Towards Zero (1944) is the fifth Agatha Christie novel that features Superintendent Battle of Scotland Yard. The Secret of Chimneys was published in 1Towards Zero (1944) is the fifth Agatha Christie novel that features Superintendent Battle of Scotland Yard. The Secret of Chimneys was published in 1925, and there were five books with Battle in it, but this is the only one where Battle appears early and stays all the way through. And then, boom, we never see Battle again! Too bad, because while he is staid, possibly even seeming a tad dull, I like him. He's a serious, solid guy that plays things by the book. He likes to follow what he sees and hears and takes a logical path. He kind of orders/calms things in the midst of craziness. This one does not feature the comic characters Lady Eileen "Bundle" Brent and her father, Lord Catherham, as in the first two books, but this is the best of the Battles.
Dame Agatha in 1972 answered a fan letter asking what her own top ten books were. This one makes the list. I'll put the full list at th end, in vcas you are interested.
It begins with a story of Battle being told a lie about a theft she did not commit, and in the end, Battle comes back to that story in his analysis of whodunnit. I like that.
I also like this frame, which also figures in the telling of the story:
“When you read the account of a murder - or, say, a fiction story based on murder - you usually begin with the murder itself. That's all wrong. The murder begins a long time beforehand. A murder is the culmination of a lot of different circumstances, all converging at a given moment at a given point. People are brought into it from different parts of the globe and for unforeseen reasons. . . The murder itself is the end of the story. It's Zero Hour.” He paused. “It's Zero Hour now.”
So instead of reading of the murder early on and then going back to reconstruct the road to ruin, we meet all the principals and move to a murder that might seem unsurprising, given the background we get. But actually, nothing is unsurprising in this book. As with the best of her books, there are several switcheroods in the end You choose your likely suspect, then she confirms that, then she turns you inside and out, this way and that, so that no one could hav predicted it.
Briefly: Neville Strange wants his current wife and ex to be friends in a house party held at the seaside mansion of an elderly widow, and several mutual friends. What can go wrong? I mean, let's be adults! Forgive and forget! The elderly woman is not sure these modern ideas will fly, but what the heck (and yeah, nope, doesn't work out at all. At all. But not exactly as you are imagining it).
Poirot IS mentioned by the masterful Battle in the resolution, which made me smile. Highly recommend!
PS: In response to a Japanese fan's request to Christie for a list of favourites, Christie wrote this in 1972: "My own ten would certainly vary from time to time because every now and then I re-read an early book for some particular reason, to answer a question that has been asked me perhaps, and then I alter my opinion – sometimes thinking it is much better than I thought it was – or not so good as I had thought. At the moment my own list would possibly be:
And Then There Were None – a difficult technique which was a challenge and so I enjoyed it, and I think dealt with it satisfactorily. [Dave writing here; one of my faves, for sure, no Poirot or Marple) The Murder of Roger Ackroyd - a general favourite. [Early Poirot, on lists by Mystery Writers Associations as one of the very best crime novels of all time, my fave of hers] A Murder is Announced – I thought all the characters interesting to write about and felt I knew them quite well by the time the book was finished. [no Poirot or Marple; I've never read it] Murder on the Orient Express – again because it was a new idea for a plot. (Poirot)[one of the world's favorites, one of mine] The Thirteen Problems – a good series of stories. (Marple) [I've never read it] Towards Zero – I found it interesting to work on the idea of people from different places coming towards a murder, instead of starting with the murder and working from that. [Battle, no Poirot, one of my faves of hers] Endless Night – my own favourite at present. [no Poirot or Marple; I've never read it] Crooked House – I found a study of a certain family interesting to explore. [no Poirot or Marple; I've never read it] Ordeal By Innocence - an idea I had had for some time before starting to work upon it. [no Poirot or Marple; I've never read it] The Moving Finger – which I have re-read lately and enjoyed reading it again, very much. (Marple) [I gave it three stars, didn't love it]
What's my point? By 1972 Christie was pretty sick of her ofrmulaic but popular Poirot anf Marple books. 2 Marples and 2 Poirots on her faves list...more
“It’s very easy to kill—so long as no one suspects you. And you see, the person in question is just the last person anyone would suspect!”--Lavinia Pi“It’s very easy to kill—so long as no one suspects you. And you see, the person in question is just the last person anyone would suspect!”--Lavinia Pinkerton
Murder’s Easy (1939) by Agatha Christie is #4 in her Superintendent Battle series, though in none of the four so far does he come in early to begin solving the crime. Often it is past midpoint in the book when he makes his entrance. In this one he just comes in at the mop-up stage, so I guess to qualify as making a contribution to a series means just showing up. But still, when he does, he acquits himself as a serious (if a little humorless and stuffy) detective and honors his employer, Scotland Yard by being more than competent.
The first two books featured and entertaining woman, Bundle, and I miss her (and her wacky father) here. Instead we go right away to the Yard, no joking around, where an old woman--obviously a cranky old biddie, named Lavinia Pinkerton--as in the Detective Agency, but no relation--complains to Detective Luke Fitzwilliam that a lot of people are getting killed in her little community. Oh, right, Luke thinks, and I bet the whole family is trying to poison her, too! Then she is hit by a car herself and dies, which prompts Luke to take the situation a bit more seriously.
Luke is a nice guy, but completely forgettable as a character (his one time appearance in Christie?). At one point he gets into a discussion with Pinkerton about “likely suspects,” and they decide murderers could often be people we least likely would suspect, such as old gardening grannies. Then we meet a nasty arrogant rich guy everyone hates, Lord Whitfield, who is (too?) obvious as a suspect (which doesn’t mean he might not still have done it). The plot gets resolved satisfactorily and interestingly. I like it just fine.
Things I wondered about:
*How is it that more than a dozen people die/are killed in a small community and Scotland Yard needs an older woman to report to them about it?! No one in the community seems ot have connected any dots at all about it!? Crazy.
* The small community is Wychwood-under-Ashe (witches, get it?!) and a guy is there researching local superstitions. This is ALWAYS a false lead for Christie, always. She always has characters talk of “madmen” as well, it's in almost every book, but Christie also doesn’t believe in that, either, really. Motives matter.
*This book came out in 1939, and at one point there is a casual conversation about whether killing people we see as evil might be justified. Christie famously/infamously avoided actual politics in her books, but I wondered if she had in mind Auschwitz, which was under way at that point. ...more
The Secret of Chimneys (1925) by Agatha Christie is not about what we didn’t know about those things that are still on roofs. So no chimneys appear inThe Secret of Chimneys (1925) by Agatha Christie is not about what we didn’t know about those things that are still on roofs. So no chimneys appear in this book, which could lead to a satirical review by Paul Bryant somewhat like his review of Oliver Twist. This novel is one of five books Christie wrote.featuring a very non-Hercules Poirot detective from Scotland Yard, Superintendent Battle. Like Poirot, he is defined by someone in the book as “someone who seems always to be right” (a requirement for most detectives). And he is dead serious, with a face that never reveals emotion. We also know little about him or what he actually thinks, and he has zero charisma, which is one reason I think her publishers advised her to go instead with the comic hero Poirot, which undeniably made her the greatest-selling author on the planet. But Battle has (for me and many others, I see here on Goodreads) his attractions: He’s smart and steady and insightful.
One reviewer said the foundation of the plot and the rest of the characters are largely “fluff and nonsense,” including a crazy plot and a typically dizzy young woman, Virginia Revel, who says things like, “Murder?! How terribly thrilling!” When a guy tries to blackmail her she agrees to give him some money and explains to Anthony Cade, dashing/shady, well, why not? I’ve never been blackmailed before! How exciting!
Anthony and Virginia sort of help with the solving of the crime, as they are so terribly interested in detective work and skulduggery, I guess. Battle doesn’t seem to mind, for some reason. The plot involves the killing--at Chimneys--of Prince Michael, presumed heir to the vacant throne of fictional Herzoslovakia and then there's a mysterious, stolen manuscript Anthony was supposed to deliver, and then we go nearly off the rails with twists and turns in the Christie fashion. One character who is particularly engaging is another familiar type in Christie, Lady Eileen (aka Bundle) Brent; you know, a kind of spirited “it” girl. It’s not quite up to snuff, as one of Christie's characters may have said in 1925, maybe, but it has some Christie flair in it. I didn't try to slow down and map out the plot, though. Just zipped through it.
PS: note for self: Note on Goodreads: Superintendent Battle, of Scotland Yard. was featured in five [Christie] books. Bundle Brent and the country estate "Chimneys" are featured in books one and two. Battle joins forces with Hercule Poirot, Ariadne Oliver, and Col. Race in book three.[which I read in the Poirot series]. In the Poirot novel The Clocks, secret agent Colin Lamb is implied to be the son of the now-retired Battle. ...more
Some are born to sweet delight, Some are born to endless night--William Blake, "Auguries of Innocence"
Endless Night (1967) by Agatha Christie, written Some are born to sweet delight, Some are born to endless night--William Blake, "Auguries of Innocence"
Endless Night (1967) by Agatha Christie, written when she was 77, is one of the last books. When she was 82, she responded to a fan who asked her what her top ten of her own books were, and she listed this one as her favorite at that moment. Five (see below) are non Poirot and Marple books, and this one doesn’t even feature a detective, which is rare. And it was also one of the best reviewed books in her life, for her 58th mystery/detective novel.
The plot narrated by young working-class Michael Rogers, who drifts for a couple of years across Europe, not possessed of the family work ethic. While traveling he discovers a place where he wants a famous architect to build his dream house, but the land, known locally as Gipsy’s Acre, is supposedly cursed, as related to him by an old crone/gipsy, who warns him to leave or suffer the consequences. Michael is also poor, so he can’t build on the land.
Then Michael meets Ellie, with whom he falls in love, and marries. So for 3/4 of the book, the feel is very much Daphne du Maurier, a gothic romance with a slightly chilling feel to it. Eerie? But then the book turns into something else, sort of consistent with the Orient Express or Roger Ackroyd, two of her very best. By that I mean: Surprise!
I think the last part of the book definitely earns its accolades, though today it feels a little didactic, leaving heavily into that Blake poem, which gets quoted a few times, and sung by Ellie. But the mysterious, misty genre accounts for some of that tone, too.
Dame Agatha’s Top Ten of her Own books, at 82:
And Then There Were None – a difficult technique which was a challenge and so I enjoyed it, and I think dealt with it satisfactorily. Non Poirot or Marple. The Murder of Roger Ackroyd - a general favourite. Poirot. A Murder is Announced – I thought all the characters interesting to write about and felt I knew them quite well by the time the book was finished. Marple Murder on the Orient Express – again because it was a new idea for a plot. Poirot The Thirteen Problems – a good series of stories. Marple. Towards Zero – I found it interesting to work on the idea of people from different places coming towards a murder, instead of starting with the murder and working from that. Superintendent Battle. Endless Night – my own favourite at present. Non Poirot or Marple. Crooked House – I found a study of a certain family interesting to explore. Non Marple or Poirot. Ordeal By Innocence - an idea I had had for some time before starting to work upon it. Non Poirot or Marple. The Moving Finger – which I have re-read lately and enjoyed reading it again, very much." Marple....more
I had not previously read this particular story, “The Adventure of Clapham Cook,” but since a person close to me is doing what I did, reading all the I had not previously read this particular story, “The Adventure of Clapham Cook,” but since a person close to me is doing what I did, reading all the Poirot books in order, and because she now wants to view the whole PBS series in order featuring David Suchet as the Belgian detective, I read it before watching this first BBC episode. Each of us had read various random Poirots and seen some of the Suchet series, but we look forward to watching them all together for the first time.
So, in this story, Poirot is visited by a Mrs. Todd of Clapham, who asks him to find Eliza Dunn, her cook. Missing two days, Eliza left without giving notice. At the same time, Mr. and Mrs. Todd have taken in a lodger named Simpson, who works at a bank from which a missing clerk named Davis is suspected of stealing £50,000 in securities.
Poirot has Hastings find Eliza through adverts in the newspapers. She tells him a story of being visited by a solicitor who told her that she had inherited a house and an income of £300 per year, but she had to take the offer and leave at once.
Spoiler alert: Poirot sees that Simpson is the bad’un, having stolen the securities and murdered Davis, and disguised as a solicitor, concocted the inheritance scheme as a way to get Eliza out of town, using her trunk to ship Davis' body out of the area.
The story plays on film maybe a little better than it reads, a very early Christie story, and it's not that complex, but it's a solid start to the BBC series. By rating it three stars I don't mean to suggest it isn't good, I am just trying to distinguish between this and some of the Poirot stories I found much better.
Here’s the story (scroll down to find it, it’s only ten pages):
"Cover her face; mine eyes dazzle; she died young"--The Duchess of Malfi
Sleeping Murder is billed as the Last Case of MIss “Let sleeping murders lie.”
"Cover her face; mine eyes dazzle; she died young"--The Duchess of Malfi
Sleeping Murder is billed as the Last Case of MIss Jane Marple, the last book Dame Agatha Christie Mallorwan published about her, published posthumously months after Christie died in 1976. The book is set in the thirties, in England, a small, sleepy town, Miss Marple helps a young couple uncover a “cold case” that happened decades earlier. Early on in the book Gwen (or Gwenda) decides she wants to buy a particular house and seems to have psychic connections to it. She wants a certain wallpaper for a room that she finds was there before, she feels a strong need to create a certain path to the sea, and at a local performance of The Duchess of Malfi she hears the above quotation and has a vision of a woman named Helen strangled in the upper hallway of the house. What really happened?!
But Christie is, via Poirot and Marple, a logician, always dismissing the supernatural. So no, this is not, in her final book, a gothic ghost story. Gwen, we discover with Marple’s help has in fact lived in this very house before, and more than eighteen years ago, witnessed the strangulation of Helen, who we learn was actually her step-mother.
So it’s a Murder Case in Retrospect, looking at old clues and finding out just who it was whodunnit. Gwen has one cogent and perfectly persuasive theory; her husband Giles has another. “But might we not consider a third possibility,” Miss Jane wonders? Another person is killed in the process and . . . nearly a third, as the killer faces Gewn herself, only to be interrupted by the old pussy (cat) Jane. A fine mystery, better than one might expect from a swan song at 85, but I have some idea she wrote it decades earlier, not sure. ! I liked the Poirots on the whole better than the Marples, and the best of all her books are largely from that group, but these are well done, too. Goodbye, Jane! Goodbye, Agatha, RIP and stay alive through your work forever.
For another review from me of this book as punk, here:
In her last published book about MIss Jane Marple of Mary Mead, produced posthumously in 1976 months after she died, Dame Agatha Turns Punk!
(For Paul)
In her last published book about MIss Jane Marple of Mary Mead, produced posthumously in 1976 months after she died, Dame Agatha Christie pulls off a stunner and goes Full ON Punk! 1976, the advent of punk music, and Christie was ON IT! Can you believe it? And you thought she was some prim and prissy old lady writer of cozy mysteries and that was that! But In this story, we see a side of Agatha and Jane we might not have expected. Jane, working in her garden, splashing soapy water on her delphiniums and weeding carefully to make sure she removed every inch of the very deepest roots of some invasive species, hears sudden loud noises all around her in her supposedly sleepy village. She looks around to hear the explosions of Molotov Cocktails and she sees her neighborhood mansions all around her in flames. What is happening?! We only expected a body in the library! A poisoned drink at a cocktail party!
Jane is by now well versed in MURDER and so when she hears gunshots and distant screams she nods, knowingly: Oh, yes, I knew it all along and the rest of you have once again been fooled intot thinking everything is all right! MIss Marple has always had a low view of human nature, so nothing shocks her. She has had some suspicion that something like this might happen. As she sets down her basket and tools her eyes widen to see some of her fellow rich white Ruling Class neighbors rushing down the street, screaming as they run. In another direction she sees a burgeoning bonfire: Servants--maids, butlers, cooks--are stripping off their uniforms and tossing them in a pile and dousing them with kerosene in the back yard of a (now former) neighbor’s home! Flames lick the sky as they scream in victory.
And underneath those clothes? Look at the t-shirt of James, the supposedly stiff butler, featuring the Ramones, and here’s the scullery maid Rita sporting an Iggy Pop and the Stooges cap. Can the Clash be far behind (their inaugural album will come out the next year)? People joining them at the blaze include, one by one, all of the people of color, all of the non-British people derided by so many of the locals in book after book. They too raise their sticks and knives and guns. London Calling, the End of Capitalism! Yes, Miss Marple, now nearing eighty nods wisely and muses at how she saw it coming all the time: The Revolution against the forces of the Leader of the Conservative Party, Margaret Thatcher! The forces of darkness! Who could have known this was coming but Miss Jane Marple, shaped by the wise eye of the Mistress of Mystery, Dame Agatha. Not me, I never see it coming in Agatha Christie!
Then Jane sees some of them turn to her, running, brandishing their sticks and garrotes. She remains calm; surely I expected this. As they approach she too in solidarity steps out of her clothes and reveals her Che Guevara shirt and her combat boots and pistolero. Viva la Revolution, Miss Jane, who is spraying her hair magenta and pink.
Yes, quite a surprise, right, but you know Agatha, always twisting and turning and having you look at flowers in misdirection as the approaching fire rages! Punk pussy (cat) in a page turner, huzzah!
One of the last of Christie's Miss Marples, #11 of 13, and one of the last books Christie published, too, in 1965, at the age of 75, though I read #12One of the last of Christie's Miss Marples, #11 of 13, and one of the last books Christie published, too, in 1965, at the age of 75, though I read #12 out of order so I only have one to go! This one is set in a very nice and well-established, traditonal hoteli in London modelled after a hotel Christie herself frequented, so she actually establishes the ambiance very well. I am also told (i.e., I looked it up on wikipedia) that the book was somewhat inspired by the 1963 film, The Great Train Robbery so, yes, robberies, robberies on trains, though murder is Christie's mystery. Robberies don't quite rise to the level of sudery deliciousness that murders bring to the fore.
The story is not so memorable, really, as we see what Christie/Marple always helps us primarily realize is that there is very often a thin veneer of happy contentedness covering a dark and seething interior in some? many? people, and this certainly applies to Bertram Hotel and those that frequent it. Ah, so lovely, and the accomodations are perfect, and yet. . .
Two favorite characters are older ones, that point to the likely readership of these later Christies: Canon Pennyfeather, a Dead Sea Scrolls scholar and a kind of charmingly "absent-minded" guy, and Chief-Inspector Fred "Father" Davy, who works with Miss Marple to solve the case. I seem to be suggesting that this one isn't very good, which is not the case; though it's not one of her best, it is still solid and entertaining enough. It's good and was nominated for mystery awards that year. What we see in especially the later Marples is older people who are dismissed as doddering old "pussies" (her word) and walruses who finally conquer this age-ism to win the day....more
Well, my main response to this is: Two more Miss Marples to go! But really, that's a bit harsh, as I do think this is as good as many, though, writtenWell, my main response to this is: Two more Miss Marples to go! But really, that's a bit harsh, as I do think this is as good as many, though, written in Christie's mid seventies, is lighter than most. Marple's nephew sends her to the West Indies where she listens to an old blowhard, Major Palgrave, tell stories. and who shows her a picture of a murderer. The next day he is dead and the photo is gone. And you of ocurse very likely will not be able to figure it out, but if you go back when you are done, a key clue is right there for you to see (I didn't see it, no).
There's some annoying racist, classist and otherwise rich white people's views to ruin Paradise (in addition to the fact that yes, murder can happen here as anywhere). And some reflections by Christie about aging from the aging Christie put in the muuth of aging Marple.
“Life is more worth living, more full of interest when you are likely to lose it."
One fave character that is introduced here and reappears two books later, in Nemesis, is Mr. Rafiel, an also old and rich one who clicks with Jane and helps her solve the mystery."
“It's all very well to talk like that,” said Mr. Rafiel. “We, you say? What do you think I can do about it? I can't even walk without help. How can you and I set about preventing a murder? You're about a hundred and I'm a broken-up old crock.”...more
“Do you remember the Lady of Shalott? The mirror crack’d from side to side: ‘The doom has come upon me,’ cried the Lady of Shalott. Well, that’s what “Do you remember the Lady of Shalott? The mirror crack’d from side to side: ‘The doom has come upon me,’ cried the Lady of Shalott. Well, that’s what she looked like. People laugh at Tennyson nowadays, but the Lady of Shalott always thrilled me when I was young and it still does.”
The 9th Miss Marple mystery by Agatha Christie, one of dozens of novels she wrote, and one of more than fifty I have read. I think it is one of the better later Christies, written at the age of 72, focused on an aging Jane Marple who reflects on aging after having taken a fall that keeps her home and requires her to depend, in solving the mystery, on the help of the delightful young Laura, and Detective Craddock, who bring her information.
Here's the full poem by Alfred, Lord Tennyson, that Christie refereces in the title and several times throughout, even concluding the book with the poem's closing lines:
The action takes place in Marple's small provincial town, St. Mary Mead, and at Gossington Hall, where a previous murder (and an earlier Marple mystery) took place. The hall has been purchased by a film star, Marina Gregg (who is based on an encounter Christie had with the actress Gene Tierney and her husband Oleg Cassini). By this time Christie knows the world of film, since many of her books have been adapted, so she gets to make a reflection on fame and celebrity that seems very thoughtful and sympathetic to Gregg/Tierney. There's a consideration of the role of parenting, motherhood, that figures in the story, too.
Oh, and there's a murder to be solved! A poisoning that takes place at a party, of course, and another murder follows. Marple has to look back many years to figure out this one, and I liked how it works out better than I expected I would.
And about Miss Marple? A late assessment in the book of her captures some of the attraction to her as a character: "It was her prying curiosity - her gift of putting odd bits together to form a picture that gave the locals and Scotland Yard the proper solution. Long life to her."
“Miss Marple made a ladylike noise of vexation like a cat sneezing to indicate profound disgust.”
“You’re always surprising me,” she said. “The things you take an interest in.” “I take an interest in everything,” said Miss Marple. “I mean taking up new subjects at your age.” Miss Marple shook her head. “They aren’t really new subjects. It’s human nature I’m interested in, you know, and human nature is much the same whether it’s film stars or hospital nurses or people in St. Mary Mead or,” she added thoughtfully, “people who live in the Development.”...more
I am rushing to read all of the Miss Marple mysteries, enjoying them less than Christie's Poirots, but I always find something to recommend in them, eI am rushing to read all of the Miss Marple mysteries, enjoying them less than Christie's Poirots, but I always find something to recommend in them, even if don't love them. First, she is the World Master of these kinds of cozy mysteries. And how amusing to have this old "pussy" (her own word for herself! Lay off me!) unbelievably invited by the police to help them solve all these small town murders.
The best thing about this (in spite of the fact that a few Christie murders happen on trains) is the opening, where another old lady, Mrs. McGillicuddy, looks into the car of a train passing in the oppposite direction and sees a woman being strangled. No body, (almost) no one takes the old biddy seriously, she's old, like her friend Jane Marple, who actually does believe her. The finish is a bit of a stretch though I like how the two old women (written by a woman herself in her late seventies) win the day, and get some respect all around.
I’ve just taken the opportunity to read Nemesis by Jo Nesbo and Nemesis by Agatha Christie and that has occasioned the following:
Separated at Birth:
AgI’ve just taken the opportunity to read Nemesis by Jo Nesbo and Nemesis by Agatha Christie and that has occasioned the following:
Separated at Birth:
Agatha Christie and Jo Nesbo AND their main crime-solvers, respectively Jane Marple and Harry Hole
Christie and Nesbo: Both are white people who live/d in northern countries, England/Norway. Both are internationally renowned mystery writers who have published millions of copies of their books, published in several languages. Both reference the outdoors in their works (though Christie a bit more, with all those flowers especially in the Marple mysteries) and highlight physical adventure and travel in their personal lives (Nesbo a world class rock climber, traveling the world over to climb and research potential crime sites for his novels, and Christie, too, liked to climb and travel, with her archaeologist husband, to research crime sites for her novels). Neither Nemesis book is evidence of their very best work, though I’d argue Nesbo’s is a better work. Obviously Christie has the better rep as a writer. That whole most popular writer ever. But give her a break, this book came out when Christie was 80. Ageism?!
Jane Marple and Harry Hole: Similarities: Both passionate about solving crimes, both have what Marple is described as having in Nemesis: “a sense of evil,” and a low general view of human nature; Harry is an alcoholic, sometimes dry for most of his books; Marple is not averse to taking a drink or two, especially sherry. A lot of people seem to like them.
Differences: Marple refers to herself as an “old pussy:" Harry Hole is. . . well, not an old pussy,maybe more like a pre-middle-aged tiger? Jane is old, as we are reminded repeatedly; Harry is half her age, and, well, is much taller and more attractive to the opposite sex. Woman, man, but what kind of assumptions are we making here? Harry gets into physically torturous binds; Jane, not so much.
Both books are titled Nemesis, and are focused on various nemeses, which might lead one to think Christie’s story will be a particularly dark one, dripping with mythological blood revenge, but it’s not that dark. In the Nesbo, the revenge is much darker.
Christie’s Nemesis is not her best work, slow-going, somewhat baffingly conceived and plotted; there are repugnant views about rape, women and girls, and teenaged pregnancy expressed by some of the characters, including Miss Marple herself, now like Christie herself, in her eighties. But hey, on the one hand, good for her, she published it at the age of 80, in 1971, one of her very last books, so maybe I give her a bit of a break? But nah, my main memory of this book is all these old people talking rot about young women bringing it all on themselves, and throw in some racist views, too.
Joan Hickson reads it so well, though, so she manages to make Jane still somewhat charming--an unassuming, kind of ditzy old lady on the one hand and ruthlessly focused on the other hand. I’ll say 2.5 stars, but honestly, at some points I thought it was pretty weak compared to most of Christie’s work. Jo Nesbo is probably not Agatha Christie reincarnated, after all....more
Sing a song of sixpence, a pocketful of rye, four and 20 blackbirds baked in a pie. When the pie was opened, the birds began to sing. Now wasn't that Sing a song of sixpence, a pocketful of rye, four and 20 blackbirds baked in a pie. When the pie was opened, the birds began to sing. Now wasn't that a dainty dish to set before a king?
A standard-issue Christie mystery, focused on rhyme crime (see what I did there?) Inspector Neal does a decent job sifting through the inevitable Possible Suspects for half the book until little ol’ Jane Marple that Christie has for three books called, the “old pussy” (and sometimes “the old tabby” comes to help him solve the crime.
Everything is mostly meant to be amusing, though in keeping with the rhyme, several crimes (i.e., murders) take place.
Random stuff that sticks in my mind now, but not for long maybe:
*One inspector says he is relieved that this particular (first) poisoning is done with Taxine, from Yewberries or their leaves instead of the usual weedkiller. I smiled at that, but it’s either funny or corny to you that this murder takes place on Yewberry Lane.
*This is one of several Christie murder mysteries in part based on children’s songs or nursery rhymes. So we need to get blackbirds baked into a pie somewhere. Check!
*And victims have pockets full of rye, too. Why rye? Why pie? Why die? Sigh.
*Everyone wants the first victim, Rex, to die. This is common in Christie so we can keep the number of suspects at a high level.
*In almost every single book from Christie people decide the murderer must be “mad” and (spoiler alert) almost never is.
* "The kettle was not quite boiling when Miss Somers poured the water on the tea, but poor Miss Somers was never quite sure when a kettle was boiling. It was one of the many worries that afflicted her in life." :)
I do like Agatha Christie; this is not her best work, but at maybe book 55, she knows what she is doing. This one just does not stand out for me. And I like just fine Jane Marple, who has that interesting combination of being charming and with a low view of human nature. And I did like the fact that the actual murderer she identifies was a surprise to me, clever old. . . woman (he says in contemporary, more respectful language). ...more
Well, you can't say this book is not well done, written by Dame Agatha at the height of her career, about her preferred crime-solver, Jane Marple. ItsWell, you can't say this book is not well done, written by Dame Agatha at the height of her career, about her preferred crime-solver, Jane Marple. Its very tightly constructed and the dialogue is well-written, but it's not particularly memorable. It touches on Christie themes/interests. The crime takes place next to a home for what used to be called "juvenile delinquents," one of whom is the assumed killer, but this gives Christie an opportunity to help us reflect on issues of rehabilitation vs. punishment and nature vs.nurture with respect to Bringing Up Children.
Christie, by this point has had several of her books produced as plays (and written plays, too) and loves the theater, so uses the opportunity (not for the first or last time) to reflect on the relationship between magic, performance, fiction and drama in life and crime. They--criminals, mystery writers, actors, playwrights, people hoping to fool others, people hoping to attract lovers, and so on--they all do it with mirrors, which is to say they use misdirection to create certain illusions.
I like it that the book opens with two elderly friends of more than fifty years are looking at themselves in the mirror as they talk with each other and reflect on who looks younger. Throughout reflections are made on women who look younger or older than they appear, through make-up, dress, other affectations.
This is a solid entry. If you wanted to read a run-of-the-mill entry in the Christie canon, this would be a good one, really well done (compared to 90% of mysteries ever written) and yet average for her. Hey, they can't all be remarkable!...more
"A murder is announced and will take place on Friday October 29th, at Little Paddocks at 6.30 p.m."
All the villagers of Chipping Cleghorn, including J"A murder is announced and will take place on Friday October 29th, at Little Paddocks at 6.30 p.m."
All the villagers of Chipping Cleghorn, including Jane Marple, read this announcement in the Gazette while they sip their tea and do the Times crossword, and then we go from house to house where speculations abound: It’s a joke! Well, if it is a joke, it’s one in very bad taste! Surely it can’t actually happen? It’s offensive, you won’t see me going there and giving them the satisfaction! Oh, yes, you will, everyone is going to be talking about it and you are going with me, and so on.
Well, yes, shots are fired and people do seem to die, and everyone is of course interviewed. Many of the interviews are amusing; well, at the time of the murder I was trimming my delphiniums--no, that was a Tuesday, I was watering them, you know how flowers this time of year need water, and oh isn't there such heat at this time of year! And so on. Most of them in this village live rather mundane lives, but they make it clear that it is frightfully exciting to be part of Real Murder. A just a smidge scary, too!
I like the comic play of it. I like the fact that in the Marples the police are not made out to be buffoons. They work together to solve the crimes. I like the mild fun she makes of all the older women in the town, whom everyone refers to surprisingly as “pussies.” Even of Miss Marple:
“Ye Gods and Little Fishes," said Sir Henry, "Can it be? George, it's my own particular, one and only four-starred Pussy. The super Pussy of all old Pussies. . .” what can they all be referring to?! Surely Christie is not referring to these women as. . . cats? Something else?!
This is for me the best of the Marple mysteries so far, and I see that it is her 5oth book and generally seen as her best Marple! But Why is Miss Marple also seen as “the super Pussy of all Pussies"?
“Really, I have no gifts—no gifts at all—except perhaps a certain knowledge of human nature. People, I find, are apt to be far too trustful. I'm afraid that I have a tendency always to believe the worst. Not a nice trait. But so often justified by subsequent events.”
I (for some reason not entirely clear to me) sometimes look for references to actual world events in Christie novels, and almost never find them (she's an entertainer, not a serious novelist, she'll insist), but in this one we do see an acknowledgement that the Holocaust happened, in that we meet a woman who actually escaped it.
You see a clearer idea of her purpose when she introduces us to a man who wants to be a writer. He told Miss Marple that he had begun writing a novel about a unshaven man who can't seem to get out of bed, overcome by all the woes of the world, but he couldn't stick with the story, so decided to write something funny instead, and he was making more progress and having more fun with this approach. Now, let's guess whether Christie would even look at the book I just completed: Malcolm Lowry's Under the Volcano, about an alcoholic swirling in the miasma of existential despair.
But I'm not trying to make a comparative commentary here. Both Lowry and Christie are both great writers for their own, very different purposes. A Murder is Announced is a breezy, light, funny book that is kind of a loving send-up of provincial life....more
Pilot Jerry Burton recuperates from a leg injury with his sister Joanna in cosy Lymstock only to discover that someone is writing anonymous "poison pePilot Jerry Burton recuperates from a leg injury with his sister Joanna in cosy Lymstock only to discover that someone is writing anonymous "poison pen" letters to most of the young women of the town about their sordid pasts, most of which may not even be true. For example the brother and sister get a letter that accuses them of being secret lovers; this doesn't particularly upset them, as they know it is not true. But some are upset by the letters. One, who receives a letter suggesting her husband is not the father of their daughter, commits suicide. Later, a maid is killed, and much brother-sister talk ensues about the possible purpose and function of these nasty anonymous letters as the police slowly proceed to solve the case, eliminating, as they will, one person at a time.
What you know is that this mystery will not get solved until most of the book runs through every possible suspect in the town--oh, is it the one woman who has yet to receive a letter?! And until, at roughly 3/4 of the way, Miss Marple shows up to save the day as the guest amateur detective to help the police.
I reread this because Dame Christie thought this was one of her top ten of her own books n(see bleow), and someone else in this house loved it. On my first read I had thought it dragged, but you can tell, I did not love most of the Marple books; my ratings are generally lower for them. I wanted more action up front: In The Body in the Library we have a body in the library right away! Yay! We get right to it. Now I think of this as clever, with an eye to a small town community turning in on itself. I liked it better on reread,
Dame Christie looks back at 82 and says these were her favorite ten of her own books:
And Then There Were None – a difficult technique which was a challenge and so I enjoyed it, and I think dealt with it satisfactorily. Non Poirot or Marple. The Murder of Roger Ackroyd - a general favourite. Poirot. A Murder is Announced – I thought all the characters interesting to write about and felt I knew them quite well by the time the book was finished. Marple Murder on the Orient Express – again because it was a new idea for a plot. Poirot The Thirteen Problems – a good series of stories. Marple. Towards Zero – I found it interesting to work on the idea of people from different places coming towards a murder, instead of starting with the murder and working from that. Superintendent Battle. Endless Night – my own favourite at present. Non Poirot or Marple. Crooked House – I found a study of a certain family interesting to explore. Non Marple or Poirot. Ordeal By Innocence - an idea I had had for some time before starting to work upon it. Non Poirot or Marple. The Moving Finger – which I have re-read lately and enjoyed reading it again, very much." Marple....more
"There's a body in the library!" "What?!" "Please get up, dear, there's a body in the library." "Stuff and nonsense, I've never heard anything so prepost"There's a body in the library!" "What?!" "Please get up, dear, there's a body in the library." "Stuff and nonsense, I've never heard anything so preposterous."
This funny, even delightful (mah-ve-lous!) conversation between Mr. and Mrs. Bantry of Gossington Hall goes on and expands to butlers and maids for close to two pages until the police are finally called.
Of course this is upsetting to all routines, and casts some suspicion on Mr. Bantry--why should a body of a young woman be there, of all places??!! But Mrs. Bantry, over time, gets into the swing of things. She doesn't only have to read about murders in sordid mystery books, she has one of her own!
“What I feel is that if one has got to have a murder actually happening in one's house, one might as well enjoy it, if you know what I mean”--Mrs. Bantry, to Miss Marple
It's insane, I know, to alternate a nasty Jo Nesbo mystery set in an underground brothel in Bangkok with a cosy charming litle old lady mystery such as this, but neverteless, the latter is quite entertaining. And the lovely contemporary colors and covers for this edition of a tale about a set-piece for mystery writers, a murder featuring a dead body in a library. Nice! Worth a few smiles.
The resolution itself isn't particuraly memorable except that the "spinster" Jane Marple helps solve it. Marple, an elderly woman who by appearance would be indistinguishable from any others in her small town, bridge and tea set, is more than a mrely observant gossip. Though still rather nice, even charming, she has a more "realistic" and even darker view of human nature than the rest of them. I like the way we get right into things--right! someone killed! body in the library!--and we don't waste too much time chatting . . . until we have to go through the pros and cons of every suspect in the town, over tea, of course. But I admit I enjoyed it, maybe 3.5, nudged up to 4 for the funny opening....more
"‘Anyone who murdered Colonel Protheroe,’ declared the parson, brandishing a carving knife above a joint of roast beef, ‘would be doing the world at l"‘Anyone who murdered Colonel Protheroe,’ declared the parson, brandishing a carving knife above a joint of roast beef, ‘would be doing the world at large a favour!’"--the Vicar Himself
I read all of Agatha Christie's Hercules Poirot books, but never read any of her Miss Marple stories. Is this a sexist move? Not sure. I did watch some of the BBC TV series with my Mom and sister, but I was probably reading mostly existentialist literature at the time, or something. So one thing I know about Poirot is that over time, Christie began to really resent him. He helped to make her the most popular author of all time in any language (and translated into several languages, of course), so she was compelled by an adoring public to write him into mysteries for the rest of her life.
One trouble with him is that he was from the first a sort of whole and sort of finished character, much loved right away, a sensation, but she felt she couldn't really go anywhere interesting with him, couldn't develop him. So enter a character she had introduced in a couple short stories, Miss Marple, who lives in the village of St. Mary Mead. When the universally disliked Protheroe is murdered, Miss Marple, a little old lady, offers to help out. There's gossip in town, but Marple is somewhat different, an "observer," she looks at things closely.
And it initially appears the solution to the mystery comes easily. A confession! But then. . a dueling confession. And then it takes a little time, as Marple identifies no less than seven people who are strong suspects. The town is interesting, a small town where "everyone knows each other's toothpaste brand." And Marple/Christie are interesting, in that--after Poirot and all these men solving crimes in the Poirot books--they don't take a simple feminist view of women. They mark petty jealousies, shallowness, and Marple herself isn't the perfect person Poirot sees himself to be. Miss Marple is usually right, though, we see from the first. I like the book and will read more. ...more
Curtain: Poirot’s Last Case! (So since major things happen in this book, don't 1) read this is as your first book first, and 2) try to reading spoilerCurtain: Poirot’s Last Case! (So since major things happen in this book, don't 1) read this is as your first book first, and 2) try to reading spoilerish reviews like this one. But read a few others from the series, then read this one, for sure.
“Nothing is so sad, in my opinion, as the devastation wrought by age”—Hastings, on Poirot
I’m done, whew, having read all of 38 Christie Poirot novels (and a couple short story collections) in order of publication, over the past 2-3 years. I’ll listen again to And Then There Were None and will not read Christie again for awhile, I am sure.
Christie, fearing for her life during WWII, wrote the last Poirot and Marple books in the early forties, and sealed them in a vault until just a couple years before her death, intending them to be the last novels, the last word, for her respective detective heroes. She much preferred Marple to Poirot, who in the sixties she had truly grown tired of, calling him "an egocentric creep". However, unlike Conan Doyle, Christie resisted the temptation to kill her detective off while he was still popular. She saw herself as an entertainer whose job was to produce what the public liked, and the public liked Poirot.
Christie made a mistake in 1920 in introducing her Belgian detective as already retired, and then writing him as a main character for fifty more years!! So are we to surmise he retired at 40? 21?! Poirot returns to Styles in this one, where the first Poirot novel is set, written in 1920 when Christie was 30. Curtain was published in 1975, less than a year before she died, at 85, in 1976!! 55 years of writing Poirot!! Poor (and very rich, especially for an author) woman! Good for her and us, though, on the whole, as she emerged as the best selling author of all time.
And no matter how old he is, we need our main man with the marvelous moustaches to be in full possession of his “little gray cells” right up until the end. Is this realistic? Well, either way he seems undiminished in speech and cognition without fail. The erosion of memory is a theme in this and many of the last books for the eighty-something Christie, but not for Poirot! He solves the crime, as always, though it is complicated and interesting how it happens and how it is revealed; I can’t exactly say how without spoilers.
This book also features the return from the early Poirot-books Captain Hastings, a buffoon who again tells the story, clueless every step of the way.
Keyholes figure in, amusingly.
Since Curtain is the title, Christie frames her last book in terms of her major love, theater, and performance, and disguises. We even discover Poirot has been disguising himself for years, in a way. And Othello’s Iago figures in, so Shakespeare is her darling right to the end for inspiration.
This may not be one of the very best of Christie's books, but it is clever, with better writing than we have seen for many years from Christie (because she wrote it in the forties!). She also doesn’t bother to pull it from the vault to revise it for continuity, grr. For instance, the supposedly older Poirot here has more problems with colloquial English than he has had in decades, consistent with a forties Poirot, not a seventies Poirot. But overall, it was good to bring back Hastings, and to end as we began, in Styles. And the killer—a serial killer—and how he kills, is original and interesting. It is a very good book in the Christie canon and because of the nature of the killer and because of the series of Big Surprises in the plot, I am going to bump it from 4.5 to 5 stars.
A SPOILER ALERT about something very sweet that had never before happened, hidden in this link to the historically stuffy The New York Times, 6 August 1975, following the publication of Curtain:
The Murder of Roger Ackroyd Peril at End House Murder on the Orient Express Curtain
My four star Poirots:
Lord Edgeware Dies Three Act Tragedy The A.B.C. Murders Murder in Mesopotamia Cards on the Table Death on the Nile Sad Cypress Evil Under the Sun Five Little Pig The Hollow After the Funeral...more
8/8/24: Listened to this story read by Christopher Lee after last night watching again the Billy Wilder film based on it, and loved it, with Charles L8/8/24: Listened to this story read by Christopher Lee after last night watching again the Billy Wilder film based on it, and loved it, with Charles Laughton, Tyrone Power and Marlene Dietrich, in anticipation of reading the story in my Detective Ficti0n class in Fall 2024.
Original Review, 11/29/17: I took a break from reading Christie’s Hercule Poirot novels to listen to Christopher Lee read this Christie short story. I have read some of her stories, but had made the decision not to read all of her Poirot short stories in addition to her novels. I guess in general at the moment I just prefer the novels. But after reading dozens of these often overlong novels in a row, where you sift through what you know to be more than 200 pages of red herrings, cul-de-sacs and so on, well, sometimes it’s time for a short story, eh? This one, “Witness for the Prosecution,” is one of her best known, and one of her best, I think, though apparently Christie didn’t like the ending, so she changed it when she adapted it for the stage. I am not sure how, but I liked again what I read.
Leonard Vole is arrested for the murder of Emily French, a wealthy older woman. The evidence seems overwhelmingly damning, which usually means he didn’t do it. The wife of the accuses, Romaine, takes the stand at one point, but actually as a witness for the prosecution! You guessed it, yeah! Of course I can’t reveal what happens, but you will not be surprised that it was adapted for the stage and film, a critical and polular success.
If I think the novels go on too long, I think this story could have been a bit less reported, more enacted, with a bit more actual dialogue, but when you do get dialogue it is very good. And then, I, racing through Christie, committed, this time, to outsmarting her, fall short of the finish line once again, and again, three or four times, outsmarted in this story! Oh, go ahead, smartie! I challenge you to anticipate what she is going to do to twist your brain inside and out. Oh, I am sure you are [not] smarter than that old stuffy lady mystery writer!
Listen to it yourself (it will take only 27 minutes) here:
Now wasn’t that great!? Oh, and without the goofy Belgian Poirot, the tone is so different here, with Mr. Mayhew as the solicitor of the accused. But even better with Charles Laughton as Mayhew! It was kind of refreshing not to have Poirot in this one. And horror actor Lee as the reader: Delicious....more