Three's Company: Towards Zero | 1944

(image of US First Edition cover from here) "I like a good detective story,' said the venerable Mr. Treaves.  'But you know, they begin in the wrong place! They begin with the murder. But the murder is the end. The story begins long before that -- years before sometimes -- with all the causes and events that bring certain people to a certain place at a certain time on a certain day. All converging towards a given spot...And then, when...

Where Have All the Scientists Gone?: Destination Unknown | 1954

(image from here) "To Hilary it all had an unreal quality. It was as though she was still in a dream, mercifully protected from contact with reality. This was only a delay, only a matter of waiting. She was still on her journey - her journey of escape. She was still getting away from it all, still going towards that spot where her life would start again." -Destination Unknown, p. 27 The Sum of It: We return for this week's second read to Caper-town...

Poirot Studies the Classics: The Labors of Hercules | 1947

First Edition cover, photo from here "Yet there was between this Hercule Poirot and the Hercules of classical lore one point of resemblance. Both of them, undoubtedly, had been instrumental in ridding the world of certain pests...Each of them could be described as a benefactor to the society he lived in...  What Dr. Burton said last night as he left: 'Yours are not the Labors of Hercules...' Ah, but there he was wrong, the old fossil....

Our next #YOAReadalong: Crooked House!

Image of the FIRST EDITION cover from here Hello everyone! We feel like it's been a while, and we have loved seeing a few more folks join our ranks every time we do a #readalong, so we have been eagerly anticipating the next one, which we are now excited to announce: please join us in reading Crooked House, written in 1949. We've really been looking forward to this particular one, because it is widely known to be one of Agatha's favorite among...

Autumn Leaves and Death by the Pool: Murder After Hours | 1946

Image from here (also a fun post about a fellow Agatha book collector!) "And suddenly, with a terrific shock, with that feeling as of blurring on a cinematograph screen before the picture comes into focus, Hercule Poirot realized that this artificially set scene had a point of reality. For what he was looking down at was, if not a dead, at least a dying man. It was not red paint dripping off the edge of the concrete, it was blood. This man...

Nursery Rhyme Nightmares: A Pocket Full of Rye | 1953

(image from here) "If wonder--I suppose it would be great presumption on my part--if only I could assist you in my very humble and, I'm afraid, very feminine way. This is a wicked murderer, Inspector Neele, and the wicked should not go unpunished." -Miss Marple, A Pocket Full of Rye, p. 107 The Sum of It: My read this week turned out to be a very unexpected favorite! A Pocket Full of Rye is our third Miss Marple read in a row, and just...

Miss Marple's American Friends: They Do It With Mirrors | 1952

(image from here) "You've got a nose for that sort of thing. You always had. You've always been a sweet innocent-looking creature, Jane, and all the time underneath nothing has ever surprised you, you always believe the worst." -Ruth Van Rydock, They Do It With Mirrors, p. 14 The Sum of It: We are back with Miss Marple for a second time this week. This time, our favorite Jane is meeting up with an old school friend from sort of back-in-the-day...

The Old Man and the Twee: The Body in the Library | 1941

Image from the blog Pulp Covers "Downstairs in the lounge, by the third pillar from the left, there sits an old lady with a sweet, placid, spinsterish face and a mind that has plumbed the depths of human iniquity and taken it as all in the day's work. Her name's Miss Marple. She comes from the village of St. Mary Mead, which is a mile and a half from Gossington; she's a friend of the Bantrys and, where crime is concerned, she's the goods, Conway."  -...