I read more Agatha Christie books without reading the synopsis which I think makes these mysteries more enjoyable. I think I'll be reading Christie books through the end of the year. There are so many of them.
As you may have noticed I have changed my blog's header again. Maybe it's a bad habit to change headers because readers might not recognize your blog but I think it's always nice to see a change every now and then. It really sort of make things seems new even though I haven't changed anything else. Can one enjoy change even if just the little things? I know I do sometimes. Here are the books I read in September 2022.
I thought this was a bit boring in the beginning but then I couldn't stand any of the characters. I think we spent too much time in all the involved characters' head and there are all these stupid love triangles between distant cousins. Frankly, I can never understand why women worship selfish, lying, cheating asshats which is what the victim is. I'm not sorry I cannot understand him. And Poirot is hardly in the story and I think if you replace him with someone else, it didn't make much of a difference.
It's like two stories - one very dull with Colin Lamb and the other the murder. I don't know why Colin Lamb should even be in this story other than his relation to Poirot. Whatever is going on with Colin and whatever he was investigating seemed dull somehow (I think he's some sort of secret agent). Poirot's appearance didn't really make too much difference. I know these stories are not about Poirot but couldn't there be more of him at least?
I just didn't like this book. Maybe it's the characters or maybe it's the murder, they just seem rather dull to me.
Perhaps I've gotten used to reading a full story in that, shorter versions weren't quite adequate but these are somewhat amusing but a bit dull and a little rushed.
Not much of an introduction to Miss Marple as she just came by and left. But the murder mystery was decent. I really love these flower covers. As Miss Marple is a gardener, this makes perfect sense.
I didn't like the narrator, he's an asshat and really, I don't care for his point of view at all and why the police allows him into the investigation when he offers no help? He describes two women as dogs and then falls for one of them because? I have no idea. Perhaps he thinks of her as a sweet terrier or a poodle maybe?
There's very little of Miss Marple here, if she had just make a telephone call, it might have been the same thing. But I really should understand these stories are not about Miss Marple and more about the murder mystery and so her appearances are meant to be brief but still, it's more fun when she's there. And the mystery is just okay, I think the narrator makes it hard for me to enjoy this book.
Some twists and turns that fooled me into thinking the wrong culprit but that's what makes this so good.
Pretty decent. I have no idea 'They Do it with Mirrors' is a theater term so I couldn't really understand how Miss Marple got her conclusion until she explained it.
This was quite good but I wonder why everyone's murmuring, it was quite odd. But I think murmuring is one of the recurring writing habits in most of Christie's books.
I like the twist, well, maybe I shouldn't call it that but the writing makes readers think one thing when it's another but this was a good mystery.
The story reminded me of something I read about Gene Tierney and her meeting with a fan that resulted in something bad. I won't say what it was because it would ruin the mystery here for those who didn't know but if you do know what that was, you might not be surprised by this ending. I was kind of hoping the ending was something different but it wasn't. Still, quite a good mystery and we get to see Miss Marple's rebellious side a lot.
This was one long ride of misery (it was rather a boring in the beginning) with one or two reprieve that made little difference. It's a short book, under 300 pages, but it somehow it seemed longer probably because the same thing kept happening and then we get the end. This was an okay mystery but the writing with odd phrases and out of date expressions, just made it harder to understand as a modern reader. Have anyone ever used the term "run someone to earth"? I find this phrase very amusing. It's supposed to mean finding them after searching for a long time (Cover art from alchetron).
How is your October going?
I think "running someone (or something) to earth" is a British hunting term for cornering your prey. It's certainly not a phrase I've ever heard used a lot.
ReplyDeleteDebra She Who Seeks: That is an old phrase but curiously fun in a way.
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Running someone to earth is a phrase I heard in my childhood but haven't heard since.
ReplyDeleteStill (sort of) on the Agatha Christie front I recently finished a memoir by her second husband Max Mallowan. He obviously loved her very much (though he married again less than two years after she died).
Elephant's Child: I haven't read any bios of Christie but I did read a review of a biography recently by Lucy Worsley. Christie led an interesting life that's for sure.
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Very good. Cannot believe September is over.
ReplyDeleteChristine: Time just flew by, didn't it?
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I like the idea of reading Christie's without reading the synopsis. Seems like that would be a way of keeping some surprises! These covers are gorgeous too. And that old Fontana one!
ReplyDeleteGreg: It really is more enjoyable reading without knowing the synopsis but sometimes you do have to warm up to the story because some characters aren't interesting enough to keep reading. Those Christie covers are great. I do like old colors like that Fontana, they really are quite alluring.
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