Agatha Christie’s Tommy and Tuppence #4, N or M? And I found it to be the best of the T n T books by far, for a couple of reasons. One, it retains somAgatha Christie’s Tommy and Tuppence #4, N or M? And I found it to be the best of the T n T books by far, for a couple of reasons. One, it retains some of the goofy humor of the earlier stories, the kind of madcap clever/silliness that makes the (once) young couple so adorable; two, it basically shocked me that in this more than any other book Christie allows politics to guide her plot, engaging with some serious existential concerns in her writing.
T n T are older now, 45--something that never seems to happen to Poirot, as Christie began her series featuring him when he was actually “retired”--and they too seem to have long ago actually retired from their early detective/thriller work, but Tommy is intrigued by a case that takes him--since the military can't initially invite women such as Tuppence--directly into the fray. But of course, engage she does, Christie’s commentary on Women in the Military! This book is set at the time of the opening of WWII, involving the possibility of German infiltration, so Tommy (and then Tuppence) go undercover to see if they can find traitorous Brits who are fifth column sympathizers for the Germans. Of course, the empty nesters T n T give no notion to their children that they ever were spies, then or now.
It’s very patriotic British, encouraging the stand against Hitler, featuring a nevertheless entertaining couple, so it’s surprisingly good. Very very rarely do Christie's Poirot or Marple books ever acknowledge the world outside their localized murder plots, so this was interesting in that respect. ...more
Partners in Crime (1929) is the second of the five book Tommy & Tuppence detective series by Agatha Christie. The first is a novel, introducing the twPartners in Crime (1929) is the second of the five book Tommy & Tuppence detective series by Agatha Christie. The first is a novel, introducing the two kids just trying to find something to do, and ending up in an international crime thriller, played largely for laughs, sort of ala Dashiell Hammett's The Thin Man, featuring Nick and Nora. Or the Hardy Boys. Fluff, but fun fluff.
I was confused, something like three or four stories into this fifteen-story volume, to discover that this was not a novel! So I had to rethink the whole thing, though one could easily just see this is a loosely connected set of stories in the same time and world. T & T are now six years married, so Christie gets the aging of characters right, contrary to her starting a 45-book series about a retired Belgian detective, who was pretty old when she began, so over time she had to largely ignore thie issue of aging altogether. Christie anticipated that she might write several of these, though there were only five, spread out over decades of her life. The third, which I have already begun, has the couple in middle age, during WWII, getting back in the game as amateur sleuths to help with the Blitz.
The attraction here is that these stories are largely played for laughs; for example, Tommy enjoys pretending he is one of the classic detectives such as Sherlock Holmes, or even Hercule Poirot, using his "little gray cells." The stories are fun, pretty fast-paced. See Anne's review for reviews of each story....more
I had low expectations for The Man in the Brown Suit (1924), #1 in the four book Colonel Race “series” (of books where he plays a supporting role, incI had low expectations for The Man in the Brown Suit (1924), #1 in the four book Colonel Race “series” (of books where he plays a supporting role, including Cards on the Table and The Orient Express), since it is an early Agatha Christie book, an attempt at an international crime romance thriller. This book reminds me of another sort of early Christie thriller, The Secret Adversary (1922, the first in Christie’s Tommy and Tuppence series). Both feature pretty, fiercely independent young women as central characters, initially dismissed as "just girls" who are eventually respected for some of their skills and then pursued by several suitors. Adversary goes more for laughs in kind of a screwball comedy fashion, and it's quite fun and good; that tone is here too, to a lesser degree, but turns the romantic dial up a notch.
Anne Beddington, recently orphaned, is in London, looking for adventure, and watches a man fall onto a tube rail, electrocuted. A man in a brown suit examines the body and takes off, leaving a cryptic message. Accidental death, the coppers initially decide. Anne decides to investigate, meets Colonel Race, a secret service agent who is initially condescending but eventually falls in love with her. The mc here is Anne, and the good colonel actually plays a secondary role as we find the man in the brown suit and solve the crime. Along the way, other men fall in love with Anne (who wouldn't?) and she finally chooses one, but not until after she travels to the formerly named Rhodesia, then South Africa because this is an international thriller. The madcap action is silly, it's fun, and the romance is silly and fun, too, ultimately.
Sometimes there are references to silly girl adventure books Christie is surely creating tributes to, and somehow she manages to create a fun and likable and strong and sometimes daffy and ultimately likable mc, very similar to Tuppence. She manages to write this ludicrous international crime romance thriller as a kind of experiment, as with Tommy and Tuppence, and make it fun, though this is not the main work she decides to do. Poirot and Marple cozy mysteries become her main work. Still, the Goodreads rating remains high for this book because Christie is almost always entertaining and just better at most things than the average writer. And we like Anne, finally....more
The Secret Adversary (1922), #1 in the Tommy & Tuppence series I never thought I would read, happens to be good! Agatha Christie is already by now intThe Secret Adversary (1922), #1 in the Tommy & Tuppence series I never thought I would read, happens to be good! Agatha Christie is already by now internationally famous for her Poirot novels, but if you look closely you can see she always had a range of ideas/projects going on. And this one has the energy and humor that predates Dashiell Hammett’s Nick and Nora from The Thin Man. One thing that Christie does from the first to sort of counter the charmingly stuffy Poirot is to inject youth, life and humor through the presence of young people, usually lively young women, into his novels, though crime writer Ariadne Oliver also has these qualities. Elders: Think Bobbsey Twins or Hardy Boys, but out of school. These young women tend to be bright and sort of "dizzy," though they find their way to doing good things. Tuppence is one of these; she's a kind of joke until she isn't, quite. Though you can't take any of this stroy seriously, really.
Tommy and Tuppence are friends, early twenties, no plans, so they put a vague ad in the paper that says they will be glad to do things of an adventurous nature for people. They call their enterprise Young Adventures. Huh? Sign me up!? But one shady guy enlists them in a potentially nefarious and certainly dangerous activity, and they are separated for much of the book, sure the other is dead (but I see more than one book in the series. . .). One thing about Tuppence, who initially seems rather shallow, is that her only goal early on is to marry a rich man, though in the end she realizes--get this--that money can’t buy happiness. Take note, all you who are young and greedy.
This is a comic thriller, where Christie seems to follow others in learning this particular sub-genre of her craft. The republic, the world, must be saved, and by two goofy amateur sleuths. Of course. A secret adversary?! Who can it be? (You will likely be wrong, of course). Secret papers traveling on the Lusitania, secret identity, secret plot. More fun than I had anticipated. Not her best but I heard that T n T get better. I listened to it and the British reader was of course good at (British) narration, and good with Tuppence, but horrific at German and American accents (to punish all the terrible American readers and actors slaughtering a British accent, no doubt)....more
“Witness For The Prosecution” is maybe the best but certainly the most famous of this American collection Witness for the Prosecution and Other Storie“Witness For The Prosecution” is maybe the best but certainly the most famous of this American collection Witness for the Prosecution and Other Stories by Agatha Christie. The story ends abruptly and Christie changed it for a couple reasons for the stage and film, but it still has that Christie twisty. Here’s my review of the short story here:
The collection endeavors in different territory for Christie than the Poirot or Marple books, such as stories of multiple personalities, a psychic researcher, giving us a chance to see the ways she stretched out as she was also gaining justified international fame for Poirot and Marple. She tries different ways of telling mysteries, including some eerie stuff you don’t find in her tec fic. For instance, “Wireless” features a woman who hears her dead husband’s voice on her radio. Twilight Zone stuff, only she did it first, Rod Serling!
*In “The Mystery of the Blue Jar,” every morning at the same hour on the golf course, Jack Hartington hears mysterious cries for help coming from a cottage. He speaks to a resident there and discovers she has had dreams of a woman with a blue Chinese vase. Jack thinks the woman in her dream may be the late Mrs.Turner, who also lived in the house, so he hires a psychic to stay there for the night.
* “Eastwood” is a myster writer who can’t come up with an idea for a story . His current unpromising idea is "The Mystery of the Second Cucumber” until he gets a phone call from a woman asking him to save her life. when all at once he's asked to save a woman's life. Hey, that might be a better idea!
* In “Second Gong” Poirot makes an appearance, and it is a popular one. Poirot has been hired by Hubert Lytcham Roche, who thinks he is being defrauded. Poirot arrives after Roche has been killed. How do we know he is dead? He is famously punctual, and always arrives at dinner at the second gong. Uh oh. ...more
Described by Christie at age 82 as one of her favorites of her published work, this is later but still strong mystery. A father dies, all the family aDescribed by Christie at age 82 as one of her favorites of her published work, this is later but still strong mystery. A father dies, all the family are suspects, and one daughter's fiance helps solve the case. Sound mundane? Well, the characterization and plotting are very strong, no surprise there, but it's really better than some of the early Poirot or Marple mysteries.
Then there is this "crooked house" angle to the book. The Haunting of Hill House is described as a crooked house, too. It appears several family members may be crooked. Then the resolution is both surprising, unique, possibly unprecedented in Christie, though you say duh, as there are clues early on to support it. 3.75 rating. Buddy read with T....more
Ordeal by innocence (1944) by Agatha Christie is one that is not in a series featuring Poirot or Marple or any other of her series detectives. I read Ordeal by innocence (1944) by Agatha Christie is one that is not in a series featuring Poirot or Marple or any other of her series detectives. I read it because at the age of 80 she listed it (at that moment, noting she might change her mind a week later) as one of the top ten books of her own works. Of it she said, only: “an idea I had had for some time before starting to work upon it.”
In it a man is convicted of murdering a woman, he’s a lowlife criminal, the black sheep of the family. The woman is his adoptive mother. He's convicted on plenty of obvious evidence, dies in prison, and then is exonerated, as a man returns to England with proof that the guy could not have done it. So instead of passing the case on to the police, this guy decides that, to do justice to the situation, he needs to find the killer. In the process, dredging up the old once-solved crime, he retraumatizes all those in the family, other adopted brothers and sisters, all of whom become suspects. Thus the title, “ordeal by innocence,” meaning that the innocent in a reopened case suffer again in many ways. Better to have just let it go?
". . . it's not the guilty who matter. It's the innocent. . . It's we who matter. Don't you see what you've done to us all?"
So the police do get involved again, but not centrally, not enthusiastically, and so the main detective here is the amateur, this determined guy. And sure enough (spoiler alert), others also die, as usually happens as we move to a resolution.
This is considered by critics to be one of the best of Agatha Christie’s later novels, published when she was 68, and made Christie’s own top ten list of her own novels, but I wouldn’t put it on my ten list. It is well plotted, with good work on characterization; it has as usual an engaging last third of the book, and the resolution is a surprise, but it just wasn’t for me in the upper echelon of Christie-dom. ...more
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