Appointment with Death by Agatha Christie

Opening lines can make or break a book and this one has a doozy: You see, don’t you, that she’s got to be killed? This is a line that will come back to haunt some of the characters in this book when Mrs. Boynton ends up dead. Certainly none of her three stepchildren nor even her own daughter will mourn the woman. She wielded the family wealth like a jail. For most of them, this was the first time they had ever left home (and what a place to head out to!)

Their are several travelers who they have met along the way who have noticed how strange this family is. Could it be that one of them took matters into their own hands? Or was it something darker?

Of course, it could have been a natural death. But the doctor that was nearby doesn't think so and asks Poirot (who is on his own vacation) for help.

Four stars

Hercule Poirot #18

This book came out in 1938

Follows Death on the Nile

Followed by Hercule Poirot's Christmas

Borrowed as audiobook 

Opinions are my own

Dumb Witness by Agatha Christie

This is one of my favorite Poirot stories. Partly because of the story itself and partly because I love the David Suchet episode of this story; the dog that plays Bob is adorable.

Emily Arundell has fallen down the stairs. She nearly died. Her family said that she slipped on her dog's ball (Bob has a habit of dropping the ball down the stairs and then chasing after it) but that doesn't seem quite right. She writes to Poirot in April, asking him to come.

Poirot receives the letter in June. Why was it posted so late? And was Miss Arundell's eventual death because of some food she ate that upset her stomach? Or did one of her loving relatives help her along?

Four stars

This book came out July 5, 1937

Hercule Poirot #16

Follows Cards on the Table

Followed by Death on the Nile

Borrowed as audiobook from Hoopla

Opinions are my own

Cards on the Table Agatha Christie

Mr. Shaitana is well-known. He looks like Mephistopheles and often dresses like the devil at his much attended parties. But when he invites Hercule Poirot for dinner, there are only seven other people. According to Shaitana, there will be some murderers there. And that turns out to be true enough when Mr. Shaitana is the one to die. 

Then, the four detectives, and one of the suspects, are on the case. It is perhaps, the first story where Ariadne Oliver and Hercule Poirot meet along with Colonel Race and Superintendent Battle from other series. Of the suspects, one is an unassuming young woman, one is an older woman obsessed with Bridge, one is a dentist, and one is an adventurer. All do have some suspicious deaths connected to their pasts but some are definitely more guilty than others.

Four stars

This book came out November 2, 1936

Hercule Poirot #15 

Follows Murder in Mesopotamia

Followed by Dumb Witness

Borrowed as audiobook from Hoopla

Opinions are my own

Murder in Mesopotamia by Agatha Christie

 Nurse Amy Leatheran has just finished a position with a nice young family and decides to stay in Iraq with an archaeological dig. Famous archaeologist, Dr. Leidner, is married to a woman who is very stressed out. She is worried that her former husband is coming back to get even with her marrying another man. The only problem? Her former husband died in the war. 

Nurse Leatheran is only there a short time but she sketches a short outline of each of the characters at the dig. It's just too bad that Mrs. Leidner is killed in a locked room manner; there was no way for anyone to get in and out of the dig without being seen so it has to be someone on the inside.

Hercule Poirot #14

Four stars

This book came out July 6, 1936

Follows The ABC Murders

Followed by Cards on the Table

Borrowed as hard copy from library

Opinions are my own

Three Blind Mice and Other Stories by Agatha Christie

A novelization of Christie's long-running play with stories starring Poirot and Miss Marple. A wonderful amalgam of some of Christie's best short work.

Stories include the titular tale in which a young couple is starting up a hotel but their first guests arrive on the heels of a snowstorm. And one of them is a killer.

Miss Marple is the star of "Strange Jest" in which a young couple tries to decipher clues to a fortune left by a jocular uncle, "Tape-Measure Murder" which gives away the cause of death, and "The Case of the Perfect Maid" where she anticipates a crime. She also solves "The Case of the Caretaker" which is a manuscript given to her by her favorite doctor about a young man whose wife is murdered soon after they marry.

Hercule Poirot steps in to solve the mystery of "The Third Floor Flat" in which a double date leads to finding a dead body when one of the girls loses the key to her apartment and "The Adventure of Johnnie Waverly" wherein a young boy is kidnapped from under the noses of any number of policemen. He also gets a third story in "Four and Twenty Blackbirds" when the eating habits of 'Old Father Time' help to solve his murder.

The last story pulls misters Satterthwaite and Quinn who are less well known but still help solve the murder of a man even though both the man's wife and her lover confess in "The Love Detectives."

Four stars

This book came out in 1950

Hard copy of mine

Opinions are my own

The A.B.C. Murders by Agatha Christie

Alice Asher of Andover has been murdered. It seems to be an open-and-shut case of a woman killed by her brute of an ex-husband. So why is Hercule Poirot interested? Well, he received an anonymous letter about the murder. And when Elizabeth "Betty" Bernard is murdered in Bexhill, the stakes are definitely raised.
Poirot gathers some of the people affected by the murders, especially when the victim of 'C' turns out to be a well-known gentleman. It is in talking to these people that Poirot discovers the insidious reason for this series of murders.

Hercule Poirot #13

Four stars

This book came out January 6, 1936

Follows Death in the Clouds 

Followed by Murder in Mesopotamia

Borrowed as audiobook from Hoopla

Opinions are my own

Death in the Clouds by Agatha Christie

Hercule Poirot, famously not good at river travel, takes to the air in this book. And it's a lovely glimpse into history as we see stewards serving full teas with actual tea cups. Unfortunately, not everyone completes the trip alive. An older woman is discovered to be dead, potentially from a wasp sting (one was flying around the cabin) but Poirot thinks it's something different. 

A large part of this book is other characters, Jean Dupont and Norman Gale, trying to solve the murder themselves. The overall solution is similar to other twists in Christie stories but the story (minus the casual racism that occurred in the '30s) is overall a fine read.

Four stars

This book came out March 10, 1935

Follows Three Act Tragedy

Followed by The ABC Murders

Borrowed as ebook from Hoopla

Opinions are my own

Crooked House by Agatha Christie

This is one of Agatha Christie's stories that isn't part of one of her series. In this book, the narrator, Charles Haward, has fallen in love with a beautiful young woman. Sophia Leonides is part of an interesting family though; her grandfather, unlike most people, has made a great deal of money during the war. His family almost all live with him in a great mansion. Also living with them? His very young wife as well as the grandchildren's tutor who wasn't fit for the war. 

Sophia's grandfather dies suddenly and it is a case of poisoning. While most of the family seems to believe it is the very young wife and the tutor, Charles' father (the lead on the case) isn't as sure and conscripts Charles to find out more. 

The ending is like no other in the Christie catalog and probably shocked a number of readers when it came out. An enjoyable read, this fairly short book could have been maybe even a little shorter but was still fun to get through. 

Four stars

This book came out in 1949

Borrowed as ebook from Liby

Opinions are my own

Peril at End House by Agatha Christie

Poirot is vacationing with his good friend, Hastings. While enjoying the sun, he is approached by a young woman, Nick Buckley. She is a part of the flapper crowd but is scared. There have been a few too many accidents and she is worried that one of them might eventually kill her. And a death does occur at End House, the giant, crumbling mansion that Nick loves. But it is not her. Poirot is irate and determined that no more people should die.

The ending is a little convoluted as can happen with Christie but overall a delightful book.

Four stars

This book came out in 1932

Follows Black Coffee

Followed by Lord Edgeware Dies

Borrowed as ebook from Libby

Opinions are my own

Black Coffee by Charles Osborne, Agatha Christie

Hercule Poirot has been summoned by inventor Sir Claude Amory. Amory has an invention that could change the world but he is afraid that there is something shady going on in his household. And then he discovers that the formula has been stolen so he locks the doors and traps everyone in one room. The lights are turned off for one minute so that the formula may be returned but when the lights come on, Sir Amory is dead. A tangled family story, this book definitely has tones of Christie and is a fun story but there are phrases that are repeated three or four times that sort of took me out of the story.

Four stars

Originally published as a play, adapted 1998

Follows The Underdog and Other Stories

Followed by Peril in End House

Borrowed as ebook from Libby

Opinions are my own

Murder on the Orient Express by Agatha Christie

This book is a classic for some very good reasons. First, the majority of the characters are fully fleshed out. And there are a lot of characters to get to know in this book. Second, the mystery, though convoluted, is pretty fairly clued - readers can go back through the story and see where the hints to the solution were given.

Hercule Poirot, the world-famous detective needs to go back to London and the easiest way to get there is via the Orient Express. Strangely for this time of year, the train is completely full. Luckily, one of the passengers doesn't seem to have shown up and Poirot's friend, a director of the train company, assigns him the berth. All seems normal until one of the people on the train tries to hire Poirot to protect him. Poirot opts not to take the job. And then the man turns up dead. But the train has run into a snowdrift and isn't moving, presumably with the murderer still on board. It's up to Poirot to figure out what is going on. 

Four stars

This book came out January 1, 1934

Follows Lord Edgware Dies

Followed by Three Act Tragedy

Borrowed as audiobook from Libby

Opinions are my own

Three Act Tragedy by Agatha Christie

The stage is set in the first chapter. We meet some of the main players: Sir Charles Cartwright who owns the Crow's Nest in Loomouth, Cornwall; Sir Bartholomew Strange, neurological physician; and Mr. Satterthwaite, our stand-in for Hastings but who is so much more perceptive about human nature than Poirot's usual sidekick.
A dinner party is to be held but an unlucky number of people have been invited. And one dies. The Reverend Stephen Babbington who is fairly innocuous. Though Sir Charles loudly proclaims "Murder!", no one else agrees. Even Hercule Poirot who is present at the party.
However, there is later another dinner party, one where many of the same people gather. This time, it is Sir Bartholomew who dies. It is discovered that he died by nicotine poisoning. Suddenly, it seems that Babbington may have been murdered as well. 
THough this is a Poirot book, we don't see much of him until 54% of the way through the story. However, we do get a lot of third person omniscient from Sir Charles Cartwright, Mr. Satterthwaite, and the young Miss Lytton Gore who are investigating the mystery. The ending is masterfully crafted and there are clues planted along the way that make sense once the murderer is revealed.  

Four stars

This book came out June 1, 1934

Follows Murder on the Orient Express

Followed by Death in the Clouds

Borrowed as audiobook from Hoopla

Opinions are my own

Hallowe'en Party by Agatha Christie

The solution to this story is more than a little complicated with any number of coincidences but it is seemingly easily solved by Hercule Poirot. 

A young girl, known for being an inveterate liar, declares that she has seen a murder. When no one believes her, she doubles down and says that she only just realized what it was that she saw. Still, no one pays attention. Even mystery writer Ariadne Oliver, visiting a friend, thinks the girl is lying in order to bulk up her social credibility. But then, during the Halloween party, the girl is killed. And, later, her brother. Mrs. Oliver does the sensible thing and calls on her friend, the famous detective. 

This is an interesting story because we do get to see Poirot in nature (it doesn't go well) and the ending is a little more dramatic than some others in this series.

Three and a half stars

This book came out November 1, 1969

Follows Third Girl

Followed by Elephants Can Remember

Borrowed as audiobook from Libby

Opinions are my own

Reread October 2023

The Mystery of the Blue Train by Agatha Christie

Ruth Kettering is unhappy. She didn't marry her first love, her millionaire father ran him off. But her current husband seems to be no better, flaunting his affairs, running through her money. Even the fabulous, though possibly cursed, necklace that her father gifts her doesn't make her happy. She boards a train to the Riviera anyway but doesn't survive the trip. Her father hires Hercule Poirot to figure out what, exactly, happened.
A lot of the story is told from the third person limited narration focusing on Katherine Grey. Miss Grey has long been a companion and has inherited a tidy sum from her last employer. She is on the same train and actually interacts with Ruth.
An interesting story but not as fairly clued as many in the Christie ouvre. 

Three and a half stars

This book came out March 29, 1928

Follows The Big Four

Followed by The Underdog and Other Stories

Borrowed as audiobook from Hoopla

Opinions are my own

They Came to Baghdad by Agatha Christie

Victoria Jones was a girl like most others. Unfortunately, her gift for mimicry gets her sacked in the second chapter of this book. She is also an inveterate liar which gets her into trouble down the line. But in the beginning, she is having lunch in the park and meets Edward. He seems like a thoroughly charming
fellow and she decides to follow him to Baghdad. Why? Really, she has nothing better to do. And the first night there, she finally has some adventure when a man stumbles into her room and dies from a stab wound to the heart.

Now, the death doesn't occur until almost halfway through the book so there is a great deal of setup, but it is totally worth the read. If you've read Dame Christie before, it's not hard to figure out the murderer, but it is fun to see how the other characters come to the same conclusion.

Four stars

This book came out March 5, 1951

Borrowed as ebook from Libby

Opinions are my own

Hercule Poirot's Christmas by Agatha Christie

Hercule Poirot goes to a country mansion to solve the mystery of how an old, disreputable man was murdered in his own rooms. Only the family was in the house, including the prodigal son, the long-lost granddaughter and a former coworker's son. Everyone had a grudge against Simeon Lee, but who killed them? Can Hercule solve this locked room mystery and create the atmosphere of a Merry Christmas?

Four and a half stars

This book came out December 19, 1938

Follows Appointment with Death

Followed by One, Two, Buckle my Shoe

Hard copy I own

Opinions are my own

The Big Four by Agatha Christie

Hastings finally manages to surprise Poirot by showing up on his doorstep. Also there? A mysterious stranger who collapses more or less in the doorway while holding a slip of paper covered in the number four. From there, Poirot (and Hastings) are plunged into a mysterious world where four people are known to be running a large criminal organization. A series of small mysteries add up to one big showdown with the introduction of Poirot's twin brother, Aristotle.

Poor Hastings isn't treated very well in this book. He keeps thinking he is being so intelligent but he is just a pawn, not only of the Big 4 but of Poirot as well. 

Three stars

This book came out January 27, 1927

Follows The Murder of Roger Ackroyd

Followed by The Mystery of the Blue Train

Borrowed as hard copy from library

Opinions are my own

The Moving Finger by Agatha Christie

Jerry Burton has come to the supposedly quiet village of Lymstock to recover from a plane crash. Also with him is is sister Joanna. But it seems that this formerly sleepy village has been shaken up by a number of anonymous letters. And then one of the recipients commits suicide. She is the mother of one twenty-year old woman, Megan, who doesn't seem to have any goals in life and then two young sons with her current husband. 

All of the characters in this book are painted so vividly including the Burtons' landlady, Miss Emily Barton who is short on funds and the last of five sisters who grew up under their mother's thumb. Also pictured is Mrs. Caleb Dane Calthorp, the reverend's wife who is odd but wise. And then Owen and Aimee Griffith, the shy local doctor and his gossipy wife. 

The series Marple put Jane in more of the mystery than she was in the book but it captured the spirit of this book quite well.

Four stars

This book came out in July 1942

Follows The Body in the Library

Followed by A Murder is Announced

Hard copy from library

Opinions are my own

The Under Dog and Other Stories by Agatha Christie

A series of short stories featuring the amazing Hercule Poirot, the first few stories are better than the later ones. 

The Under Dog 

An older gentleman is killed in his home office. His wife is convinced it was the secretary but why would he do it? Poirot is not convinced but he is willing to go and see the problem 

The Plymouth Express 

A wealthy woman is found dead on a train. Is it possible her husband, the one she was separated from, killed her before they could be divorced? Her father wants answers and he wants Poirot to find them. 

The Affair at the Victory Ball 

The Victory Ball is supposed to be a time of celebration but one man, a collector of statues, was killed by a knife and his paramour is dead of a cocaine overdose. At a party where everyone was in costume, how can Poirot suss out the killer? 

The Market Basing Mystery 

It's a holiday in the country for Japp, Hastings, and Poirot. But a local constable recognizes Japp and asks for help. A gentleman appears to have committed suicide but the doctor says it's physically impossible. A couple recently came to visit; is it possible their threats of blackmail have driven the man to kill himself? Or was it murder? 

The Lemesurier Inheritance 

A young man is terrified by the death of his father. His cousin tells Poirot and Hastings that the family has a curse wherein the firstborn of every generation is slated to die. Now the young man's older son has had several near-death incidents. It will be up to Poirot to save the boy's life. 

The Cornish Mystery Mrs. Pengelley is afraid her husband is poisoning her. She goes to Poirot for help but by the time he gets to her home, she is already dead. The husband is in jail but Poirot suspects that there may be more to the story. 

  The King of Clubs A famous dancer stumbles into a drawing room gasping the word "Murder." A nearby lord has been found dead. The family she burst in on is perfectly respectable but is everything as it appears? 

The Submarine Plans 

A spy is invited into the home where the plans for a new submarine are being housed. When the plans disappear, she is the obvious suspect. Did her maid, who screamed on the steps, have something to do with it? 

The Adventure of the Clapham Cook 

Eliza Dunn, a perfectly good cook, has walked out of her situation. Her lady, Mrs. Todd, wants to know why. It leads Poirot to discovering the perpetrator of a bank fraud.

Three stars

This book came out in 1951

Follows Three Blind Mice

Followed by Mrs. McGinty's Dead

Hard copy I own

Opinions are my own

Sleeping Murder by Agatha Christie

Gwenda Halliday Reed is newly married and just bought a new home. She is delighted until strange things start happening. When she wants to put new steps down to the sea, there are already some under a bush. She imagines a particular sort of wallpaper in a room and, when an old cabinet is pried open, the exact pattern is papered inside. Then, when she attends a play in London, a particular line causes her to stand up, scream, and run out of the theater. Luckily, she is attending the play with Raymond West, his wife, and his aunt, the indomitable Miss Marple. 

Miss Marple is the one to suggest that, perhaps, what Gwenda is experiencing may be memories of her childhood. Gwena disbelieves that as she grew up in New Zealand but then finds out she did, indeed, live in England, in that house with her father and stepmother. Does that mean that the woman she remembers dead in the hallway of that house was true as well? And someone quoted from the exact play that Gwenda saw in London?

Gwenda and Giles start digging into the mystery. Miss Marple has gone home but she is uneasy. Sometimes digging into the past brings up more than skeletons and someone who may have only meant to murder once, might murder again to keep it covered up.

An enjoyable story. Perhaps, not quite fairly clued but a fitting end to the Marple series.

Four stars

This book came out October 1976

Follows Nemesis

Borrowed as audiobook from Libby

Opinions are my own