Random Thoughts

Yes, another old mystery.

As is common with Barnard, we get the murder smack dab in the middle of the book, so there’s plenty of time to get to know the suspects (and we get the added mystery of who’s going to be killed). It works well here — there’s a varied bunch of characters, and I couldn’t guess whodunnit at all.

But the actual denouement felt pretty weak — the detective just had a brain storm and AHA! Still, a perfectly pleasant read.

At Death’s Door (1988) by Robert Barnard (buy used, 3.48 on Goodreads)

It’s not easy to find an Agatha Christie book to re-read — even though it’s been a couple decades since I read most of them, the plots of many of them are still pretty clear in my head. But then again, the most famous of them have been made into TV series, movies and radio plays, and so I’ve already experienced them many times.

But this one didn’t ring a bell, and it’s from 1939, so I went with it.

And it’s very entertaining. It’s got a satisfyingly large number of suspects, and we really get into the investigation — but without going over the same plot points again and again. It does get a bit bogged down in the third quarter, but then the ending’s totally mad, so that’s fun. (I did guess the murderer, but I’m guessing that’s because I’ve read this before, even if I didn’t remember anything else about it.)

Robert Barnard:

Archetypal Mayhem Parva story, with all the best ingredients: Cranford-style village with ‘about six women to every man’; doctors, lawyers, retired colonels and antique dealers; suspicions of black magic; and, as optional extra ingredient, a memorably awful press lord. And of course a generous allowance of sharp old spinsters. Shorter than most on detection, perhaps because the detection is, until the end, basically amateur. One of the classics.

Murder Is Easy (1939) by Agatha Christie (buy used, 3.77 on Goodreads)

About 20 years ago, I remembered that I’d quite liked Agatha Christie’s mysteries when I was a child, so I decided to read them all chronologically. Which took about ten years, since I only did so while either being hung over or having a cold or the like.

And then afterwards I watched the Joan Hickson Marple series, and then the David Suchet Poirot series (speaking of which — that one sure was fun for the first half, what with the amusing Scooby Gang of characters and stuff, but then they decided to get All Serious, and things totally went off the cliffs), and…

What I’m saying is that I wanted to re-read some Christie now, because I am once again under the weather, but it was hard to choose something I didn’t remember perfectly. But I couldn’t remember this one at all, which is either a good, or a bad sign.

It was a bad sign. I mean, it’s not awful or anything, but it’s Agatha Christie at her laziest: She came up with The Mystery, and then didn’t really bother to do anything more. Instead we have Marple being summoned on a woozy premise to a mansion, and as soon as she arrives, everybody swarms her, telling her all their business. Then there’s the murder, and then the rest is just the police investigating it, getting one witness statement after another until there’s a sufficient number of pages, and then a quick reveal.

Robert Barnard says:

Otherwise highly traditional, with houseplans, Marsh-y inquisitions, and second and third murders done most perfunctorily.” He summed it up as showing “Definite signs of decline.”

And while I didn’t think I remembered anything of the plot, as soon as the murder had been committed, I flipped back to the house plan, and said “well, obviously X did it”, which turned out to be correct. And I’m not smarter than Christie, so I must have remembered that part, even if I don’t remember remembering it.

This book has the third-lowest rating of the Marple books on Goodreads, so I guess my opinion here is decidedly mainstream. *pout*

Well, I still want to read another Christie book… but this time, perhaps from the 30s, and perhaps without either Marple or Poirot?

They Do It With Mirrors (1952) by Agatha Christie (buy used, 3.78 on Goodreads)

I’ve read this book before, and I know that I have it here somewhere, but I just can’t find it. So I downloaded an ebook from Anna’s Archive, which turned out to be a much better edition than most ebooks — few typos and almost no typographical errors.

The plot is totally preposterous, but this is one of those comedy mysteries, so that’s fine. The main point of the book is to cram as much bickering between two silent-era movie stars into the book as possible, and it achieves that magnificently.

So it’s fun, and it’s a bit odd that it’s impossible to buy an ebook of this legitimately. But I mean — it’s a trifle. And the mystery itself is *rolls eyes*.

This Goodreads review should win some sort of reward:

ALL BOOKS MUST HAVE ACCURATE DEPICTION OF JETLAG! EVERYBODY HAS JETLAG! IF YOU DON”T ACKNOWLEDGE THE JETLAG IN YOUR COMEDY MYSTERY, YOU HAVE FAILED!!1!!!ONE!

*slow clap*

Reel Murder (1987) by Marian Babson (buy used, 3.5 on Goodreads)