I had reached a reading hiatus last week when I was mooching around and could not settle to anything so when that happens to me I re-read. As I have just visited Agatha Christie’s house I decided to pull down a few titles from the tottering piles that I own and have had a good week catching up.
When you first read an Agatha you do not know who the murderer is and you NEVER guess (well some smarty pants might but I never have), the second time around you spot clues you missed the first time as you know Who Dun It and the third time and further reads will yield even more clues that you still did not notice and on it goes.
I decided to read Dead Man’s Folly. This is a Poirot story. Mrs Oliver (who I think we all know is Agatha herself) is asked to concoct a murder mystery game for a summer fete at Nasse House. The description of the house and the grounds is Greenway and this was why I wanted to have another look at it as I have now been at the scene of the crime. It goes without saying that the murder game takes a nasty turn and a body is found. The murdered girl is found in the Boathouse which I walked to and there are descriptions of the walks and the route the contestants have to take. Well I followed this round the grounds and it brought the book vividly to life.
I then read A Murder is Announced. I love this story and I loved the TV adaptation of it - it is a Miss Marple and the sublime Joan Hickson was in it. She is the best Miss Marple in my opinion. An advertisement announcing a Murder is put in the local paper and the village all arrive at the house expecting a Murder Game. We all know what will happen and it does.
There is one simply sublime line of dialogue in this which always makes me laughing.
Inspector to Miss Marple when discussing one of the suspects: “He is a Communist you know”
”oh dear” said Miss Marple “ he must be very lonely in Chipping Cleghorn”....
Perfect.
Taken at the Flood - another Poirot. The Cload family have always relied on their rich uncle who has always promised that they will be his inheritors when he dies. They lead busy lives and are successful in their professions but there has been a lack of worry as they know that they are financially secure because of the Uncle. He is killed in a raid in the war but before this happened he has suddenly and unexpectedly remarried a very young woman and she gets all his money. Well, it would be very handy if she dies but she is young and healthy and has a brother keeping an eye on her. But but but.....
The Mirror Crack’d from Side to Side - one of her later novels and Miss Marple again. In this one we revisit Bassington Hall, the scene of an earlier murder the Body in the Library, only now it belongs to a film star and her director husband. They hold an open house and in the middle of the guests arriving one of them Mrs Babcock, who is involved with the local St Johns Brigade, drinks a cocktail and five minutes later is dead. She has no enemies and her death is a total mystery. The first time I read this title and found out the solution I was taken aback at the audacity of Dame Agatha.
I read Halloween Party yesterday. Not one of her best. Now I am onto A Caribbean Mystery - a Miss Marple and enjoying it very much. I remember an updated version of it with Julia Mackenzie as Miss Marple (far and away the worst of the lot) and they put in a sex mad priest tortured by his feelings into the mix. The only priest in the book is a chatty, genial Canon...
I call her Middle Period the time when she wrote her best books - Murder on the Orient Express, Death on the Nile, Evil under the Sun and my top favourite, Five Little Pigs which I think is wonderful, superbly plotted and I wave this in the face of anybody who says she cannot create real people. The TV adaptation of this was spot on and excellent.
And my other favourite out of her stand alone books is Crooked House. Took my breath away when I first read it. It was made into a film a few years ago. Dire...................
I have a new book on the go now but will always return to Dame Agatha whenever I get stuck.
