Double, double, toil and trouble: The Pale Horse | 1961

(image from here)

"There are two methods, it seems to me, of approaching this strange business of the Pale Horse. In spite of the dictum of the White King, it is difficult to achieve simplicity. One cannot, that is to say, 'Begin at the beginning, go on to the end, and then stop.' For where is the beginning? To a historian, that is always the difficulty. At what point in history does one particular portion of history begin? 

In this case, you can begin at the moment when Father Gorman set forth from his presbytery to visit a dying woman. Or you can start before that, on a certain evening in Chelsea." 

- The Pale Horse, Forward

The Sum of It:

This tale of village witches and conspiracy to murder is narrated by a newcomer, an historian in his early thirties named Mark Easterbrook. He got mixed up in the tale somewhat by chance, and it all began for him when he stopped by a fashionably hip espresso bar in Chelsea for a break from his book about Mogul architecture. While he was there, he witnesses a cat fight between two ladies (Agatha uses the b-word! #gasp), one of whom has handfuls of her curly red hair pulled out by the roots, but bravely (so Mark thinks) proclaims it didn't really hurt. He's confused by the hipsters #beatniks, and also by the red-haired girl, whose name, it turns out, is Thomasina Tuckerton. He's even more confused a few days later when he sees her name in the obituaries! 

A bit later, Mark meets up with some friends after seeing Macbeth, and they start talking about whether or not village witches are a real thing, or just a handy scam by creepy old ladies to get free stuff and keep dogs from messing with their chickens #witchpriorities. One of the girls, apparently not the brightest bulb in the box, tries to explain about some folks who do murders for hire over at a place called the Pale Horse, but she gets confused and can't quite explain. Mark brushes off the oddness til this weirdness turns into a series of incidents: he bumps into an old friend who's now a medical examiner when he stops by Mark's recently deceased godmother's house to follow up on a lead. Turns out, the godmother's unique last name was among a list of names found on a murdered Catholic priest! Seems like the list was dictated to the priest by a woman dying of a sudden and mysterious illness. In the course of their conversation, Mark recognizes a couple of other names on the list, one of which is Tuckerton, and starts thinking something wicked this way comes...

Delightfully, Mark is a pal of Ariadne Oliver's, and when he stops by to talk to her about attending a fete' his cousin is putting on in Much Deeping, she has some classic Ariadne/Agatha rants about writing mysteries (ex: "Or drink," said Mrs. Oliver. "I wish I did. Like those American detectives that always have pints or rye conveniently in their desk drawers. It seems to solve all their problems. You know, Mark, I really can't think how anyone ever gets away with a murder in real life. It seems to me that the moment you've done a murder the whole thing is so terribly obvious.") and ultimately agrees to go to the fete' on the condition that she not be forced to go have drinks at a local pub in Much Deeping called The Pale Horse. Mark's curiosity grows, and ultimately he wrangles a visit there when they're in the village, finding it now a home occupied by three decidedly witchy women #Eaglesstyle, who seem more than happy to talk about mysterious ways of killing people. Ultimately, he and the vicar's wife decide he has enough facts to link these supposed witches to a string of mysterious deaths, and with the help of an affable red-headed cutie aptly nicknamed Ginger, he decides to set a trap for evil, never realizing how close he'll come to the real deal. 

The YOA Treatment:

This one is a great read! I keep worrying that the later we get in Agatha's career, the more likely her books will get a little weaker (for one thing, how could anyone be expected to come up with 86 original ideas?!) but I keep bumping into some of the strongest books yet, so once again am forced to conclude that Agatha is superhuman. 

Speaking of original ideas though, Agatha gave herself a good idea for a story in a throwaway anecdote shared by a character in this book as a means of explaining how creepy old ladies can seem like witches, and it turns up again in 1968 as the key premise of a Tommy & Tuppence tale, By the Pricking of My Thumbs! For kicks, here's the section in Pale Horse:

"But I remember being sent once with a message to a doctor at a mental home and I was shown into a room to wait, and there was a nice elderly lady there, sipping a glass of milk. She made some conventional remark about the weather and then suddenly she leaned forward and asked in a low voice: Is it your poor child who's buried there behind the fireplace? And then she nodded her head and said, Twenty-ten exactly. It's always at the same time every day. Pretend you don't notice the blood."

Clearly Agatha was well pleased with the creepiness of that premise, we can't wait to get to By the Pricking of My Thumbs #spineshivers! 

Part of the reason the premise of this book is so engaging is the way that it keeps building and building. Typically, something crazy or mysterious happens and right away the detectives and police are on the case! Agatha cleverly set this one up a little differently, in a way that we see reflected in many modern crime shows, such as Midsomer Murders or even Sherlock, where one crime seems straightforward but something is a little off, and the police are trying to decide whether to just leave it or tease out the loose thread. She pairs that with the series of odd coincidences that ultimately gets Mark Easterbrook involved in trying to solve the mystery, about halfway through the book, by allowing one thing after another to connect the dots for him until he realizes there really is something sketchy going on, and that he might be the only one (besides the Vicar's old wife in Much Deeping) who is willing to dig through the seemingly bogus witchy stuff to figure out where the real crime is. This seemed like a very realistic way for an everyday person to get involved in trying to solve a mystery of some kind, and I enjoyed the new way to approach the story. Well done, again, Dame!

- E. 

The Girl Who Cried Murder: Hallowe'en Party | 1969

(image from here)

"I saw a murder once," said Joyce.

"Don't be silly, Joyce," said Miss Whitaker, the schoolteacher.

"I did," said Joyce.

"Did you really?" asked Cathie, gazing at Joyce with wide eyes. "Really and truly saw a murder?"

"Of course she didn't," said Mrs. Drake. "Don't say silly things, Joyce."

"I did see a murder," said Joyce. "I did. I did. I did."

-Hallowe'en Party, p. 14-15

The Sum of It:
I present to you the first of two #spookystories this weekend! Our first tale starts on a dark and stormy (well, maybe not specifically stormy...) night in the village of Woodleigh Common. Mrs. Ariadne Oliver is visiting a pal she met on a cruise (#cruisepals #shuffleboard), Judith Butler, and is quasi-helping out at a Halloween party for the local kids. Mrs. Oliver is sitting around, kinda just enjoying being a resident celebrity, and observing the party prep. In what appears to be an attempt to impress Mrs. Oliver, young party attendee Joyce Reynolds blurts out that she has seen a murder once. Everyone rolls their eyes and says don't be ridiculous, Joyce, that's obvi not true. Joyce keeps insisting she has seen a murder based on the fact that she didn't realize it was a murder at the time, but now that she's older, she gets that it was. More eye rolls commence, and then everyone continues going about their Halloween business. It seems like a pretty enjoyable party with treats and games and a local lady who dresses up as a witch. However, the evening turns truly sinister when young Joyce is found #DROWNED in the apple bobbing tub!

Joyce's death appears to be quite definitely #MURDER and Mrs. Oliver is badly shaken up (disturbed to the level of potentially giving up apples! #GASP!) from the whole affair. She rushes to London to visit the only person who can help her: Hercule Poirot. He agrees to look into the case and travels with Mrs. Oliver to Woodleigh Common to get down to investigating. Poirot's first order of business is to see if there was a murder in Woodleigh Common that Joyce could have potentially witnessed. He discovers a great many deaths...but were any of them truly murders?

The YOA Treatment:
I enjoyed this book very much. *(Caveat: I would say a good percentage of my enjoyment came from reading this right before Halloween. Agatha really does her holiday-themed mysteries rather well.)* I adore the Mrs. Oliver/Poirot dynamic, and their relationship works well for this particular story. Mrs. Oliver feels semi-responsible for Joyce's death, as her presence probably sparked Joyce's comments about witnessing a murder, which likely led to her death. It makes sense that Mrs. Oliver would turn to the very best for help to ease her conscience and take the burden of crime solving off her shoulders. The story gets occasionally bogged down in a great deal of time dwelt on sex crimes and the fashion choices of mid-60s teenage boys. There is also a fairly bizarre part that highlights the silliness/sometimes stupidity of tween-aged girls, and yet, I can forgive Agatha all of this because of her use of a single, well-placed clue that got my wheels turning along with Poirot's to ultimately discover Joyce's killer.

-A.

PS: for an absolute treat, I also recommend this young man's Agatha Christie reviews on YouTube. BE WARNED: he does have spoilers. But it's totally worth it.

Hotel for Dogs: Mrs. McGinty's Dead | 1951

How great is this first edition cover? Found it here

"But talk, however light, however idle, gives away, inevitably, the sort of person you are. The wise criminal would never open his mouth, but criminals are seldom wise and usually vain and they talk a good deal -- and so most criminals are caught." -Mrs. McGinty's Dead, p. 54

The Sum of It:

This story begins as Poirot leaves a French restaurant he has discovered and is standing on the sidewalk, quite satisfied with his meal, when Agatha offers one of my favorite (and also one of the most relatable) sentences she's ever written:

"Alas," murmured Poirot to his moustaches, "that one can only eat three times a day..." 

Heard that, Poirot. Anyhow, Poirot is not just bemoaning that he can't just constantly consume French food, he's also feeling a bit bored with life, and not having anything important to do during the times between meals, not even his pal Hastings to hang around with (poorest lonely Poirot!) Fortunately, his old friend Superintendent Spence swings by his flat that evening with a request for help. 

Spence and his crew have just solved the small town murder of an elderly housekeeper. Only the convicted murderer, the lady's lodger, just doesn't seem like the right culprit to Spence. It's bothering him, and he wonders if Poirot might go nose around bitty town Broadhinny and see if he might be able to figure out whether the lodger really is the culprit or, if not, who it might be. Poirot is desperate for anything to do so he's like I'M IN and arranges at once to visit the little village. 

Accommodations in the village are sparse, and Poirot ends up lodging in the one "guest house" in town which is basically just these people's home, and they are turrible housekeepers and have giant dogs everywhere and there's a draft and the doors never shut all the way and there's spinach on the couch...i.e. Poirot's delicate sensibilities are really put to the test here and he feels like he's making major sacrifices for his craft. Indignities are furthered when, as he is approaching one of the area homes to interview people, he gets brained with an apple core! However, this quickly becomes happy news when he realizes his assailant, a driver tossing refuse out the window, is none other than his old pal, detective novelist and apple aficionado, Ariadne Oliver! YAY now things are fun! 

"Murmuring in an explanatory voice, 'Stiff after the long drive,' Mrs. Oliver suddenly arrived out on the road, rather in the manner of a volcanic eruption. Large quantities of apples came too and rolled merrily down the hill. 'Bag's burst,' explained Mrs. Oliver. She brushed a few stray pieces of half consumed apple from the jutting shelf of her bust and then shook herself rather like a large Newfoundland dog. A last apple, concealed in the recesses of her person, joined its brothers and sisters." 

Like I said, fun. Anyhow, Poirot and Ariadne (with the help of a local gal named Maude) set about figuring out the mystery which they quickly discover is somehow linked to a newspaper article featuring four by-gone lady murderers; One of these former notable criminals is in disguise and living in town and Mrs. McGinty knew too much...but which one?? Oooh it is tres' mysterious. 

The YOA Treatment:

Listen, when Poirot and Ariadne Oliver are together, I am always happy. They are such nice foils to each other, and have a charming banter (which we all know I value like the king's rubies). Unlike darling Hastings, she pushes back on Poirot, and refuses to simply act as his hapless Watson, but she still helps him sort through the facts and get to the root of things. I don't like it as much when Poirot is all by himself because he seems lonely, so it always makes me happier when he has a friend. He and Ariadne have a nice little dynamic #teamworkmakesthedreamwork. 

"Mrs. Oliver, glass in hand, approached Hercule Poirot towards the end of the Carpenters' party. Up till that moment they had each of them been the center of an admiring circle. Now that a good deal of gin had been consumed, and the party was going well, there was a tendency for old friends to get together and retail local scandal and the two outsiders were able to talk to each other. 'Come out onto the terrace,' said Mrs. Oliver in a conspirator's whisper." 

Hooray for Poirot having a conspirator :). This is a solid mystery with a nice little puzzle in the middle -- which of the people in town matches with one of the past criminals in the paper? Several of them seem like they could fit, and it's a real thinker. Those of you who prefer the more intuitive cases that leave you competing with Poirot to see who can solve it first will truly enjoy this tale, I recommend! Two mustaches up. 

-E. 

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.

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.