Death by Physics: Murder in Mesopotamia 2.0 | 1936

Image from here

“Nurse Leatheran has been giving me valuable information about the various members of the expedition. Incidentally I have learnt a good deal - about the victim. And the victim, mademoiselle, is very often the clue to the mystery.” - Murder in Mesopotamia

The Sum of It:

Matter-of-fact nurse Amy Leatheran is spending some time in the Middle East, and just as she's planning to go home, she's offered a position tending to the wife of an archaeologist out on a dig and she's basically like "well, nothing better to do, sure" so off she goes to live among the various characters on the camp out in the desert. She quickly learns that Louise, the woman she's been assigned to care for, who's got a bit of a "nervous" condition, also has an interesting reputation among those in their small community. Though she seems to have a bit of a hold over the men, none seem to like her very much, with the exception of her husband who seems to worship her. The women nearly all despise her as a massive flirt and a bit of a biddy. Turns out Louise needs care because she's super paranoid that someone, namely her former husband who's supposed to be dead but has been sending her threatening letters every time she gets into a relationship, is trying to kill her. Yikes. Amy isn't really sure what to think, but when Louise quite quickly turns up dead of a mysterious head injury during rest time shortly after Amy's arrival, Amy is willing to help the big shot detective who comes in to solve the mystery (none other than Poirot) get to the bottom of things.

The YOA Treatment:

Though the murder method in this book borders on the physically impossible, the characters involved truly do make this one a who-dunnit, even for someone who's seen the television adaptation before (Audrey can never figure out how I can completely forget the key information about some of these stories, another mystery!) The character of Louise is so vividly written as someone nearly anybody would love to hate that each motive seems quite likely, and I changed my mind several times throughout reading about who the murderer was. The setting, given Agatha's fondness for the Middle East, and archaeological sites in particular thanks to #Max, was beautifully painted and provided a unique sense of place for the story. Amy was the narrator for this book, and she wasn't my favorite as Poirot narrators go, spent a good deal of time discussing details I found unnecessary to the story as a way to establish that she was a methodical person, which I could have done without. I found this to be a solid mystery, if slightly less charming than many of Agatha's books. Not my favorite, but certainly not my least favorite (looking at you, Harley Quin)! 

- E. 

Un-cancelled Dinner Plans: Lord Edgware Dies 2.0

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"'I've heard you're just the most marvellous man that ever existed. Somebody's got to get me out of the tangle I'm in and I feel you're just the man to do it.'

We got out at the second floor and she led the way along the corridor, paused at a door and entered one of the most opulent of the Savoy suites.

Casting her white fur wrap on one chair, and her small jewelled bag on the table, the actress sank on to a chair and exclaimed:

'M. Poirot, somehow or other I've just got to get rid of my husband!'"

-Lord Edgware Dies, p. 14

The Sum of It:

This story has, for some reason, always been another one of my favorites, so I was very excited to give it a re-read during this 2018 Year of Agatha! This is my third Poirot read in a row, and I am not mad about it. Poirot is living his best life (like he does) in London, hanging out with Hastings and going to fancy dinners and parties and theater-whatnots. Lord Edgware Dies opens with just such an event - an evening of comedy with an American actress and impressionist named Carlotta Adams. At the performance, Poirot and Hastings meet another American actress named Jane Wilkinson, and, in true Agatha fashion, Jane enlists Poirot's assistance with a little trouble in her personal life. She needs help getting rid of her husband #gasp! Apparently her richie-rich lord husband (Lord Edgware of the book title Lord Edgware #doomed) is kind of a meanie and won't give her a divorce even though she needs one very badly so she can marry another lord who is, also apparently, nicer and richer than her current husband. Poirot is quite taken in with the whole American husky voice hottie thing Jane has going on, and, never able to say no to a lady in distress, says he he will do everything he can to assist her. "Great!" Jane says. "Can you run over to my house and convince him to give me a divorce? K BYE!" 

So Poirot and Hastings trudge over to have a chat with Lord Edgware. Lord E. says hi this is kinda weird, but um, yeah I definitely already told Jane via letter that I was down with the divorce so....#hmmm? Poirot and Hastings are like okay yes also weird, but our work here is done and go to tell Jane Wilkinson the good news. Jane is so thrilled to hear all her second wedding plans can move forward, she decides to go out to a fancy dinner party that evening that she hadn't planned on attending AFTER ALL!

HOWEVER, it can't be that easy, can it? Whilst Jane is dining the night away, someone who looks just like her has stabbed Lord Edgeware to death (#spoilers #notreallythough)!!! Stranger still, the next day Carlotta Adams (seen by the entire cast of characters performing her dead-on impression of Jane Wilkinson earlier in the book) is ALSO found dead! Loads of people wanted Lord Edgeware dead, but who could also want the blame cast on poor Jane? As always, only Poirot can sniff out the mastermind behind this tangled tale.

The YOA Treatment:

It's been fun to go back to read our thoughts and feelings on each of these books from our first year of Agatha and see how they compare to our re-readings. What is particularly funny about this book is in 2016 Emily noted she listened to Lord Edgware Dies on Audible and thoroughly enjoyed it, and I happened to do the exact same thing for my read this year! Hugh Fraser is a #nationaltreasure and does a perfect job of reading this book. If you're looking to dabble in Agatha Christie on Audible, I highly suggest finding anything he reads!

One fun tidbit I learned about this book involves the dedication. I always love investigating those Agatha dedicated books to, because they usually have interesting stories. This one is no exception! Lord Edgware Dies is dedicated to Dr. and Mrs. Campbell Thompson. Dr. Thompson was an archeologist who enlisted Max Mallowan (Agatha's second husband) to come help on his dig in Ninevah. Apparently the Mallowan-Christies and Thompsons were pretty good pals, but Dr. Thompson was not a fan of spending money and was a bit perturbed that Agatha wanted to spend money at the dig on a good writing table so she could work on her latest book. Thompson must have somehow gotten over it, because write Agatha did, and thanked him and his wife for their friendship and hospitality by dedicating this book to them. 

When the finished product finally came out in 1932, it was well received, and I completely understand why. It has some great characters, a puzzling plot, and a truly smashing conclusion. If you're looking for a classic Poirot to read (or re-read!) this summer, I heartily recommend it!

-A.

Rick Steves' Agatha Christie: They Came to Baghdad | 1951

Image from the delightful Pulpcovers.com

"When Crosbie had gone Dakin sat bent over his desk. He murmured under his breath, 'They came to Baghdad...' On the blotting pad he drew a circle and wrote under it Baghdad -- Then, dotted around it, he sketched a camel, an aeroplane, a steamer, a small puffing train -- all converging on the circle. Then on the corner of the pad he drew a spider's web. In the middle of the spider's web he wrote a name..." - They Came to Baghdad, p. 12

The Sum of It:

Spies! Murder! Morse code! International intrigue! Kidnapping! Accomplished liars! Adventurers! Archaeologists! Air travel! Hair dye! Dust storms! Dickens references! This book has it all. Really like a lot. Like, almost everything that could potentially be in a mystery book is in this one, and it's not super long, page-count-wise. As a result it is a #teensybit #confusing, but overall a fun read. 

Essentially, the main character, Victoria Jones, is a clever fabricator of tales and great at imitating people, but is a terrible shorthand typist and quickly gets fired from her job for mocking her boss' wife (ha!). As she is eating two sandwiches and considering her next move on a park bench, she sees a super hot guy named Edward, gives him a smile, they chat for five minutes and she falls in love. Him too, apparently, but the bummer for the lovebirds is that he has to move to Baghdad for work the next day. No matter, decides Victoria, she'll just figure out how to get a job in the next few days that will take her to Baghdad too so she can track him down. Oy vey, right? But don't worry, turns out Agatha is a little more meta than we might have given her credit for in the past.

Anyhow, Victoria makes up some dignified references, gets a job escorting a lady with a broken arm to Baghdad, goes about searching for her boo. Meanwhile, the "President" (no indication of which country, assuming America) as well as a bunch of other dignitaries are planning a big meeting in Baghdad. An international man of mystery/government secrets is also cautiously making his way to the city, carrying critical information about international affairs, as is an international woman of mystery. Some sort of international intelligence agency is also converging on Baghdad to protect secrets guy and his liaison, a famous explorer, as well as the dignitaries coming to the meeting. ALSO a network of baddies who kind of sound like some weird combination of Communists and neo-Nazi types except more obsessed with youth and less obsessed with race? ALSO a bunch of archaeologists are around, presumably to allow Agatha to show off some of the new stuff she had learned about archaeology in her own travels in the Middle East. A million different things are happening, seemingly unrelated to each other, until a bleeding man stumbles into Victoria's hotel room one night, begging to be hidden. She hides him, only to find him dead in her bed after the fake cops chasing him have left! Quickly, she becomes embroiled in all the international spy intrigue that's going on and gets quite a few nasty surprises along the way. And also learns a ton about archaeology. #themoreyouknow

The YOA Treatment:

So, as noted, there is SO MUCH GOING ON in this book, and SO many characters that it was honestly hard to track at some points. A couple times when a new character was introduced I had to flip back through the part I'd already read to make sure I hadn't already met them before because there are so many people coming and going, some with multiple identities. Agatha really doesn't write many genuine spy mysteries, so I think maybe it's just not something she's as practiced with. However, eventually the details coalesce and it gets pretty good! Quite caper-y, which we all know I enjoy. I'm also pleased with Agatha turning what had become kind of a common love-story narrative for her on its head a bit. 

One thing about this book that is obviously pretty cool is that Agatha takes the opportunity to turn her rich experiences travelling in Baghdad and beyond into beautifully detailed settings and scenes, from a stroll through the Copper Market to the date palms along the Tigris to the elaborate and glamorous hotels of the city. The descriptions of how a dust storm appears suddenly and leaves everything in its wake coated in a rusty brown are too realistic not to be drawn from real life experiences! 

Additionally, it's clear that Victoria's experiences assisting on an archaeological dig are pulled straight from Agatha's joyful times spent assisting with her second husband Max's digs throughout the Middle East #teamMax. In her autobiography, Agatha writes a lot about how happy she was doing that work, and constantly learning more about it, by Max's side. The work and sites are described in loving detail, and Victoria, who has hitherto been a bit flakey, suddenly develops a real devotion to the work of discovering, cleaning, repairing, and cataloging artifacts for all kinds of reasons that really seem more Agatha than Victoria, which is actually kind of cool. 

- E. 

Agatha's Egyptian Throwback: Death Comes as the End | 1944

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"'There is an evil that comes from outside, that attacks so that all the world can see, but there is another kind of rottenness that breeds from within—that shows no outward sign. It grows slowly, day by day, till at last the whole fruit is rotten—eaten by disease.'" -Hori, Death Comes as the End, p. 9

The Sum of It:
Our first book of the week is unique among Agatha Christie's works: Death Comes as the End. This story is set it ancient Egypt, which, given what we know about Agatha's archeological background, is not too surprising. HOWEVER, it is evident that she had to put in some extra work into researching and writing this story, but more about that later!

Death Comes as the End opens with recently-widowed Renisenb returning to the home of her father to live now that her husband has passed away. She has lived away from home for eight years, and yet it seems like nothing has changed. Her widower father, Imhotep, owns a lot of farmland, but spends most of the time away at the family's other estates, her brothers, Yahmose, Sobek, and Ipy mope, sleep, and lounge around (respectively), her two sisters-in-law Satipy and Kait have issues of their own (Satipy spends most of her time nagging her husband, and Kait is obsessed with her kids), Grandma Esa is old, but sharp, and the household's most-prevalent servant, Henet, is a super shady gossip. Renisenb spends most of her time thinking about her dead husband and talking to the family's scribe, Hori, who seems like nice older (but not too old) guy who is obviously crushing on her super hard.

The book seems like a fairly decent Egyptian history lesson until things get interesting and Papa Imhotep sends his family a quick papyrus to let them know he is COMING HOME! Oh what great news, says one and all! The boys can get on his case about letting them have more responsibilities, and their wives are happy to see their husbands maybe getting an edge on the inevitable inheritance Imhotep will leave one day. HOWEVER, drama heats up real quick when Imhotep shows up with a very young concubine, Nofret, who is a master at manipulation, stirring up trouble, and generally being kind of creepy. The family is NOT INTO THIS NEW ARRANGEMENT AT ALL. Imhotep decides whatever Nofret says is a go, including basically putting her in charge of his whole estate and money. So it's no surprise whatsoever that Meddling Nofret turns up #MURDERED one day at the bottom of a cliff. The family is shaken up, but for the most part, pretty thrilled she is dead. But things get way more ominous when more family members start dying in various ghastly ways and clues turn up that Nofret's ghost is responsible! Or perhaps Nofret was somehow never dead at all!?!

The YOA Treatment:
I will begin my observations about Death Comes as the End with a quote from English crime writer Robert Barnard about this book because his thoughts do mirror some of mine:
"Hercule Poirot's Christmas, transported to Egypt, ca 2000 B.C. Done with tact, yet the result is somehow skeletal — one realizes how much the average Christie depends on trappings: clothes, furniture, the paraphernalia of bourgeois living. The culprit in this one is revealed less by detection than by a process of elimination."
I will admit, Barnard has a point here. Although Death Comes as the End is intriguing due to its unique setting, it does lack the certain vividness of her books we all know and love. Renisenb & Family are wealthy, but live a fairly simple life. There is no staying in first class cabins aboard the Orient Express or black tie parties thrown by countesses to be found here. And while I have become accustomed to not really (i.e. ever) being able to sniff out the culprit in Agatha's works, this one was particularly vague on clues and even with the mere handful of suspects left alive at the end, I still didn't have much to go on to solve the crimes myself.

However, all that being said, it is worth noting that this is a particularly special Agatha Christie novel. John Curran writes in his book Agatha Christie's Secret Notebooks (*which every Agatha fan should read — it is so much fun and you will want to become BFFs with John Curran*): "Long before the current vogue for mysteries set in the past, Agatha Christie was a pioneer. Death Comes as the End, written in 1943, was an experiment created at the instigation of Stephen Glanville, professor of Egyptology and a friend of Max Mallowan [#teammax]. He provided her with much of the basic information and gave her books to study in order to get details correct." Her research certainly shows! While her Death Comes as the End characters lack the posh life of her usual 20th Century European lords and ladies, the background she gives them feels very richly believable.

Overall, I did enjoy this book.  I am a fan of historical fiction, so reading one written by the Queen of Crime was great fun for me. And, perhaps even more thrilling than the conclusion of the book itself is the fact that Agatha writes in her Autobiography that Egyptologist pal Glanville urged her to change some aspect of the end of the book, which she did, and later wished she could go back and re-write. Hmmmmm! How intriguing is that!? I'll be honest, I've been having a good long think about this one for the last few days and wish I knew what her original, unpublished version looked like!

Happy reading!

-A.

On Site with Poirot: Murder in Mesopotamia | 1936

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"You would have made a good archaeologist, M. Poirot. You have the gift of re-creating the past." 

- Dr. Leidner, Murder in Mesopotamia, p. 226

The Sum of It:
With Murder in Mesopotamia, we are finally transported into the Middle Eastern world of archeological digs that was such a HUGE part of Agatha Christie's life. Set at a dig site in Hassanieh, Iraq, Murder in Mesopotamia is written from the point of view of straight-forward, but likable, Amy Leatheran, a nurse who has been hired to look after the wife of a famous archeologist, Dr. Eric Leidner. The "Lovely Louise" is beautiful and charming, but also a bit of a tease in every sense of the word: the ladies don't like her hitting on their men and the men don't like her poking fun at their insecurities. Louise also turns out to be a huge nervous wreck owing to the fact that she thinks her first husband (an American spy for the Germans in World War I, who she ended up turning in to the government, which led to him being shot as a traitor, but in fact he actually escaped and then maybe died in a train wreck? #oops) is actually alive and well and, according to the threatening letters he keeps sending her, is trying to track her down and kill her.

Nurse Leatheran has been around the dig site for basically a hot second when Louise is in fact MURDERED in her room during nap time, and it looks like the killer is one of the expedition team. Local law enforcement decide to bring in a big wig to solve the case, and the obvious candidate is our favorite Belgian, Hercule Poirot! Poirot appoints Nurse Leatheran as Hastings-Stand-In and the two of them commence their investigations. Was Louise killed by her first husband or his brother in disguise? Or did one of their group want her dead for a more personal reason?

The YOA Treatment:
A bit of background/Agatha personal life refresher: after divorcing her first husband, Archie (#booarchie #archiesux) Agatha visited a dig site in Ur with some friends and met Max Mallowan (#teammax), who would eventually become her second husband. Over the course of their marriage, Agatha traveled with Max to the Middle East to work together at his dig site. Agatha talks about how much she enjoyed these trips and how she was able to not only assist Max with his excavations, but also spend a good amount of time writing her mystery novels in her book on these excursions, Come, Tell Me How You Live. Her intimate knowledge of the life of an archeologist and ancient cultures clearly shows in the details of her novels Murder in Mesopotamia, Appointment with Death, and Death Comes as the End.

I have always liked this story - the Middle Eastern setting is an interesting change from her normal English Countryside and/or London, and the cast of characters is one of my favorites of all her books. You can see how her extensive stays on dig sites offered excellent ideas for the wide variety of personalities found in Murder in Mesopotamia: the hypochondriac, the jealous girly girl, the brooding hottie, the bumbling intern, the sketchy translator, and the mean girl from town who always has three or four dates to the dance. The female narration from Nurse Leatheran also offers a different perspective from other Agatha books, including the opportunity to wax eloquent about the expedition's resident total babe, Richard Carey:"I could see clearly a little pulse that beat in his temple. He looked simply splendid! So lean and so brown - and that wonderful jaw, hard and square. I don't wonder women fell for that man."

It's great to "see" through her writing how much Agatha was enjoying her new, happy married life and her new, lifelong hobby of Middle Eastern adventure.

-A.

Rubies and the Riviera: The Mystery of the Blue Train | 1928

"Some day, who knows, you might be in the thick of things," he went on. "It is all chance." "I don't think it is likely," said Katherine. "Nothing of that kind ever happens to me." He leaned forward. "Would you like it to?" 

- Poirot and Katherine Grey in The Mystery of the Blue Train, p. 75

The Sum of It:
Even though this one says "A Hercule Poirot Novel" on the front, I found myself wondering if Poirot was ever going to turn up, because it's about 70 pages before Poirot comes into the tale. The seeming main character of this book, initially, are some rubies that used to belong to Catherine the Great. As the book begins, the glorious stones are purchased from Boris and Natasha (I'm pretty sure) by an American. Our American, Mr. Van Aldin, has bought them for his daughter, Ruth, the apple of his eyeballz. He gives them to her on the eve of her trip via the glamorous Blue Train to the French Riviera, along with a caution (put these priceless jewelz in the bank rather than risk having them stolen and you murdered on the train puh-lease) and a demand (divorce your good-for-nothing, money-grubbing, philandering husband Derek and don't do anything to jeopardize your case). 

We ALSO meet a bunch of other characters, including; 

• Mirelle, the exotic dancer with whom said philandering husband Derek is doing his philandering 
• Lady Katherine Grey (the actual main character, besides the rubies) who is a classy lady with beautiful grey eyes despite being elderly and decrepit at the beyond-her-prime-age of 33 and who has also just inherited loads of money from an actual elderly lady for whom she had hitherto served as companion (her family was apparently nobility of some kind but sans money to this point.) Fun fact: She lives in St. Mary Mead! No mention of Marple though.
• Lady Tamplin, Katherine's cousin, who is wealthy (but not as wealthy as she'd like) and lives on the Riviera with;
• her feisty daughter, Lenox, and Lady Tamplin's fourth husband, the young and dashing (if dense) Charles Evans (aka Chubby) #cougartown
• Major Knighton, who is Mr. Van Aldin's secretary and a war veteran 
• A Greek jewel dealer named Mr. Papopolous and his daughter Zia.

ANYWHO after Lady Katherine inherits the dollars, she goes to London to buy some clothes befitting her new income and to embark on her first world travels, to visit Lady Tamplin, et al, on the French Riviera (via the Blue Train). She keeps bumping into a handsome fella around town, and feels a premonition about him and unbeknownst to her he's also headed to the Riviera #meetcute. On the train, Katherine befriends Ruth over lunch, where Ruth bares her soul due to Katherine's nice eyes and says she's feeling super torn because her dad wants her to file for divorce and made her promise she wouldn't mess that up but also she lied to dad about being engaged in an affair with Le Comte de la Roche, a fancy-man from France who her dad already made her break up with once before she married Derek (dad thinks he's a scoundrel). 

Because it's the early 20th century and Katherine doesn't have headphones she can put it to deter people from telling her their life stories on trains, she listens kindly and gives advice only to not really see Ruth again for the rest of the trip. Once they arrive in the Riviera, it turns out that Ruth is #MURDERED and Katherine and another traveler with whom she has chatted, HERCULE POIROT, are immediately embroiled in the mystery. No more spoilers, but the rest of the book is mostly concerned (obviously) with trying to determine who killed Ruth, where the eff her rubies went, whether Derek is a bad guy or a good guy, and what Katherine is thinking. There's lots of being in love, tennis matches, Poirot bragging about how awesome he is, casinos, and glistening blue waters. 

Agatha & Archie early on (from the Autobiography)

The YOA Treatment:
So, in her autobiography, Agatha said of The Mystery of the Blue Train: "Really, how that wretched book ever came to be written, I don't know...I had no joy in writing, no elan...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."

Aside from her little daughter, Rosalind, being distracting, there's one even bigger reason why writing this one was likely a struggle, and that's because Agatha wrote it in the Canary Islands, where she escaped with Rosalind after horrid Archie made her get a divorce because he was selfish and didn't deserve her #teamMax. Poor Agatha was trying to "go right away from all the things that had wrecked life" for her.

With that context in mind, it's interesting how sympathetically Agatha wrote the character of Derek, the philandering husband. When you read her autobiography, although she had a lot of sadness because Archie broke her heart, she also offers him sympathy and in some ways puts some of the responsibility for the demise of their relationship on herself, talking about how he could be so kind but he was just ruthless about getting what he wanted and that she really believed he hated hurting her #eyeroll. If she and I were friends at that point in time, I would have said to her NO WAY young lady, this jerk is the world's most selfish man and you cannot blame yourself for that (I mean he LITERALLY SAID TO HER as an explanation for why they had to get a divorce against her wishes: "I can't stand not having what I want, and I can't stand not being happy. Everybody can't be happy -- somebody has got to be unhappy." #archiesux #mansplaining #GOODRIDDANCE, it seriously makes me so mad. And Agatha felt like it would have been inappropriate to stand up to him and say "But why should it be me and not you?" #LeanIn). 

Derek, the philanderer in Blue Train, not only gets described more like a bad little boy who can't be blamed for running around on his wife because she didn't really love him that much, there's a decent amount of sympathy sent his way by various characters including Poirot, and lots of ladies who love him seemingly regardless of the fact that it is well known he's been stepping out with a money-grubbing exotic dancer who pitches fits in public. This book kind of makes me a little sad for Agatha because she was having such a rough go of it and beating herself up a bit, but it's comforting to know that eventually dearest Max came along and Agatha got her confidence and her groove back. 

-E.

Isn't it Romantic: The Man in the Brown Suit | 1924

"I would put all my eggs in one basket. 'First class,' I said. I was now definitely committed to the adventure." - The Man in the Brown Suit, p. 46

Ok, guys, first of all this was a new Agatha story for me, and it's now in my top five. There's something fresh and sprightly about these early stories where the main character (in this case, narrator) is a plucky young girl whose curiosity and yen for romance and adventure gets the better of any sense of practicality. Agatha does such a nice job of creating these clever girls who remind me of no one so much as Clara Oswald from Doctor Who: the smartest, most charming, and cutest girl in the room but no one can help but like her anyway #soufflegirl. More on that later. FIRST:

The Sum of It All: 
PROLOGUE: This book begins with two fake Russians in the dressing room of a Paris theater. The lady reveals not only that she's actually South African (and apparently quite the master of accents), but also that she has figured out a way to double-cross the criminal mastermind who employs them both; the nameless but frightful "Colonel." The double cross involves two different sets of raw South African diamonds, one of which was used to frame two young men for theft, and simultaneously utilized by the lady as insurance against the "Colonel." In reality the two Cambridge grads youthfully trekking through the wilds of South Africa had discovered a new diamond mine, but after betrayal by this faux-Russian hussy, were arrested, disgraced, and evidently killed in WWI.

THE STORY: Next we meet our story's narrator, Anne Beddingfeld, who has to the point of the story's action grown up in a little village in the English country tending to the practical aspects of life for her eccentric father, a professor and "one of England's greatest living experts on Paleolithic man." Her life had been pretty quiet and filled mainly with bearded, elderly professors, Anne's desire for romance and adventure fulfilled only by regular cinematic installments of a serial drama, "The Perils of Pamela," whom Anne describes as always falling out of airplanes and climbing sky scrapers "without turning a hair." Anne's father passes away and suddenly she realizes her life is her own and wouldn't she like to do something with it. In London, she witnesses a man on a tube platform make eye contact with someone behind her who struck so much fear in the man's heart that he stepped back and fell to his death on the live track. When a strange man claims to be a doctor, declares the man dead, then hurries off, dropping a stolen slip of paper cryptically printed with "1 7 . 1 2 2 Kilmorden Castle", Anne realizes the slip of paper she collects on the platform is her ticket to adventure.

Anne's determination to figure out what scared the dead man, what the cryptic message meant, and who killed a mysterious foreign lady in an estate let to rent on the Thames known as Mill House all put her on a ship bound to South Africa. Aboard the ship the intrigue compounds as Anne befriends a delightful socialite, a mysterious Secret Service man, a crochety old English millionaire (who I was troubled/pleased to realize is me in another life), and a reckless, handsome, kind of angry stranger. She also interacts with some ship's stewards, a potential crossdresser, and a man with the face of an undertaker.

ONCE AGAIN this summary is cut short before we even get to the middle because that's where the surprises and suspicions start but suffice it to say Anne and her new socialite friend, Suzanne Blair, decide to solve the mystery on their own, travel to the jungles of South Africa, buy a bunch of carved wooden animals, see a magnificent waterfall, get kidnapped more than once, and Anne falls recklessly, dramatically, in love with a man who insists he is trouble and she is too good for him and tells her she MUST go back to England and then literally the next day after rescuing her from NEARLY CERTAIN DEATH exclaims "My God! Anne, if you ever marry anyone else but me, I'll wring his neck!" (They spend some time arguing/falling in love Cary Grant/Katherine Hepburn-in-Bringing-Up-Baby-style on an island surrounded by crocodiles before actually running for their lives: " 'There speaks a foolish school girl.' 'I'm not a foolish schoolgirl,' I cried indignantly. 'I'm a woman.' 'God help me, so you are,' he muttered..." It's adorable.) And ONCE AGAIN there are some surprises at the end that had me exclaiming aloud with surprise even though I was SURE I had this one alllll figured out, dadgum, Agatha!

Actual Agatha Christie surfing in Honolulu (from here)

The YOA Treatment:
AGATHA IRL: I could write for days about this one. It really is so great. For one thing, this is a story that draws quite a bit from Agatha's actual life. One of the main characters is based on a friend and employer of her first husband, Archie (#teamMax). She and Archie traveled with this man, Mr. Belcher, for a year around the world on trade missions, a seminal experience in Agatha's life, and she dedicated the book to him. In the course of the journey, Mr. Belcher gave Agatha the idea for the story, and insisted on having a primary character modeled after himself.

The travels with Mr. Belcher, in addition to sparking the story's genesis and a main character, also provided a good bit of the setting, with Agatha lending Anne some of her own first impressions of South Africa, including a terrible sea-sickness to begin the journey (from which she was certain she should never recover #deckchairs), the beauty of the flat Table Mountain upon entering the bay at Capetown, and the fascinating geography of the African continent. Agatha even lent Anne another of her singular experiences from this round-the-world trip: the glorious victory of successfully riding an ocean wave on a surfboard. Agatha and Archie were said to be some of the first English to surf in Honolulu, and Agatha preserved this proud memory in Anne's South African experience.

STYLE: As with another favorite Agatha story (Endless Night, way down the line from here) this book offers first person, and potentially unreliable, narrators, an aspect that I think makes these stories predecessors for popular current crime mysteries like The Girl on the Train. That grabs me immediately, especially if the narrator is charming, which Anne and the second narrator are. Another thing about this book that I think has been imitated over and over, but more recently in the Showtime series The Affair, is the telling of the same story from more than one perspective, which provides a really intriguing path through the action and gives the mind a bit more to do.

LADIES: I also must once again praise Agatha's ability to write these delightfully strong female characters. As we've noted before, and as we'll see in a number of other books, Agatha tends to write a lady who can keep her composure and take charge of a situation with grace and a sense of humor, as opposed to some wilting damsel in distress. Anne has a few options for a confidant once she realizes she might be in a little over her head, and considers them all before selecting a female compatriot. Somewhere along the way, Anne realizes that in addition to the excitement of solving a mystery, she has another reason to get to the bottom of things: proving the innocence of a man she can't help but trust. Nevertheless, Anne insists nearly all the way through the adventure, til she is sure who else is on their side and who is not so that a team may be formed, that she and her socialite pal will be the ones making clever deductions and calling the shots, even when her friend gets cold feet and wants to bring a strong, silent fella in on the action:

"I objected vigorously to this unsporting proposal. I recognized in it the disastrous effects of matrimony. How often have I not heard a perfectly intelligent female say, in the tone of one clinching an argument, "Edgar says--" And all the time you are perfectly aware that Edgar is a perfect fool. Suzanne, by reason of her married state, was yearning to lean upon some man or other."

She and Suzanne sort out the friends and foes and hatch an ingenious plan, ultimately banding together with the fellas they trust at the very last minute. Throughout, Anne faces terrifying situations with pluck and quick wits, and Suzanne uses her own charm and smarts to put plans in motion and persuade enemies to act as friends without their even realizing it.

Though Anne decides she doesn't really need a man to help her solve a mystery, or generally, she accidentally finds one she can't live without and then realizes that her own love story is more than quite inextricably linked with her adventure -- more than a little autobiographical of the early years of Agatha's own marriage.

-E.

(image from here)

Agatha by the Numbers

We are hard at work completing our assigned readings for this week, so in the meantime we put together some key Agatha facts in a handy dandy infographic! See you on January 9 for The Mysterious Affair at Styles and The Secret Adversary.

(These fun facts come from agathachristie.com, inconsolata.com/image/110743413522, and An Autobiography by Agatha herself!)