I think I’ve come to the conclusion that I prefer Poirot books to Marple ones, but this one started off really well! One of the reasons I usually like Poirot better is that he’s usually more involved in the narrative. Miss Marple usually sidles in at the last moment and mostly does her work off page. But here, she was present from page one. Unfortunately, I just lost my motivation about halfway through as the mystery itself didn’t really hold my attention. Miss Marple’s childhood […]
Nothing like a cozy murder to get you through the holidays
While romance is my genre of choice, when I stray it is always to mysteries. Lately my mystery reading has taken me to the historical and paranormal sub-genres, but my first love was of the cozy variety. I read many of Agatha Christie’s books back in high school but hadn’t read any in 20+ years. I remember liking almost everything she wrote, but the Miss Marple mysteries were my favorite. Something about a woman who is underestimated and overlooked but outwits everyone is very appealing […]
“People in the dark are quite different, aren’t they?”
Once again guessed the murderer by complete accident. I’m the mystery reader equivalent of those characters you often see in farces who are complete idiots (usually lovable) and bumble about doing everything so wrong they come back around and get everything right. I really enjoyed this book, which was apparently Christie’s 50th (although publishers had to count a book of short stories to make this true, and they really wanted to, because publicists never change). It starts out kind of like a game. An ad […]
Christie takes a very old trope and makes it work.
I love listening to Agatha Christie books when it’s cold outside. It’s so cozy and comforting and British. This one didn’t disappoint, although it’s not my favorite of hers so far. The dead body found in the library conceit was old even back in 1941 when The Body in the Library was first published. Good old Agatha got ahold of it and decided to make it her own. There is indeed a body found in a library at the start of this book, but in quite […]