The Sittaford Mystery By Agatha Christie

ISBN: 978-0007354597

Published By Harper Collins

Sittaford House is in a small village of only a few houses in a remote location on the edge of Dartmoor. Cut off by snow, Mrs Willetts and her daughter who rent the house, invite their neighbours to tea.  They decide it might be fun to hold a séance. It all beings with good humour, but quickly turns more sinister when a spirit seems to tell them that Captain Trevelyan who lives in a local town has been murdered. His friend, Major Burnaby who was at the tea decides to set out to make sure his friend is OK, even though it is a six mile walk through a serious snow storm. On arriving at his friends house, he discovers the Captain has been murdered, and it happened at the exact time that the séance occurred.

The police arrest a rather stupid young man called James Pearson, the Captain’s nephew, who stands to gain from the will. James is engaged to Emily Trefusis who refuses to believe that James is guilty and with the the help of a local journalist starts to investigate herself.

I rather enjoyed the set up of the mystery, I like the idea of an “impossible” crime. In this case, how on earth did a séance manage to predict the Captain’s death? Sometimes a “how-dunnit” is more satisfying than a “who-dunnit”. It did rather loose pace towards the end, and some key clues were left right until the very last pages, so it would have been hard to solve this based on the previous chapters. Having said that, when the solution was revealed it was blindingly obvious, if only I had stopped to think about it.

In this book Christie focuses a little more on her characters, and we start to see some more emphasis placed on how people really do react to different circumstances, rather than her characters simply being tools to execute the plot. The motive of the murderer in particular shows she has started to develop her thoughts in this area.

After a few dodgy ones, it looks like Christie is back on form!

Advent Review Day 14: The Adventure Of The Christmas Pudding By Agatha Christie

ISBN: 978-0007121083

Published by Harper Collins

This is a Poirot short story from a collection called "The Adventure of the Christmas Pudding and a selection of Entrees". I read a first edition copy which has a wonderful introduction by Christie describing the Christmases of her childhood and how they influenced the stories in this book. 

The story itself is a lot of fun, and begins with a discreet man from the government trying to persuade Poirot to go to a country house to try and recover a stolen ruby. His horror at spending the festive season in a cold and draughty manor house is delightful, and he is only persuaded to go when he is assured they have central heating newly installed.  The mystery is not too difficult to unravel, but that's OK, the point of this book is to see Poirot enjoying Christmas and charming his way through the proceedings. One to read after the Queen's speech.

The Murder At The Vicarage By Agatha Christie

ISBN: 978-0007208425

Published By Harper Collins

This is the first of the Miss Marple novels and is set in her home village of St Mary Mead. Colonel Protheroe is an arrogant and generally unpleasant man, but the residents of the village are shocked when he is found shot dead in the vicar's study.

There is a nice array of suspects including the Colonel's wife and daughter, a local artist, and a rather suspicious archaeologist and is secretary. We see everything unfold from the vicar's point of view, and being a man of the cloth, an awful lot of people want to confide in him, giving him access to more information that perhaps he really wants to know. 

Miss Marple is, at first portrayed as a rather gossipy old lady, but the vicar warms to her over the course of the book and at the end she is seen to be a very clever woman and an excellent judge of character.

This is classic Christie territory, she captures life in an English village, with all its secrets and gossip, perfectly. The plot in The Murder at the Vicarage uses a couple of classic Christie’s red herrings which she will use repeatedly through her writing in one form or another. We fall for them every time though!

The Mysterious Mr Quin By Agatha Christie

ISBN: 0007354649

Published By Harper Collins

This collection of short stories features Mr Satterthwaite, an elderly gentlemen with a comfortable life. He is a great people watcher, and one New Year's Eve at a house party he meets Mr Harley Quin. The stranger helps Mr Satterthwaite solve various mysteries, simply by helping him see things in a different way.  Mr Quin, by his own admission comes and goes, and in each story he becomes more and more paranormal, seemingly appearing from nowhere.

The mysteries themselves are straightforward, and all the clues are there for the reader to solve. What is more of a riddle is the relationship between the two men. Is Mr Quin really some sort of supernatural being, or is he an extension of Mr Satterthwiate's own mind as it works through the problems? This is never really resolved, and I rather liked the fact that it was up to the reader to decide.

Partners In Crime By Agatha Christie

ISBN: 9780007354634

Partners In Crime is a collection of short stories featuring Tommy and Tuppence. The stories cover jewel theft, counterfeiting gangs and international spies. It makes me sad to say this, but it is, quite frankly a dreadful book. The stories are simplistic, with wooden characters, made worse by the fact that they are very dated. Not one of the stories has a twist. There are no clever clues or skeletons in closets to uncover, it's a very poor effort all round. 

I'm glad I read it, it's a part of my Christie journey, but honestly, this one is a turkey.