You can listen to the other stories here:
I don't know, the newer covers either look all the same or have weird people staring into the camera
I just finished reading Five Little Pigs (sorry, this is the second novel of Agatha I read. The first one is Roger’s Case)
The ending is so long that I can’t wait to share it.
What I remember most is Caroline Crale’s vulnerability and resilience, and Elsa’s fatal ignorance of real emotions.
Elsa realizes that Caroline is pitying her （for a young girl and she simply didn't understand mature, complex emotions, and that ignorance drove her to her fatal mistake.)
The whole ending gives me this feeling of traditional Chinese artistic 'liubai' (the concept of leaving blank space in paintings). It’s beautifully understated, leaving so much unsaid, which gives the tragedy a profound, lingering resonance that is absolutely unforgettable
I'd love to hear everyone's opinion. Taking into account how engaging the story is and how satisfying the solution is, what's your favorite Miss Marple mystery?
Mine is "The Case of the Perfect Maid". The ending completely caught me off guard.
Mine are that I didn't like 'evil under the sun' and I know many people consider it a very good book. I strongly disliked 'the secret of chimneys' and I know this one is a bit controversial but many people love it. I disliked also ' halloween party' that I found ultra boring .
I don't like AC's shorts stories and hated 'the labors of Poirot', disliked Mr. Quinn and generally all the short stories of Poirot and Marple.
On the contrary I loved 'they came to Bagdad' and 'murder is easy' , 2 books that are considered mid by fans.
What about you?
Out of curiosity I would like to know the gender and country of the majority of AC fans. I have the impression that most fans are women from the English speaking countries. I am a french woman, here AC is quite popular. Can you also share if AC is popular in your country.
I want to get a couple of her books to use up some Audible credits but I can’t decide which ones I’ll like listening to multiple times! I usually loop audiobooks in the background while working so I want to get things I can enjoy more than once.
What are your favorites to reread? (I’ve read I think her whole catalog so I'm open to anything!)
I feel in love with Agatha's work when we read "And then there were none" in school. Since then I decided I will read all of her works. I actually read half of them, but I never followed any order since the books I had access were the library ones or second hand. I havent read all the most famous ones ("Crooked house, "Five little pigs") but I reas least popular ones that I didnt like ("Passenger to Frankfurt" ). I also read "Curtain" without knowing it was the end of Poirot lololol.
My question is, if you were to read all of her work, what order would you follow? In publishing order? Maybe first all of poirot, then miss marple, then tommy and tuppence, etc...? From most to least popular? Random?
I wanna know your opinions since I have half of the work to reas.
Hercule Poirot's Christmas: 14.5 (out of 20) (Scoring described here)
An oppressive Poirot where he solves a bloody murder over the Christmas Holidays.
Story (3.5) (out of 5) - >!This story almost feels like Appointment with Death through a looking glass, with the dominant matriarch swapped out for a patriarch, the desert setting swapped out for snow, etc. The family drama is more interesting to me here and once the murder hits and Poirot does his thing the pace of the book never seems to let up.!<
Setting (1.5) (out of 2) - >!Gorston Hall is a good setting for a murder. It has locked rooms at the end of long halls, heavy curtains, windows that don’t quite open, and alcoves where murder suspects can hide. It has servants, some loyal, some shifty. It has a terrace where people can take a break from the usual oppression and engage in their hobbies like making little stone gardens. It’s funny, but snow isn’t mentioned a single time in this book and yet Gorston Hall has the feeling of a snowed-in setting to me.!<
Mood (2.5) (out of 3) - >!The oppressive setting, the tension of the family drama, and the bloody murder all contribute goosebumps. I especially liked the two quotes when the body is found: “The mills of God grind slowly.” feels like foreshadowing … while “Who would have thought the old man to have had so much blood in him” packs a visceral punch.!<
Characters (4) (out of 5) - >!Poirot commands attention as he so often does. With no Hastings to play off of, he’s more serious here (though his jealousy of Superintendent Sugden’s mustache is pretty hilarious). Pilar’s mercenary sensibility could have been interesting, but it’s so over-the-top she comes off as a caricature. As for the family members, they are fairly standard cut-outs but as a unit they are greater than the sum of their parts. The best scene in the book just might be their debate about what to do about Pilar’s share of the will; the conversation feels so real and true to each of the characters, yet winds up with the unexpected result of (most of) the family doing the right thing and granting her the share she deserved (or so we think at the time). The scene ends with such a touching interaction where Lydia tells Hilda: I am so glad to come to know you and David at last. I’m glad you both came here. These two women in particular are rocks for their husbands which is a refreshing counterpoint to the rest of the family tension here. I really loved this scene between Lydia and Alfred: He put a gentle arm round her. … “Your tongue runs away with you, Lydia. There’s no reason for you to be jealous.” … She gave him a quick remorseful kiss, a delicate caress on the tip of his ear.!<
Mystery (3) (out of 5) - >!This is a compelling mystery and the identity of the murderer is one of the better twists Christie has pulled off. The method itself is the weak point. I think I can accept coiling a rope around stacked up furniture and pulling on that rope to get them to fall over; but introducing the balloon that would also deflate makes it feel like one hell of an unlikely Rube Goldberg machine. Also the idea a deflating balloon sounding like a human cry is quite a stretch. When the murderer was revealed I admit I felt like it was pulled out of nowhere, but upon re-read Christie absolutely plays fair and there are tons of mentions of Sugden throwing his head back and laughing, or stroking his jaw (and he’s initially described as having an aquiline nose, suggesting his blood relation to the victim). I almost wonder how I didn’t pick up on it the first time through; the way Christie was able to fool me was by using the exact same trick with Stephen Farr, but making it more obvious so I fell for the red herring like I expect many other readers.!<
Final Thoughts: >!I’m gonna let Agatha Christie take this one. She dedicated this book to her brother-in-law, and in the dedication she writes: You complained that my murders were getting too refined—anaemic, in fact. You yearned for a “good violent murder with lots of blood.” A murder where there was no doubt about its being murder! … So this is your special story—written for you. I hope it may please.!<
>!And please it did! Mission accomplished, Agatha.!<
For me till now I’ve read 2-3 of them,
Hercule Poirot’s Xmas
Which ones should I read next ?
If you read Chapter 1 of my adventure here ( https://www.reddit.com/r/agathachristie/s/NrkWyOnTZr ) this is the letter we found in the red book that prompted us to return to the thrift store. Before I share what we found on our return, which would be the equivalent of ‘spoilers’, I thought I would post just the letter so sleuths can consider some of the same questions we did. Put on those detective hats!🕵️♀️
For reference, the book was found in Pennsylvania.
After reading this, my husband was sure Josh and Ruth were having an affair. I was more convinced Ruth was in a very demanding and possibly dangerous job. And where was she? Europe? Maryland? Away for school? Work? Or was their relationship long distance to begin with? ✉️
And what CAN one get for a kiss on the mouth? 💋
My child had already searched for obituaries based on Ruth and our area, and for Ruth and the new location noted in the letter, but with limited information and no last names… we all agreed we needed to check the other books for clues.
That’s the same visit that landed my Christie book in my collection.
I’m curious if anyone here can turn up better leads at this point than we did. Or different ideas. 💡
I’ll get photos together for Chapter 3 shortly. No spoilers for those who want to enjoy the adventure with us!
The part when she says that he reminds her of Gerald French, who had a tragic past. At first I thought that it would turn out that >! Hailey Preston was actually Rod !< but nothing of the sort happened. What do you think is his past?
So I am a new Christie reader currently reading "And then there were none" this is my first Christie book .
Now while reading some things caught my eye and I was like THERE IS NO WAY THATS ORIGINAL RIGHT?
Like Mr blore saying he was an ex-CID man but Brits would say MI6 not CID. And on another page Someone legit said "pukka shahid" as far as I know that's a hindi phrase. What were the original words here?
For those wondering I have the HarperCollins Ultimate mystery edition I saw its from Indian Subcontinent but I didnt think much of it and just got it......why is HarperCollins ruining the original text for Us? Is my only option to read the original text buying the over priced UK editions?
My newest Agatha book might not be valuable, but it came with a priceless adventure! Did I find a secret door to destiny? I’m hoping you guys might enjoy unraveling the mystery with me. We’ll call this Chapter One.
I was in a thrift store on Monday that had a typical book section. Two shelves with assorted genres in no particular order. I’m a librarian, so I always have to look. 📚
I was just skimming titles when I noticed a pattern… a suspicious amount of books on violent crime. A handful could be someone’s casual interest, but the amount and titles here suggested something more serious. Or sinister? 🧐
I immediately began considering who the owner of this collection had been before donation. Studying criminology… to profile criminals? To get away with murder? ☠️
I imagined some young Jessica Fletcher type reading through the books to research her own mysteries. Why did I assume the owner was a woman? I’m not sure. I just felt connected to the collection and naggingly curious about it.
I was drawn to one book in particular and thought I might buy it. My plan was to hollow it out and store Clue game pieces in it. I’m that kind of person. ♟️
That was NOT this Christie book. This book came after the adventure began. The book I bought was Patterns in Criminal Homicide. When I opened the book, I found the note. But who is Ruth? Who is Josh? Why is she shared with criminals? I liked the idea of taking home a piece of the mystery for my own shelves. 📕
I feel like I need to share the start of this mystery with others who might appreciate it. If you do, I’ll continue the story of how I ended up getting my new Agatha book. It’s just a bit much for one post. 😂
Now I am very torn on this as Ariadne Oliver is on of my favourite character in the Poirot books, so I didn't really appreciate what they did to her in a haunting in Venice but I did like the character we got. Maybe it would have just been fix if they gave her a new name in the film so it's more easy to tell that this is a new character
I'm watching the Ustinov *Evil Under the Sun*, and the staging is confusing me. To my eyes, almost all of the clothing looks tacky and try-hard (So. Much. Sequins.). The food is disgusting to look at and not remotely what a rich person would eat. (Tiny pink sausages on a stick? Maraschino cherries on a stick? Aspic thingys?)
I get that this is 1970s aesthetics. What I can't tell is whether this is supposed to be pretend-rich people at an actually rich-people resort, or whether this is supposed to be pretend-rich people at a pretend-rich resort.
In the book, (IIRC) it was more middle- to upper-middle class people at an upper-middle-class resort. (Solidly British, but for non-peers and the lower levels of nobility. And rich Americans, but there are rich Americans in a lot of places.)
And if there aren't any, who are your favorite ones?
Mine has to be >! Ella Zielinsky !< from The Mirror Cracked