Wuff, Wuff!: Dumb Witness | 1937

(image from here)

"'Oh Poirot,' I cried. 'It can't be natural death! It's got to be murder!'

'Oh la la, we seem to have changed places, you and I.'" 

Dumb Witness, p. 220

The Sum of It:

Our story this week begins (quite literally!) with a death: that of Ms. Emily Arundell. Emily Arundell is a secretly-uber-wealthy spinster woman with many needy nieces and nephews, all of whom decide Easter weekend is the perfect time for a family reunion at which to beg Aunt Emily for some of her money. During said holiday weekend, Emily falls down the stairs in the nighttime, an incident which is unfortunately blamed on her darling dog Bob and his allegedly left upon the stairs ball! But is that really what happened? Ms. Arundell doesn't think so and writes a letter to Poirot about her concerns, a letter which she hides from her nosy maidservants tucked away in her writing-case (#snailmail). ALAS, she turns up dead some weeks later and her maidservant mournfully finds the unsent letter and says "Oh I'll be a good servant and send this for my poor dead mistress" (of course not knowing who Poirot is and why Emily Arundell sent him a letter). Poirot receives said letter many weeks after Ms. Arundell initially writes it, a fact which intrigues him instantly.

Poirot and Hastings, under the guise of being a Mr. Parotti & Plus One who are alternately researching for a book on the super en vogue topic of lesser known generals in the Indian Munity (#someonesgottadoit), looking to buy some real estate in the countryside, or having vague liver diseases, scour the small village of Market Basing for clues of the cause of Emily Arundel's eventual demise. They finally dispense with the theatrics (after Hastings starts feeling bad about the web of lies and also people find out it's THE Hercule Poirot and put two and two together) and investigate the case FOR REALZ. After many interviews with Emily Arundell's frankly super shady relatives Theresa, Charles, and Bella (#moneygrubbers), as well as her household staff, occult-loving neighbors, and recently-ish acquired paid companion (and soul recipient of Emily's VAST fortune), Miss Lawson, Poirot and Hastings sit back and think about the facts they have gathered and try to piece together whether they are dealing with a natural liver-failure death or #MURDER.

The YOA Treatment:

We were a bit saddened to realize that Dumb Witness is the penultimate Poirot book featuring Hastings as a narrator/sidekick/BFF! As always, their banter is really terrific in this book. Here are some of our favorite moments:

"Dear me," I complained. "There is something about this place that makes me feel extremely conspicuous. As for you, Poirot, you look positively exotic."

"You think it is noticed that I am a foreigner—yes?"

"The fact cries aloud to heaven," I assured him.

"And yet my clothes are made by an English tailor," mused Poirot.

(Chapter 6)

"Poirot," I said. "Have we got to listen at doors?"

"Calm yourself, my friend. It was only I who listened! It was not you who put your ear to the crack. On the contrary, you stood bolt upright like a soldier."

(Chapter 15)

We also enjoyed seeing Agatha's love for dogs shine from her adorable character, Bob the dog. Agatha has sprinkled a bit of Bob "dialogue" throughout the book and the result is so charming that even anti-pet Poirot is won over:

"Good watchdog, aren't I? he seemed to be saying. "Don't mind me! This is just my fun! My duty too, of course. Just have to let 'em known there's a dog about the place! Deadly dull morning. Quite a blessing to have something to do. Coming into our place? Hope so. It's durned dull. I could do with a little conversation."

"Hullo, old man," I said and shoved forward a fist.

Craning his neck through the railings he sniffed suspiciously, then gently wagged his tail, uttering a few, short, staccato barks.

"Not been properly introduced, of course, have to keep this up! But I see you know the proper advances to make."

"Good old boy," I said.

"Wuff," said the terrier amiably.

(Chapter 6)

David Suchet also writes in his memoir, Poirot and Me, about being "captivated" by Bob the dog on the set of the film Dumb Witness (shown in photo below played by the adorable terrier named Snubby!)

(image from here)

Overall, we came away from Dumb Witness appreciating it as a rather classic-feeling Christie. While the plot and character development didn't really stand out, the whimsical Bob and delightful Poirot/Hastings dynamic we know and love made for an enjoyable read.

-A. & E.

Agatha's Dearest Companion

Hello dear readers!

This week we are making our way through Dumb Witness (stay tuned early next week for our recap and review!) For those of you not familiar with this story, it includes a terrifically endearing character in Bob the dog, the family pet of one of Poirot's clients. In our Agatha studies this year, we have enjoyed learning about her personal love of dogs - most particularly her own pets throughout her lifetime. In fact, she dedicated Dumb Witness to one of her favorites, inscribing:

To

Dear Peter,

Most Faithful of Friends

and Dearest of Companions,

A Dog in a Thousand

You can learn more about Agatha's enchanting doggie friends in this wonderful video from Agatha Christie Trust in their The Essence of Agatha Christie series!

Have a lovely weekend, one and all!

-A. & E.

Self-portrait of the Artist: Cards on the Table | 1936

" 'Ask Dr. Roberts if he'll be so good as to step this way.' 

'I should have kept him to the end,' said Mrs. Oliver, 'In a book I mean,' she added apologetically.
'Real life's a bit different,' said Battle. 

'I know,' said Mrs. Oliver. 'Badly constructed.' "

- Cards on the Table, p. 25

The Sum of It:

This book establishes an interesting premise for the crime around which it centers; a creepy dude who enjoys dressing up like Mephistopheles and freaking people out bumps into Poirot at a museum and mentions that he's got a collection the detective might be interested in — a collection of murderers who got away with their crimes. When Poirot is invited to attend a dinner party at creepy dude's house (Mr. Shaitana) along with a police superintendent, a secret service man, [one of our favorite recurring characters] mystery writer Ariadne Oliver, and four randoms, Poirot gets a feeling Shaitana has gathered the randoms as his collection. His feelings are confirmed when Shaitana gives a sort of strange speech at dinner about women and poisoning and other crimes. 

Shaitana insists that everyone but him sit down to play bridge, four in one room and four in another, and assigns all the "sleuths" to play together while the other four played in the room with him. When the evening waxes, they discover that their host, who seemed to be sleeping in his chair by the fire, was instead #MURDERED with a little jeweled dagger, stolen from a nearby table top. 

All the sleuths, including the writer Ariadne Oliver, put their heads together to solve this crime. They interview all the bridge players who were in the room with Shaitana when he died, that night and then individually later. They were engrossed in the game, no one saw a thing, not a clue to be found. Poirot realizes the only clues they have are psychological, so he proceeds to investigate, in true Poirot manner, stuff like the bridge score cards and everyone's memories of what the room looked like. Based on what Poirot knew about the four, he knew that each of them had something to hide, something Shaitana presumably knew by including them in his collection. So who could be guilty? 

The YOA Treatment: 

Though Agatha regularly contrasts Poirot's focus on psychology and use of his "little grey cells" with the more prosaic methods of traditional police officers, this book offers an opportunity for Poirot himself to contrast with a few different types of sleuths. Though sometimes such contrast serves to make Poirot a bit surly and judgy, he seems to enjoy this little crime solvers club, and works closely with the police superintendent especially. 

One of the most enjoyable things about this clever mystery is the presence of Ariadne Oliver, who first joined the Christie canon in Parker Pyne Investigates, and in this tale provides another fun foil to our beloved Hercule. 

In 1956, Agatha told a magazine, "I never take my stories from real life, but the character of Ariadne Oliver does have a strong dash of myself." Little hints of Agatha herself are sprinkled throughout the character and comments of Mrs. Oliver, including her love for driving, lack of talent at bridge, exasperation at readers who are sticklers for accuracy about things like what type of flowers bloom when, penchant for apples, distaste for dictating her books to a secretary, and her frustrations with her most famous detective, Sven, whose Finnish homeland Mrs. Oliver knew actually nothing about (akin to a certain Belgian we know Agatha was often annoyed by). Mrs. Oliver is even given credit for having written a mystery with a name familiar to Agatha fans, The Body in the Library, a title Agatha actually gave to one of her own books about six years later.

At one point in Cards on the Table, Mrs. Oliver is talking to another character about being a mystery writer, and they have the following exchange: 

"...It must be wonderful to just sit down and write off a whole book."

"It doesn't happen exactly like that," said Mrs. Oliver. "One actually has to think, you know. And thinking is always a bore. And you have to plan things. And the one gets stuck every now and then and you feel you'll never get out of the mess — but you do! Writing's not particularly enjoyable. It's hard work like everything else."

"It doesn't seem like work," said Rhoda.

"Not to you," said Mrs. Oliver, "because you don't have to do it! It feels very like work to me. Some days I can only keep going by repeating over and over to myself the amount of money I might get for my next serial rights. That spurs you on, you know."

This conversation is quite reminiscent of Agatha's own attitude towards writing once she became a "professional," as she described it in her autobiography, following her heartbreaking separation from #HORRIDARCHIE during the time she was trying to write The Mystery of the Blue Train (her own least favorite book): 

"I assumed the burden of a profession, which is to write even when you don't want to, don't much like what you are writing, and aren't writing particularly well. I have always hated The Mystery of the Blue Train, but I got it written, and sent off to the publishers. It sold just as well as my last book had done. So I had to content myself with that — though I cannot say I have ever been proud of it." 

Later in her autobiography, a more cheery but still practical professional Agatha echoed these statements by Mrs. Oliver further, writing of the days following the publication of The Seven Dials Mystery:

"The nice part about writing in those days was that I related it directly to money...This stimulated my output enormously. I said to myself, 'I should like to take the conservatory down and fit it up as a loggia in which we could sit. How much will that be?' I got my estimate, I went to my typewriter, I sat, thought, planned, and within a week a story was formed in  my mind. In due course I wrote it, and then I had my loggia."

Perhaps we have home decorating needs to thank most for how prolific dear Agatha became over the course of her career! Regardless, Cards on the Table gives us a delightful glimpse at perhaps her own view of herself as a writer and sleuth, all wrapped in a typically twisty-turny mystery which ONCE AGAIN made me gasp with surprise at the resolution — outwitted by the Dame again. 

- E. 

Agatha's Egyptian Throwback: Death Comes as the End | 1944

(image from here)

"'There is an evil that comes from outside, that attacks so that all the world can see, but there is another kind of rottenness that breeds from within—that shows no outward sign. It grows slowly, day by day, till at last the whole fruit is rotten—eaten by disease.'" -Hori, Death Comes as the End, p. 9

The Sum of It:
Our first book of the week is unique among Agatha Christie's works: Death Comes as the End. This story is set it ancient Egypt, which, given what we know about Agatha's archeological background, is not too surprising. HOWEVER, it is evident that she had to put in some extra work into researching and writing this story, but more about that later!

Death Comes as the End opens with recently-widowed Renisenb returning to the home of her father to live now that her husband has passed away. She has lived away from home for eight years, and yet it seems like nothing has changed. Her widower father, Imhotep, owns a lot of farmland, but spends most of the time away at the family's other estates, her brothers, Yahmose, Sobek, and Ipy mope, sleep, and lounge around (respectively), her two sisters-in-law Satipy and Kait have issues of their own (Satipy spends most of her time nagging her husband, and Kait is obsessed with her kids), Grandma Esa is old, but sharp, and the household's most-prevalent servant, Henet, is a super shady gossip. Renisenb spends most of her time thinking about her dead husband and talking to the family's scribe, Hori, who seems like nice older (but not too old) guy who is obviously crushing on her super hard.

The book seems like a fairly decent Egyptian history lesson until things get interesting and Papa Imhotep sends his family a quick papyrus to let them know he is COMING HOME! Oh what great news, says one and all! The boys can get on his case about letting them have more responsibilities, and their wives are happy to see their husbands maybe getting an edge on the inevitable inheritance Imhotep will leave one day. HOWEVER, drama heats up real quick when Imhotep shows up with a very young concubine, Nofret, who is a master at manipulation, stirring up trouble, and generally being kind of creepy. The family is NOT INTO THIS NEW ARRANGEMENT AT ALL. Imhotep decides whatever Nofret says is a go, including basically putting her in charge of his whole estate and money. So it's no surprise whatsoever that Meddling Nofret turns up #MURDERED one day at the bottom of a cliff. The family is shaken up, but for the most part, pretty thrilled she is dead. But things get way more ominous when more family members start dying in various ghastly ways and clues turn up that Nofret's ghost is responsible! Or perhaps Nofret was somehow never dead at all!?!

The YOA Treatment:
I will begin my observations about Death Comes as the End with a quote from English crime writer Robert Barnard about this book because his thoughts do mirror some of mine:
"Hercule Poirot's Christmas, transported to Egypt, ca 2000 B.C. Done with tact, yet the result is somehow skeletal — one realizes how much the average Christie depends on trappings: clothes, furniture, the paraphernalia of bourgeois living. The culprit in this one is revealed less by detection than by a process of elimination."
I will admit, Barnard has a point here. Although Death Comes as the End is intriguing due to its unique setting, it does lack the certain vividness of her books we all know and love. Renisenb & Family are wealthy, but live a fairly simple life. There is no staying in first class cabins aboard the Orient Express or black tie parties thrown by countesses to be found here. And while I have become accustomed to not really (i.e. ever) being able to sniff out the culprit in Agatha's works, this one was particularly vague on clues and even with the mere handful of suspects left alive at the end, I still didn't have much to go on to solve the crimes myself.

However, all that being said, it is worth noting that this is a particularly special Agatha Christie novel. John Curran writes in his book Agatha Christie's Secret Notebooks (*which every Agatha fan should read — it is so much fun and you will want to become BFFs with John Curran*): "Long before the current vogue for mysteries set in the past, Agatha Christie was a pioneer. Death Comes as the End, written in 1943, was an experiment created at the instigation of Stephen Glanville, professor of Egyptology and a friend of Max Mallowan [#teammax]. He provided her with much of the basic information and gave her books to study in order to get details correct." Her research certainly shows! While her Death Comes as the End characters lack the posh life of her usual 20th Century European lords and ladies, the background she gives them feels very richly believable.

Overall, I did enjoy this book.  I am a fan of historical fiction, so reading one written by the Queen of Crime was great fun for me. And, perhaps even more thrilling than the conclusion of the book itself is the fact that Agatha writes in her Autobiography that Egyptologist pal Glanville urged her to change some aspect of the end of the book, which she did, and later wished she could go back and re-write. Hmmmmm! How intriguing is that!? I'll be honest, I've been having a good long think about this one for the last few days and wish I knew what her original, unpublished version looked like!

Happy reading!

-A.

#DETECTIONCLUB GUEST POST | Double Review: The Sinking Admiral and The Floating Admiral

Photo courtesy of our guest blogger, @bookishsteph1 on Instagram!

We (Audrey and Emily) are so excited this week to have a guest post from one of our #bookstagram friends, Stephanie Russell, from @maidensofmurder! We'll be collaborating with them on a few things this year, and when Steph offered to write about a revival of one of Agatha's most interesting projects, we were thrilled! So, without further ado, take it away Steph!

First, The Detection Club
As an avid yet fairly new reader of Agatha Christie, I'm still in the stage of wanting to know everything and anything about the Queen of Crime. During one of my regular searches for information, I came across The Detection Club, which Agatha Christie was a founding member of in 1930, right up to being the President between 1957-1976.

I found the idea of The Detection Club fascinating! A group of crime writers getting together for dinner a few times of the year and discussing their craft. From these meetings the idea for The Floating Admiral was born. The basic set out of the book is that each of the 14 members would each write a section of the book, making 12 chapters (husband and wife duo G. D. H and M. Cole wrote a chapter between them) and a prologue by G. K. Chesterton, as well as an introduction by Dorothy L. Sayers. Each author would carry on from the last chapter, working up to the conclusion by Anthony Berkeley, making a collaborative novel. A great feature of the book is the alternative endings from the other authors at the back of the book. Agatha Christie's alternate ending is fabulously outrageous and a little far-fetched but super fun.

The Sum of It:
A brief synopsis of the book: a body is found in a rowing boat floating down the river in the town of Whynmouth. Inspector Rudge must clear up all the details, which include the vicar, who owns the boat, the victim's niece, who has disappeared, and many more characters who could all be withholding information.

The YOA Treatment:
What I liked about this book the most was the unexpectedness of each chapter and the anticipation of what each author would bring, what character they could introduce, and what bombshell they might leave their chapter on for the next author to clear up in the following chapter. This really added to the suspense and made it quite impossible to guess with any degree of accuracy whodunnit. There are many possibilities of the ending, as shown with the alternate endings.

Getting to know all the authors was also a plus point. I really found it quite fascinating to see how well this book worked with all these different authors and their individual voices and whether those voices would get lost or stand out too much, how they would vary from the most popular author to the lesser known authors. I'm happy to say that the format worked really well and there were no major shifts in perspective, atmosphere or character. This is a testament to how well these authors could adapt and add their own style without overwhelming the story.

I found the ending impressive and thought it was in keeping with what the previous authors had developed.  But for me, the alternate endings were even more intriguing. The many possibilities of how a story could end. Christie, I think, had the best and most creative alternate ending and it is worth reading for that little page and a bit of summing up.

My rating for this book is 4/5 stars. I couldn't give it the full 5 stars as I found the prologue by G. K. Chesterton a bit obscure and long winded. I also disliked one of the chapters, which was a list of evidence. It was helpful, just not the most riveting. I would highly recommend this for Christie fans and lovers of classic crime books.

The Sum of It:
Now, 85 years after the publication of The Floating Admiral, the current Detection Club have taken inspiration from it to produce the collaborative novel, The Sinking Admiral (published by Harper Collins),  released this year on June 16th. I was lucky enough to receive a copy from Harper Collins and read it straight after I finished The Floating Admiral!

The basic storyline is that the local pub, The Admiral, is threatened with closure due to falling takings. A TV crew arrive to make a documentary. Then the owner of the pub, also nicknamed The Admiral, is found dead in his tethered boat. Suicide is the assumption. But all isn't as it seems.

The YOA Treatment:
Firstly, the not so good things. It isn't set out the same as The Floating Admiral and you do not know which writer is writing each chapter, an added whodunnit element, as Simon Brett, President of The Detection Club, states. Which is great if you are familiar with each authors style. Which I am not. There's also no alternate endings, taking out the fun of seeing different perspectives.

Where this book does succeed is the actual storyline which is engrossing and kept me guessing. The book has some good twists and fun characters and kept me reading, so I gave it a solid 3/5 stars. Again, great for lovers of classic crime but with a modern take.

There are several other Detection Club books available, some which have a contribution from Agatha Christie!

Thank you for reading my review and a big thank you to Audrey and Emily for featuring me.

- Steph (@bookishsteph1, @maidensofmurder)

This month over at @maidensofmurder on Instagram and at www.agathachristie.com/ @officialagthachristie we are reading The Thirteen Problems. This Miss Marple book of short stories makes me wonder whether Agatha Christie was inspired by The Detection Club or The Detection Club formed around the basic premise of these stories of a group of people, The Tuesday Night Club, getting together and discussing unsolved crimes. A bit of life imitating art? These stories were published together in 1932 but written between 1927-1928, a few years before The Detection Club was formed. You can also read the Year of Agatha post about The Thirteen Problems here!

Planes, Trains, and Poirot: Murder on the Orient Express #YOAReadalong | 1934

(photo from folio society)

"'You do not understand, Monsieur. I have been very fortunate in my profession. I have made enough money to satisfy both my needs and my caprices. I take now only such cases as—interest me.'" 

- Hercule Poirot, Murder on the Orient Express, p. 36

We have had such a wonderful time so far this week reading Murder on the Orient Express with so many of you! If you are still working on reading it, be sure to post a comment about it on this post or our previous post by midnight EST this Friday, May 20, to be entered to win our latest giveaway! We have loved reading the thoughts of those of you who've already posted. We will post the winner on Saturday the 21st!

The Sum of It:
For those of you who haven't read Orient Express, a quick recap! Poirot is on his way home from a little detective work in Syria via train and after a few connections, finds himself getting (literally) the last bunk on the Orient Express, thanks to meeting up with his convenient bff, M. Bouc, a director of the train company. The train is full of an eclectic mix of passengers, so much so that M. Bouc comments as their journey begins about the unique nature of a train to bring together such a mix of classes, countries, and ages: Russian countesses, Swedish missionaries, British officers, and a rich, unpleasant American man named Ratchett. Ratchett approaches Poirot about a vague job of figuring out who is threatening his life, but Poirot is like uh thanks, but no thanks, I am rich and famous enough to not take lame jobs and also I don't like your face (he literally says that #burn). But of course, who turns up #MURDERED? Old Mr. Ratchett. But is his name actually Ratchett? Or does he have a more sinister name (and past!) to discover? And who on the train would want him dead?

Poirot (sans Hastings again! Sad day!) teams up with M. Bouc and a Greek doctor named Constantine to investigate the case. But this is a confounding one. Everyone has an alibi (or do they!?), everyone has heard or seen something different (or have they!?), and who owns the red kimono dressing gown!?! And did we mention all this is happening while the train is stuck in a snowdrift in the middle of Yugoslavia?

The YOA Treatment:
This one is a classic for a reason. The first time you read (or watch) this tale, the complexity of the situation is truly baffling until finally at the end it starts to dawn on you what must almost certainly be the case. This tale is a showcase for Poirot's intuition, and the fact that it's a bit of a bottle episode requires him to lean all the more on his powers of deduction. The characters in this story are also so rich and interesting, so much so that one big reveal (amid several) at the end literally caused both of us to say "whaaaaat!" And we have both read and watched this tale before! The unique setting, a glamorous train trapped in the silent cold of an Eastern European snowbank, certainly enhances the tale.

Interestingly, the book comes across much lighter in tone (aside from the sad backstory) than the David Suchet movie portrayal and interpretation, which has always made us think of this as another super-somber Poirot tale. In the movie, Poirot's morality is much more of a distressing additional character than in the book, where he strikes a bit of a different tone at the end, which honestly feels more like Agatha's own sense of right and wrong than the heavy moralistic attitude we see in the film.

The adorable interpretation of Agatha's early thoughts on setting a mystery aboard the Orient Express from one of our new favorite things, Agatha: The Real Life of Agatha Christie (by Martinetti, Lebeau, and Franc)

One thing that has been interesting to discover as we read through all of Agatha's books this year is which ones she actually liked to read herself. Luckily, such a list exists! Agatha Christie author and expert (#goals) John Curran writes about this in his book Agatha Christie: Murder in the Making:

In February 1972, in reply to a Japanese fan, she listed, with brief comments, her favourite books. but she makes an important point when she writes that her list of favourites would 'vary from time to time, as every now and then I re-read an early book…and then I alter my opinion, sometimes thinking that it is much better than I thought it was - or nor as good as I had thought'. Although the choices are numbered it is not clear if they are in order of preference; she adds brief comments and reiterates her earlier point when she heads the list:

At the moment my own list would possibly be:
And Then There Were None- 'a difficult technique which was a challenge…'
The Murder of Roger Ackroyd- 'a general favourite…'
A Murder is Announced- 'all the characters interesting…'
Murder on the Orient Express- '…it was a new idea for a plot.'
The Thirteen Problems- 'a good series of short stories.'
Towards Zero- '…interesting idea of people from different places coming towards a murder instead of starting with the murder and working from that.'
Endless Night- 'my own favourite at present.'
Crooked House- '…a study of a certain family interesting to explore.'
Ordeal by Innocence- 'an idea I had for some time before starting to work upon it.'
The Moving Finger- 're-read lately and enjoyed reading it again, very much.'

It has been so wonderful this year to, like Agatha, go back through her books to remember old favorites and find new ones. We agree with her that Murder on the Orient Express deserves a place on our favorites list!

-A. & E.

PS: Here's a fun article about some interesting casting ideas for Kenneth Branagh's new film adaptation of Orient Express!

#YOAreadalong Discussion 2: Murder on the Orient Express

Hello dear readers!

We wanted to give you some details about our second #YOAreadalong of the year: Murder on the Orient Express!

As with our first readalong, we are also having a little giveaway (we love spreading the Agatha love!)

THE PRIZE!
For this giveaway we will be sending our lucky winner a copy of And Then There Were None as well as a print of the amazing Agatha Christie bookshelf by artist Jane Mount (see below!)

RULES:
Okay so how do you win this cool stuff?

1.) Leave a comment on this blog post before 11:59pm EST on Friday, May 19th 20th! OOPS!
2.) We will randomly select a winner on Saturday, May 20th 21st
3.) This giveaway is open internationally (yay!), but only to our readers age 13+ (cause we'll need your address to send you your prize and stuff like that!)

Readalong Deets:
Okay so you're reading Murder on the Orient Express. What do you think? We have a few general questions below to guide our thoughts and feelings, but of course welcome ALL your thoughts and feelings!

Characters:
>there are a lot of characters in this one! anyone stand out as particularly shady?
>no Hastings to be found in Orient Express! is Poirot the same for you without him?
>what would Hastings add to the mix if he was in the story?
>what about the Hastings-stand-ins? Aka M. Bouc and Dr. Constantine?

#MURDER:
>who is your initial suspect for the murder?
>stabbing vs. poisoning? Which does Agatha do best?

Story:
>thoughts on the inclusion of the backstory (#cassetti #armstrongs)?
>what about the train setting? is Orient Express train life better than The Mystery of the Blue Train?

As with last time, be advised: everyone is reading at their own pace so spoilers may be inevitable! Post and read at your own risk! :)

Looking forward to hearing your thoughts!

-A. & E.

Cloudy with a Chance of Death: Death in the Clouds | 1935

This is the wonderful late 1960's/early 1970's cover art by Tom Adams, found at deliciousdeath.com

"'Supposing,' said Fournier, 'that when traveling in a train you were to pass a house in flames. Everyone's eyes would at once be drawn to the window. Everyone would have his attention fixed on a certain point. A man in such a moment might whip out a dagger and stab a man, and nobody would see him do it.'" - Death in the Clouds, p. 59

The Sum of It:

The summary on the first page of the version I read (which was published in America and sillily called Death in the Air instead of Agatha's original title Death in the Clouds, but we're going with the latter because it's obvi a better title, like why change it? Solve that mystery, Poirot) sets the scene quite dramatically:

"Twenty-one passengers are winging their

way across the English Channel.

Twenty are alive.

One passenger, Madame Giselle --

blackmailer, money-lender, woman with a

past -- is dead. Murdered.

How? Why? By whom?"

OOOOOOoooOOoooh what happened one wonders? Well the facts are basically as outlined there. Poirot is flying back (in an "air liner" which is described to have multiple cars, I honestly don't know what kind of vehicle this is supposed to be. I'm picturing the zeppelin from Indiana Jones but I feel like she would have called it a zeppelin if it was one so who knows, it could just be a regular airplane) to England from France, suffering mightily from an upset "estomac" on account of flying and him being so sensitive. Mid-flight, a woman dies and Poirot discovers a tiny poisoned dart that appears to be the murder weapon! 

The dead lady seems to have had some pretty risky info on lots of important wealthy Brits, including at least one of the plane's passengers. Problem being, the poison dart seems to have been fired from a blowpipe, found shoved behind Poirot's seat. No one takes seriously the idea that he could have been the culprit, but the whole team (which includes good ol' Inspector Japp) are baffled by how anyone could have fired a dart out of a blowpipe without a single person in the...air liner car... noticing #butforreal. 

As he is wont to do, Poirot befriends a young lady traveling in the air liner at the time of the murder, a miss Jane Grey, and engages her and her handsome young dentist friend, whom she met while on vacay and who was also aboard, to help him figure out #whodunnit. He and the other police types, French and English, spend a good deal of time investigating Madame Giselle's potential clients, as well as the passengers on the air liner, but it comes right down to the wire at the end of the story, and takes another #MURDER before Poirot finally figures out how this crime could have been committed, and which of his fellow passengers could have been the culprit.

The YOA Treatment:

So honestly my favorite thing about this one is the fact that this is the Agatha novel that the Doctor and Donna help inspire in the Doctor Who episode "The Unicorn and the Wasp," featuring a fictional version of Agatha Christie and a wasp-like alien. At the end of the episode, the Doctor pulls out a copy of Death in the Clouds, published in the year 5 billion, to demonstrate to Donna that Agatha remains a beloved writer for all of history. (I really love the Doctor Who episodes where they're joined by historical characters, but this one is probably my favorite of that set). 

This particular tale, while of course a quality mystery and an easy read of a sunny afternoon in a hammock, didn't really stand out for me in terms of clever or engaging characters, or even a particularly surprising twist in the culprit reveal. While this is a Poirot book, it is not one of the ones narrated by Hastings. As Audrey noted in a recent post, you do kind of know what you'll get with Hastings' narration in terms of his obtuseness and terrible intuition about cases. I find though that the levity contributed by Hastings tends to add a layer of interest and enjoyment to a Poirot tale, especially if its one without a zingy, bon-mot-dropping, firebrand one-off sidekick #bringbackHastings #ishestillmarried #whathappenedinArgentina. 

On to the next!

-E.

The Tale of Jerry and Joanna: The Moving Finger | 1943

(image from here)

"The great thing in these cases is to keep an absolutely open mind. Most crimes, you see, are so absurdly simple. This one was. Quite sane and straightforward—and quite understandable—in an unpleasant way, of course." - Miss Jane Marple, The Moving Finger, p. 180

The Sum of It:
The Moving Finger has always been one of my favorite Agatha stories (incidentally, it was one of her favorites too!): the plot is very clever, it has a lot of romance (always a plus), and has some very Tommy and Tuppence-esque witty characters in brother and sister protagonist duo Jerry and Joanna Burton.

Recently-injured-and-now-convelescing Jerry Burton (also this book's narrator) and his sister Joanna begin the book by moving to the small country village of Lymstock for some quality R&R. ALAS they find the village quite twitterpated because someone has been sending nasty anonymous letters to nearly every resident. Jerry and Joanna aren't really bothered by the whole thing, but are quite fascinated to know who is behind them. As they settle into their new house (called Little Furze #namegoals) they make nice with the neighbors, namely:

The Symmingtons: lawyer dad, neurotic mom, spacey yet lovable older daughter, two little boys, and a hot nanny.
Mr. Pye: eccentric bachelor who knows all the town gossip
The Dane Calthrops: Vicar and fairly terrifying wife
Miss Emily Barton: Jerry and Joanna's landlady (Bartons AND Burtons - that won't be confusing at all…will it?)
The Griffiths: Dr. Owen and nosy sister Aimee.
There is also an appropriate sprinkling of housekeepers and housemaids, etc.

The anonymous letters seem to just be an in-bad-taste prank until Mrs. Symmington is found #DEAD, apparently having committed suicide after reading one of the letters. It all seems a straightforward deal, but at the same time, something about it seems fishy and Jerry has more questions than the detectives are willing to ask. Things REALLY heat up when the Symmingtons's maid, Agnes Waddle, is found #MURDERED in a cupboard under the stairs (#notHarry'scupboard). Now that there's an actual murder to solve, a Superintendent Nash shows up to sort it all out. Or at least tries to...

BUT WAIT, you might ask (I certainly did), isn't this a Miss Marple book? Where is Miss Marple? Fear not, she does show up quite near the end as a seemingly random guest of the Dane Calthrops, knits unobtrusively during teas and get-togethers, chats with Jerry, and comes up with a sneaky little plan to oust the killer! I remember the first time I read this feeling SO confident that I had solved the whole thing, but of course the simple answer was quite different, yet right under my nose the whole time!

The YOA Treatment:
As with many of her novels, Agatha has chosen a man as the narrator for this novel. In much the same way as Luke Fitzgerald from Murder is Easy, Jerry Burton plays more of the being-nosy-from-the-sidelines sort of character instead of the pretty formal sidekick-esque Dr. Sheppard from Roger Ackroyd or observer who gets told a lot of secrets Leonard Clement from Murder at the Vicarage. I admire Agatha for not sticking too closely to a formulaic narration style. As much as I love the Hastings/Poirot repartee, you do know what to expect with a Hastings-narrated novel. Being open to telling her stories through the eyes of different men (and women! I'm lookin' at you, Nurse Amy Leatheren from Murder in Mesopotamia!) is part of what makes Dame Agatha such a writing star for me.

As I was considering the subject of narration, I found a couple of interesting articles about book narrators:

Check out this article about books with unreliable narrators and this article about books written by women with great male narrators

Spoiler alert: Agatha makes both lists :)

-A.

When Books Just Aren't Enough

Happy Thursday, good readers!

Besides having become avid Agatha Christie book collectors, this Year of Agatha project has made us ever on the lookout for fun non-book Agatha items. Since we love Agatha and independent artists, we've compiled a little list of some of our Etsy favorites below!

(We are NUTS about this amazing print, found in shop janemounts)

(How clever and gorgeous is this print from one of our favorite short story sets?? Found in shop CartabanCards)

(You guys, it's POIROT'S CANE! Found in shop MayflowerWoodCrafts)

(For the Poirot purists among us, this hilarious mug was found in shop Eudeline)

(Precious Poirot and his little lapel vase found in shop andsmile)

(The Essential Elements of Poirot, found in shop TeddyandGoo)

(#DreamTeam, found in shop CarlBatterbee)

ALSO - a quick reminder that you are all invited to join us as we read Murder on the Orient Express next week! Stay tuned for some discussion details! And we will be having a little #giveaway to go along with the #readalong, which will include the NEXT #readalong book (And Then There Were None!) AND one of the prints shown above!! More details about this to follow as well.

Happy reading, all!

-A. & E.

Mystery Meringues: The Listerdale Mystery | 1934

image from our instagram

The Sum of It:
MORE SHORT STORIES. Oy with the poodles already. I've dubbed these 12 tales mystery meringues because they are, for the most part, quite light [much easier to guess what's going on than in the novels, which I can basically never figure out] and fluffy & sweet [almost every story wraps up with some happy couple gazing at each other and tripping off to the cinema or to pick up a marriage licence.]

In case you, like me, now want desperately to eat meringues, this photo is from a recipe!

There are hints of darkness in some of the crimes; evil husbands plotting their wives demises, vengeful stabbings, a murdered old lady. And in a few of the stories, Agatha definitely demonstrates some awareness of the financial troubles a lot of her readers were likely experiencing at this point in time. For the most part though we're talking jewel thieves, counterfeit royalty, bored peers, etc. etc. This set of shorties was published in England, but there are several that were also re-published along with a few new ones in America.

Given that these are short stories I didn't want to actually summarize them all because then there would be no point in someone reading them on a bus or an airplane or something (the most appropriate type of place for this one). Instead I'll highlight one in particular that I found to be a fun bit of confection: The fifth in the series, The Manhood of Edward Robinson.

This one feels like a bit of satire, poking some fun at the dramatic romance stories of the day, in which voluptuous, red-lipped beauties throw themselves into the arms of the aloof and strapping heroes. Edward Robinson has found himself a bit of a doormat in his relationship with his lady friend, Maud, who feels its her responsibility to be the responsible one, regularly calling poor Ed to task for making poor investments. The blessed fella, who apparently is not ashamed to read romance novels on trains, longs to be the kind of man who picturesque ladies fling themselves at, not a milquetoast little fish. The symbol of this longing becomes enveloped in a beautiful red sports car he abruptly decides to purchase with the winnings from a contest, which gets him into quite the romantic adventure. Though this one is still a fluffy caper, it's charming and clever in the tongue in cheek way Agatha pokes fun at the silliness of capital-R Romance, which made it my favorite.

The YOA Treatment:
A few interesting tidbits and thoughts about this set:
1) A wee bit of research informed me that the second story in the book, Philomel Cottage, eventually became one of Dame Agatha's many successful stage plays. In her autobiography, we learned that she really enjoyed seeing her work performed, and this dark little tale with a classic if quickly arrived at twist would certainly prove quite the creepy stage drama.

2) As we like to consider how much modern tales of mystery and intrigue owe to Dame Agatha, I almost couldn't believe my eyeballz when I got to story no. 3 in this compilation, The Girl in the Train! However, any inspiration the recent best seller drew from this tale is likely strictly limited to the the title, as the story itself is about a wayward young fella who's been tossed out on his ear by a rich uncle after a night of too much revelery, and while aimlessly riding a train finds his compartment host to a beautiful young lady. Not a bit of spying on people out the train windows. Well, maybe a bit, but not in the same way.

3) The fourth story in the set, Sing a Song of Sixpence, is the tale of a retired lawyer who once met a pretty young thing (#PYT) on a ship and foolishly told her upon parting "If there's ever anything I can do..." The PYT is not quite as young and dewy as she was when they met 15 years before when she turns up at his house seeking to make good on that offer. In addition to some rather harsh jabs at the mean work time can do on the dewy beauty of a lady, this one features some hilarious reluctance on the part of the old fella to make good on his promise. Not for the first time, I found myself identifying with the grouchy old man in one of Agatha's books when he thinks to himself that really nothing could compare with "a really well-stocked library on criminology."

4) In story number eight, A Fruitful Sunday, the tale begins with a tidbit about a housemaid and her employer, who "had strong views upon the Christian names suitable for parlour maids and had repudiated Dorothy in favour of Miss Pratt's despised second name of Jane." This seems to be another example of Agatha pulling some color from her own life to flavor one of her stories, as I recall a similar anecdote about her parents household and the updating of some maids' names which at the time of reading I was like sheesh that's a little Downton of them, and this little insert made me think Dame Agatha probably thought so too :)

5) In the ninth tale, Mr. Eastwood's Adventure, the main character is a mystery writer who begins the story stuck on coming up with a plot for his newest story, titled "The Mystery of the Second Cucumber." This one is a light little caper that perhaps reveals a bit about the process of writing a mystery tale from Agatha's point of view, and some of the challenge involved with conjuring such stories out of thin air when day-to-day life leaves one with little inspiration for glamorous tales of intrigue.

So, if you love quick capers and need an easy read, this set of short stories could be just the ticket! However, if you're a fan of the true intrigue of the long-form story, a novel might be a better bet :).

- E.