Recent reading: "The Murder at the Vicarage"

The Murder at the Vicarage by Agatha Christie

I'm still behind on #ReadChristie2024, but got another one done this week. Almost there...

There's been a murder in the sleepy village of St. Mary Mead and there are suspects galore. The pompous, powerful, and unpopular Colonel Protheroe is shot to death while waiting alone in the vicar's study. Suspects include Protheroe's wife Anne, his daughter Lettice, Lawrence Redding, a painter currently working on a portrait of Lettice, the mysterious and recently arrived Mrs. Lestrange, Leonard Clement, the vicar himself (he's the narrator and I was getting Roger Ackroyd vibes), the vicar's charming younger wife Griselda, and the vicar's nephew Dennis, who is besotted with Lettice. A few other questionable characters/motives also populate the story. And of course there's Miss Jane Marple, whose favorite hobby - the study of human nature - gives her a unique insight to the various suspects and helps bring the killer to justice.

The Murder at the Vicarage, published in 1930, was the first Miss Marple novel and this was also my first experience with her. She was actually a very pleasant, interesting character, not the grating, nosy busybody I was expecting. 

The Murder at the Vicarage is the April selection for #ReadChristie2024. Each quarter features Christie novels from a specific decade(s). First quarter is the 1920's, second quarter is the 1930's, third quarter is the 1940's-1950's, and fourth quarter is the 1960's-1970's. The complete list is:

 

January: The Mysterious Affair at Styles (Poirot)

February: The Secret Adversary (Tommy & Tuppence)

March: The Mystery of the Blue Train (Poirot)

April: The Murder at the Vicarage (Miss Marple)

May: The ABC Murders (Poirot)

June: And Then There Were None (stand alone)

July: Taken at the Flood (Poirot)

August: A Murder is Announced (Miss Marple)

September: Ordeal by Innocence (stand alone)

October: The Mirror Crack'd From Side to Side (Miss Marple)

November: Third Girl (Poirot)

December: Elephants Can Remember (Poirot)

 

Recent reading: "The Mystery of the Blue Train"

The Mystery of the Blue Train by Agatha Christie

I'm a couple months behind on #ReadChristie2024 - this one was supposed to be the March read. 

The Mystery of the Blue Train is a Poirot mystery about the murder of a rich American heiress aboard a French train. Ruth Kettering is murdered en route to the Riviera and the prime suspect is her estranged, cheating husband Derek. But there's an additional crime - the theft of Ruth's priceless rubies, and the prime suspect for that one is the Comte de la Roche, the lover she planned on meeting up with in France. Others caught up in the murder's orbit include Rufus Van Aldin (Ruth's millionaire father), Katherine Grey (a young Englishwoman making her first trip abroad), Mirelle (Derek's lover, a famous dancer), Richard Knighton (Van Aldin's secretary), Lady Tamplin and her daughter Lenox (relatives of Katherine's), Ada Mason (Ruth's maid), Papololous (a jewel dealer) and his daughter Zia, and the mysterious le Marquis. Was Ruth murdered by a husband about to be divorced and left broke, or was she killed for her rubies by jewel thieves? Fortunately for everyone involved, Hercule Poirot was also aboard the Blue Train at the time of Ruth's death and he's on the case.

 

This was a new one for me and made me eager to seek out the TV episode, but judging from the imdb description and reviews, it looks like not only did they take numerous liberties with the story but the results were less than impressive. I'll still check it out, but it doesn't sound good.

The Mystery of the Blue Train is the March selection for #ReadChristie2024. Each quarter features Christie novels from a specific decade(s). First quarter is the 1920's, second quarter is the 1930's, third quarter is the 1940's-1950's, and fourth quarter is the 1960's-1970's. The complete list is:

 

January: The Mysterious Affair at Styles (Poirot)

February: The Secret Adversary (Tommy & Tuppence)

March: The Mystery of the Blue Train (Poirot)

April: The Murder at the Vicarage (Miss Marple)

May: The ABC Murders (Poirot)

June: And Then There Were None (stand alone)

July: Taken at the Flood (Poirot)

August: A Murder is Announced (Miss Marple)

September: Ordeal by Innocence (stand alone)

October: The Mirror Crack'd From Side to Side (Miss Marple)

November: Third Girl (Poirot)

December: Elephants Can Remember (Poirot)

 

Recent reading: "The Secret Adversary"

The Secret Adversary by Agatha Christie

 

Thanks to tons of reading for school, I'm already behind on #ReadChristie2024. The Secret Adversary, the first of the Tommy & Tuppence novels, was February's entry and I just finished it a couple days ago. I'll have to act fast to get to the March entry, The Mystery of the Blue Train. 

 

The story starts aboard The Lusitania on May 7, 1915, when the ship has just been torpedoed by a German sub. A nervous man approaches a young woman and requests that she take a precious packet for him, reasoning that due to women and children first, she has a better chance of surviving the ordeal than he. World War I is raging and the papers in the packet could have huge implications for the Allies, so the man has spent the journey concerned about being followed. In spite of the potential danger, the young woman accepts the request and escapes onto a lifeboat.

 

We then jump forward five years later. Post-WWI, old friends Tommy Beresford and Tuppence Cowley run into each other and bemoan their shared lack of financial stability and bleak employment options. In search of money and excitement, they impulsively form The Young Adventurers. An advertisement for their services leads them into a dangerous search for Jane Finn, a missing survivor of the Lusitania sinking. The case soon factors in missing papers, international spies, and their mysterious, dominating leader known only as Mr. Brown. By the end of the story, having unraveled the mysteries of the case, Tommy and Tuppence also acknowledge that their feelings for each other are more than just friendship.

While I loved the pairing of Tommy and Tuppence, one thing that did bother me was that I did figure out early on the identity of the secret adversary, something that doesn't usually happen when I'm reading or watching Christie. She does throw in a twist near the end that nearly undid my theory, but then that was revealed to be false, and it turned out I was right in the first place. I kind of wonder why Christie didn't just go with that, although it would have prevented a happy ending for the long-lost Jane Finn, and it was nice to see everyone (except the secret adversary and his crew) completely triumph at the end.

The Secret Adversary is the February selection for #ReadChristie2024. Each quarter features Christie novels from a specific decade(s). First quarter is the 1920's, second quarter is the 1930's, third quarter is the 1940's-1950's, and fourth quarter is the 1960's-1970's. The complete list is:

 

January: The Mysterious Affair at Styles (Poirot)

February: The Secret Adversary (Tommy & Tuppence)

March: The Mystery of the Blue Train (Poirot)

April: The Murder at the Vicarage (Miss Marple)

May: The ABC Murders (Poirot)

June: And Then There Were None (stand alone)

July: Taken at the Flood (Poirot)

August: A Murder is Announced (Miss Marple)

September: Ordeal by Innocence (stand alone)

October: The Mirror Crack'd From Side to Side (Miss Marple)

November: Third Girl (Poirot)

December: Elephants Can Remember (Poirot)

 

Recent reading: "The Mysterious Affair at Styles"

The Mysterious Affair at Styles by Agatha Christie

This novel was the world's introduction not only to the future Queen of Mystery, but also to Hercule Poirot, her legendary Belgian detective, as well as Poirot's beloved sidekicks Captain Arthur Hastings and Inspector Japp of Scotland Yard. The story is told in the first person by Hastings after the murderous affair has concluded, cataloguing the events for anyone curious about an insiders recounting of how the events unfolded and how the case was solved by the brilliant Poirot.

 

Recuperating from injuries sustained in World War I, Hastings is invited by an old acquaintance to Styles Court, the family estate recently beset by a seemingly gold-digging suitor to the family matriarch. The former widow Cavendish, in her 70's, is now Mrs. Alfred Ingersol thanks to her recent marriage to a mysterious man a good twenty years her junior, and although her new husband is overly solicitous to her, her two stepsons - John and Lawrence Cavendish, who have always thought of her as a mother - are suspicious of him. There's also a maid who is extremely suspicious of Alfred Ingersol to the point where she's ready and willing to hang him without benefit of judge and jury when Mrs. Ingersol dies mysteriously and of course, there are points where anyone could be the guilty party.

We learn that Hastings fancies himself a detective, had met Poirot in Europe earlier and was fascinated by the already legendary Belgian detective, and is therefore delighted to learn that his old friend has been relocated to the village of Styles St. Mary as part of a group of Belgian refugees. After Mrs. Ingersol's horrific death by strychnine poisoning, Hastings doesn't hesitate to call on Poirot's assistance and we're off and running with the duo we've come to love so much.

That this is Christie's first novel is impressive not only in how well she tells the tale, but also in how on point the personalities and voices of Poirot and Hastings are already established. There is such self-assurance in how the story is written and told. And yes, I totally read this in David Suchet's and Hugh Fraser's voices. 

From the book:

"Let us look at the matter like this. Here is a man, let us say, who sets out to poison his wife. He has lived by his wits as the saying goes. Presumably, therefore, he has some wits. He is not altogether a fool. Well, how does he set about it? He goes boldly to the village chemist's and purchases strychnine under his own name, with a trumped up story about a dog which is bound to be proved absurd. He does not employ the poison that night. No, he waits until he has had a violent quarrel with her, of which the whole household is cognisant, and which naturally directs their suspicions upon him. He prepares no defense - no shadow of an alibi, yet he knows the chemist's assistant must necessarily come forward with the facts. Bah! Do not ask me to believe that any man could be so idiotic! Only a lunatic, who wished to commit suicide by causing himself to be hanged, would act so!"

The Mysterious Affair at Styles is the January selection for #ReadChristie2024. Each quarter features Christie novels from a specific decade(s). First quarter is the 1920's, second quarter is the 1930's, third quarter is the 1940's-1950's, and fourth quarter is the 1960's-1970's. The complete list is:

 

January: The Mysterious Affair at Styles (Poirot)

February: The Secret Adversary (Tommy & Tuppence)

March: The Mystery of the Blue Train (Poirot)

April: The Murder at the Vicarage (Miss Marple)

May: The ABC Murders (Poirot)

June: And Then There Were None (stand alone)

July: Taken at the Flood (Poirot)

August: A Murder is Announced (Miss Marple)

September: Ordeal by Innocence (stand alone)

October: The Mirror Crack'd From Side to Side (Miss Marple)

November: Third Girl (Poirot)

December: Elephants Can Remember (Poirot)