An unfinished person (in this unfinished universe)

Entries tagged as ‘Agatha Christie’

Of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, Agatha Christie and Maitland McDonagh?!?

March 17, 2010 · 5 Comments

Last week I stopped at the bookstore in our town, From My Shelf Books, and purchased three books:

I already have read A Study In Scarlet, The Sign of the Four and The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes as part of The Baker Street Challenge. I am going to continue to read the novels and stories by the order in which they were written and and not by the order they are in the two volumes. Yes, as I mentioned Sunday, I am one of those people who cannot read series out of order, no matter if the series has become popular in later portions of the series. I want to know the full development of the main character(s) portrayed, from conception to, in some cases, death.

As for the other two books, they are more for perusing from time to time. I picked up the Christie book, naturally because of my interest in her work and participation, starting last year in the Agatha Christie Reading Challenge, and the Movie Lust book because well, I love movies and any time I can get recommendations on what next to choose from Netflix, I will.

Speaking of Netflix, next up for us is The Hurt Locker, for which at first the queue said “Long wait” but now it’s on its way:

And I want to recommend a movie to y’all, which even though I haven’t seen Twilight, I only can imagine that this one is better than that:

The badge above is one of three new badges I’m using this week for my themed days, with the first one introduced Monday for Motivation Monday, and the last one to be introduced this Friday for Flashback Friday.

Categories: Books · Midweek Review · Mind · Movies
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Poirot Loses A Client

December 21, 2009 · 1 Comment

Agatha Christie Collection

Title: Poirot Loses A Client (aka Dumb   Witness)
Author: Agatha Christie
Publication Year: 1937
Pages: 234
Genre: Mystery
Count for Year: 53

How I discovered

I have joined Kerrie from Mysteries in Paradise with her Agatha Christie Reading Challenge and this is part of that.

The setup

In this intricate mystery, Poirot receives a letter — two months after it was written — from rich spinster Emily Arundell about a possible attempt on her life. Poirot heads to her hometown of Market Basing and finds her already dead. Poirot must contend with a cold trail and the strange villagers to solve a murder that confounds even his superior skills.

synopsis from Barnes & Noble (click cover to be taken to site)

The review

Even though Poirot could have just let this one go, because the client was already dead and it was not clear if a murder had been committed at first, Poirot, being Poirot, cannot let it go. Why? For Poirot, he must always get the truth — and the murderer, even if he/she thinks he/she got away with it.

As Poirot tells Capt. Hastings at one point during the investigation:

The dog hunts rabbits. Hercule Poirot hunts murderers. We have here a murderer– a murderer whose crimes failed, yes, perhaps, but nevertheless a murderer. And I, my friend, am going into the burrow after him — or her as the case may be.

As usual, “going into the burrow” after the murderer, with Poirot involves subterfuge, a.k.a. telling lies to other people. For example, at one point, he pretends to be a biographer for the family of the woman killed. Then later he acts the part of an investigator on how a brother and sister can break a will that was changed weeks before the death of the victim (in this case, their aunt).

Hastings asks Poirot if it is “really necessary to tell such elaborate lies,” to which Poirot responds:

“If one is going to tell a lie — and I notice, by the way, that your nature is very much averse to lying– now me, it does not trouble me at all–…if one is going to tell a lie at all, it might as well be an artistic lie, a romantic lie, a convincing lie!”

The usual suspects include family members and a devoted housekeeper, who seemed to benefit by receiving everything in the will over the relatives. However, naturally not all is at it seems with everyone having a motive and Poirot having to dig out the answer of who did it.

Personally, it had me guessing until the murder/murderess was revealed, and for that reason, I give this one a 4 out of 5.

My rating system:

5- Classic, must read
4- Worth owning a copy
3- Worth picking up at library
2- Worth skimming at the bookstore
1- Worth being a doorstop

This post also can be found on my book blog, Just A (Reading) Fool. If you only are interested in book-related posts, you can subscribe only to that blog, if you so choose.

Categories: Books · Midweek Review · Mind
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Of hunger, camels, adverbs and generations

October 16, 2009 · 4 Comments

library-lootUnlike previous weeks where my Library Loot was mainly Agatha Christie, this week I’ve mixed it up a bit with a random collection of whatever caught my eye on the shelf, for the most part. I say for the most part, because the first one on the list is one that has been discussed on a few book blogs that I read.

Without further adieu, here is this week’s Library Loot, an event co-sponsored by Eva from  The Striped Armchair and Marg of Reading Adventures:

Still left over from earlier this month:

Oh, and I do have two Agatha Christie books out for the Agatha Christie  Reading Challenge in which I am participating:

  • Poirot Loses A Client (aka Dumb Witness)
  • Death On The Nile

This post also can be found on my book blog, Just A (Reading) Fool. If you only are interested in book-related posts, you can subscribe only to that blog, if you so choose.

Categories: Books · Midweek Review · Mind
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