Sister, sister: Dead Letters | 2017

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"Zelda is fully aware that she's enticed me to play, and now I can't let it go until I've figured her out, found her, looked her in the eyes and told her that I know her BEST, that I GET HER. Which, of course, is how she will win too." - Dead Letters, p. 113

The Sum of It:

Dead Letters is like if the twins from Sweet Valley High were from Upstate New York instead of California (question mark?) and then also with more murder/arson. Because here's the thing, this book starts out with one of our main characters, Ava, through whose eyes we see most of the action, flying home to New York from her expat home in Paris to attend her dead twin sister's funeral. ONLY she is feeling a little conflicted about this because she's still getting emails from said sister, Zelda, that could only be written by her #lettersfrombeyondthegrave? Their mom let her know that Zelda died when her barn/hideout at the family's failing vineyard burned to the ground with her inside. Only sister on the plane (Ava) is like, ok, whatever, I'm having a hard time being sad about this because I'm really just wondering what's going on. Is Zelda really dead? Ava thinks not and plans on getting to the bottom of it as soon as she lands. And has a glass [bottle] of wine. 

Once she gets home, the police figure out that the barn doors were chained shut prior to the fire starting. Isn't that peculiar. Maybe the fire wasn't an accident caused by dead (?) sister's candles after all. Meanwhile, the emails keep coming and it quickly becomes clear that Ava is being led on a bit of a scavenger hunt by her supposedly deceased twin, who loved mischief. She starts digging around in her sister's life, which proves a bit tricky initially because they sort of stopped speaking when she moved to Paris, leaving Zelda at home in New York to care for their mother, who is in the throes of dementia. Add in a high school boyfriend, drug dealing strippers, literal gallons of booze, and some poor judgement, and you've got quite the situation.  

The YOA Treatment:

First of all, that cover is bangin', kudos to the designer at Random House. So we snapped this one up in a pre-order because it was recommended by fairly reliable sources as "Agatha Christie-like." Talk about a high bar. And in reading it, we both really looked for the hints of Agatha in the fast-paced tale. The premise is juicy; is the twin sister dead or not?? If not, who's sending the emails?? Is this Pretty Little Liars for grownups?? (#kindof #actuallyreallyalot). Definitely keeps you turning the pages, although for readers who are legit steeped in mystery like us (it's no one's fault but our own that we've read like hundreds of murder mysteries over the last year and a half) the ending started looking pretty inevitable about half way through. While the ending is certainly a "twist," for us the inevitability of the twist took quite a bit of the wind out of the sails (honestly if the twist had been opposite it almost would have been MORE surprising to us). Like The Long Room, I (Emily) read this one on the beach, and UNLIKE The Long Room, this was absolutely a beach read. Almost to a fault, if you know what I mean (I guess what I'm saying is any book that spends more than one scene discussing the way a tshirt lays over various aspects of a man's anatomy starts to feel less like literature and more like a romp, which is fine as long as that's what you're in the market for!) 

All that to say is that I think we both had slightly mixed feelings about this one. It was a pretty compelling mystery and kept you turning the pages, and the author (newcomer Caite Dolan-Leache) knows how to paint a picture for sure. If you're looking for a light mystery to page through while you sip pina coladas poolside, this could be a totally viable candidate. However, we didn't see a lot of Agatha in it. I mean, it was a mystery, and there was a twist, but in our opinion Agatha is in rare air, and this book didn't really carry the weight, offer the clever turns of phrase, or keep the reader guessing the same way the Queen of Mystery would. 

Our tastes are maybe too specific, but where The Long Room was a bit too serious and bleak for our palates, Dead Letters was a bit too meringue. Don't worry, next we'll post about a book that was WAY more than just right ;). 

- E. (& A.) 

International Agatha Christie Conference 2017

We've mentioned it on social media before, but we're SO pumped to be included in the speaker lineup for this year's fourth annual International Agatha Christie Conference at the University of Cambridge's Lucy Cavendish College! There are so many fascinating speakers and panels on the schedule, and we are not only looking forward to sharing our experience with The Year of Agatha with the group, but to dig into the many facets of Agatha's work with everyone else. You can see the lineup of conference events at the conference's website.

If you're in the UK, look into this conference which seeks to "establish Christie Studies as an academic discipline, extending across and beyond the humanities." Readers of this blog will certainly agree that's a worthy goal! We hope to see you there -- do let us know if you're planning to attend.

We can't wait to visit the UK, and would love to hear your tips on what to see, so let us know about your favorite pubs, bookshops, museums, villages, known locations frequented by Tom Hiddleston, etc., in the comments!

- A. & E.

I'll be Watching You: The Long Room | 2016

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"After a sudden snowstorm from the west, Monday morning is cold and dreary; the pavements are slippery, the coats of the crowd crushed together in the trains reek of frying and wet dog, but Stephen is on his way to work with a lift of the heart, in spite of feeling a bit queasy. Monday mornings are good mornings now; they bring new hope and an end to the barren wastes of the weekend, which are devoid of Helen. Mondays used to weigh leadenly on him, but ever since one morning in October they have been as welcome as a lovers' reunion." - The Long Room, p. 29

The Sum of It:
I am a huge fan of the film The Lives of Others (a terrific German film about Secret Police spying on a "suspicious" couple and the effect it has on their relationship: 10/10 - would highly recommend!!), so I was very intrigued by the premise of one of our spring reads, The Long Room by Francesca Kay. Long Room is set in 1980s London, with Cold War drama still totally a thing, spies are also totally majorly sneaking about. One such spy is Stephen Donaldson: a single young man with a sweet old mom and a big old crush on a girl he [sort of] knows from work. However, this crush develops a bit differently than the usual boy-meets-girl. See, Stephen spends his days at the Institute (home base for spies such as himself), listening to tape recordings from wiretaps of potential baddies who are the "subjects" of the Institute's spying. Stephen has been given a particularly important listening assignment (codenamed PHOENIX) by boss Rollo Buckingham (his actual name, and thus far my favorite character name in my readings this year! #British) to listen in on a potential double agent within the organization (#gasp!) HOWEVER, Stephen has fallen head over heels in heart love with the wife of subject PHOENIX, named Helen. Stephen rushes through his everyday work, comes charging in first thing on Monday mornings, and even stays late at work (sometimes when he shouldn't...#oops) to "spend time" listening to Helen walk around or cook dinner or fight with her husband (#hmm).

If it sounds unhealthy (and frankly a bit creepy) it's because it IS. Boss Rollo determines Stephen's special investigation isn't really going anywhere and tells Stephen his days of listening in on the PHOENIXes are numbered AND STEPHEN CANNOT HAVE THAT, so he does what any other spy in love with one of their subjects' wives even though he has never met her would do: he starts making things up...

The YOA Treatment:
It was hard for both of us to get into this book at first. Emily read it on the beach in Mexico, and found some tricky dissonance between the sunny beach scene and the cold and misty London portrayed on the pages #hardknocklife, and the eerie tension of the Stephen's increasingly risky behavior was maybe not best suited for a beach read. I couldn't quite put my finger on the reason why it was tough to connect with- it's a slow read at first, but not necessarily boring. I finally discovered what it was making me feel: claustrophobic.

So much of Long Room is set in the close quarters of Stephen's mind: his obsessive thoughts about Helen, his at times pitifully lonely real-world existence, or his awkward social interactions. Francesca Kay has done a masterful job of painting the picture of Stephen's uncomfortable life, which makes his completely unrealistic crush on Helen totally believable. As we were both reading it, Emily and I kept texting each other about how we were so afraid Stephen would get caught in his ultimate web of lies and rule breakings, and while we shan't spoil anything, it is worth giving Kay kudos for her ability to keep us squirming until the last page.

To be completely honest, I did not end up loving this book, probably for the same reason. I did like the time period (it's one I don't know that much about, but would like to), and I appreciated and admired Kay's premise and plot, however, the experience of reading it was at times tough, and the ending felt a bit abrupt and predictable. Again, we don't want to give anything away, but after finishing it, Emily and I also texted about alternate directions we thought the story was going to conclude and wished our protagonist, after all the tense build up of the novel, had gotten a different wrap up. Kay showed her creative chops throughout, and I was expecting her to surprise me more than she did by the time it was all over. SO if you really love Cold War spies, don't mind some bleakness, and are in the market for some fiction that builds like an avalanche of tension towards the end of the tale, give this a try.

- A. (& E.)
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