Second Quarter Faves | Top Picks at the HALFWAY POINT!

How is it possible that we are already HALFWAY through our 2016 Agatha Christie adventure!? We have been having such a blast not only reading so much Queen of Crime, but also connecting with other Agatha Christie fans here on the blog and on social media - it's made this year twice as fun! We wanted to take a minute to go through and pick our top three favorite reads (for each of us) since our "first quarter faves" post.

EMILY'S TOP THREE FAVES #halfwaypoint
1) Why Didn't They Ask Evans? 
Well we all know I love a good caper, and this one is delightfully caper-y, and complete with an adorably bantering couple in Bobby the organist and Lady Frankie Derwent, the spunky girl who's ready for anything. Bobby and Frankie make a great team, working through the complexities of a tricky mystery, each standing their ground when they think they're right.

From the book: "'Why didn't they ask Evans?' Bobby repeated the phrase thoughtfully. 'You know, I can't see what on earth there can be in that to put the wind up anybody.' 'Ah! That's because you don't know. It's like making crossword puzzles. You write down a clue and you think it's too idiotically simple and that everyone will guess it straight off, and you're frightfully surprised when they simply can't get it in the least. 'Why didn't they ask Evans?' must have been a frightfully significant phrase to them, and they couldn't realize that it meant nothing at all to you.' " - Bobby and Frankie, Why Didn't They Ask Evans, p. 59

From the YOA review: As noted in a previous post, I (Emily) insisted on reading this one because it's one of my favorite television adaptations, albeit altered into a Miss Marple story for TV. As we've seen with a few of the others that have made their way to the screen, the plots and characters sometimes get a bit altered for a different format, and this one is no different. While the adorable, crime-solving pseudo couple, Bobby Jones and Lady Frances Derwent (aka Frankie) is still present and up their mystery solving shenanigans, the bad guys and side characters are a bit jumbled up in this one. 

I think this is largely because sometimes Dame Agatha created these complex webs of characters in effort to throw all us readers off, when she was really totally overestimating our intelligence and we still would have been just as stumped with one set of mysterious people rather than three #wegetityouaresmarter #noneedtoshowoffAgatha. This plot is really clever, and we find that some of the red herrings are FAKE red herrings, and in fact are the real deal after all, which is a great type of plot twist. 

2) Cards on the Table
This book was such a fun read, largely because of how much of herself Agatha wrote into the character of Ariadne Oliver. It's also a really engaging plot, with Poirot cooperating with several different detectives, including the mystery writer Ms. Oliver, to figure out which of several guilty people is the guiltiest.

From the book: '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

From the YOA review: 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.

3) And Then There Were None
Even though I had read this one before, and recently watched the new tv adaptation, I still loved reading the book. It is just so atmospheric and clever, definitely in a league of its own. This was the first of Agatha's books I ever read, and I'm confident it will always be one of my favorites.

From the book:"But what you don't seem to realize is that [no spoilers!] is mad! And a madman has all the advantages on his side. He's twice as cunning as any one sane can be." - And Then There Were None, p. 213

From the YOA review: We dare say, if you are going to read ONE Agatha Christie novel, this is the one to read. It has been hailed by fans and critics alike as Agatha Christie's best novel, and we can certainly see why. Even Agatha Christie herself wrote in her Autobiography of how proud she was of the work she put into ATTWN, and its final result:

I had written this book because it was so difficult to do that the idea had fascinated me. Ten people had to die without it becoming ridiculous or the murderer being obvious. I wrote the book after a tremendous amount of planning, and I was pleased with what I had made of it. It was clear, straightforward, baffling, and yet had a perfectly reasonable explanation; in fact it had to have an epilogue in order to explain it. It was well received and reviewed, but the person who was really pleased with it was myself, for I knew better than any critic how difficult it had been.

AUDREY'S TOP THREE FAVES #halfwaypoint:

1) Death on the Nile
This may solidly stay in my top (dare I say?!) three Agatha Christie books of all time? I have always enjoyed this story so much and re-reading this book helped me remember just how classically Christie it is in both story and characters. It also has a healthy dose of exotic drama which I love!

From the book: "Because — if you do — evil will come…Yes, very surely evil will come…It will enter in and make its home within you, and after a little while it will no longer be possible to drive it out." -Death on the Nile, p. 64

From the YOA review: "The setting is one of our fave parts — Anyone who can make it through Death on the Nile without desperately wanting to take an exotic vacation with Poirot is lying to themselves. One of the things we love most about Poirot (particularly if he must be sans Hastings) is his love of the lavish holiday. Not only do his voyages give colorful settings to his stories, but allow for an eclectic bunch of characters that wouldn't always make sense in the country home or London where we usually find Hercule Poirot. Death on the Nile is no exception. All that grisly murder aside, we would be more than thrilled to sail through Egypt with Poirot…and okay if we are being totally honest we would love to help him solve a crime or two as well…"

2) The Moving Finger
We haven't read much Miss Marple yet this year, but every time we do, it is such a treat. The Moving Finger almost doesn't feel like a Marple, with Miss Jane showing up just basically at the end to solve the crime, BUT I just love the cozy village setting and brother/sister duo Jerry and Joanna.

From the book: "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

From the YOA review: 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. 

3) Five Little Pigs
This is, so far, one of the very best Poirot novels I have read. I enjoyed reading through his thorough, methodic crime solving style as he interviews all those involved with a sixteen-year-old crime.

From the book: "It's psychology that interests you, isn't it? Well, that doesn't change with time. The tangible things are gone—the cigarette end and the footprints and the bent blades of grass. You can't look for those any more. But you can go over all the facts of the case, and perhaps talk to the people who were there at the time—they're all alive still—and then—and then, as you said just now, you can lie back in your chair and think. And you'll know what really happened..." - Carla Lemarchant, Five Little Pigs, p. 8

From the YOA review: While I generally adore the Poirot TV adaptations, I must admit I often avoid this particular episode because it is SO SAD! This is a fairly accurate representation of the book, because Five Little Pigs does have a somber tone which is kind of unusual for Poirot. He doesn't have Hastings by his side for (mostly unintentional) comic relief, and right from the get go the reader is left with a bit of a lose-lose situation because Caroline Crale is dead so even if she IS innocent, Carla is still left without her parents. That being said, this book has a very compelling ending because you are left both satisfied and unsatisfied, but not necessarily for the reason you think. I shall reveal no more because a) NO SPOILERS! and b) I want you to be so intrigued that you run and pick up a copy of this book right away!

-A. & E.

Everybody In: The Regatta Mystery | 1939

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"I wonder if you'll ever commit a crime, Poirot?" said Stillingfleet. "I bet you could get away with it all right. As a matter of fact, it would be too easy for you -- I mean the thing would be off as definitely too unsporting." 

"That," said Poirot, "is a typically English idea."

-The Dream, p. 161

The Sum of It

This set of short stories contains tales featuring three of Agatha's best known detectives: Poirot, Parker Pyne, and Miss Marple. Many of these are legit SHORT stories, some of them are really more like vignettes. A few of the stories will be well known by fans of the David Suchet Poirot series as they have been adapted in that medium. The Mystery of the Baghdad Chest, Yellow Iris, The Dream, and Problem at Sea can all be found in this little collection. 

My favorite story in this collection was one I hadn't seen before, called In a Glass Darkly. The story is written in first person, which I always enjoy from Agatha. The narrator is visiting a friend and dressing for dinner in a mirror when he sees in the mirror what appears to be a reflection of a woman being strangled by a man with a scar on his face. But when he turned around, all that was behind him was a wardrobe and a wall. He feels like the vision was perhaps a premonition, so he warns the girl he saw in the vision (his friend's sister) about it, causing her to break up with her fiance. After the narrator is grazed on the cheek by a bullet in WWI, he comes home and marries the girl. Later in life, he finds the scene repeated live and in person, and learns something about himself. He also comes to wonder about the vision he saw; did it alter the course of their lives? There's a hint of the supernatural in this story, and a nice level of creepiness, it's a delicious little mystery snack!

The YOA Treatment

So, yeah, more short stories. This was a pretty fun set, really, though there's also a fair sprinkling of some regrettable pre-war racism and sexism. There are several decent tales in the mix. In addition to the one I summarized above, I also really enjoyed The Yellow Iris, even though I was familiar with the plot from television. It's a good demonstration of Poirot using those little grey cells to solve a life-and-death style puzzle in real time as a dinner party unfolds following a panicked call from one of the ladies at the party who claimed to be in peril. (Fun fact: Agatha must have really enjoyed this one too, as The Yellow Iris was later expanded into a full-blown novel called Sparkling Cyanide, which we'll be reading soon along with our #bookstagram friends, The Maidens of Murder!)

The Parker Pyne story Problem at Pollensa Bay is a classic example of Mr. Parker Pyne's methods of basically employing an attractive woman to seduce a man in order to solve some sort of relationship problem #gigolo. The Miss Marple story, although her tone and style of speech is perpetually amusing, is not much of a tale, disappointingly. It was fun to meet several different mystery solvers, along with some independent storytellers, in the same set. 

No strong feelings about this book, honestly, though given the mini-stories, it's a fine set to toss in your work bag for quick reads while you're waiting for a meeting to start!

-E.

A Series of Unfortunate Events: Taken at the Flood | 1948

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"The unexpected has happened, eh?"

"On the contrary," Poirot corrected him. "It is the expected that has happened — which in itself is sufficiently remarkable." -Taken at the Flood, p. 170

The Sum of It:
This week's first read, Taken at the Flood (also called There is a Tide) begins with Hercule Poirot spending an air raid in The Coronation Club listening to a story. A Major Porter, described as the club bore, is droning on about some rich-family drama and Poirot, trying to distract himself from the understandably frightening air raid, can't help but listen in. Major Porter is telling the story of the Family Cloade, and how the wealthiest Cloade, Gordon, had been suddenly killed when his London home was bombed. Just before his death, Gordon had married a young, beautiful widow named Rosaleen and, without having made a new will after his marriage, the entirety of Gordon's vast fortune had gone to her upon his death…much to the chagrin of the rest of his family. But Major Porter's story doesn't end there. He goes on to speculate on the actual dead-ness of Rosaleen's first husband, one Robert Underhay, with whom Major Porter was acquainted. Perhaps Underhay didn't actual die in Africa as originally reported, Major Porter hypothesizes.

It is not until two years later that Poirot has need of the details of this story. The war has ended and the Family Cloade are collectively rather strapped for cash. Back when Gordon was alive, the family wanted for nothing. The genuinely generous Gordon encouraged his brothers and sisters and nieces and nephews to live life as they wished, send him their bills, and made no secret that he planned to leave all of them very well-off after his death. But now the Widow Rosaleen controls his millions, and Rosaleen's brother, David Hunter, controls Rosaleen. The Cloades, understandably, would really benefit from Major Porter's air raid tale to hold some truth. And lo and behold, one day a mysterious stranger comes into town, attempts to blackmail David Hunter about the whereabouts of Rosaleen's first husband, and then is found murdered in his hotel room. Poirot is called to the scene and his memory of The Coronation Club story is finally useful. But something doesn't sit well with Poirot. Everything seems to have fallen into place a little too easily. To Poirot, the solution makes more sense if just about everything is not what it seems…

The YOA Treatment:
While this story is not my absolute favorite Poirot novel, there are some elements that I do appreciate about Taken at the Flood. Most interestingly, we get a look into British life post-World War II. The fact that relationships are strained, family members have been killed, taxes are high, and money isn't as plentiful as it once was all play a part in not only acknowledging the real world of many of Agatha's readers at the time of this novel's publication, but also the mystery itself. Even Poirot himself has been changed a bit by the war. He is, of course, still his ever-confident self, but is willing to show some moments of vulnerability. For example, he talks about how he was frightened during aid raids. He says "I am sitting very sick in my stomach (for I did not like air raids, and I am not very brave though I endeavor to put up the good appearance)."

We know from her autobiography that Agatha herself lived through some pretty scary times during the bombings on London, even losing part of her home at one point. Though in typical Christie style she kept calm and carried on, she chose to write two books at once (The Body in the Library and N or M?) to keep herself distracted from the constant bombs and sirens. Her real home, Greenway, was even requisitioned in the war effort due to its coastal location. This story shows that Agatha, though she wasn't a sentimental type of person, appreciated what her countrymen had been through. I admire Agatha for staying true to her readers by keeping her characters in a world to which they could relate.

-A.

When You Want to Learn More About Agatha: Supplemental Read Recommendations!

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"If she [Agatha Christie] is read by miners, shop assistants, and old age pensioners, equally she is read…by academics, politicians, scientists and artists. They would feel ashamed to sit on a train reading a Tarzan book; they would hide a James Bond inside a copy of the Guardian; but they wouldn't think twice about opening up a Christie." -A Talent to Deceive, p. 4

Happy Thursday, dear readers!

One of our readers, NYC Book Owl, asked if we would do a post about some of our favorite supplemental Agatha reads. One of the things we have loved about our Year of Agatha project has been learning more about the Queen of Crime through her own words as well as through the words of other fans who have spent a great deal of time studying her writings (#GOALZ). So, in this post you'll find some of our recommendations for those who might be interested in diving deeper into the world and life of Agatha Christie!

1) An Autobiography by Agatha Christie
This list should absolutely start with Agatha's own amazing autobiography in which she tells some great stories not only about growing up, experiences and people that influenced her writings, and how she felt about her success.

2) Come, Tell Me How You Live by Agatha Christie
Agatha describes this book as basically her way of blanket-ly answering all the questions she got from friends and fans about her time working with her archaeologist hubby, Max, on his digs in Syria. We can just imagine some second cousin thrice removed asking her at Christmas "Oh hey what's it like living in Syria??" and Agatha reaching into her bag and just handing her a copy of this book. Since so many of her stories were inspired by her travels in the Middle East and her experiences on digs, this is a neat window into that part of her life.

3) Agatha Christie's Secret Notebooks by John Curran
We are kind of obsessed with John Curran. Mostly in a OMG YOU ARE SUCH AN AWESOME AGATHA NERD JUST LIKE US kind of way. Curran got to live every Agatha fan's dream and go through her handwritten notes to learn more about how she planned the novels we all love so much. We love this insight into her work, and will certainly be consulting it as we get into phase 2 of The Year of Agatha: writing our own Christie-style mystery!

4) The Life and Times of Miss Jane Marple by Anne Hart
This is a "biography" of Miss Marple using all the clues about her given to us in her novels and other Agatha writings. This is SUCH a fun read because as you go through it you think "oh hey yeah what do we know about Jane Marple as a young woman?! And yes, just how many nieces and nephews does she have??" Anne Hart has also written a similar volume about Hercule Poirot.

5) A Talent to Deceive: An Appreciation of Agatha Christie by Robert Barnard
This is a fantastic read for anyone wanting to get more into the nitty gritty analysis of Agatha Christie. Barnard talks about Agatha Christie's place in the classic fiction genre, her strategies for deception, and how her to-this-day mysterious disappearance as a young woman influenced her writing. There is also a section of his one paragraph reviews of each book that are often SO FUNNY they had us laughing out loud!

6) Poirot and Me by David Suchet
This book is truly such a gem, particularly for those of you who (like us!) basically equivocate David Suchet with Hercule Poirot. This is a delightful account of David Suchet's more than 20 years of playing Poirot, and offers a glimpse into the emotional connection he has with the character and his personal stories from filming the show.

7) Agatha: The Real Life of Agatha Christie by Anne Martinetti, Guillaume Lebeau, and Alexandre Franc
Finally, although this graphic novel could be seen as over-simplifying Agatha Christie's history, it is a cute, quick overview of her life and worth it just for the pictures alone!

Have any of you read a book from this list? What are some that we missed? We are always on the lookout for more Agatha learning :)

-A. & E.

Stranded and Afraid: And Then There Were None | 1939

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"But what you don't seem to realize is that [no spoilers!] is mad! And a madman has all the advantages on his side. He's twice as cunning as any one sane can be." 

And Then There Were None, p. 213

The Sum of It:
We were so happy to see so many of our Instagram friends are huge fans of our latest read, And Then There Were None. Our summary this week will be fairly brief, because, to be quite honest, you really have to read this book and it is best read if you've avoided spoilers! So, in a sentence: And Then There Were None follows a group of ten strangers as their weekend getaway (for various reasons) to a posh mansion on a secluded island turns terrifying when guests start dying one by one…in ways that eerily follow an ominous poem framed on the wall about "ten little soldier boys"…

The YOA Treatment:
We dare say, if you are going to read ONE Agatha Christie novel, this is the one to read. It has been hailed by fans and critics alike as Agatha Christie's best novel, and we can certainly see why. Even Agatha Christie herself wrote in her Autobiography of how proud she was of the work she put into ATTWN, and its final result:

I had written this book because it was so difficult to do that the idea had fascinated me. Ten people had to die without it becoming ridiculous or the murderer being obvious. I wrote the book after a tremendous amount of planning, and I was pleased with what I had made of it. It was clear, straightforward, baffling, and yet had a perfectly reasonable explanation; in fact it had to have an epilogue in order to explain it. It was well received and reviewed, but the person who was really pleased with it was myself, for I knew better than any critic how difficult it had been.

This mystery is so engrossing that we've had several friends report that they finished it in just a day or two. Since we have both read this one before, and recently watched the awesome new adaptation of it from the the BBC/Lifetime, some of the initial confusion and amazement at the mystery's resolution wasn't there for us in this reading, but we certainly can't help but admire the deft crafting of characters, atmosphere, and straight up #TERROR in this short novel.

One of our favorite things about recommending this book to folks who are new to Agatha is that it's a great hook. People get a great feel for how fun it can be to devour one of her brilliant mysteries, and what a truly fantastic writer she really is. Several folks have already asked for a list of other Agatha books they should track down and add to their summer reading list, which we are so pumped about, since bringing more converts into the Agatha fold was the whole goal of our project here at the Year of Agatha! Incidentally, if you or someone you know is looking for a short list of Agatha's to get started with, take a gander at our first quarter favorites! Soon we'll be updating the blog with our second quarter favorites as well.

- A. & E.

I Saw Three Sons Come Sailing In: Hercule Poirot's Christmas | 1938

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"Mon cher, everyone lies — in parts like the egg of the English curate. It is profitable to separate the harmless lies from the vital ones."
-Hercule Poirot, Hercule Poirot's Christmas, p. 89

The Sum of It:
This week we read, quite out of season, Hercule Poirot's Christmas. Though most of the story takes place on the usually-merry Christmas Eve, Christmas Day, and Boxing Day, this story focuses on the all-but-happy Lee Family begrudgingly spending the holiday together, with deadly consequences. Patriarch Simeon Lee is a richy-rich who is wealthy enough to keep piles of diamonds in the house (albeit in a safe, but still…) and has spent his life openly cheating on his wife, treating her and his kids pretty terribly, and generally being a super crank. His son, Alfred, and daughter-in-law, Lydia live at home and try to keep tabs on the old man, but this year Simeon Lee wants his entire family home for Christmas. Enter his "respectable" M.P. son, George and much-younger, gold-digger-ish wife, Magdalene, and the once-banished artist son, Harry and wife, Hilda. But the guest list doesn't stop there. Once upon a time Simeon's daughter, Jennifer, married a Spaniard and their now-orphaned daughter, Pilar, shows up to see if her grandpa can spare any affection and/or money. And the son of Simeon's one-time business partner, Stephen Farr, has traveled all the way from South Africa to look up the Lees for Christmas. With the whole family assembled, Simeon acts in true grumpy grandpa fashion by going to bed early, but not before telling his kids they're the worst and not-so-subtly hinting he is thinking about changing his will. Just like horrible Mama Boynton in Appointment with Death, no one is TOO torn up when he is later found rather gruesomely murdered in his completely trashed room (was there a struggle? Did someone have a major furniture vendetta?).

An Inspector Sugden is quickly on the scene due to a pre-death call from Simeon Lee insinuating one of his family members stole his precious diamonds. Sugden teams up with a Colonel Johnson and his Christmas guest, Hercule Poirot, to solve the crime!  But these three have a tough time of it due to the fact that a.) all of Simeon Lee's family had a motive for killing him because he was #THEWORST, b.) his dying screams led his family to find him in his room locked FROM THE INSIDE and yet, c.) no one appeared to have escaped through the window #MYSTERY.

The YOA Treatment:
One of the supplemental books we have read this year is A Talent to Deceive: An Appreciation of Agatha Christie by Robert Barnard. This is a fascinating read for any Agatha lover. Barnard offers several chapters of smart and often very witty analysis of Agatha Christie as an author, and, more importantly, what made her such a successful one. He spends one chapter giving some extra time to what he calls Agatha's "Three Prize Specimens," including Hercule Poirot's Christmas. One of the things Barnard appreciates about Agatha is that not only was she committed to giving her reader a truly suspenseful mystery, she was also committed to playing fair with her reader when it comes to the solution of the puzzle. Even if you can't guess the ending, when Poirot finally fills that drawing room with the suspects and lays out just how the crime was done, you find yourself hitting yourself on the head and saying "well, duh! All those clues WERE right there in front of me!" and you're not necessarily mad at Agatha for having sprinkled enough red herrings to put you off the importance of the clues, you're more mad at yourself for not having put them together. Or, if we're being totally honest, completely okay with not having guessed because it's kind of more fun to be in suspense the whole time, right!?

This week's read reminds us of what we all love most about Agatha: the puzzle. As Barnard says: "All in all Hercule Poirot's Christmas is a highly superior example of Christie's habitual procedures in her classic phase: the plot is meticulously thought through, not a detail is misplaced or without significance in the total scheme, and above all the reader has that satisfying sense that the clues have all been fairly and squarely placed in front of him—even if he has somehow been induced to look out of the window at the crucial moment of placing" (p. 81).

-A. & E.
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Bonus Read: Christopher Bollen's Orient | 2015

(Grab a copy of Orient at your local bookstore, or Amazon!)

"What else can I tell you that you won't believe? That I saw the killer's face the night I left? I did. I held a flare into the darkness and saw a face so familiar that anyone might pass it on the sidewalk and not blink an eye. They might even say hello." -Orient, p. 6

Clearly we are in the zone this year, reading a book a week in order to meet the goals of our project. Being bookish, of course, we often wish we had more time in the day to take in additional tomes, and the Memorial Day holiday weekend afforded us a bit of said coveted time for bonus reading! We had a long list of potential candidates, but when we learned of author Christopher Bollen's Agatha Christie fandom, we knew his 2015 mystery/thriller Orient was the book for us!

Twitter revealed Bollen as a fellow fan, and led us to this super fun Daily Beast article accounting his pilgrimage to Greenway House, Agatha's home in Torquay (the article is really a great read and offers us lots of fun tidbits about the Queen of Crime). We got even more excited about reading his tale of crime after identifying with this description of his own childhood:

"My only recreation during sixth and seventh grade was reading Christie. I craved her murders. I envisioned myself strolling through the village of St. Mary Mead or attending an archaeology dig in Mesopotamia alongside Poirot and a number of suspicious, well-tailored aristocrats."

We second that emotion! Bollen explains that he got his start as a grade-school writer, crafting Christie-inspired tales of crime with lots of murders and female murderers, but drifted away from detective stories as he grew up, favoring more "literary" literature. Eventually, as we all do, he circled back to his childhood interests and decided to try his hand at mystery writing, taking inspiration not only from Agatha's clever, puzzling mysteries, but also her deft depiction of place and characters. 

Though the name of the town where he set his book (inspired by a real life town on the North Fork of Long Island) coincidentally echoes one of Agatha's most well-known books, Bollen writes "I liked that my Orient held a quiet acknowledgement of the master."

Thusly, we present our Year of Agatha review of Orient, an NPR Best Book of the Year!

The Sum of It:

We enter the story through a mysterious prologue, a message to readers from the main character at the end of the story, the first of many ably executed Christie call-backs in the book. The character, Mills Chevern (an adopted name), hooks you with his own background, but also with statements such as: 

"It is hard for me to picture those first days without seeing the madness that was to follow. I realize now that the deaths in Orient would have happened whether I made my way east or not. They were like matchsticks in a book waiting neatly to be ripped and burned."

UH, YEAH! TELL US MORE.

Mills, a teenager who grew up in foster care in California and made his way to New York City, gets taken in by Paul, a friendly architect with "the head of a lion," who by way of helping Mills get clean takes Mills out to his summer house in the small coastal town where Paul grew up, Orient. Mills finds himself dropped right in the middle of some standard suburban-style strife, old-timers who resent newcomers disrupting idyllic village life, battles between members of the village historical board on how best to preserve their place, some desperate housewife action, husbands looking to prove their virility, and rebellious teens. Mills finds that Orient has also become home to some cosmopolitan artists hoping to find their creativity stoked by the pastoral setting. 

Mills finds himself a bit of a polarizing figure in town, a scraggly young stranger who arrives just before a series of local murders rocks the village, paired with the periodic washing up on the shore of creepy mutant animals, presumably the bi-products of a government laboratory on a nearby island. Even so, he has a few friends in town, his benefactor, Paul, Beth, a native of Orient who has returned from a stint in New York with her artist husband, and the handsome, angsty teen next door, Tommy (who is maybe not so much a friend as a fascination #crushing #hearteyes). From the time the first dead body turns up in the bay, all eyes are on the poor guy who just wants to help Paul clean out his house and form something like a normal life. 

The tension in the tale builds like music, starting slow, then gathering like dark storm clouds rolling in from the ocean. You can almost hear the Jaws theme getting faster and scarier as the pages turn, which explains why it was 1:42 a.m. when Emily finished the book and sent a photo of her totally surprised/impressed face to Audrey.

The YOA Treatment:

This was a delicious, compelling mystery with some major Agatha elements. We got fooled by some totally classic red herrings, and Bollen's keenly crafted depiction of the tensions in village life definitely remind us of a heightened version of the tea and scandal found in St. Mary Mead. In particular, one of the twists amid the reveal of the killer is SUCH an Agatha move, which we obviously can't tell you about here because you should for sure read this book, but it's just an added little element to help explain the motive of the killer that adds a hint of spice and a little more depth to the story. 

The setting of the book comes alive, perhaps particularly so due to recent consumption of similarly set tales, including Showtime's The Affair, set in Montauk, the Harrison Ford/Greg Kinnear version of Sabrina #ontheNorthShoreofLongIsland (David did a GAP AD), and of course F. Scott's perfect tale of West Egg, The Great Gatsby. It simultaneously made us want to visit a Long Island seaside village and NEVER visit such a village because #MURDER. 

As an aside, one of the more interesting descriptive elements in the book which eventually made us chuckle was Bollen's choice of words in describing everyone's skin tones. At one point we started asking ourselves, is everyone in this town supposed to be an alien, or has dear Bollen developed a sort of color-blindness specific to skin? There are at least eight different instances of totally alive people being described with skin in tones of blue, green, and grey; "her skin as gray-green as algae," "light hair and skin-color, that of a mildewed paperback novel," "his complexion was a shade of yellow-green," "the pewter pallor of her skin," and even someone, an alive someone, described as having cheeks the color of blueberries #ghostpeople #reversesixthsense? Certainly lent a distinct tone to all the people in town! 

While we feel like Agatha has had an inspirational effect on most mystery writers today, whether in her ability to create a Rubik's-style puzzle in each element of the story or her talent for really persuasive red herrings, we really enjoyed reading a totally new thriller bold in its embrace of Agatha's influence. We recommend fitting this into your library as well.

-E. & A. 

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Poirot's Three Hour Tour: Death on the Nile | 1937

(image from here)

"Do not open your heart to evil."

Her lips fell apart; a look of bewilderment came into her eyes.

Poirot went on gravely:

"Because — if you do — evil will come…Yes, very surely evil will come…It will enter in and make its home within you, and after a little while it will no longer be possible to drive it out."
[#thenightisdarkandfullofterrors]

-Death on the Nile, p. 64

The Sum of It:
Papa Poirot is on vacay again, this time in Egypt. And, of course, he is surrounded by a vast host of rich and interesting people…most of whom have rich and interesting secrets. At the center of the drama is The Epic Love Triangle of Jacqueline, Simon, and Linnet. Gorgeous, uber-wealthy Linnet Ridgeway has married former bestie Jacqueline de Bellefort's ex-fiancee, Simon Doyle. Jacqueline says he was STOLEN away, Linnet and Simon say tough, they fell in love instead and Jacqueline needs to get over it. Linnet and Simon are on their dream honeymoon around the world, including an extended stay in Egypt, with the definitely NOT OVER IT Jacqueline constantly showing up and totally ruining the mood. Poirot comes in to the middle of this mess and is implored by Linnet and Simon to MAKE JACKIE STOP. Poirot refuses to take this situation on as a case by basically saying uh…what am I supposed to do?, but feels kind of sorry for Jacqueline, as he believes she is truly hurt by the turn of events. BUT he suggests Jackie does quit her weird stalking obsession because he is afraid she will just keep continuing down a very dark path.

Of course Jacqueline doesn't listen to Poirot's advice, and travels along with/continues to harass the newlyweds, Poirot, and a bunch of other characters on a Nile river cruise. What could go wrong? Of course Jackie gets crazy drunk one night, pulls out a gun, and shoots her #boo Simon in the knee. And if that isn't dramatic enough (cue crashing breakfast tray and screaming maid), Linnet is found #MURDERED the next morning! As guilty as everyone would assume Jackie is, she has a watertight alibi for the whole night. But never fear, the boat is full of many other suspects (most of whom had suspicious grudges with poor, dead Linnet), including a drunken romance novelist, a shady American lawyer, a grumpy Communist, and disgruntled French maid. Poirot teams up with old pal Colonel Race #cardsonthetable (also conveniently on board!) to solve the crime as the boat continues its deadly cruise down the Nile.

The YOA Treatment:
SO YEAH we loved this one. It is Agatha at her finest, with a gorgeous exotic setting, a host of fascinating characters, hysterical women, expensive jewelry, Americans who say things like "now see here!", and your regular mind blowing plot twist. The setting is one of our fave parts — Anyone who can make it through Death on the Nile without desperately wanting to take an exotic vacation with Poirot is lying to themselves. One of the things we love most about Poirot (particularly if he must be sans Hastings) is his love of the lavish holiday. Not only do his voyages give colorful settings to his stories, but allow for an eclectic bunch of characters that wouldn't always make sense in the country home or London where we usually find Hercule Poirot. Death on the Nile is no exception. All that grisly murder aside, we would be more than thrilled to sail through Egypt with Poirot…and okay if we are being totally honest we would love to help him solve a crime or two as well...

We would be remiss if we did not take a brief moment to discuss the film adaptations that have been made of Death on the Nile. Many of our friends on #bookstagram have noted the AMAZINGNESS that is the the 1978 version starring Peter Ustinov as Poirot, Mia Farrow as a terrifyingly dramatic Jacqueline de Bellefort, Bette Davis as Mrs. Van Schuyler, a young and spunky DAME MAGGIE SMITH as Miss Bowers (already practicing sassy lines for her #DowagerCountess role), Angela Lansbury as Salome Otterbourne, and many others! That music! Those (Oscar-winning!!) costumes! That tango scene! While David Suchet remains forever #ThePoirot of our hearts, Peter Ustinov is also surprisingly delightful as the great Belgian sleuth. There is, of course, an equally wonderful David Suchet adaptation from 2004 with a totally glamorous Americanized Emily Blunt as Linnet which we also adore. Have any of you seen both adaptations? Which one is your favorite?

-A. & E.

#YOAreadalong Discussion 3: And Then There Were None

(image from agathachristie.com)

Hello everyone!

We are hard at work finishing this week's read Death on the Nile (spoiler alert: IT'S A GOOD ONE), but wanted to let everyone know that we will be reading Dame Agatha's supreme classic, And Then There Were None in just a few short weeks and would like to invite one and all to read along with us! To that end, we've gone ahead and put some thought into discussion ideas for the upcoming #YOAreadalong.

Per usual, let's use this post to add comments/discuss our thoughts and feelings. We know so many of you Agatha Christie fans have already enjoyed this one, so we can't wait to hear from more of you about it! We will not be having a giveaway with this particular readalong because we are waiting on a REALLY EXCITING surprise item for the next giveaway, which we hope to announce soon!

In the meantime, let's talk about And Then There Were None here! We will be posting our final recap/review on June 20th!

Characters:
>this book is PACKED with characters. Any of them stand out to you as particularly interesting?
>anyone seem particularly guilty or suspicious?

#MURDER:
>spoiler alert: people die in this book. Who do you think/did you think will be the first to go?

Story:
>beginning, middle, and end: what do you think is going on!?!
>Some of you may be familiar with the fact that this story has actually had different endings at different points in time. Any thoughts on which one you preferred, or which one seems more classically Agatha??

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

Happy reading!
A. & E.