.
Wasn't that a dainty dish to set before the king?

The king was in his counting house, counting out his money,
The queen was in the parlour eating bread and honey,
The maid was in the garden hanging out the clothes,
When there came a little dickey bird and nipped off her nose.

The murderer is, shall we say, inspired by this poem and it provides a few important clues to Miss Marple and the police detective.

Miss Marple has a personal interest in this murder, as one of those murdered was a little servant girl who trained at her house. (Oh, to have servants - it would be lovely!) This personal interest, along with the cast of characters and clues provided in the poem, leads to a satisfying and interesting Christie mystery.

The Mirror Crack'd from Side to Side
For this mystery, we are back in Miss Marple's village. Hollywood has intruded into the quiet life of St. Mary Mead. Miss Marple's dear friend, Mrs. Bantry (now widowed) has sold her great estate and it has been bought by the famous Hollywood film star Marina Gregg and her devoted director husband, Jason Rudd. There is much surprise and consternation, however, when a local woman is murdered at a housewarming gala held by Marina and Jason. Marina is sure that the poisoned drink was meant for her.

Despite the Hollywood intrusion, Miss Marple is still able to find some village parallels and help the police solve the mystery. Again, poetry intrudes here too, but instead of a nursery rhyme, it is Tennyson's "Lady of Shallot" that provides an interesting thematic background that Christie weaves throughout the novel. This is an excellent Christie with an interesting and challenging puzzle that Miss Marple successfully solves at the end. I will say that the astute reader should be able to gather enough clues to figure out the mystery before the end - but it is still a satisfying puzzle nonetheless.

They Do It With Mirrors
Miss Marple visits an old schoolfriend in this novel and ends up having to assist the police in a murder investigation. Miss Marple goes to visit her old friend Carrie Louise at her sister Ruth's insistence. Ruth has a feeling that something is wrong with her sister, and sends Miss Marple there to try and find out what that is.

Carrie Louise lives in the country mansion of Stonygates with her third husband, Louis Serrocold. A portion of Stoneygates has been turned into a sort of rehabilitation facility for juvenile delinquents. The rest of the house holds Carrie Louise, Louis and other various family members and employees, including: Carrie Louise's daughter Mildred Strete; Carrie Louise's granddaughter Gina; Gina's husband Wally; Carrie Louise's stepsons Alex and Stephan Restarick (from marriage #2); Carrie Louise's secretary Juliet Belliver; and Louis' secretary Edgar Lawson. This is the pool of suspects that Miss Marple has to choose from when Carrie Louise's other stepson Christian Gulbrandsen (from marriage #1) visits with an important message - a message that leads to his murder.

This is another good Christie with a good puzzle. One little problem - do not try and make sense of the chronology of the marriages and timelines for adopting children and having children and divorces and all that. It will not make sense! Some of these timeline problems could have been avoided by making Gina Carrie Louise's daughter instead of granddaughter. The timeline problems don't affect the mystery or the solution at all, so they are not fatal to the book. Just don't actually try to figure out the chronology of Carrie Louise's life, because the dates will not add up!

Other than the chronology issues, this is a good Christie and is quite enjoyable. The characters are an interesting and diverse group of people, and the theme of artifice - magic, theatre, conjuring tricks, runs throughout the novel. A good puzzle with a satisfying conclusion.

Marple One

In a switch from my usual Christie habits, I've decided to switch over to Marple, instead of Poirot and reread my Marple omnibus editions instead of my Poirot editions (barring some selected novels from my Poirot editions that are my favourites).

I thought I had all the Marples in my omnibus editions, but it turns out that Miss Marple is in 12 novels, not 8. I have 2 omnibus editions with 4 novels each, so I am missing 4 novels! Hopefully a Marple III has been published - but a trip to the library should suffice, for now.

Miss Marple Omnibus Volume I
It should be noted that the novels in this series are not in any type of chronological order at all. I'm not really sure the reason for the grouping of the novels, but I just read them in the order presented.

The Body in the Library
The story begins, obviously, with a body in the library. But not just a body - that of a platinum blonde, dressed in fantastic evening dress, and strangled. And not just a library, but the very proper English country village library of Colonel and Mrs. Bantry. The Bantrys do not know the poor murder victim, but that doesn't stop rumours about the Colonel spreading through the village like wild-fire. Fortunately for Colonel Bantry, Mrs. Bantry is good friends with that most unlikely sleuth, Miss Jane Marple. The police soon connect the body with a missing dancer at a hotel in the next county, and Miss Marple must investigate an interesting family at the hotel that was connected with the dancer, as well as unravelling the mystery of a missing Girl Guide.

This is an entertaining and interesting Miss Marple. I really enjoy Miss Marple's village parallels and how they help her solve the most convoluted of crimes. Miss Marple's mysteries are also enjoyable in that they show the reader a slice of English country village society that very likely does not exist anymore. The books are perfect snapshots of their time.

The Moving Finger
The narrator in this entertaining and original Miss Marple is one Jerry, a young airplane pilot who has been invalided out of the war. He and his sister, the lovely Joanna, rent a house in the quiet village of Lymstock in order to help Jerry recuperate from his crash. However, everything is not as it seems - nasty anonymous letters are going around the village. Soon enough, one of the letters strikes home, and the local solicitor's wife kills herself. But was it suicide, or murder? Jerry and Joanna investigate the village inhabitants to find out who is the mysterious murderer.

This book is narrated in the first person by Jerry and has a breezy, energetic tone. I enjoyed meeting all the different characters of the book through his eyes. And there are some interesting characters - the doctor, Owen Griffith; his sister Aimee Griffith; the sweet spinster Miss Emily Barton; the solicitor's stepdaughter, the puppy-like Megan; and the unique vicar's wife, Mrs. Dane Calthorp.

Where, you may ask, is Miss Marple? Fortunately for the novel, Miss Marple is a friend of Mrs. Dane Calthorp's. Miss Marple arrives for a stay with the vicar's wife in Chapter 10 and helps Jerry and the police solve the mystery. Despite not being present in the village all along, Miss Marple is still able to solve the mystery and unravel the clues at the end for the audience.

A Murder is Announced
This is a very excellent Miss Marple. The residents of the village of Chipping Cleghorn are intrigued by a notice in the daily village paper announcing a Murder at Miss Blacklock's that evening. The curious villagers show up at Miss Blacklock's house at the appointed time to visit with Miss Blacklock and her various assorted lodgers. The game seems to be proceeding well when a young man bursts in. The lights go out and the mysterious visitor tells everyone to "Stick 'em up!". There are oohs and aahs from the delighted guests, which turn quickly to gasps of dismay when a revolver is fired. The lights go on to show Miss Blacklock bleeding from a wound in her in ear and the young criminal lying dead on the floor. Who killed him? Who wants to kill Miss Blacklock? Miss Marple must unravel the clues of an extremely ingenious Christie puzzle.

This is an excellent Christie book. There are clues scattered throughout the book, so a second-time reader can see some of the pointers that Christie left for the reader to attempt to figure it out. That is one of the things I enjoy about Christie - she doesn't hide everything from the reader - she gives the reader a fair chance of figuring out the puzzle. I, however, prefer to leave the detecting to the experts (Poirot, Marple) and just enjoy the unraveling in the final chapter, sometimes with a flip back through the book to see the clues I missed.

4.50 From Paddington
This book, as with many Christie books, begins with a murder. However, the murder occurs on a train - the only witness an elderly woman in the carriage of another train running parallel to the first train. (Confusing? Perhaps a bit - don't worry, I won't be asking any questions about "If Train A leaves the station at 8:15 and is traveling at 25 miles per hour....").

The police don't believe her - fortunately, however, the woman is friends with the remarkable Miss Marple. Miss Marple believes her friend, and after a few train journeys and the judicious study of maps, finds the spot on the line where the body would have been dumped from the train. Unable to put herself right on the spot, she hires the indomitable Lucy Eyelsbarrow to work as a housekeeper at the house in question while sleuthing for a body. Lucy finds herself in the Crackenthorpe house. Sure enough - Lucy finds the body of a woman. Who is she? Where did she come from? Why was she murdered? Do any of the Crackenthorpes have anything to do with the murder? Fortunately Miss Marple is staying nearby and helps Lucy, and the police, solve the mystery.

While the mystery is interesting and the set-up to catch the murder well-written, the best part of the novel is the unique and interesting characters created by Christie. The Crackenthorpe family is presided over by a miserly old man who despises his sons: artist Cedric, shady Alfred, stuffy Harold, and tolerates his caretaker daughter, Emma. Other visitors include Emma's brother-in-law Bryan (husband of her dead sister Edith), Bryan's son Alexander and his friend James. Nearly all of the men in the novel make passes at Lucy - Christie seems to have been an inveterate match-maker in her novels. However, Christie leaves one mystery for the readers here - who will Lucy choose? My pick is Bryan! This is an entertaining and interesting Christie and a good Miss Marple.

The Thirties and Forties

In addition to the omnibus books based upon the lives of Christie's characters, there is also an omnibus collection which gathers together novels by publication date, and bring together various different Christie characters instead of the old stand-bys, Poirot and Marple. I recently read two of the omnibus editions: 1930's Omnibus and 1940's Omnibus.

1930's Omnibus
This Omnibus features 4 Christie novels published between 1931 and 1939 and includes the terrifically scary and suspenseful And Then There Were None. It should be noted that the order of titles on the cover of the book is not actually the order of novels within the book.

The Sittaford Mystery
This mystery takes place in the remote village of Sittaford on the edge of Dartmoor; however, there are no giant glowing hounds in this story! (Go read Sherlock Holmes if you don't get that reference.) Sittaford is a tiny village consisting of one great manor house (Sittaford House, obviously) and several small cottages. Due to its extreme isolation, it is almost entirely cut off if there has been a heavy snowstorm, as is happening when the novel begins.

Major Burnaby lives in one of the small cottages near Sittaford House, which is owned by Burnaby's friend Captain Trevelyan. However, being inordinately fond of money, Trevelyan has chosen to let his house and move into the nearby town of Exhampton, some six miles away from Sittaford. The house was let to two mysterious colonials: Mrs. Willet and her daughter Violet Willet. It is at the Willet's new abode that the mystery begins.

Major Burnaby, the Willets, and a few other neighbours have gathered for an afternoon tea. After tea, the talk turns to games, and the party decide to participate in the spooky thrills of table-turning. (I'm unclear on exactly what this is, but the concept is similar to a Ouija board.) After various nonsensical messages, the table gets serious and spells out that Trevelyan is dead, and has been murdered! Despite the thick snow hampering his movements, Major Burnaby insists on hiking to Exhampton where, to his great dismay, he finds Captain Trevelyan dead.

Despite Christie's extensive set-up and introduction of various village characters, the main characters in the novel are 3 parties that come in almost after the fact: Captain Trevelyan's nephew and chief suspect in his murder, James Pearson; the intrepid reporter and amateur sleuth, Charles Enderby; and James's fiance, the lovely, practical, and shrewd, Emily Trefusis. Charles and Emily make a good team as they travel between Sittaford and Exhampton working to solve the mystery. One assumes that Christie is, (as usual - she was a great fictional matchmaker), setting up Charles and Emily to get together at the end, but Emily's devotion to her fiance never wavers. That said, James is not a great character - no backbone and not, apparently, particularly attractive (one cannot really tell from the story), so the reader wonders a) what Emily saw in him to get together with him in the first place, and b) why won't she pick the more active and energetic Charles?

Besides all of that, there is a clever and intriguing mystery going on - not just the murder, but about a number of other characters in the small village of Sittaford. It is a good read - especially for a nice snow day.

Why Didn't They Ask Evans?
The two sleuths in this adventure are the curate's son, Bobby Jones, and his childhood friend, Lady Frances Derwent (Frankie). While Bobby comes across as a right young idiot, I enjoyed reading about the aristocracy from Christie's point of view and reading about the class distinctions that still informed British society in the 1930's. It's amazing how much a girl could get away with if she's an Earl's daughter!

The mystery here is sort of sprung about Bobby and Frankie. Bobby is golfing one day when he finds a man who seems to have fallen off the golf course onto the cliffs below. While Bobby's friend is going to get help, Bobby stays with the body and hears the man's final words "Why didn't they ask Evans?" and sees a photo of a beautiful woman in the man's pocket. As Bobby is waiting, he recalls that he was supposed to play the organ in his father's service that evening. Fortunately for Bobby, a stranger comes along and says he'll wait with the body. Bobby departs with relief. Some time later, Bobby sees a newspaper reproduction of the photo in the dead man's pocket, and realizes it's not the same photo as he had seen. Bobby and Frankie are then thrust into a mystery complete with murder attempts, drug-taking, and kidnapping!

This is a light-hearted and enjoyable mystery. While the subject matter is fairly dark, the light-hearted natures of the two sleuths, Bobby and Frankie, keep the novel on the lighter side. I like Frankie's shrewd and "hard-boiled" persona, but am not fond of Bobby's careless, happy-go-lucky personality. Still, a good novel with a solid mystery core.

Murder is Easy
Luke Fitzwilliam, ex-colonial policeman, has returned to England after a number of years abroad. On the train on his way to London he meets an old lady who tells him about a number of mysterious deaths that have happened in her village lately. She believes that, while all of these deaths have been attributed to natural causes, the deaths are, in fact, murders and she tells him who will be murdered next. She is going to London to inform Scotland Yard that something must be done. They part ways in London and the next day Luke reads in the paper that sadly the woman was run over on her way to Scotland Yard. Even more mysteriously, a week later Luke reads an obituary of the next person the lady said would be killed. Luke's policeman instincts are activated and he goes at once to the little village of Wychwood-under-Ashe to stay with his friend's cousin Bridget, and her fiance, the odious Lord Whitfield.

Luke pretends to be a writer researching a book on local myths and customs while he is trying to figure out who is the murderer and who will be murdered next. He also is falling in love with Bridget, who seems to be falling for him too. Bridget and Luke work together to discover the murderer in a lovely little village where things aren't as they seem.

I really enjoyed this mystery. It is very suspenseful, with suggestions of the paranormal, but not enough that it distracts from the actual mystery and the actual murderer. There was also an excellent twist at the end that I didn't see coming at all. I quite enjoyed this one.

And Then There Were None
This is the novel which establishes Christie as Queen of the suspenseful mystery. 10 people are trapped on an island as houseguests in a mysterious mansion with a seemingly absent host. In quick succession, two guests are murdered. Is there someone on the island? Or is the murder one of their own? Curiously, the murders seem to be following the pattern in a poem called "10 Little Soldiers". Who will die next?

Do not read this book at night if you want to sleep! I read it in the afternoon while I was all alone in the house and that was scary enough! (It was broad daylight!) This is an excellent book and an excellent mystery. Nothing supernatural about it - the mystery can, and is, explained at the end and the solution is perfectly plausible. But the sense and feeling of tension and suspense that runs through the book is masterfully done. I don't want to say too much about it because it truly has to be read to be appreciated. (Although, in the interests of fairness, I should point out that my husband read it recently [his first Christie ever!] and he said it wasn't scary [I beg to disagree], but that it was suspenseful. He doesn't really like Christie's writing style and thought it was okay.)

1940's Omnibus
This Omnibus features four stories published between 1941 and 1949. Only one of them really has anything to do with the war specifically, although the characters and settings do reflect the extreme changes that the war brought to Britain.

N or M?
Ah, the infamous Tommy and Tuppence. Despite my general dislike of these characters, I read the first novel anyway, and thought it was alright. I still prefer Poirot and Marple, but T&T weren't bad this time out.

Tommy and Tuppence are Christie's "spy" couple. Their first book was set in the 1920's, with Tommy and Tuppence as Bright Young Things with a taste for mystery. I prefer Christie's English society mysteries as opposed to when she mixes in international spy thriller plots, mostly because I don't think she does the spy thriller genre all that well. It's still good reading, but there are probably other authors I would turn to if I wanted spy thrillers.

At any rate, this book is set in World War Two, so Tommy and Tuppence are quite a bit older and have children of their own. They are still eager to help out the war effort and so are recruited to go undercover as Mr. Meadowes (Tommy) and Mrs. Blenkensop (Tuppence). (And, more accurately, Tommy was recruited and Tuppence recruited herself to go undercover.) There are worries about a giant "Fifth Column" of German spies who have infiltrated Britain in a vast undercover network that will assist the German army with acts of strategic sabotage when the German invasion and occupation of England occurs. Tommy and Tuppence have to find the leaders of the spy ring operating in their area so England can take down the network.

Now, I've been reading a lot about spies in this era recently, and the fear of a giant underground network of German spies was a common belief in England at the time. However, recent research has demonstrated that that fear was groundless. Germany did not have a very well organized spy network and the British secret agents were good at finding and turning German spies. This knowledge probably robbed the book of any urgency it had, as I knew that there was no "Fifth Column" of German undercover agents. But for the time, it would have been very topical. And Tommy and Tuppence figured out all of the clues and solved the mystery of the spy leaders. Not a bad little novel, but I have other Christies I like better.

Towards Zero
This novel features the semi-recurring character of Superintendent Battle, the policeman whose wooden exterior conceals a bright and active mind. Battle appears in the Poirot novels and some of his own (including Murder is Easy, above). He does not appear in any of the Marple stories.

Nevile Strange is a perfect Englishman - wealthy, sporting, and handsome. He is a golf and tennis star, has a lot of money, and a new and beautiful wife, Kay. He divorced his previous wife Audrey in order to marry Kay. Nevile feels bad at this divorce and wants Kay and Audrey to be friends. To that end, he manages to arrange it so that Nevile, Kay, and Audrey are all visiting Nevile's relation Lady Tressilian at her coastal mansion during the same week of September. Rounding out the cast of characters are Audrey's childhood friend Tom Royde (back from the Empire), Lady Tressilian's companion Mary Aldin, and Kay's young follower Ted Latimer. These houseguests become suspects when Lady Tressilian is found murdered. Superintendent Battle must put together the clues, assisted by the mysterious Angus MacWhirter, to catch a killer.

This is one of my favourite Christies that I had forgotten about and hadn't read in awhile. I'd forgotten just how much I enjoyed it. I really like the character of Battle and he always does an excellent job of solving mysteries, either with Poirot or on his own. This is a terrific mystery story with a great puzzle to solve. The characters are enjoyable and interesting. This is an excellent read and a great Christie.

Sparkling Cyanide
Still one of my favourites, but I didn't read it here because I'd read it so recently in my other omnibus collection. But still worth checking out!

Crooked House
As I read this Christie, a sense of horror slowly crept up on me. I had remembered reading a Christie where the murderer was truly unexpected and truly horrific. As I read this book, I slowly came to realize that it was this book that I was actually reading! That sense of remembered horror stayed with me through the book and added an extra level of suspense. It is also interesting to know that this was one of Agatha Christie's favourite books.

Charles Hayward meets the handsome Sophia Leonides abroad during the war. They fall in love, and upon returning to London he looks her up so they can be reunited. Sophia is living in London with her grandfather Aristide Leonides and various members of the family: her grandfather's second wife Brenda, her uncle Roger and his wife Clemency, her mother Magda and father Philip, her brother Eustace and sister Josephine, Eustace's tutor Laurence Brown, and Sophia's great-aunt Edith. This varied cast of characters quickly become suspects when Sophia's beloved grandfather is murdered. Charles must assist his policeman father in the investigation even though he's in love with Sophia.

This is an excellent Christie puzzle. The suspense I had from my previous, half-remembered reading just added to the suspense already in the book. The twist at the end is shocking and totally unexpected. An excellent, suspenseful Christie mystery.

Short and Sweet

I usually am not a short story person. Oh sure, I enjoy the ones I've read in English classes, but I don't generally seek them out. Unless those stories are written by an author named Agatha Christie. Because I only own full-length novels, I haven't read any of Christie's short stories for awhile. So on my most recent library trip I grabbed a handful of her short story collections at random from the shelves. I ended up with 1 Poirot collection and 2 Marple collections and several hours of enjoyable reading.

Murder in the Mews
This is the Poirot selection of the short story collections. And really, I would label these stories more as novellas - there are only 4 in the collection and some are quite long. The 4 stories are "Dead Man's Mirror", "The Incredible Theft", "Murder in the Mews", and "Triangle At Rhodes". I'm sure I've read them all before, (and, in fact, I own "Murder in the Mews" in my omnibus collection - now I know where that story is from!) but not very recently so the twists and turns are quite enjoyable. While I really enjoy Christie's full-length novels, she can quickly create and resolve a mystery with a few deft phrases and turns of plot and this gift makes her short stories very enjoyable. She can create memorable characters and situations very quickly, and then have Poirot swiftly resolve the mystery with his little grey cells! Of course, there's not always room for murder in short stories (or more than one!) but reading about, say, the theft of valuable and top secret bomber plans still makes for interesting reading.

The Tuesday Club Murders
This is the first of the Miss Marple story collections, and is one of the best, I think. Instead of trying to twist her plot into all sort of contrivances to bring the murders to Miss Marple, Christie brings Miss Marple to the murders! It all began as a dinner party discussion on unsolved mysteries and ended up as a sort of club. The 6 people would meet once a week, at which time one of the members would tell a story of an unsolved murder that the member had come across. Of course, the murder would really be solved, but the challenge to the other club members was to come to the correct solution. At first, the club members humoured Miss Marple, but she bested them every time!

The first 6 stories in this collection comprise the first gathering of the murder-solving club. These stories are: "The Tuesday Night Club", "The Idol House of Astarte", "Ingots of Gold", "The Blood-Stained Pavement", "Motive v. Opportunity", and "The Thumb Mark of St. Peter." The remaining 7 stories represent the reunion of some members of the club with new members, and an actual murder in the quiet village of St. Mary Mead. These stories are: "The Blue Geranium", "The Companion", "The Four Suspects", "A Christmas Tragedy", "The Herb of Death", "The Affair at the Bungalow", and "Death by Drowning". Again, Christie has a knack for telling a good story in a short period of time, and these short stories are charming. The reader is given all the same facts as Miss Marple, but Miss Marple bests us (or at least me!) every time. (That said, I don't really read the stories and try to solve them - I like to be surprised with the fictional audience as Miss Marple reveals the solution and see all the clues I missed.)

Miss Marple's Final Cases
There are so many different editions and collections of Miss Marple stories that I am not sure if these are really stories that chronologically fall towards the end of Miss Marple's life, or if they were just all published towards the end of Christie's life (they were published in 1979). At any rate, the first 6 stories are excellent. The last 2 stories in this collection are not quite as good.

The first 6 stories, "Sanctuary", "Strange Jest", "Tape-Measure Murder", "The Case of the Caretaker", "The Case of the Perfect Maid", and "Miss Marple Tells a Story" are all cases which involve Miss Marple and involve actual crimes that Miss Marple helped solve, as opposed to stories which she solved (as in the above The Tuesday Club Murders). Again, not all involve murder, but there are some excellent puzzles for Miss Marple to solve. In one sense, that is why short stories can sometimes be more enjoyable than the books - there is more an emphasis on solving a puzzle in the short stories which doesn't have to include murder, as opposed to the novels which almost always involve one or more murders. Plus, you can read quite a few at one sitting and have the satisfaction of solving a number of mysteries, instead of having to read through an entire novel for the climax at the end. "Miss Marple Tells a Story" is an interesting short story in that it is narrated by Miss Marple. Usually in the Miss Marple stories and books Miss Marple is discussed in the third person; that is, the narrator is either an omniscient narrator or is a first-person narrator who is not Miss Marple. As far as I know, this is unique to the Marple cannon - I cannot recall any other stories narrated by Miss Marple, so it is interesting to get her perspective on how she solves the murder in her characteristically fluffy and muddle-headed speaking style.

The last two stories in this collection are not Miss Marple mysteries. They are not even mysteries at all, really, but more of Christie's forays into the supernatural. I generally dislike Christie's supernatural stories because I'm not interested in her views on the occult - I read her because she is an excellent puzzle creator and I enjoy the setting up of the puzzle, the clues, and the amazing finish wherein the solution is revealed. It's all very logical and one feels that one could have solved the crime if one had only applied one's self. Putting the supernatural moves it outside the realm of the logical and solvable and is not what I read Christie for. The first of these two supernatural stories (which I, not realizing that it wasn't a Marple mystery waited in vain as I read through it for Miss Marple to pop up and set everything right.) is "The Dressmaker's Doll" and is not very good and doesn't really seem to have a point - it's about a mysterious doll who haunts a dressmaking establishment. Nothing really happens and then the story just ends. Not my favourite. "In A Glass Darkly" is better - the narrator seems to experience a supernatural phenomenon which influences the course of his entire life. Nice twist at the end too. But not a mystery.

I quite enjoyed my read through some of Christie's short stories, and I will be looking to add her short story collections to my already extensive Poirot and Marple omnibus collection. I will also be looking soon to buy a new bookshelf for all the potential acquisitions!

Next stop on the Christie tour!

I've been reading a lot of Agatha Christie lately, so her novels and stories will feature prominently for the next few weeks. Those who dislike Agatha Christie or mysteries in general may want to take some time off! I do have a couple books on hold coming up at the library soon (I hope) and another history that I've read recently too, so it won't be all Christie, all the time. But most of the time!

Instead of re-reading all my Poirots (which I do anyway generally once a year or so) I decided to branch out and read my Miss Marples. And, indeed, I've branched out even more to read a bunch of Christies not featuring either Poirot or Marple, but that is for another day! Instead of reading the Miss Marples that I own in omnibus edition form, I turned to the giant behemoth of a book - the Seven Deadly Sins omnibus - and read the Miss Marple novel in there which I very rarely read: At Bertram's Hotel.

As a result of very rarely reading this novel, the ending is still a surprise. And right before the ending I am all at sea about how everything is connected and works together. But Miss Marple at the end makes it all clear and the puzzle pieces come together. While Miss Marple may not be as showy a detective as Poirot, she still can figure out murders with the best of them and solve the puzzle.

This mystery novel is really about a place - Bertram's Hotel. It is a lovely hotel in London that retains its pre-War look and charm. And by pre-War I mean even pre-World War One. Lovely English tea is served every day with any kind of eatable you could want: seed cake, donuts (filled with jam), and very buttery muffins. (Yes, you will get hungry while reading the tea scenes!) (As a side note - I need to do a little research into English muffins. I am not sure that Agatha Christie means our kind of muffins - you know, the ones that look like cupcakes but because have no icing are muffins? She may mean actual "English muffins", the ones that hold up the bacon, poached egg and hollandaise in Eggs Benedict, or she may mean something else. Certainly I have never eaten English muffins dripping with butter like she describes. Hmmmm...now I need a snack.)

Miss Marple has come to stay at Bertram's for a treat - the shopping, the plays, the sights and sounds of London. Of course, several other people have come to stay at Bertram's too - the notorious Bess Sedgwick, muddle-headed Canon Pennyfather, and sweet young Elvira Blake, just recently finished school in Italy.

Christie takes these typical British characters and mixes them with another plot - that of a crime syndicate causing a lot of trouble in England at the moment. All kinds of major robberies are taking place and the police cannot find the criminal mastermind behind the plots. Further, there is a strange happening occurring at every crime - a double of some reputable public figure is seen at the crime. Who is the criminal mastermind? What is the point of the doubles? And how does this connect up with Bertram's Hotel? Christie manages to tie these two plots together believably, along with creating some good characters in Bess and Elvira. (Although I'm not entirely clear on the purpose of the doubles.) Elvira in particular is a rather unlikeable young lady - she seems really like a spoiled little rich girl who could have used a good spanking when younger!

This is one of Christie's later books (published in 1965) and while not perhaps as good as those she wrote in her prime, it is still a good read. As Christie got older herself, she really was able to write well about being elderly and the problems that face people as they get older - missing the past, uncomfortable chairs, worries about money. With Miss Marple being an elderly woman, Christie is really able to portray the elderly very sympathetically. Most of the books I tend to read seem to be about young or younger people. It is interesting to read a book with an elderly woman as the main character - nowadays one feels that the publisher would have asked Christie to make Miss Marple a little younger and sexier to make the books more hip! I am glad that Miss Marple is Miss Marple and that through her, Christie is able to give some sort of perspective on age, wrapping it all up in a neat little mystery.

Seven Sins

Continuing with my love of all things Christie, I recently re-read Sparkling Cyanide. Contrary to my usual Christie, this is a non-Poirot/Marple story. Colonel Race (seen in the Poirot world in Cards on the Table) is in the novel, but only briefly. Because Sparkling Cyanide is not a Poirot novel, it's not in my collection of Poirot omnibus books. Instead, it's in its own mammoth omnibus, Seven Deadly Sins.

This omnibus book is organized by theme. Each of the seven deadly sins is matched up with a Christie novel which particularly represents that sin. The results are interesting. I must admit that I don't read most of the stories in this collection as I have them in smaller, more easily portable novels. But there are one or two that I turn to, as well as one that I don't read at all. The author's grandson has written a preface to the edition in which he says his two favourite novels are Five Little Pigs and Endless Night, both of which are coincidentally included in this omnibus! Sadly, I only agree with him on one of those points.

Pride
The ABC Murders
As already previously discussed, The ABC Murders is one of my favourite Christies. Pride probably comes from the arrogance of the murderer, assuming that he/she would not be caught and that he/she could continue to murder at will. A good start to the collection. I usually read the version in my Poirot omnibus The Complete Battles of Hastings Volume 2.

Envy
A Murder is Announced
This is a Marple novel, and a very good one. It is a village drama, as Miss Marple's cases usually are, but still an entertaining and interesting read. The characters are really well drawn and the mystery is sufficiently complicated but not enough so that the reader couldn't figure it out by putting the clues together. Envy plays in to the character of the murderer and the reasons for committing his or her murder. Again, however, I usually read this one in my Miss Marple Omnibus Volume 1.

Sloth
Sparkling Cyanide
This novel was on my shortlist of favourites and I enjoyed reading it again. The key murder happens before the novel even opens - the murder of the rich and fluffy Rosemary. The character of Rosemary evolves through the points of view of the different people she is involved with: her sister Iris, husband George, lover Tony, lover Stephen, Stephen's wife Sandra, and George's secretary Ruth. Christie ties all of the disparate narratives together into a whole. Also, the murderer is somewhat of a twist - but to say more would be to give away the plot altogether.

In contrast to the above books, in this novel, I believe Sloth comes in to the character of both the murderer and the murdered. The murdered woman is part of the rich upper class. She doesn't have to work for a living and is free to be a social butterfly. The murderer also does not want to have to work for a living and to somehow obtain money through murder indicates a certain amount of sloth. Also a certain amount of ingenuity to plan such a murder!

Lust
Evil Under The Sun
Lust is easy to spot in this novel - it is personified in the character of Arlena Marshall, the distractingly gorgeous femme fatale who ultimately is murdered. Her character and presence is the reason why she is murdered and sets the tone of the whole novel. This is a very good Poirot novel and the murder is enjoyably precise - alibis are calculated down to the minute. I also usually read this one in my smaller Four Classic Cases.

Gluttony
At Bertram's Hotel
This is a Miss Marple novel that I don't have in my two Miss Marple omnibus collections. This takes Miss Marple out of her peaceful village and deposits her in the sheltered echelons of Bertram's hotel, an old-fashioned enclave in the heart of London. However, the village parallels run true and Miss Marple is able to solve the mystery. This is one of the Christie books that I probably have overlooked, as it's in an edition I don't tend to read much. For that reason, I am not entirely sure where Gluttony comes in to the plot, other than probably in the motives of the murderer. I will have to remedy this oversight and make At Bertram's Hotel my next stop on the Christie tour.

Avarice
Endless Night
This Christie may perfectly embody Avarice, but there is little I can tell you about it. I read this novel once, the first time I read the edition, and have never gone back. I disagree with Christie's grandson on his opinion on this book - I do not like it! It is one of Christie's later novels (published in 1967) and dabbles in spiritualism and witchcraft. I don't like any of the characters (no Poirot or Marple here - not even Tommy or Tuppence!) and from what I recall there isn't even very much of a mystery. At any rate, it is not one of my favourites and one I strongly advise you to stay away from.

Wrath
Five Little Pigs
Christie's grandson and I agree here - this is one of Christie's best and is an unacknowledged classic. This is a tricky puzzle for Poirot - he has to solve a crime committed decades ago. The physical clues have vanished, so he is limited to the psychology. He must use his little grey cells to the utmost to solve the puzzle. Wrath here comes from the terrifying rages of the main players, Caroline and Amyas Crale. Wrath also haunts in the book to remind the reader of the consequences of Wrath. Again, I usually read this terrific novel in my omnibus edition: The War Years.



Thus ends the discussion of Christie's Seven Sins. Do you agree with the choices made by the editor? What Christie books would you choose instead? I agree with most of the picks (although I'm not sure what else I'd pick for Avarice), but most Christie books contain elements of the Seven Sins. Now I'm off to explore Gluttony, in At Bertram's Hotel.

More Christie

Writing about all of my favourite Christies has inspired me to re-read my omnibus collection of Christies. (Although it appears there are a bunch that I need to get out of the library to re-read too!) (And then purchase in a nice edition to add to my collection.) I most recently read The Perfect Murders omnibus and followed that up with this week's selection: Four Classic Cases.

These are four of Poirot's cases that probably don't fit under any other category, thus warranting an omnibus edition of their own. The four cases are: Three Act Tragedy, Sad Cypress, Evil Under the Sun, and The Hollow. The latter three were published during World War Two, but the books do not discuss the war in any detail, nor does Poirot appear to be involved in the war effort at all.

Three Act Tragedy involves Poirot in a lesser capacity. The main role is filled by Mr. Satterthwaite, who may be familiar to some Christie readers. The plot and characters are typical Christie and the mystery is interesting. I do wish for more Poirot; however Christie herself was probably getting tired of her little Belgian detective by this time. The character of the girl Egg Lytton-Gore is similar to many young Christie heroines, but she is still a pleasant and likeable character who helps propel the story along. An enjoyable Christie, if not one of her best.

Sad Cypress I discussed in great detail in my previous post, so I won't go into it much here. It remains, however, one of my favourites. I love the characters of Elinor, Peter, and Mary Gerrard and it is one Christie that has me wishing that the murder had never happened because the outcome is so sad. The book has both a dreamy quality with Elinor's recollection of the past and her thoughts and trial, and a propulsive forward motion when the trial really gets going and evidence is introduced. In most of her mysteries, Christie avoids or bypasses the end result of the justice system - either stopping her story after the murderer is caught but before the trial, or by having the murderer take his or her own life or otherwise not be brought to justice. So it is nice to see the Christie mystery unfold during the course of a trial and have her incorporate the justice system into her story.

Evil Under the Sun is another classic Christie; murder of a notorious woman on a lonely beach with only a limited number of people as suspects. A map is included for the reader as time is important in this novel; both for alibis and the final construction of the crime. It is a good puzzle and features Poirot all the way through, as well as some other good characters like Rosamund Darnley - although with a slight anti-feminist twist at the end where Rosamund promises to give up her flourishing dressmaking business to marry the man she loves. That aside, this is a good book for readers who enjoy a complicated puzzle where time is important.

The Hollow is an interesting and rather dreamy Christie effort. This book involves a murder among the Angkatell clan. Dr. John Christow and his wife Gerda are friends with the stalwart Sir Henry and whimsical Lady Lucy and have come to the Angkatell's country house, The Hollow, for a weekend. Sadly, Dr. John is murdered. Who was the murderer? Was it Gerda, his down-trodden and slightly stupid wife? Or was it one of the other Angkatell cousins who are also visiting: Edward (owner of Ainswick, Lucy's childhood home [entailed away from her to Edward)], David (the heir), Midge Hardcastle (an Angkatell cousin - in love with Edward), or Henrietta Savernake (another Angkatell cousin - and John's mistress). Poirot must fight his way through the Angkatell cobwebs to determine who was the murderer.

In this dreamy novel, the murder is almost an afterthought. The point of the novel really seems to be a story about the Angkatells, the relationships between them, and all of the Angkatell's love for their ancestral home, Ainswick - which is discussed throughout the book but never actually makes an appearance. Centring the novel is the unique character of Lady Lucy. She comes across as flaky and scatterbrained, but is actually very shrewd. The crime seems to be secondary to Lady Lucy - no one need be arrested for it as long as Ainswick is provided for. This is one of Christie's more interesting mysteries - although I prefer mysteries with more of a puzzle, which is why it didn't make it on my top 10.

I think for my next Christie pick I'm going to take a break from the established Poirot and Marple and read another of my favourite stories which - Sparkling Cyanide (one of my few favourites that doesn't feature Marple or Poirot). That's in my giant Seven Deadly Sins omnibus edition, and is actually the only novel in that collection that I read regularly. The others I either have already in a smaller form, or I don't like the mystery. I will discuss the edition further when I've finished Sparkling Cyanide.

Ms. Christie, you write good mysteries.

I was on a little road trip recently and had to pack a few books to read. And since it has been a little while since I last read them, and the omnibus editions are super handy, I figured it was time to pull out the old Agatha Christie novel collection and pack it along. I chose The Perfect Murders.

As you can see from the picture, this omnibus edition contains 3 full-length Poirot novels and 1 novella: The Murder of Roger Ackroyd, Murder on the Orient Express, Murder in the Mews, and Hercule Poirot's Christmas. These books are quite handy to pack on vacation. You can bring 3 or 4 books for the space of one! And they're paperback, so nice and light.


I grew up reading all the Agatha Christie Poirot and Marple mysteries in my mom's old paperback editions. I was excited when I saw HarperCollins come out with these beautiful omnibus collections with the attractive dark covers and white lettering. I quickly picked up the whole set, which encompasses all (I think) of Christie's Poirot novels (although none of the short stories - that I can find).

The novels are sorted by character and theme. The 8 novels featuring Poirot's Watson, Hastings, are collected in 2 volumes. The later mysteries with Ariadne Oliver are also collected in 2 volumes. Then there are 3 wartime novels collected in their own book, then 4 post-war novels. There are 2 volumes on criminal themes: The Perfect Murders and Four Classic Cases, and then there are 2 geographical books; the first with 3 novels set in France, the second with 3 novels set in the Middle East and Egypt. I also have the 8 Miss Marple novels collected in two volumes, and a larger book at the end (not seen in the above photo) which contains 7 novels, each corresponding to one of the 7 deadly sins. It's a little too hefty for traveling!

You may notice a slight difference between most of the editions and one of the geographical volumes, Poirot in the Orient. The latter is published by Berkley, whereas the other volumes are published by HarperCollins and are (I believe) the UK edition. The UK editions are noticeably nicer than their North American counterpart as published by Berkley. The Berkley edition is smaller and the paperback covers are not as thick and they feel cheaper. So it is not as nice as the other books, but I couldn't find the HarperCollins UK edition and wanted to complete the set. I still keep my eye out for the UK edition of the book, but wonder if they decided not to publish a UK edition of that particular title. The Miss Marple collections are also different from the Poirot collection, although I have the HarperCollins UK editions of those as well.

I generally re-read my Agatha Christies at least once every 2 years, if not yearly. And, although I've read them all before, many times I can only remember who the red herring murderer is, and so am still pleasantly surprised at the end.

The volume I read on vacation, The Perfect Murders, contains 4 of Agatha Christie's best puzzles that she set for her best detective Poirot. (I do prefer him to Marple, although both are infinitely preferable to Tommy and Tuppence, whom I just do not really care for.) Well, 3 of her best puzzles, anyway. I had not read Murder in the Mews before I bought this book, and it is a good little novella (it's shorter than the other novels but longer than a short story). But the other puzzles, The Murder of Roger Ackroyd and Murder on the Orient Express especially, are excellent works of detective fiction. I won't spoil them for you if you haven't read them by making any comments on the plot, other than to say they are very good! As I had recently read my Agatha Christies about a year ago, I could still remember who the murderers were this time around, but I enjoyed reading the mysteries nonetheless, and instead tried to read the books from the murderers' point of view.

I have a large pile of library and other borrowed books on and around the nightstand to read (not to mention bookclub!) so I will have to try hard not to get caught up in my "Aggies". However, once you've read one, you have to read the rest of them! (Even if you're not on vacation.) I think my next pick will be Four Classic Cases, which contains: Three Act Tragedy, Sad Cypress, Evil Under the Sun, and The Hollow. But maybe not until I've read through a few other things first!

The Play's the Thing

As promised on Monday, today I am going to talk about the Ngaio Marsh book I recently read: Enter A Murderer. This is the second book in her series featuring Chief Detective-Inspector Alleyn. The book also features intrepid reporter Nigel Bathgate, whom we first met in the first book in the series, A Man Lay Dead.

This book, as evidenced by the title, takes place in the world of the theater. Nigel takes his friend Inspector Alleyn to watch a play; The Rat and The Beaver. The final act is especially dramatic as one of the characters is shot on stage at the climax of the play. However, this time it is no performance - those were real bullets in the gun, not blanks and the actor is actually dead. There is a short list of characters who could have killed him: the cast of the play and the stagehands who run things behind the scenes. Inspector Alleyn must delve into the offstage world of the theater and investigate the real-lives of all the actors and actresses to determine who is the murderer.

It is a typical Christie/Marsh set-up - someone is murdered and there is only a limited number of people who could have committed the murder. I appreciate this style of murder-mystery as it is like solving a puzzle. Plus, the gore and violence are kept to a minimum. It is an exercise for the brain, not for the stomach!

Like Marsh's previous Alleyn novel, I enjoyed this one as well. It is a fast-paced quick read. Not overly challenging, but draws you in and keeps you interested as the mystery unfolds. Marsh's books, Heyer's mysteries, and Christie's books, are all set in the same time period. However, unlike Heyer's mysteries, I am not reading Marsh awaiting the arrival of Hercule Poirot! Inspector Alleyn is a real and developed character, and he carries the mystery on his own. He is intriguing, as there seems to be a hint of sadness in the character, and some mystery about his past life. I am curious to read more of the mysteries and see how the character develops. There is even a whisper of romance in this novel as it appears that Alleyn is attracted by one of the suspects. I'm curious to see if that subplot is carried through to the other novels as well.

One thing that makes Marsh's novels stand out from Christie's is that the protagonist is an actual police detective. This makes it natural and right that he should be investigating crimes. Of course, Poirot was also a consulting detective, so his involvement in crime was natural as well. Mystery writers can get into some trouble if their detective is not private or police - the writer gets tied in knots trying to find a way to involve their character in a murder without the character being suspected of the murder! After awhile, the coincidences are just too much, and the series often loses its charm. (Such as Diane Mott Davidson's Goldy/Caterer mystery series. Eventually, a caterer always stumbling on a dead body and solving the mystery gets a little far-fetched.) However, if your detective is a police or private detective, the crime comes to them and the investigation of it is their job. I like that Alleyn is a police detective and I am interested in Marsh's portrayal of the police force and its detective abilities.

In summary, I enjoyed this Ngaio Marsh book too. I will have to put the next one on hold from the library! I enjoy her police detective as an alternate to Christie's private detective, but enjoy the similar themes and puzzles that are contained in each work. The real test will come when I finish the series - will I want to read them again? I own nearly all of Christie's works and reread Poirot and Marple probably about once a year. Will I want to own the Marsh series and reread them? Only time will tell.

Good Night, Irene

Since his creation, Sherlock Holmes has been considered to be one of the greatest of all the literary detectives. Authors have reinterpreted the Holmes canon in new and unexpected ways. I am just beginning to realize how many Holmes interpretations are out there. One of my favourites is the Mary Russell series by Laurie R. King. My mother recently advised me of a new interpretation - the Irene Adler series by Carole Nelson Douglas. Thus intrigued, I ordered the first book, Good Night, Mr. Holmes, from the library and read it immediately.

I will say that I prefer the Holmes in the Mary Russell series: there he is a little more human, instead of a merciless, mechanical, thinking machine. However, with Irene Adler as the heroine, perhaps that is to be expected. There was also a brief moment of bait and switch at the beginning of the novel when I read along in the first person, thinking I was hearing the voice of Irene Adler, only to be surprised several pages later when the narrator became introduced to Irene Adler! However, perhaps that is more the fault of the person who wrote the blurb on the back of the book than the writer, for not indicating the true provenance of the narrator. Irene Adler is a known commodity in the Holmesian world; Penelope Huxleigh, not so.

After I recovered from my initial shock, I quite enjoyed the book. Penelope is an interesting and intelligent narrator, and her cool intelligence and morality are a perfect foil to Irene's passionate sense of drama and intellect. Penelope is Watson to Irene's Holmes; but a Watson with her own gifts to bring to the deduction of mysteries. Just as the Holmes stories are about male friendship, so is this book about female friendship. There is also a nice contrast between Irene's free-spirited American feminist and Penelope's parsons'-daughter conventional Victorianism. The two characters relate nicely to one another and their friendship is enjoyable and believable.

The story is a touch oddly plotted in that it suddenly seems to skip a number of years while alluding to other events that happened in those years that we are not privy to (and that presumably do not intersect with the mystery plot underlying this narrative.). My point only is that I don't think that the gap in years is necessary for the novel - a gap in months would have sufficed.

One should know the Holmes stories well to read this book - I like how the author weaves Irene Adler into the established Holmes mysteries (beyond "A Scandal in Bohemia"). It is like seeing the other side of the story - the side that Conan Doyle did not write about.

I also enjoyed the descriptions of Victorian law and lawyers as represented in the person of Godfrey Norton. Penelope learns how to type and becomes a typist - in essence, an early form of legal assistant - to Godfrey Norton. He and his family are also the subjects of a mystery which causes him to be tangled up with Irene and Penelope. Now, I've read "A Scandal in Bohemia" and I know how that turns out. I know that Irene Adler marries Godfrey Norton in the end. But I hoped against hope the whole book that somehow that would change and it would be Penelope marrying Godfrey! That seemed a more likely pairing. However, the author is constrained by the source material.

In general, I really quite enjoyed the book. I was annoyed at first to find the book not in Irene's voice (and I still think she deserves a starring role and a chance at first-person narration) but I grew to like Penelope and enjoyed the relationship between the two characters. I am interested to read the other books in the series to see how the worlds of Irene Adler and Sherlock Holmes intersect behind the curtain - as it were - of the Conan Doyle stories.

Deductive Reasoning and Bees

Finally, my new Mary Russell (Laurie R. King) came in from the library and I was so thrilled I devoured it all in one sitting, pretty much. A period of extensive waiting time during the afternoon helped as well.

For those who don't know, Laurie R. King is an American writer who has imagined Sherlock Holmes' life after the end of the Conan Doyle stories. What did Sherlock do in the 1920's? In His Last Bow, a collection of Sherlock Holmes stories, Dr. John Watson indicates that Sherlock has retired to the countryside, where he divides his time between "philosophy and agriculture". In the story His Last Bow, collected in that volume, Dr. Watson learns that Sherlock has retired to study bees and in fact completed a monograph on them called Practical Handbook on Bee Culture with Some Observations on the Segregation of the Queen.

This is where Ms. King begins her study of Sherlock in the novel The Beekeepers' Apprentice. Sherlock has retired to the Sussex downs with his housekeeper, Mrs. Hudson. It is there that he meets Mary Russell, the narrator of the stories, and a young woman with an intellect to rival Holmes' own. This is where their partnership begins.

It continues through several books located both in England and abroad as the characters look into many varied mysteries - some taken from the Conan Doyle canon, and some from their own lives. The mysteries are fast-paced and exciting and as intricately plotted as anything Conan Doyle ever did in his day. It is a pleasure watching the smooth and quick intelligence of our two protagonists as they fight crime.

The most recent book (barring the one I just read) was The Language of Bees. I was a little disappointed with it when, as I approached the end, no solution seemed to present itself. I was surprised to discover that it was a cliff-hanger and so awaited the publication of the sequel with anticipation. Fortunately, The God of the Hive is excellent. Ensure two things before you have read this book. First, have read The Language of Bees very recently. (Presumably one would have read the other books in the series prior as well and I do recommend reading them all in a row. A working knowledge of the series is necessary - the books do interconnect and cannot really be read as stand-alone novels.) Second, be sure that you have a clear afternoon or two to devote to the book.

I will not go into specifics here because I know some of my readers will have not yet read the book! (Those that have are welcome to leave their opinions in the comments.) However, it is an interesting and exciting novel. Ms. King draws you deeply into the world she creates and it is easy to get lost in it. The mystery is deftly unraveled over the course of the novel without being rushed - the mystery does unwind over the course of two books, after all. The ending is interesting. I am not sure that I liked it - I did not dislike it but I am waiting for the next book. There have been major changes in the lives of these characters and the fallout was not adequately discussed in this book. I think what is needed next is a nice, at-home mystery (meaning not something with international dimensions, like a lot of the recent mysteries) where the reader can see how the fallout of the events of The Language of Bees and The God of the Hive have affected the characters and their relationship to one another.

For those of you who are book buyers (as opposed to me, who is usually just a reader), I definitely recommend purchasing the Picador paperback editions. The covers are beautiful stained-glass renderings of images drawn from the novel. They are a lovely addition to any mystery shelf.

Always take advice from your friends

I am always on the lookout for a good mystery. I love most of Agatha Christie's works (especially Poirot) but, sadly, I've read nearly all of them. A friend suggested I check out Ngaio Marsh as a writer in a similar vein to Ms. Christie. Boy am I glad I did - Ms. Marsh is terrific!

I started with the first book in the series; A Man Lay Dead. As with many of Agatha Christie's works, it took place at a house party at an upper class estate in the country. One of the guests dies, and there are only a limited number of suspects. This time, however, the sleuth isn't a short Belgian detective with little grey cells and an obsession with tidiness or a little pink and white old lady with a Victorian brain. No amateurs here - the detective is actually a detective with Scotland Yard: Chief Inspector Detective Alleyn.

Alleyn is a likeable character. He has flashes of brilliant deduction, and seems almost Holmesian at times. There seems to be some sort of mystery in his past as he doesn't appear to be the regular type of detective the other characters are expecting. He appears to be the same class as those at the house party, yet he is working for Scotland Yard. I am curious about the Chief Inspector and want to read more to find out more of the mystery of his life.

The book was not very long, but it was entertaining. The mystery was solved satisfactorily through pure deduction. I appreciate the "puzzle" mysteries. The setting is lovely and Ms. Marsh fills her book with all types of British slang from the 1920's and 30's.

In short, if you like Agatha Christie, you will probably like Ngaio Marsh. The settings are fairly similar, but Chief Inspector Alleyn is his own character. These books are not copies of Ms. Christie's works; they are fully realized mysteries in their own right. There is merely a similarity of time period. I am excited to have found a new mystery writer to read and can't wait to read the rest in the series!