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
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.
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
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.
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