Marple: Twelve New Mysteries

 

Reviewed by Jeanne

I am a long-time fan of Agatha Christie, especially of her stories featuring the elderly spinster Jane Marple.  With her sharp eye and keen intellect, she could ferret out connections on what would seem to be the flimsiest of clues. Her great gift is seeing patterns of behavior that she applies to people no matter their station in life: the eldest son of a duke might well make a decision similar to one made by the butcher’s boy in the same situation.

Her other advantage is that no one takes an elderly woman seriously.  They’re apt to accidentally reveal more than they intend to the fluffy old dear who is more than capable of using that information to solve whatever crime is afoot.

When a collection of new Miss Marple stories by contemporary authors was announced. I was excited but wary. I am quite fond of Miss Marple and I had some qualms about how she would be treated. On the other hand, I liked the idea of a collection of short stories: at times I really like having something to read that tells an entire story in just a few pages so that I have a handy stopping point.  Short stories are an art form:  not everyone can manage to introduce characters and tell a story in a short space.

As it turned out, most of my fears were groundless.  I felt every author respected the source material and turned out some entertaining tales.  Admittedly, some were more successful than others for me; I sometimes had trouble picturing the elderly detective in the more unusual locales, but all were well plotted.  Many used Miss Marple’s nephew, Raymond West, as an excuse to get her out of St. Mary Mead, and a few used other reoccurring characters.

I was familiar with some of the authors already (Ruth Ware, Elly Griffiths, Lucy Foley, Val McDermid, Alyssa Cole) but others were new to me.  A couple I have noted as authors to look for in the future.

If I had to pick a favorite story, it would probably be “The Second Murder at the Vicarage” by Val McDermid which uses the setting and characters from the first Miss Marple novel The Murder at the Vicarage.  McDermid had me from the first sentence, which is a re-working of an Oscar Wilde line. 

In short, I found this to be a very enjoyable collection which has prompted me to re-read some of the original novels.  

Murder is Easy by Agatha Christie

 

Reviewed by Jeanne

Luke Fitzwilliam is happy to be back in England after working as a policeman in the Mayang Straits, and happier still to be on a train to London… that is, until the elderly lady in his carriage decides to strike up a conversation.  Having several elderly aunts, Luke expected this to happen but he did not expect to hear that she was on her way to Scotland Yard to report a series of murders. He tries to humor the old dear, listening to her rambling on about who has died and that she expects the doctor to be next.

Luke hopes that the man on duty at the Yard will let her down gently, even though she is definitely a bubble off plumb.

It’s a bit of a shock when he reads in paper that the old lady was run over by a motor car and killed before she even reached the Yard. 

It’s even more of a shock a few days later when Luke reads that the doctor she mentioned as the next victim dies suddenly.

Is it possible that the old lady was right and there’s a murderer running amok in a quaint little English village?

Luke enlists the aid of an old friend in order to go undercover and investigate.

I read quite a lot of Agatha Christie’s books in high school, but back then I was really only interested in the series titles with Hercule Poirot or (my favorite) Miss Marple so this one was new to me.  Christie wrote a number of standalone books like this one, which came out in 1939.  While it definitely reflects the era in which it was written, the strong plot and good characterizations had me turning pages quickly to find the solution.  As with most of Christie’s books, there’s a possible romance—unless, of course, the lovely young woman who has caught Luke’s eye is the murderer in question.  Luke himself is a likeable young man, but it must be said he doesn’t have Hercule’s “little grey cells.”  In fact, another character catches on more quickly that he does.  Nonetheless, he does solve it out in the end—and just in time, too.

As usual, I had some things figured out but not others.  There’s a reason Agatha Christie’s work is still read, and I certainly enjoyed this one.

Note:  The book was also published under the title Easy to Kill.

Agatha Christie: An Elusive Woman by Lucy Worsley

 

Reviewed by Jeanne

Agatha Christie has to be one of the best-known authors in the world.  Her first novel, The Mysterious Affair at Styles, came out in 1920 and her books have been in demand ever since.  Numerous movies, TV shows, and plays have been based on her works, including the 2023 movie “A Haunting in Venice” with Kenneth Branagh as Hercule Poirot.

But what of the author herself?  There have been numerous biographies of Dame Agatha and even a few fictional treatments, most revolving around her 1926 disappearance.  The lady herself continues to intrigue, as evidenced by the best-seller status of this book—helped along, no doubt, by the prominence of the author.

Lucy Worlsey is a historian known for her interesting documentaries which run on PBS such as “Royal Secrets” or “12 Days of Tudor Christmas.”  For me, it’s her background as a historian which makes this biography of Christie stand out.  She views Christie as a product of her times, and backs it up with references from her many novels. 

Agatha was born in 1890, at the end of the Victorian era, to an American father and an English mother, and was the youngest of their three children.  While the family had been upper middle class, financial problems arose: servants had to be let go, and there wasn’t even enough money for Agatha to have a proper debut. When she was 24, she married an artillery officer who was home on leave from fighting in France during World War I. 

After the war, they set up housekeeping in London. Society was undergoing a lot of changes:  think Downton Abbey or Upstairs Downstairs.  Agatha gave birth to a daughter, which she found almost bewildering. Fortunately, there was a nanny to take care of the child, while the Christies tried to find ways to make ends meet. One of those ways was for Agatha to try her hand at writing a mystery.

One book led to another, and soon Agatha was in demand as an author of mysteries.  Unfortunately, there were troubles in her marriage: Archie was spending a lot of time away from home. It’s debated how much Agatha suspected, but in August 1926, Archie asked for a divorce, having been carrying on an affair with Nancy Neely, a woman Agatha knew. 

The result was that Agatha went missing.  Search parties spent days looking for the famous author, finding only her abandoned car.  There were even dark suspicions that she might have met with foul play.  When she turned up at a spa, registered under the name of Neely, speculation was rampant.  Was she trying to frame her husband for murder? Did she have amnesia? Was it all a huge publicity stunt?

Worsley believes the explanation has already been given by Agatha herself and puts forth her own interpretation of the event, which I found plausible. Again, part of the understanding depends on knowing the time period.

The book continues with the rest of Agatha’s life, including her second marriage to a much younger man, her relationship with her daughter and grandson, and of course her writing.  I liked that Worsley didn’t feel as if this one incident defined Mrs. Christie (as she continued to be known, despite divorce and remarriage) and wanted to show the whole of her life.

The tone is conversational and light.  A great deal of research has gone into the book, including reading personal letters for background.  (One such gives lie to Agatha’s stance that she wrote her second novel only to help out with the household expenses, but Worsley explains that, given the times and Agatha’s upbringing, she would have felt obliged to have an excuse for doing something outside of being a housewife—which is what she continued to list as her occupation.  That, or “married woman.”) I also like that Worsley touches on some of the events or persons in her life that made their way into her fiction.  I very much want to re-read some of the books now.

If you are looking for scandal, this isn’t going to be the book for you. If, on the other hand, you’re interested in one of the most influential mystery writers of all time, by all means give it a try.

Dead and Gondola: A Christie Bookshop Mystery by Ann Claire

 

Reviewed by Jeanne

Everyone has their dream job.  For Ellie Christie (no known relationship to Agatha), that dream job is to run the family book shop, the Book Chalet, nestled in the mountains of Last Word, Colorado.  Now her dream is coming true, after her parents decided to retire early and leave the running of the shop to Ellie and her sister Meg.  Ellie’s been working elsewhere for a while, so she is just getting back into the swing of things.  One surprise is finding that ex-Hollywood star turned book influencer Morgan Marin has moved to Last Word and is patronizing the shop, including the book club. This is not to the liking of Mrs. Ridge, the long-time assistant who has very definite opinions as to how the book club is to be conducted. Having a séance is not part of a book club meeting, even if one takes place in this month’s book selection.  It only gets worse when the Ouiji board spells out “D E A D M A N” just before a real life corpse turns up. . . .

This is a first in series book, and I do hope there will be more. The characters were likeable, the mystery was certainly competent, and the setting was intriguing.  The “gondola” part of the title refers to the ski gondolas used to get up and down the mountain and which figure in the crime.  I did figure out part of the solution, but there were still a few surprises in store.

Mostly, I enjoyed all the Agatha Christie references.  I started reading Christies in my youth when I was well and truly baffled by the Victorian Flower Language that Miss Marple employed so freely, and I remain a fan of Christie in particular and fair play mysteries in general.  I liked that the author was so knowledgeable about Dame Agatha and the books she wrote, even mentioning that Ellie guided tours to Torquay, England where the mystery writer was born. A book that Christie wrote under her Mary Westmacott pseudonym figures in the story.   One teensy weensy quibble is when Ellie comments that they have tried to find a genealogical link to Agatha Christie: if they did, based on the name, the relationship would be not to Agatha herself but to her first husband, Archibald Christie, who cheated on her.  Of course, they could then claim a relationship to Archie and Agatha’s daughter Rosalind, so it’s still a connection. (Agatha was born Agatha Mary Clarissa Miller.)

And there is a cat-- of course there is a cat-- and her name is Agatha.  She is adorable.

And if, like me, you enjoy Christie’s work, I highly recommend the movie “See How They Run.” It’s set in 1950s London where there’s a plan to make a film of this new play, “The Mousetrap.” A murder on the set brings in two police officers to investigate in this delightful dramedy starring Sam Rockwell, Saoirse Ronan, Ruth Wilson, and Adrien Brody.

Nevermore: Unquiet Grave, When We Were Orphans, Orient Express, Crossbones Yard, Discourtesy of Death

Reported by Ambrea

Set at the turn of the century in Greenbrier, West Virginia, The Unquiet Grave by Sharyn McCrumb is a masterful retelling of an infamous legend—and a murder than shook a small town to its core.  Shortly after the death of her daughter, Zona, Mary Jane Heaster visits the county prosecutor and claims the ghost of her daughter has appeared, saying she was murdered.  When an autopsy proves this to be true, Greenbrier is thrown into turmoil and headlines are awash with stories of the Greenbrier Ghost.  Switching between the perspectives of Mary Jane and James P.D. Gardner, the first black attorney to practice law in West Virginia, The Unquiet Grave, according to our Nevermore reader, is an incredibly fascinating novel.  Not only does McCrumb’s book draw on the history of the region, it tells a compelling story that’s sure to leave readers clamoring for more.  Our reader highly recommended it to Nevermore, saying she finished it within a few days because it was simply that good.

Next, Nevermore checked out When We Were Orphans by Kazuo Ishiguro.  Christopher Banks was born in Shanghai, but, when he is orphaned at the tender age of nine, he’s sent to live in England.  More than twenty years later, Christopher has become a renowned detective and he returns to Shanghai to solve the mystery of his parents’ suspicious disappearance.  But, as the cover points out, “within the layers of his narrative is slowly revealed what he can’t, or won’t, see:  that his memory...is not unaffected by his childhood tragedies; that his powers of perception...can be blinding as well as enlightening; and that the simplest desires—a child’s for his parents, a man’s for understanding—may give rise to the most complicated truths.”  Our reader said When We Were Orphans was very good; in fact, she named Ishiguro as her new favorite author, saying he always published incredible works.  Insightful and imaginative, this novel is a fascinating look at loss, discovery, memory and desire.  Our reader highly recommended it.

Nevermore also took a look at The Discourtesy of Death by William Brodrick, a suspenseful mystery set in Britain that dives back into the world of Father Anselm, a lawyer turned monk.  When Father Anselm receives a letter accusing Peter Henderson of murder, he knows he must uncover the truth if he hopes to expose a killer—and stop a series of dangerous events that will inevitably lead to even more spilled blood.  Our reader said The Discourtesy of Death was a fine mystery; however, she noted it was filled with philosophical musing and it had a penchant to develop slowly.  She offered it to her fellow mystery readers, but she didn’t give it a high recommendation, saying she “honestly found the [history of the] author more interesting than the book.”

Next, Nevermore shared a new book by Kate Rhodes titled Crossbones Yard.  In this series debut, readers are introduced to Alice Quentin, a London psychologist with more family baggage than she would like to admit.  When Alice stumbles across a murder (quite literally), she finds herself drawn into a murder case that will put her—and everyone one she’s ever cared about—into danger.  Our reader said she’d never checked out any of Rhodes' novels, but “I will look for more from her.”  Crossbones Yard turned out to be a great mystery story, our reader continued, and the end was “pretty amazing.”  Rhodes' novel was passed on and quickly snatched up by the next person.

Last, Nevemore rounded out our meeting with a look at a classic mystery:  Murder on the Orient Express by Agatha Christie.  The tenth novel in the Hercule Poirot series, Murder on the Orient Express recounts Detective Poirot’s trip on the luxurious Orient Express as he returns to Belgium—and the unexpectedly grisly murder that pits Poirot against one of the most ingenious killers he’s ever faced.  Our reader picked up Christie’s novel, because she wanted to read it before she watched the new movie.  She said it’s the perfect winter story.  “You can feel the cold and the snow,” she said, noting that the novel is incredibly descriptive and wonderfully detailed.  Thus far, she has loved reading Murder on the Orient Express.  She’s currently taking notes on characters and trying to decipher clues, saying, “I’m going to figure it out eventually.”

Nevermore: Wiley Cash, Astrophysics, Elly Griffiths, Bloody Roads South, Murder on the Orient Express

Reported by Kristin

Nevermore began with some Appalachian flavor with The Last Ballad by Wiley Cash.  Ella May Wiggins is living in North Carolina in 1929, scraping by on the night shift at the local cotton mill.  The dirt and the danger are hard for the young woman to handle, but she is desperate to feed her family.  Union organizers start pushing for reform, but the leadership denounces their efforts as Communist.  Ella May decides to join the union movement at great personal risk.  The story is told by Ella May’s daughter Lilly, an old woman at the time of the telling.  The mingling of points of view is one of Cash’s trademarks, and he tells the story well.

A tiny book put in an appearance, What Women Say About Men: Witty Observations on the Male of the Species.  While group members chuckled, our reader said that it was a very enjoyable book, and surprisingly, she didn’t finish as quickly as she would have thought because she had to reflect upon the points made.

Another small but dense book was discussed next:  Astrophysics for People in a Hurry by Neil deGrasse Tyson.  Our reader said that this is for people who really want the big picture, and although it took him three weeks to read and digest it, it was well worth it.  Covering universal concepts (pun intended,) Tyson proposes many new facts for the lay person to get his or her mind around, so that many people may end up with even more new questions and ideas to explore further.

The Chalk Pit by Elly Griffiths brings back anthropologist Ruth Galloway to examine another set of bones, these found in the labyrinth of tunnels under Norwich.  The bones were translucent, almost as if they had been boiled.  Ruth has been involved with a local policeman during the earlier books in the series, and the affair continues.  Our reader very much enjoyed the characters and gives Ruth positive reviews, reading everything in the series for the past several years.

Our next reader was intrigued by Bloody Roads South: The Wilderness to Cold Harbor, May-June 1864 by Noah Andre Trudeau.  Vividly detailed personal accounts from the last strategic push of the Civil War show what carnage the soldiers endured and their thoughts as poured out to loved ones in letters.  Bringing alive the people involved, these little vignettes tell an engaging story to lovers and students of history alike.

Lastly, the new movie in theatres inspired another reader to pick up Murder on the Orient Express by Agatha Christie.  Called “the most widely read mystery of all time,” the story is comprised of a classic locked room murder, when Edward Ratchett is stabbed to death inside his train berth with the door locked from the inside (but no murderer in sight.)  Our reader said that she still had about twenty pages to go, and was looking forward to the dénouement.

Nevermore: Extreme Science Fiction, Physics, Poisons, and Diane Rehm

Reported by Ambrea

Kicking off our Nevermore meeting this week, one of our readers checked out The Mammoth Book of Extreme Science Fiction, edited by Mike Ashley.  A compilation of fantastical, far-flung science fiction short stories by authors, Extreme Science Fiction was an intriguing read populated by fascinating stories, like “Anomalies” by Gregory Benford, “Merlin’s Gun” by Alastair Reynolds, and “The Days of Solomon Gursky” by Ian McDonald.  Our Nevermore reader admitted that he devoured this book.  Although he found it riddled with stories that bordered more on extreme fiction than extreme science, he thought it was a very good collection.  It begins with “simpler” stories, but, as he continued reading, he found the stories became progressively more complex and, as the title attests, more extreme.  He said it was a pretty good book and he recommended it to other fans of science fiction.

Following in the same vein, he likewise looked at Seven Brief Lessons on Physics by Carlo Rovelli.  In his book, Rovelli, an Italian theoretical physicist and author, takes some of the most complex mathematical equations and scientific phenomena, breaks it down, and makes it accessible to the average reader.  He explains everything from the formation of black holes to the influence of gravity to the creation—and possible purposes—for life on Earth.  Our Nevermore reader was incredibly pleased with Seven Brief Lessons on Physics.  Rovelli has an almost poetic quality to his work, driving home the most complex theories in physics and giving them a simplicity that makes them understandable for all readers.  He continued, saying, “[Rovelli] doesn’t make you believe or unbelieve, rather [he] gives you approximations of theories” and shares his knowledge in an easy-to-read and condensed format.  Overall, he said it was a very good book—and he even intends to purchase his own copy.

Next, Nevermore looked at Kathryn Harkup’s A is for Arsenic:  The Poisons of Agatha Christie.  “Agatha Christie used poison to kill her characters more often than any other crime fiction writer,” according Harkup.  “The poison was central to the novel, and her choice of deadly substances was far from random…”  Agatha Christie served in a pharmacy during both world wars, which gave her incredible insight into the effects of poisons on the body—and how such poisons could be administered in a variety of ways to commit murder.  Harkup, a former research chemist, delves deep into Christie’s novels and pinpoints various poisons used by the author and examines how they were used, how they interact with the human body, and how they are detected today and when Christie was writing.  Although our reader didn’t fully read A is for Arsenic, she gave a glowing review of it from her husband.  She said, “He had such a fun time with it.”  It’s complex and insightful, if a little technical, but he highly recommended it to others interested in chemistry.  Additionally, it kindled his interest in reading The Pale Horse, among other novels—and rekindled our reader’s love of Agatha Christie.

Last, Nevermore looked at a brand new memoir by Diane Rehm, On My Own.  In her deeply personal and incredibly poignant memoir, Diane Rehm opens up about her husband’s death.  John Rehm, who suffered from Parkinson’s disease, suffered a long drawn-out death that left Diane reeling and truly “on her own” for the first time in fifty-four years.  Diane Rehm offers a candid account of her struggle to create a new identity and reconstruct her life without her husband, providing insightful and tragic insight into the life and death of her husband—and his desperation to bring his own life to a close that culminated in his refusing to take food, water, and medication.  Our reader found On My Own to be a magnificent memoir, a piece that confronted the bereavement process and, more importantly, delved deep into the assisted suicide movement for Rehm works as an advocate.  Well-written and insightful, it’s a short piece that has a lot of impact for anyone who has ever suffered a close, personal loss and endured the prolonged death of a loved one.  She said it’s worth reading, recommending it highly to other book club members.