The Murder of Roger Ackroyd

Wow. Just. Wow. Agatha Christie has managed to blow me away. The Murder of Roger Ackroyd might be my favourite of her novels now. That ending was amazing. I didn’t expect it. I’m a little in shock. This is definitely a book I could read again. I feel like I missed a hidden meaning or clue between the lines or something. In a second reading I would would be searching for something. Apparently there is only one way out when someone discovers what bad thing you’ve done in this little town.

I kind of loved Dr. Sheppard, right up until the end. I don't want to say too much, because it would give the story away and this book is worth the time to read. It's worth the time to read twice. Christie makes Sheppard so compelling. 

Inspector Raglan is so close-minded and annoying. I wanted to slap him a couple times. He thinks only his way is right. M. Poirot's idiosyncrasies do not give Raglan any faith in him. Even if Poirot were to share his theories, Raglan wouldn't listen. He was a wonderfully frustrating character. 

M. Poirot is full of himself, but he kind of deserves to be. He is always right. He sees everything, the things that no one else sees. Poirot is a bit snarky, in a cute, little, old man kind of way. He is someone to admire though, someone to emulate. He looks at evidence, circumstances, that others ignore. That's what he teaches officers more open than Raglan. Poirot is also such a unique character. No one other than Christie has a detective like him. 

As always, Christie does not disappoint. Even better, The Murder of Roger Ackroyd is more unexpected than any of the other novels I've read, save The Orient Express. I'm eager to read another of Christie's books. Maybe The Mysterious Affair At Styles is next.

Appointment With Death

I wish I could figure these stories out before the end. Sort of. I thought it was, who it was, for a few pages, but then some of the stuff that Poirot said, threw me off. It's all about the psychology of the crime, at least in this case, though coupled with evidence. It's hard to figure out stuff too when so many people are lying.

Appointment with Death is another wonderful and interesting Agatha Christie mystery. I love Hercule Poirot. He's so different. He's unassuming, soft-spoken, but he sees everything. He sits and speaks with all the interested parties, but he doesn't play much of a part in the first part of the novel. The first part of the novel establishes the Boyton family. We are introduced to the victim as she is in life, and the people who surround her. We meet her children, a family friend and the people who are travelling along side them. This part of the novel gives us an idea of motive, but also what might happen as a result of the matriarch's death.

I loved Sarah King. She was the star of the book for me. She was a woman, travelling on her own, who was also a doctor. The other medical person, Gerard, showed her respect, as did everyone else in the camp. Christie definitely wrote some strong, intelligent, formidable female characters. Sarah King did allow her feelings to get in the way. Though she was certain of "anything medical", her feelings definitely influenced her. From her first conversation with Dr. Gerard, I just loved her confidence.

The ending though, that was a serious surprise. Not just the figuring out of what happened, Poirot going through each member of the assembled party in classic Christie style, but after. The obituary... I won't say anything else, because I don't want to spoil it, but this was Christie at her best. Also, the epilogue was lovely. The reunion was great.

I'm so glad I finally read my fifth Agatha Christie classic. Appointment With Death is everything I wanted to be and I recommend it to any Agatha Christie fan.

This is also #26 on my Classics list. (I'm so behind.)

Blast From The Past #2 - The ABC Murders

(AKA: Throwback Thursday)

I realized that while I definitely, totally want to look back at my blogging this year, doing it every week is going to be to hard. So, it'll be bi-weekly, maybe more often if I can swing it. Doing it bi-weekly though, gives me a bit better selection as to which posts from the past I'll be highlighting, as I was apparently not a "regular" poster back then. After looking at this week's post and last week's, I also did not add pictures to my posts. I don't know when I started doing that, but I'll likely be finding out as I take this journey.

Approximately 10 years ago, I read The ABC Murders, by Agatha Christie. This was my second book by Christie, having read Murder on the Orient Express the fall before. I also read this on my honeymoon, per the post. There was also a big twist at the end, which I don't remember. I remember remember really liking the post. I remember other chracters underestimating Poirot. Maybe The ABC Murders is another book I'll have to re-read.

When I looked back to figure out which post to highlight this week, it left me in a "Christie" sort of mood. I read two other books by her since this post and I own a fifth. Why haven't I read the fifth book after so many years? I have no idea. Too many books, not enough time? So, I pulled Appointment with Death off my shelf and I'm a couple of chapters in. I'm excited to see what's going to happen with this family and how the woman and French doctor are involved. From what I remember about Christie, she does not introduce characters lightly. I also like that looking back at the past influenced what I was going to read now.

Books From Before Blogging

I haven't done a Top Ten Tuesday in a really long time. This week's topic grabbed me though. This week, the bloggers from The Broke and the Bookish wanted to know the top Ten Books That Have Been On Your Shelf (Or TBR) From Before You Started Blogging That You STILL Haven't Read Yet. Since I recently started looking back at my blogging past, having passed my 10th blogging anniversary, I started to wonder, what books have been sitting on my shelf, unread, for over 10 years? My posts on Suicide Squad and The Humans are going to have to wait, because I need to know this now.

1. Appointment with Death, by Agatha Christie - I own 4 of Christie's books, why did I stop reading at 3?

2. It, by Stephen King - What is wrong with me? King is one of my favourite authors and I've read loads of his other books, but not It?

3. The House of Mirth, by Edith Wharton - I picked it up on the cheap after having reading Ethan Frome and it's just sat on my shelf.

4. Fury, by Salman Rushdie - Again, I got it on sale, after having read Haroun and the Sea of Stories, and it has just sat there.

5. Jacob's Room, by Virginia Woolf - I took a class on Woolf, but Jacob's Room was not one of the books we read. I bought it anyway.

6. Almost all of Anne Rice's Vampire Chronicles - My Hubby and I were both reading these books. I was also reading Rice's Mayfair Witches books. Somehow I have never made it past Tale of the Body Thief. I will soon though (maybe).

7. A Perfect Pledge, by Rabindranath Maharaj - I read Maharaj's short story collection The Book of Ifs and Buts and loved it, so I picked up this novel... and it's followed me for years.

8. War and Peace, by Leo Tolsoy (can we include Crime and Punishment & Ulysses here?) - They're long and scary. Based on length alone, I'm more likely to read Crime and Punishment than the other two.

9. The Tiger Claw, by Shauna Singh Baldwin - I don't know why. It just hasn't been read yet.

10. From Ink Lake, edited by Michael Ondaatje - It's a collection of Canadian short stories. Seems like my kind of thing, but nope. It's sat on my shelf as long as the rest of them.

I thought there would be more, but last year I started making an effort to read the books that I've had for a long time. That's part of the reason I got around to reading Tale of the Body Theif. Seeing this list has reminded me how much I wanted to read each of these books when I bought them. Hopefully, I get to at least one of them soon.

I Want To Be In Your Club!

What are your Top Ten Book Club Picks?  This week The Broke and The Bookish want to know.  I’m not sure if my books are going to work.  I’ve never been part of a book club, so I don’t know what kinds of books are normally chosen.  So, I’ve decided to theme my book club picks.

1.     If the book club read Zombie books:  Pride and Prejudice and Zombies, by Jane Austen and Seth Graeme-Smith.

2.     If the book club read Vampire books:  Dracula, by Bram Stoker or Interview with a Vampire, by Anne Rice.

3.     If the book club read Dystopian books:  The Handmaid’s Tale, by Margaret Atwood.

4.     If the book club read Young Adult fantasy books:  Harry Potter and The Philosopher’s Stone, by J.K. Rowling or The Hunger Games, by Suzanne Collins.

5.     If the book club read Fantasy books:  The Crystal Shard, by R.A. Salvatore.

6.     If the book club read Classics:  Flush, by Virginia Woolf.

7.     If the book club read Mysteries:  The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo, by Stieg Larsson or Murder On The Orient Express, by Agatha Christie.

8.     If the book club read Horror:  The Stand, by Stephen King (even though I haven’t read it yet…)

9.     If the book club read Historical Fiction:  The Wars, by Timothy Findley.

10. If the book club read Paranormal Romance:  Undead and Unwed, by MaryJanice Davidson.

What is your book club going to read?

Death On The Nile

I can't believe the story ended that way! I know Poirot isn't always conventional, but he just stood there. I have to say I’m glad about Cornelia’s choice in husband. Even though the very end was startling, it was a good jolt. Death on the Nile was another great, inventive mystery from famed writer, Agatha Christie. It didn't have the same surprising twist that Murder on the Orient Express did, but it keeps the reader guessing the whole way.

Death on the Nile is a good book for someone who has already read a novel or two staring Hercule Poirot. It wouldn't be the first book I start with though. My problem with this story was the plethora of characters. Was Fleetwood really necessary? Was Mr. Burnaby or his lean friend? I found that I had to go back to the little drawing (included in all the Christie novels I’ve read) to help me keep the characters straight. I was getting Fanthorp, Ferguson and Fleetwood mixed up initially. By the first murder, I was okay though. There was also more than one mystery to solve. Before even getting to who the murderer was, Poirot had managed to discover and solve three other crimes! The story had so much happening. In the end, Death on the Nile was a good distraction and I look forward to my next adventure with Monsieur Poirot.

Murder in Mesopotamia

What a great story! I thoroughly enjoyed Murder in Mesopotamia. Agatha Christie was such a brilliant writer. Her characters are always so vivid. They have their outward appearances, but as the mystery goes on, Hercule Poirot, the greatest detective, gets deeper into their personalities. Little tidbits are revealed.

Murder in Mesopotamia is the third book of Agatha Christie’s I’ve read. [See previous post (http://loniseye.blogspot.com/2006/08/abc-murders.html) The ABC Murders.] Though the detective (star/hero) is Hercule Poirot, the story is always told from someone else’s perspective. In this case, Nurse Leatheran is given the task of writing an account of what occurred when Mrs. Leidner was murdered because there has been some kind of public questioning of the events. Poirot is not even the person who asks her, it is Dr. Reilly, a common associate. I have noticed that it is always someone different who narrates the case, someone who was involved, but who is also objective. Nurse Leatheran certainly makes her feelings about all individuals involved (including Poirot) clear. I suppose it would be difficult to fully describe the machinations of the detective’s mind and perhaps it is a way for Christie to keep the reader guessing until the end.

The ABC Murders

To break up the youthful fiction I seemed to have immersed myself in recently, I decided to read an Agatha Christie mystery. I wanted something a little more adult on the honeymoon… not that we did a whole lot of reading…

Last fall, I read my first Agatha Christie book, Murder On The Orient Express, which I just loved. I thought Hercule Poirot was simply fabulous. He seemed to be such an unassuming man that saw so much. It was true of his investigative role in The ABC Murders as well. His technique was unlike that of the other investigators.

I think The ABC Murders tricks you. It leads the reader to believe one thing, but something completely different is true. Of course, each character plays an important role in the mystery. Otherwise, I doubt Christie would include them. But there is a definite deception being played upon the reader. By the end of the novel, when the answers come to light, it caused me to yell out loud!

If you haven’t read something by Agatha Christie, you should. She was one of the most famed writers of her time. Everyone knows (or should know) who she is, especially if you’re an avid reader. I thoroughly enjoyed the novels I’ve read so far. The problem is, you can’t talk about a particular novel too much with someone who hasn’t read it. Otherwise you end up giving something away. Just remember, watch out for the twist at the end.