Bonus Read: Ruth Ware's The Woman in Cabin 10 | 2016

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"It was the noise of the veranda door in the next cabin sliding gentle open. I held my breath, straining to hear. And then there was a splash. Not a small splash. No, this was a big splash. The kind of splash made by a body hitting water." -The Woman in Cabin 10, p. 85

The Sum of It:
Mystery-loving friends: do yourselves a favor and find yourself a copy of Ruth Ware's The Woman in Cabin 10 just as soon as you possible can. I found this book on a list of the top-selling books of 2016, and my interest was further piqued when I saw the dust jacket touting its reminiscence of Dame Agatha's works. #sold! I ordered the book, thinking I would tuck it away for some future air travel, but then, of course, when it arrived I decided to just read the first chapter to see if I liked it. To say I couldn't put it down was an understatement! This is the kind of book you have to just devour because you just HAVE TO KNOW WHAT ON EARTH IS GOING ON!

So, brief summary: The Woman in Cabin 10 follows travel journalist Lo Blacklock (great name #AMurderisAnnounced) as she is invited on the maiden voyage of a super swank cruise ship to write travel updates on how awesomely luxurious it is. Sounds great, right? Alas, Lo is having a hard time enjoying her fancy surroundings because just days before she leaves she a) is pretty traumatically burgled in the middle of the night, and b) maybe breaks up with her boyfriend??? She's having a hard time sleeping because of burglar flashbacks and so is further terrified when she hears what sounds like a body being thrown into the sea from her neighbor's cabin (#CABIN10) and sees smears of blood on cabin 10's veranda. HOWEVER, after reporting the mysterious occupant of cabin 10 #MURDERED, she is shocked to find out no such woman was ever on board the ship. It's up to Lo's weary wits (I swear, this poor, frightened woman gets like 12 hours of sleep in a two week period) to find out which of her illustrious fellow passengers knows the story of the woman in cabin 10.

The YOA Treatment:
What I enjoyed so much about this book is its so classically Agatha Christie-esque setup. I was reminded of Murder on the Orient Express, Evil Under the Sun, Death on the Nile, and Murder in Mesopotamia as I read about a group of travelers with all the stereotypical characters you expect from a good whodunnit: the handsome aristocrat, the playboy photographer, the much younger model wife of a rich guy named Lars. There are evening gowns and attentive Scandinavian stewards and cocktails on cocktails. You basically expect Poirot himself to show up halfway through to help Lo put all the clues together. I will admit, as I neared the conclusion, I did have a little suspicion of how the story would work itself out (thanks for all the practice, Dame Agatha! #littlegraycells) and it does, in my opinion, get a smidge caper-y near the end for a bit longer than it should (#sorryRuth). HOWEVER, overall, I heartily recommend this book to anyone who wants a read that will keep them up all night, dying to get to the last page.

-A.

Agatha's First Drafts

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The YOA Treatment:
Although we have a bit of a love/hate relationship with short stories (#trueconfessions), we have enjoyed getting to know more about Agatha Christie's writing process by seeing how her sprightly, easy-to-read style and enthralling plots fit into both short story and novel form.  Many times we have seen Agatha almost doing a trial run of plot ideas in a short format, which she then fleshes out into a full-length novel. Some notable examples are "Triangle at Rhodes"/Evil Under the Sun, "The Case of the Caretaker"/Endless Night, and, most pertinent to this month, "Yellow Iris"/Sparkling Cyanide (also known as Remembered Death).

Emily recently read "Yellow Iris" in The Regatta Mystery collection and obvi the inspiration is clear, from the settings to the style of murder to the characters... with one notable exception: NO POIROT IN CYANIDE! Another familiar mystery solver, Colonel Race, who is a friend of Poirot's, gets to be on the case in Sparkling Cyanide, while good ol' Hercule solves the mystery in "Yellow Iris." We aren't sure exactly why Agatha ditched Poirot for the novel version of this whodunnit, but we do know that she found him infuriating and regularly wished she wasn't stuck with him, so maybe she wrote Sparkling Cyanide during one of their tiffs!

We have so enjoyed reading Sparkling Cyanide this month with the Maidens of Murder! Be sure to head over to their Instagram (@maidensofmurder) tomorrow to for a discussion of the book! We'll also be posting our recap here on the blog over the weekend.

Happy reading!

-A. & E.

Sunbathers Beware: Evil Under the Sun | 1940

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"It was, Hercule Poirot thought, like watching the needle of a compass. Patrick Redfern was deflected, his feet changed their direction. The needle, do what it will, must obey the law of magnetism and turn to the north. Patrick Redfern's feet brought him to Arlena Stuart."
-Evil Under the Sun, p. 15-16

The Sum of It:
Papa Poirot is on vacation again! But, like usual, he isn't even totally off the detective clock because wherever Poirot is, murder cannot be far behind. Poirot is enjoying a summer holiday on the English coast at a little island resort called The Jolly Roger Hotel (which Agatha goes to great pains to describe as fabulous but it sounds very #Daytona to us...). As always, he is surrounded by a smorgasbord of fellow vacationers, some of whom are quite boisterous and have wild theories about how sunbathing will LITERALLY put hair on your chest (Mrs. Gardner, we're lookin at you) or are constantly bragging about how rich they are (shut it, Mr. Blatt) or are famous and refined fashion designers with exotic perfume (yes ma'am, Rosamund Darnley). The most sensational guest at The Jolly Roger is Arlena Stuart: a gorgeous actress with a reputation for being a home wrecker and a pretty dull husband. Drama starts heating up big time when Arlena and young, handsome, and very married Patrick Redfern get their not-so-subtle flirt on. No stranger to hot mess #lovetriangles, Poirot steers clear of the drama (aside from eavesdropping on their alone time), hoping nothing deadly becomes of all this sexual tension. But sure enough, Patrick Redfern soon stumbles upon his summer fling #MURDERED on a secluded island beach, apparently strangled as she lay sunbathing!

Of course nearly the entire resort population had a death wish on Arlena: there was no love lost between Arlena and her husband Kenneth Marshall and stepdaughter, Linda, Patrick Redfern's timid wife Christine wasn't too thrilled about the hold Arlena had on her husband, and Rosamund Darnley would be very interested in becoming Mrs. Marshall #2…except Kenneth Marshall had no intention of ever divorcing his wife. Evil Under the Sun is a terrific example of straightforwardly enjoyable Agatha Christie: plenty of fun characters, juicy drama, and a solution that isn't necessarily her most clever, yet we dare say keeps you guessing until the last minute! We also highly recommend this as a beach read. Not only will you feel right at home with the waves crashing and sun shining as Agatha describes the pleasures of #beachlife, but this book goes by nice and fast if you have a few hours of uninterrupted time.

The YOA Treatment:
As with many of her books, infidelity plays a big part of Evil Under the Sun not only as a characteristic of arguably the two least likable characters, but also as a possible murder motive. Agatha Christie was sadly well acquainted with the heartache that comes from an adulterous marriage. Agatha's first husband, Archie, left her for another woman early in her writing career and it sent her into an understandable spiral of sadness. As described in her autobiography, Archie was generally super selfish and pretty straightforward about being in love with someone else and even kind of blamed Agatha for making him unhappy because she had to go take care of her sick mother (GOOD GRIEF, ARCHIE).

While Agatha went on to remarry and move past her first husband #TeamMax (who maybe also was a little unfaithful but we don't know that for sure and if it happened it didn't break her heart like Archie did so we're still #TeamMax), you can sense the feeling she puts into writing characters who have a cheating spouse. Christine Redfern's heartache feels very real in Evil Under the Sun as she watches her husband swooning over Arlena, and basically all the other characters have various reasons for disliking Arlena's homewrecking-self, and judging Patrick (although pretty much everyone blames Arlena for being a siren and gives Patrick the #Ulysses-style excuse of being helpless under her gaze #noexcusesforbeingadickguys #lookinatyouArchie). There's even a priest in this book who just goes with "that woman is straight up evil" for her siren-like ways.

Even though Agatha kind of sadly gives cheaters the benefit of the doubt in her autobiography (one of the only times we wanted to be like #LEANIN, girl, don't blame yourself for this!), she uses the behavior as a theme in many of her books, and in this one we hope she got a little satisfaction from giving a cheater their just desserts (disclaimer: no one is saying murder is appropriate retaliation, just sayin').

-A. & E.

A Quartet of Red Herrings: Murder in the Mews | 1937

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"Leave it to Hercule Poirot. The lies I invent are always most delicate and most convincing." 

-Hercule Poirot, Murder in the Mews, p. 116

The Sum of It:
We have returned, dear readers, to the short stories this week. Murder in the Mews is actually the name of the first short stories in a collection of four, all of which feature the most darling of the Belgians, Hercule Poirot. I shall give a petite summary for each below:

1.) Murder in the Mews: a young woman returns home one evening to find that her roommate has shot herself. However, there is not a single suicide note to be found, and a mysterious man was perhaps the last one to see her alive...smacks something of murder rather than suicide, does it not? Hercule Poirot teams up again buddy cop style with Chief Inspector Japp and it's the most the delicious fun: Japp is always telling Poirot to "stop jabbering to yourself" and Poirot educates Japp on fine French cuisine (Omelette aux Champignons?! #YASPLEASE). Oh and did I mention this whole thing started because the two of them were out celebrating Guy Fawkes' Day together? #BFFs

2.) The Incredible Theft: it's your typical weekend house party of an eclectic mix of government big wigs, various Lords and Ladies, and (#wildcard) a super hottie woman who is definitely maybe a spy. But of course some very important documents will be stolen! Hercule Poirot is summoned quite literally in the middle of the night to sniff out the culprit. This story contains one of my favorite Poirot moments to date as he attempts to recreate the cry of a maid which startles a suspect:

"Here I scream," said Poirot helpfully. He opened his mouth and emitted a shrill bleat. Lord Mayfield turned his head away to hide a smile and Mr. Carlile looked extremely uncomfortable.
"Allez! Forward! March!" cried Poirot. "It is your cue that I give you there."

3.) Dead Man's Mirror: Poirot receives a rather vague letter from a Sir Gervase Chevenix-Gore (the names, Agatha, the names!) inviting him to his huge estate to talk about a "family matter." Poirot shows up, but only to find Sir Gervase already dead. Oh, it's suicide? Of course it's not! #MURDER Poirot works through a vast cast of very eccentric characters to find the truth of who killed Sir Gervase, and, more importantly, what exactly happened to his mirror.

4.) Triangle at Rhodes: Poirot is on vacay by the sea, mostly hanging out with the other single randos, when in stumbles a love triangle of a beautiful aging actress Valentine, her jealous husband, and a handsome young potential boy toy. Poirot watches from the sidelines as the jealousy escalates from not only from Valentine's brooding husband, but boy toy Douglas's mousy young wife as well until Poirot can take no more and attempts to prevent the inevitable #MURDER. Alas, the lovely Valentine is poisoned in full view of everyone, but of course, Hercule has already worked out who has slipped a little something into her glass.

The YOA Treatment:
One thing #DameAgatha does very well is the red herring. Or, as Poirot likes to call it, the "kippered herring." While Agatha (like many mystery novelists) employs this tactic in many of her novels, it's a particularly prevalent mechanism in this set of short stories. It also seems like Agatha was doing some trial runs of some of her ideas in this book - most obviously Triangle at Rhodes. The setting and characters are nearly identical to her later full length novel, Evil Under the Sun (although much of the murder plot line is different.)

I do enjoy many of Agatha's short story collections, but this was not one of my top favorites. In a review of this collection from 1937 in The Times Literary Supplement, Simon Nowell-Smith also felt this was not Agatha's best work and astutely observed: "The fact is that the reader of today demands to participate in a detective story, and no living writer, unless occasionally Miss (Dorothy) Sayers, can find room in a short story for this extra detective." I completely agree with Mr. Nowell-Smith. These four stories were fun, but I didn't feel the same excitement of following along the trail of clues with Poirot and Japp as I do in so many of her novels that I love.

-A.