Mini Catch-Up

Oh, the joy of blogger’s guilt. Been blogging for over 14 years (flipping heck, feeling old in book blogosphere! Hey Siri, play something young as I AM YOUNG, DAMNIT!) and, after a period of time, if you’re not blogging, you feel guilty for not blogging and chat about reads past, present and future. 

Plus, been going through a bit of a blogging/real life slowdown. Nothing wrong with that, but let me touch base with you as you guys know I haven’t vanished off the face of the earth with me blogging and reading (though if you follow me on my socials, you know I am very active). 

The main audiobook I listened to since we last chatted was Evil Under the Sun by Agatha Christie (affiliate link to bookshop.org is here). It seems that I might be considering doing an Agatha Christie a month or an Golden Age Mystery a month as I seem to have a load of these on my To Be Read lists (either on my physical shelves, my e-reader shelves or on my radar to investigate at a later date). Now, this seems to be one of the faves of the Poirot fans as it ticks all the boxes: a closed circle mystery of suspect on an holiday island off the coast, a messy love triangle (of sorts) and Poirot at his finest. I can see why fans of Agatha Christie rate this so highly. There is elements that are stuck in its time (the sexism at the end of the book where a successful businesswoman is told to quit her business so she can marry and be a good little wife left a sour taste in the mouth) and the case hinging on a lot of chance/luck…

Am I going to do another Christie this month? Yes, I think I am. I am leaning over between 3 titles (maybe a poll is needed on my socials?) and i am eyeing my British Library Crime Classics (I have one I am desperate to read but saving that for nearer the General Election as the murder is set at the Houses of Parliament). Would you guys like to know the British Library Crime Classics on my TBR? I am very tempted to blog them as they are a weird little mix…

Because I was having a bit of a DNFing blitz, I wanted to read something comforting but I wasn’t in the mood to reread (something I do want to do this year as I did NO REREADING last year. At ALL! I have three books I want to try and reread this year so hopefully, will attack them before the year is out). So, I dived into Mary Norton’s Bedknobs and Broomsticks (affiliate link to bookshop.org is here). This is a bind up of two stories (The Magic Bedknob and Bonfires and Broomsticks), which acts as the inspiration to the Disney movie, starring Angela Lansbury (I adore this movie. Yes, it’s trying too hard to be catch the success of Mary Poppins). And it was a delightfully cosy read but oh my, SO DIFFERENT from the movie. Yes, I knew going into this that the books were inspiration for the movie so there will be huge changes, but I was shocked on how different the two medias were and how dark the book got compared to the movie (yes, the movie is set during the Second World War, but we saw no one die. In the book, we saw someone get nearly burnt at the stake for being a witch).

But it was a nice read. Something I desperately needed as I go into reading some non-fiction (Rough Justice by Her Honour Wendy Joseph KC) and some literary/historical fiction (The Glutton by A…). Don’t worry, normal reading (and I use the term “normal” loosely) will return as I suspect that once these are done, I will be attacking my NetGalley backlog of audiobooks and eProofs (sorry in advance).

Audiobook Review - Lord Edgware Dies

Because of the events of the last few months with my employment and, because of this, falling into a bit of a reading/audiobook slump, I had no plans to do a library audiobook for a while. I am desperate to get my TBR piles of books/audiobooks publishers have kindly gifted me (in exchange for an honest review/reaction) under some control (remember last April when my Amazon was hacked/deleted and all my proofs were wiped off my kindle? I am still affected by that!). 

But I couldn’t bring myself to start audiobooking one of my many audiobooks that I have got from publishers or bought myself. I just wasn’t in that headspace. I needed something short, something I can listen to really quickly and that would kick me out of my audiobook slump. 

Then this became available on my library’s audiobook app. And who doesn’t love a classic murder mystery? 

Title and Author: Lord Edgware Dies by Agatha Christie

Publisher: HarperCollins

Bought, Borrowed or Gifted: Borrowed via library’s audiobook app

Buy from (Affiliate): uk.bookshop.org

In Poirot’s ninth outing, after seeing an impressionist performance of Carlotta Adams, Poirot is approached by the actress Jane Wilkinson. She is currently married to Lord Edgware and, according to her, he will not give her a divorce and asks Poirot for help. Though Poirot doesn’t get involved, he agrees and visits Lord Edgware where he discovers that Lord Edgware is happy to give a divorce and wrote a letter to let Jane know. 

Poirot tells Jane Wilkinson and she is thrilled over the news, and Poirot thinks that is that. Except the following day, Poirot discovers that Lord Edgware has been murdered. Stabbed at the base of the skull, and witnesses say that they saw Jane Wilkinson at the family home at the time of the murder. But that can’t be possible as she had been at a party and there are twelve witnesses that can testify to that. 

Is it possible for a woman to be in two places at once? Who murdered Lord Edgware? How is it connected to a drugs overdose of Carlotta Adams? And how did a chance remark from a stranger help Poirot come to the truth?

NetGalley November 2023 - Hercule Poirot’s Silent Night

You think, while I was on holiday to a warm climate, I would read warm, sunny reads. Nope. Of course not. You all have been following this blog and most of my social media outlets for how long now? I wanted for something cold, something Christmas, something murder. 

And I had an itch to read one. So, imagine my surprise after attempting to read the prologue of Hercule Poirot’s Silent Night that I powered through, even though my brain was going “You should save this for Christmas…” and “You didn’t like the previous outings with Sophie Hannah’s take on Poirot. Why would this time be any different?”

Title and Author: Hercule Poirot’s Silent Night by Sophie Hannah

Publisher: HarperCollins

Bought, Borrowed or Gifted: Gifted by UK publisher via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review/reaction

Buy From (Affiliate): uk.bookshop.org

It’s 19th December, and both Poirot and Inspector Edward Catchpool are planning their Christmas together, when a woman bursts in and begs for their help. This turns out to be Inspector Catchpool’s mother and she insists Poirot and Catchpool come to a Norfolk mansion to solve a murder and prevent another. In the safe haven of a hospital, a well liked man was murdered - hit over the head with a heavy vase - and soon, Arnold Laurier will be going to the same hospital (to the private room next to the murder scene) and his wife is convinced he will be murdered too, though she can’t explain why. 

Against both their wishes, Poirot and Catchpool go and, if they want to be home by Christmas, they will need to get their little grey cells working quickly to catch the killer and maybe prevent a second murder. 

Audiobook Review - The Affair at the Victory Ball

• Title And Author: The Affair at the Victory Ball by Agatha Christie
• Publisher: HarperCollins
• Physical, eBook or Audiobook: Audiobook
• Bought, Borrowed or Gifted: Borrowed by BorrowBox & Essex Libraries
• Length: 33 Minutes

Before I want to go any further, I wanted to say that this was meant to be for my Murder Month which is happening in September. That was originally the plan. However, I changed my mind and decided to pop this here instead. The main reason is that I couldn’t review this next month - it’s 33 minutes long! Yes, it’s in a collection of Hercule Poirot short stories (which I am going to write the history to. Trust me, I am going to talk about it), but I haven’t read the collection. I’ve only audiobooked this short. Plus, I have plans to try and read at least one Agatha Christie novel for my Murder Month. It’s going to be either The ABC Murders, Crooked House or a reread of Murder on the Orient Express. I haven’t which yet. 

History lesson time. The Affair at the Victory Ball was first published in the Strand within a year of Agatha Christie’s debut novel, The Mysterious Affair At Styles being published, This, and other Poirot short stories, were then published in a collection of short stories in the mid-1970s as Poirot Early Cases or The Underdog and Other Stories in the US. 

So… The Affair of the Victory Ball is an interesting case as Poirot is asked to be involved by Chief Inspector Japp. A group of six people are the Victory Ball, each dressed in a costume of the Commedia dell’arte (a early form of professional theatre which involve six masked characters Harlequin, Il Dottore, Il Capitano, Pantalone, Colombina and Pierrot [forgive if I have made mistakes here. I did try and get this right]) and, by the end of the evening, two people died. One stabbed through the heart by a table knife and his body oddly stiffed, the other dead in her bed, overdosed on cocaine.

eBook Review - The Mysterious Affair at Styles

• Title And Author: The Mysterious Affair At Styles by Agatha Christie
• Publisher: HarperCollins
• Physical, eBook or Audiobook: eBook
• Bought, Borrowed or Gifted: Bought
• Length: 288 pages

As you guys know, last year I rediscovered Agatha Christie. I read Mysterious Mr Quin and Appointment with Death, audiobooked And Then There Were None and The Murder of Roger Ackroydd and read Sophie Hannah’s take of Poirot with The Mystery of the Three Quarters. 

And this year, I decided I wanted to read a few more Christie mysteries. I don’t have any real plan of what books I was planning to read. Whatever I could get my hands on cheaply, but I knew I wanted to read 4 Christies and maybe one more Sophie Hannah’s Poirot. 

So, when The Mysterious Affair At Styles came up on my kindle for 99p, I jumped at it. Agatha Christie’s debut novel and her first outing with Poirot was too good to miss. Plus, I didn’t know the story that well compared to her more well-known titles such as Murder on the Orient Express. 

After the Great War, Captain Arthur Hastings is invited to Styles in Essex to help him recover from his injuries he received from the War. It’s the last place he would expect to discover a murder. But when his hostess dies, her body spasming in her bed, anyone in the house could be killer. But Hasting is very lucky as, in the village, a small group of Belgian refugees lives, and one of them is a former detective. A detective who is growing bored of retirement… 

So, what do I think of Poirot’s first outing?

eBook Review - Appointment With Death

• Title And Author: Appointment With Death by Agatha Christie
• Publisher: HarperCollins
• Physical, eBook or Audiobook: eBook
• Bought, Borrowed or Gifted: Bought
• Length: 272 Pages or 5 Hours and 57 Minutes

This has been sitting on my Kindle for quite some time (I’ve just checked - since September of last year. I got it in an eBook sale, I think) and I’ve always wanted to read this when I was in the mood for crime. Plus, it’s Agatha Christie so it can’t be a bad crime story. 

In the past few months, I read then audiobooked three Agatha Christie's (The Mysterious Mr Quin, The Murder of Roger Ackroyd and And Then There Were None) as well as read a New Hercule Poirot mystery, written by Sophie Hannah (The Mystery of the Three Quarters) and each had their own success and pitfalls. So, when I remembered I had this while reading Time Convert, I knew I wanted to read it. I wanted to read a murder and this ticked the boxes. 

“You see, don’t you, that she’s got to be killed?”

Poirot overhears this one night as he was closing his hotel window and thinks nothing of this remark. But this remark comes back to haunt him several days later when he is told of a death. Among the towering red cliffs of Petra, the body of Mrs Boynton was discovered, like some swollen, detestable Buddha or a spider. She could have died of natural causes - expect for a small puncture mark on her wrist… Was Mrs Boyton murdered? Poirot decides he will try and find the truth and gives himself 24 hours to solve the crime. But with that remark in his head and seeing how damaged the Boynton family have been under Mrs Boynton rule, will the murderer get away with it…? 

eBook Review - Mystery of the Three Quarters

• Title And Author: The Mystery of the Three Quarters by Sophie Hannah
• Publisher: HarperCollins 
• Physical, eBook or Audiobook: eBook
• Bought, Borrowed or Gifted: Gifted by Publisher via NetGalley (in exchange for an honest review)
• Length: 400 Pages

I’ve had a bit of a bad run of authors writing new adventures for classic characters. I like that new audiences are discovering these well-loved characters, but recently, when I read these new advertures, I seem to hit a wall over liking the story. 

So why, I hear you ask, did I want to read this? Because I wanted to. Well, I wanted to read Closed Casket, the second in the new Hercule Poirot mysteries. I even got an copy to read, but got super chicken over it so never read it. But with this, I went “I want to try this. Plus, the premise sounds super intriguing and very Agatha Christie. And it’s an author I’ve never read before.”

Poirot comes home from lunch to find an angry woman standing in his doorstep. Here, she demands to know why he sent her a letter, accusing her of murder. Poirot has not sent any letter, has no idea who she is nor the person who was murdered. The woman doesn’t believe him and, shaken, Poirot goes into his house, only to come face to face with a man who’s son has received the same letter from Poirot. 

Over the next 48 hours, two more people comes to Poirot, saying he has written these letters to him, accusing him of murder. But Poirot doesn’t understand why these four unrelated people are accused of murder by someone pretending to be him… 

Who is Barnabas Pandy who these four are meant to have murdered? Was he murdered? Who is the poison letter writer? And can Poirot find the answers before more lives are put in danger? 

Where do I start with this? 

Audiobook Review - Murder of Roger Ackroyd

• Title And Author: The Murder of Roger Ackroyd by Agatha Christie
• Publisher: HarperCollins
• Physical, eBook or Audiobook: Audiobook 
• Bought, Borrowed or Gifted: Bought
• Length: 320 pages or 6 hours 53 minutes 
 

Well, I am going through a bit of an Agatha Christie blitz, aren’t I? First I read The Mysterious Mr Quin (a collection of short stories I’ve wanted to read back at the start of July but only chatted about on here at the start of the month) and, at the time of writing this, I am reading The Mystery of the Three Quarters by Sophie Hannah, which is taking Agatha Christie’s Hercule Poirot and putting him in a new adventure (with the blessing of the Agatha Christie Estate, of course). So, I was around 40% into Mystery of the Three Quarters and I was having such a blast with it, I went “You know, I kinda want to read more Agatha Christie stories. But where do I start?” So I oooh-ed and aaah-ed and, in the end, I bought two audiobooks - The Murder of Roger Ackroyd and And Then There Were None - and went “Ok, let’s try one out!”. On sheer impulse, I went with Roger Ackroyd. 

Roger Ackroyd knew too much. He discovered 24 hours earlier that the woman he was in love with and planning to propose to had poisoned her first husband, only for her to kill herself after revealing another dark secret: someone is blackmailing her. And after receiving the evening post, he discovers a letter by the woman, with the truth of who was blackmailing her. But before he could read it, he’s violently stabbed in the neck. 

The family and friends are in shocked - who could do such a thing? And why?