Taken at the Flood: A Hercule Poirot Novel by Agatha Christie

Reviewed by Jeanne 

In recently post-World War II England, the Cloade family has lived in relative comfort, helped along financially by childless widower Gordon Cloade. Gordon was the clever one with money, while his relatives were—well, NOT. They’ve come to rely on Gordon’s helping out with Rowley’s farming ambitions, with Jeremy’s legal problems, Mrs. Marchmont’s hopeless household accounts, and Lionel’s hope of retiring from medicine and devoting himself to the study of poisons. 

When Gordon suddenly remarries, they all are sure that Gordon will continue to support them in the manner to which they’ve become accustomed.  He probably would have, but unfortunately for the Cloades, Gordon and his wife are in London when their house is hit by a bomb during the Blitz.  The house is destroyed, but there are two survivors: Rosaleen aka Mrs. Gordon Cloade and her brother David.  Even more unfortunately, while Gordon had made a will providing for all the Cloades, he had not updated it after his marriage.  Under British law, all his wealth goes to his widow.

Rosaleen and David come to Gordon’s house in Warmsley Vale, where Rosaleen seems like a frightened child. And why not, when she is surrounded by so many people who would like to see her dead?

Into this morass of suspects and motive, only one person can bring order to a murder case: the one and only Hercule Poirot.

Re-reading Agatha Christie as an adult has been a rewarding experience.  I am impressed not only by her plotting skills, but by her characterization and her perceptiveness.  Everyone has been affected by the war:  some because they’ve served in foreign lands and been on the front lines, some who had to stay behind but ae still changed.  There are motives aplenty, Christie’s trademark twists and turns, and a somewhat dark ending, depending on your point of view.

I enjoyed it thoroughly and am definitely going to read more classic Christie.

Note:  One thing that frustrates me as a Christie reader is the title changes.  I own a copy of this book under the title There Is a Tide. . ., taken from the same Shakespeare quotation from Julius Caesar:

"There is a tide in the affairs of men,
Which, taken at the flood, leads on to fortune;
Omitted, all the voyage of their life
Is bound in shallows and in miseries.
On such a full sea are we now afloat;
And we must take the current when it serves,
Or lose our ventures."

A.B.C. Murders by Agatha Christie

 

Reviewed by Jeanne

Famed detective Hercule Poirot is troubled when he receives a note questioning his skills and threatening crimes to come.  The author signs his name A.B.C. and challenges Poirot to stop a crime the writer is going to commit.  While the police and even his friend Hastings chalk the note up to someone playing a prank, Poirot is troubled.

It soon seems his fear is well founded as a woman with the initials A. A. is found murdered in a village whose name also starts with A. The police begin questioning her family, friends, and associates, but why an elderly shopkeeper would have been murdered and nothing stolen remains a puzzle.

When a second note arrives, followed by a second murder with location and victim having names that start with B, Poirot redoubles his efforts.  If he can’t find the murderer soon, there may be a whole alphabet of murders to contend with.

Classic fair play mysteries are my jam.  I discovered Agatha Christie in sixth or seventh grade and worked my way through most of her works. I especially loved Miss Marple, Hercule Poirot, and the one book of Harley Quin stories (no, not the one from the comics!)

Later when I moved into more contemporary mysteries, I found that many just dismissed Agatha Christie.  She wasn’t literate enough or hard boiled enough or violent enough.  Other writers were held in much higher esteem.  Several decades on, many of those esteemed writers have all but vanished from the general public’s consciousness, but Dame Agatha still looms large. Why?

There are many theories but I think it’s because her  books are very entertaining and have held up well.  True, the books are now historical because of the time that has elapsed, bringing changes to attitudes, customs, and especially technology, but the clever plots, deft character sketches, and inviting the reader to follow the clues still makes for pleasurable reading.

Reading the books as an adult, I find many things that went over my head as a child but now have new meaning.  I find the era in which she wrote to be very intriguing. Things that were ordinary and common at the time are now exotic.  For example, I remember that Miss Marple knew the meanings of flowers and often decoded a message from a bouquet, which baffled me at the time but now delights me.  I may have read a book or two on Victorian flower language because of this.

Most of all, I appreciate Dame Agatha’s skill at plotting and leaving clues for the reader.  In this book, I was able to pick up some of them but I didn’t have the full picture.  I cared about what happened to some of her characters while being a tad suspicious of them at the same time. The plots themselves are inventive, intriguing, and most of all, memorable. 

I’m happy to note that more of her titles are being reprinted and, I hope, are attracting new readers to the Queen of Crime.

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.

Series rule!

Comments by Jeanne

Or so it seems, anyway!  Readers do enjoy following a particular character from book to book, and this September  will see a bumper crop of returning favorites.

Catherine Coulter teamed up with J.T. Ellison to start a spin-off of her very popular FBI series about a Scotland Yard detective stationed in the U.S.  The Final Cut came out last year to good reviews. The new book will be The Lost Key. Some of our local readers also recommend books by Coulter’s co-author, so you may want to check out some of Ellison’s other books while you wait for this one.

Reacher fans who have been waiting anxiously for the next book after the twists of Never Go Back will have curiosity satisfied when Personal by Lee Child hits the shelves.

Philippa Gregory brings her “Cousins’ War” series to a conclusion with The King’s Curse. Margaret Pole was an intimate of Katherine of Aragon, first meeting her when Katherine was married to Arthur, Prince of Wales who died some six months after the wedding. Margaret becomes one of Katherine’s ladies-in – waiting when Katherine marries her former brother in law when he takes the throne as Henry VIII. Gregory has a real gift for making historical figures into flesh and blood people, making her one of the most popular current historical novelists.

Several authors have picked up characters from Robert B. Parker following the author’s death in 2010. Ace Atkins picked up the Spenser novels and Michael Brandman took over the Police Chief Jesse Stone, producing three novels.  Now Reed Farrel Coleman is going to take up the challenge of writing a new Jesse Stone.  We’ll see how he does in September, when Robert B. Parker’s Blind Spot comes out.

Speaking of characters picked up by other authors, Sophie Hannah will be resurrecting Hercule Poirot in an as yet untitled book.  According to an article in The Guardian, Agatha Christie’s estate selected Hannah to revive the series in hopes that it will bring new readers to Dame Agatha’s original books.  The only plot hints so far is that the book will be set in 1920s London. A few years back, Charles Osborne adapted a play by Christie as the Poirot novel Black Coffee, but Hannah's will be the first original book by someone other than Christie to feature the detective.

This is a good place to mention that another Golden Age detective has been revived for at least one book.  Albert Campion returns for Margery Allingham’s Mr. Campion’s Farewell by Mike Ripley.  After her death, Allingham’s husband Philip Youngman Carter had completed one of her books, then went on to write two Campions of his own.  He in turn left notes for another adventure, which form the basis of the Mike Ripley novel. The book is already out in England, but won’t be published in the U.S. until July.

Jill Paton Walsh has done another in her continuation of Dorothy Sayers’ Lord Peter Wimsey/Harriet Vane series. The Last Scholar takes the two back to Oxford where Peter wants to look in the disappearance of the Warden, who was to cast the deciding vote as to whether or not to sell some of the school’s assets. As with The Attenbury Emeralds, the story takes place in 1950s as the characters are adjusting to the changing times of post WW II England. The book is due out in June.

Another intriguing book for June is an anthology edited by David Baldacci entitled Faceoff.  This collection of stories pairs some of the most popular characters in thriller fiction in new stories written their creators:  Lee Child’s Jack Reacher meets Joseph Finder’s Nick Heller, Jeffery Deaver’s Lincoln Rhyme meets John Sanford’s  Lucas Davenport, and many more, including Linda Fairstein’s Alexandra Cooper, Lisa Gardner’s D.D. Warren, and Michael Connelly’s Harry Bosch.