While doing some research on Three Act Tragedy, I discovered that I was missing several volumes of short stories. As a matter of fact, I’ve missed adding twenty-one short story collections to my list!! I discovered my discrepancy when I learned one of the characters in Three Act Tragedy made his debut appearance in a series of short stories, The Mysterious Mr. Quin (1930).

So, I’ve been in a quandary as to whether to add the short story collection to my list or leave them out. On the one hand, I could sail through Ms. Christie’s works faster if I skipped the short stories. On the other hand, I’d be missing out on some key characters, like in the case of Mr. Quin.

I went back to my list of novels and, for some reason, I started counting them. It turns out there are only sixty-six novels, not the eighty-seven I thought. If I add the twenty-one short story volumes, that equals eighty-seven. Therefore, I’m sticking to my original goal of eighty-seven books which I now know is sixty-six novels and twenty-one short story collections. I probably could have figured this out by asking Kerrie of Mysteries In Paradise, the sponsor of this challenge. But, you know, sometimes it’s more fun to just bumble along.

I’m going to go back and pick up some of the short story collections and I’ll fit them in between the novels I planned to read. I’ll do that until I catch up. Then I’ll keep on moving through the decades.

Partners In Crime (1929) is one of the short story collections. I’ve been reading it a little bit at a time and decided to finish it so I can tell you about it today.

These stories all feature Tommy and Tuppence Beresford. I first met them in The Secret Adversary, Ms. Christie’s second novel. They are a savvy and witty young married couple in London in the 1920s. They love detective novels as well as “real life” crime and detection. They love it so much they purchased a nearly bankrupt detective agency.

Each of the sixteen short stories is one of Tommy and Tuppence’s cases. The stories are all light and fun, nothing violent or gruesome. There are numerous reference to fictional detectives. If you are up on your classic early detective fiction, you’ll like this one.

Partners In Crime is my 17th Christie read. Only 70 to go. If you are interested in joining the Agatha Christie Reading Challenge, visit Kerrie by clicking on the button above or going here.

In Why Didn’t They Ask Evans? Ms. Christie introduced Bobby Jones and Lady Frances or Frankie. These two don’t show up again in another novel and that’s fine with me. I just couldn’t connect with them. Maybe Ms. Christie didn’t like them either.

Bobby and Frankie have been friends since childhood although they are separated by class. Bobby has been serving in the navy so they haven’t seen each other in a while. But now they team up to solve a murder mystery.

While golfing Bobby discoveres a man who has fallen over a cliff. When Bobby got to him the man died shortly after opening his eyes and asking Bobby, “Why didn’t they ask Evans?” The only hint as to the man’s identify was a picture of a beautiful young woman. While Bobby is waiting for help to arrive another man comes along and offers to stay with the body so Bobby can go to his father’s church. Bobby is late and he had promised his father he would play the organ. Frankly, I thought his father would have understood but . . .

Bobby actually forgot about the dead man’s final words until much later. In the meantime there is an inquest and the appearance of some people Bobby doesn’t trust. When Bobby is nearly poisoned, Frankie and Bobby are convinced the man who died on the cliff must have been murdered. They set out to prove it.

This is not my favorite of Agatha Christie’s mysteries. The two main characters didn’t work for me and I thought the story rambled around.  The ending took forever. If you haven’t read any of Christie’s works, I wouldn’t start with this one. (My choices would be Murder At the Vicarage and/or Murder On the Orient Express.)

If you are interested in accepting a challenge to read  Agatha Christie’s books, visit Kerrie at Mysteries In Paradise.

Why Didn’t They Ask Evans? was published in the UK in 1934.  It was published in the US as The Boomerang Clue (Dodd, Mead & Company, 1935). My Rating: C+.

by Agatha Christie

Dodd, Mead and Company, 1934

My Rating: A+

Back in the 1970s the movie version of Murder On the Orient Express was a smash hit. After seeing the movie I read the book. I liked both book and movie then and I really liked them now, as you can see from my rating above. Out of the 15 novels I’ve read in the past 15 months, this one is the best. I may discover more as I keep going. I only have 72 left to go.

Why is this one so good? Well, I liked the plot and I also liked the way it’s organized. It’s told in a very creative and systematic way. First the author gives us two pages listing the characters and tells a little about each one. Then she divides the story into three parts: The Facts, The Evidence and Poirot Sits Back and Thinks.

In The Facts Ms. Christie sets the stage. Hercule Poirot is traveling from the Middle East to London aboard the fabulous train known as the Orient Express. On board he met an old friend who is a director for the train. On the first night of travel one of the the thirteen passengers is murdered.

In the second part of the story, The Evidence, the director asks Poirot to lead the investigation. Poirot, of course, agrees and he begins his investigation by interviewing the remaining twelve passengers one by one. Poirot knows that the murderer must still be on the train since the train has been stalled in a snow drift and there are no footprints outside the train. The murderer has to be one of these twelve passengers, or perhaps the conductor.

By the end of the story we find that Poirot has a couple of possible solutions to offer the police. To be honest, neither solution occurred to me.

This week I watched the movie version again. The movie is very close to the story. What made the movie so amazing was it’s all-star cast. You will see Albert Finney as Poirot, Sean Connery, Lauren Bacall, Ingrid Bergman, Anthony Perkins, John Gielgud, Vanessa Redgrave, and more.

The movie was such a pleasure to watch with all the glamorous costumes and the authentic looking coach and restaurant car. It was definitely a 1930s period piece. All of that, plus the classic actors from film and stage, made for a very pleasant afternoon.

My only complaint is that Albert Finney seemed to be over-playing Poirot. It was as if he saw Poirot as a caricature or a cartoon character. I’m sure many will argue that Poirot is a caricature of a detective but I don’t see him that way. Just let me stick to my belief that he’s a unique little Belgian detective. I like the version that’s in my head. (Of course, I reserve the right to change my mind later.)

Don’t let my minor complaint keep you from renting this movie or reading this excellent book. I think you’ll enjoy the experience.

For those people who live in North America: The PBS show, Masterpiece Mysteries, is featuring Agatha Christie’s novels starting this coming Sunday night. (The schedule is here.) The shows run from May 23 through August 1. Six of the shows are new videos.

July 7th: A special with David Suchet on the Orient Express

July 11th: Murder On the Orient Express

Murder On the Orient Express fulfilled several challenges:

Agatha Christie Reading Challenge

Take A Chance Challenge

Cozy Mystery Challenge

The 1930s Challenge.

Jane Wilkinson is a famous and an extremely beautiful American actress who is also married to Lord Edgware. According to Jane/Lady Edgware, her husband is a horrid man and she wants out. She comes to Hercule Poirot, a master at solving problems, to see if he could help her “get rid of the man.” There is someone else she wishes to marry.

Poirot, of course, will not be a party to murder but he agrees to talk to Lord Edgware about a divorce. Lord Edgware says he has no objection to a divorce and, in fact, had already sent a letter to his wife telling her that.

But then, the very next morning, Lord Edgware was found murdered in his study. Both the butler and a housekeeper saw Lady Edgware come to visit him the night before. She is presumed to be the last person to see him alive. Inspector Japp believes he has the case wrapped up only to discover that Lady Edgware was somewhere else the night before. Lady Edgware was at a dinner party, one in which there were thirteen people around the table. Uh-oh – that’s bad luck.

Solving this mystery means looking at many different options. For one thing, how could Lady Edgware be in two places at one time? Could it have something to do with Carlotta Adams, the fabulous American impersonator? Before our detectives can pursue that line of questioning, Carlotta is also found dead.

What about the motives for killing Lord Edgware? Lady Edgware already knew she could have her divorce. Lord Edgware’s nephew, who had severe financial problems, would be the one to inherit Lord Edgware’s fortune. And, Lord Edgware’s daughter really hated her father. Both of these two characters were at the theatre that evening. How could they have done it. Is there someone else?

We have suspects and motives but dead-ends everywhere we turn. Thank goodness we have Hercule Poirot’s clever little gray cells. He, of course, solves the case. We hear all about this case from Poirot’s friend, Captain Hastings. It’s hard for the reader (me) to rely on what Captain Hastings tells us. I want to solve the case before Poirot does but Hastings gets in the way. He is often mis-led by beautiful women and he doesn’t see the clues right in front of him. Agatha Christie, in this novel, does give the reader all the clues and, for a change, I had this one all figured out.

To make it even more fun, I was able to watch the television movie version of the book. It wasn’t exactly the same as the book but close enough. The version I saw was the A & E production with David Sachet as Hercule Poirot. It’s so much fun to watch him walk and do all the other little Poirot actions. What I loved most about the movie was all the glamour, the costumes and the sets based on life in the 1930’s. See it if you can.

This is my 14th novel read as part of the Agatha Christie Reading Challenge. I’m reading them in order of publication date. If you are interested in the challenge, please visit Kerrie at Mysteries in Paradise.

I own a copy of this book. 13 At Dinner (Lord Edgware Dies is available at Amazon. (I am an Amazon Associate.)

The “world’s greatest detective,” Hercule Poirot, and his trusty companion, Captain Hastings, are staying at a nearby luxurious hotel. They are there for a vacation but they soon involve themselves in a mystery. Actually, I should say that Poirot involves them in a mystery. Hastings would prefer to play golf.

Poirot is convinced that someone is trying to kill Nick. He would like to solve a murder before it actually becomes a murder. Nick doesn’t seem to take the incidents seriously until there finally is a murder.

At the very beginning of the book there is a Cast of Characters. I really needed that just to keep everybody straight in my head. With this Cast, Poirot has a whole line-up of suspects to choose from. Very diligently and methodically Poirot works his way through the suspects and the clues. When all else fails he used a seance, which surprised me. Agatha Christie used a couple of seances in last month’s book, The Sittaford Mystery.

Even though this was a re-read for me, I didn’t remember who the killer was. I figured it out just a little bit before Poirot did. This was another wonderful Agatha Christie book. There were enough twists and turns to keep me guessing.

This is book 13 in my challenge to read all of Christie’s books in order of their publication date. For more information visit Kerrie at Mysteries in Paradise. I also watched the movie version of this on dvd. It starred the wonderful David Suchet as Poirot, Hugh Fraser as Hastings, Phillip Jackson as Inspector Japp, and Polly Walker as Nick Buckley. I’m also counting this as one of my Read the Book, See the Movie Challenge events.

Check your local library for copies of Peril At End House in both the book and the dvd. Amazon also has the book.

Simon & Schuster, 1932  My Rating: A

The Sittaford Mystery

Sittaford House was a great country home built and owned by Captain Trevelyn. He was persuaded to rent his house to a Mrs. Willett and her daughter for the winter. Captain Trevelyn didn’t like women so he moved to a cottage, called Hazelmoor, about six miles away.

Mrs. Willett was quite the social person so one cold and snowy afternoon she invited her neighbors over to Sittaford House. Just to do something different and fun they got out a table, shut out the lights, and had a seance. During the seance one of the messages was that Captain Trevelyn was dead, actually murdered. Although Trevelyn’s friend, Major Burnaby, didn’t believe in the seance stuff, the message bothered him enough that he set out for Hazelmoor even though more snow was on the way. When he arrived at Hazelmoor he found that it was true – Captain Trevelyn had been murdered.

Inspector Narracott was called in to handle the murder investigation. As he gathered all the facts he, too, was curious about the mystery at Sittaford: Why did the Willetts want to be at Sittaford in the middle of winter and is there any connectiuon between them and Captain Trevelyn’s death?

I liked the character of Inspector Narracott. He was smart, saw the little details, had a good feel for people, and had loads of common sense. I think this may be the only time he appeared in one of Agatha Christie’s novels. The Inspector logically and systematically combed through all the suspects and finally arrested Jim Pearson, one of Captain Trevelyn’s nephews. However, that didn’t stop the Inspector. He kept looking for more information.

Half way through the story a new “detective” emerged. This was Emily Trefusis. She was another very likable character. She was Pearson’s fiance who knows Jim was too weak to commit murder. Emily made a great detective as she was the type of person who can get everyone to talk. She also had great common sense and was extremely curious.

This was the type of book where you need a playlist. Within the first chapter I started a list of the various characters and by the time I was done I had sixteen. That doesn’t include the maids, the nurse, the hotel owner, and all the other people who were interested in solving one or both of the two mysteries. Agatha Christie had the ability to make each character sees like various people I’ve met. She certainly did it in all the people in The Sittaford Mystery. I can highly recommend The Sittaford Mystery/Murder at Hazelmoor..

There is one more minor mystery in this book. It had me digging in the reference books. Agatha Christie dedicated The Sittaford Mystery like this:

“To M.E.M.

with whom I discussed the plot of this book, to the alarm of those around us.”

I had a hunch the M.E.M. might refer to Agatha Christie’s second husband Max Mallowan and, in fact, it did. The two met while they were both in Bagdad. Mallowan accompanied Christie back to England aboard the Orient Express and, while on the train, Christie discussed the plot of the novel with Mallowan. I can just imagine what the rest of the passengers were thinking when they heard some of the details of this story.

I read this novel as part of the Agatha Christie Reading Challenge. For more details, visit here.

She is my favorite of all Ms. Christie’s detectives. Although Miss Marple appeared in two short stories published in magazines in 1927, this is the first novel in which Miss Marple  is introduced. In this book she is not necessarily well liked by everyone. She’s considered a busy-body and she thinks the worst of people. Here are some of the descriptions of Miss Marple taken from Murder at the Vicarage:

• Miss Marple is a white-haired old lady with a gentle, appealing manner.
• Miss Marple always sees everything. Gardening is as good as a smoke screen, and the habit of observing birds through powerful glasses can always be turned to account.
• In St. Mary Mead everyone knows your most intimate affairs. There is no detective in England equal to a spinster lady of uncertain age with plenty of time on her hands.
• I smiled. For all her fragile appearance, Miss Marple is capable of holding her own with any policeman or Chief constable in existence.

The story of Murder at the Vicarage is told in the first person by the vicar, Len Clement. The village of St. Mary Mead is a quiet, pleasant place. Hardly anything happens there. But, there is one man whom everyone dislikes – Colonel Protheroe.

One day he ends up dead, shot in the head, in the Vicar’s study. The police are called to investigate all the clues but their job is much easier when someone confesses. Of course, the Vicar and his wife and their neighbor, Miss Marple don’t believe the confession. They begin to gather their own information.

Most confusing of all the clues is a note by the body and an over turned clock, as well as the comings and goings of so many people to the Vicarage. Miss Marple believes there are seven people who could have killed Colonel Protheroe. The mystery is – which one of those seven did it, or could it be an eighth person?

This is definitely one of my favorites so far, and not just because I love Miss Marple. It’s very light-hearted and often humorous. The characters of the Vicar and his wife are also appealing. Ms. Christie added drawings to the book to help in the understanding of where all the buildings lie, the layout of the Vicar’s house and study. Very helpful.

**The picture of Miss Marple above is actually Helen Hayes who played Jane Marple in two television movies in the 1980’s. She is who I visualize whenever I think of Miss Marple. I know there are others who have played her quite well but Helen Hayes is who I think of.

The book cover, pictured above, is from Wikipedia. It is the original, first edition book jacket from 1929. Isn’t it gorgeous? Here also is the “dust jacket blurb”:

“When Gerald Wade died, apparently from an overdose of sleeping draught, seven clocks appeared on the mantelpiece. Who put them there and had they any connection with the Night Club in Seven Dials? That is the mystery that Bill Eversleigh and Bundle and two other young people set out to investigate. Their investigations lead them into some queer places and more than once into considerable danger. Not till the very end of the book is the identity of the mysterious Seven o’clock revealed.”

This novel was different from the previous nine. It was lighter in tone and, at times, cheerful. It was still a mystery but it had some romance and some playfulness on the part of the young people trying to solve the case. According to Ms. Christie’s autobiography, she made these changes on purpose.

“This was a sequel to my earlier book The Secret at Chimneys, and was one of what I called ‘the light-hearted thriller type.’ These were always easy to write, not requiring too much plotting and planning.”

In the official biography of Agatha Christie, author Janet Morgan describes this time in Ms. Christie’s life as one of loneliness. She was now divorced and had “a circle of married friends in London but, having been used to having a husband, it was not the same to go about alone or even with another woman. As she had always done in such troughs, Agatha worked.” Amazing, isn’t it?  She hunkered down and gave us this fun and high-spirited novel. Thank you, Ms. Christie.

I read this novel as part of the Agatha Christie Reading Challenge. It’s a perpetual challenge in which I am attempting to read all of Agatha Christie’s novels in order of their publication date.

10 down / 70 to go

If you’d like to know more about the challenge, visit Kerrie at Mysteries in Paradise.

[Source: the public library]

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by Agatha Christie

Berkley Books, 1928

My Rating: B+

“. . . I had changed from an amateur to a professional. I assumed the burden of a profession, which is to write even when you don’t want to, don’t much like what you are writing, and aren’t writing particularly well. I have always hated The Mystery of the Blue Train, but I got it written, and sent off to the publishers.”

- from Agatha Christie in An Autobiography

I’m sorry Agatha Christie didn’t like this book. I think it’s because this book was associated with a painful time in her life. Ms. Christie’s mother had died and her husband, Archie Christie, asked her for a divorce. He was having an affair with a mutual friend. These two events caused a severe depression and, in addition, she now had to write to support herself and her daughter.

Even though Agatha Christie hated the book, I rather liked it. It read like a regular novel set in the 1920’s rather than strictly a mystery novel. She took the time to introduce the characters and to set the scene. The actual murder did not happen until Chapter 11.

There were so many main characters but my favorite was Katherine Grey, a single woman in her thirties. Katherine has just inherited a small fortune from the woman for whom she was a long-time companion. Now with an improved wardrobe, she’s off to see something of the world and, hopefully, have a nice little adventure. She’s aboard the Blue Train, a luxury train between London and the south of France.

Katherine meets Ruth Kettering who is also on board the Blue Train. Ruth is the daughter of one of the richest men in America. She’s married to a man who is having an affair with a famous dancer. But Ruth is not completely innocent. She’s planning to meet a former lover herself. All of these people are on board the Blue Train, or at least this reader believes they are all on board. To make it even more tantalizing, Ruth brought along the famous Russian rubies her father recently purchased for her.

I won’t spoil the story for you by telling you any more of the story. But I will tell you there is one more important guest on board the Blue Train. He’s short, with an egg-shaped head, and he’s known as the world’s greatest detective. Yes, you guessed it — Hercule Poirot will manage to tie up the story quite nicely.

This is the ninth novel published by Agatha Christie. I’m reading these books in order for the Agatha Christie Reading Challenge. For more information about this on-going challenge, go HERE.

The Big Four

Agatha Christie

Dodd, Mead and Co., 1927

My Rating: B

Hercule Poirot is the star of this novel with his friend Captain Hastings as the narrator. The whole story starts with a strange man tumbling into Poirot’s rooms. He is barely able to communicate “The Big Four” before he dies mysteriously. Of course, our master sleuth has heard talk of the big four. They are the four people who are “behind everything . . . the world-wide unreast, the labour troubles . . . and the revolutions . . .” Poirot sets out to find out more and to stop this menace. Here is the synopsis from the original dust jacket:

“Number One was a Chinaman – the greatest criminal brain of all time; Number Two was a multi-millionaire; Number Three was a beautiful Frenchwoman; and Number Four was ‘the destroyer,’ the ruthless murderer, with a genius for disguise, whose business it was to remove those who interfered with his masters’ plans. These Four, working together, aimed at establishing a world dominion, and against them were ranged Hercule Poirot, the little Belgian detective with the egg-shaped head, the green eyes and ‘the little gray cells,’ and his friend Hastings. It was Hercule Poirot’s brain, the ‘little gray cells,’ which brought about the downfall of the Big Four, and led to their destruction in the cave in the Dolomites.”

This eighth published novel by Christie reads a little different from the others. It’s divided into 18 chapters and each one feels like a short story. There are lots of characters and crimes to be solved. About half-way through the book I did a little research and discovered why the book read this way. The stories were, in fact, serialized in a magazine (The Sketch in 1924). They were called The Man Who Was No. 4. The Big Four was ‘novelized’ from the original short stories by changing the beginnings and endings of each short story to make it flow like a novel.

According to several of the sources I read, Christie did not like this book, nor the next one, The Blue Train. They were written during a time when she needed the money. She didn’t like writing under that kind of pressure. In fact, she wrote an extra novel and had it stored at her publishers. She wanted a book in reserve just in case she was ever in this position again. Well, Agatha, I know exactly what you mean, on a much smaller scale. I hate it when I get to a day and I have nothing to add to this blog and the pressure is on to create. I’m never happy with what I create under those circumstances. So I see why this book and the next was not among Ms. Christie’s favorites.

I found the book both fun and interesting. Once I understood about the serialization and subsequent novelization, it was interesting to read the rest of the book and try to figure out which was the original serialization. The fun part was watching the egg-shaped, green-eyed master at work solving a problem usually left to master spies and super-heros.

I read this book as part of my Agatha Christie Challenge. For more information and/or to join this on-going challenge visit Kerrie at Mysteries in Paradise. I also read this book for the R.I.P. Challenge sponsored by Carl at Stainless Steel Droppings.

I’m off to read the next one: The Mystery of the Blue Train.