Showing posts with label narrator: Hugh Fraser. Show all posts
Showing posts with label narrator: Hugh Fraser. Show all posts

Thursday, August 29, 2024

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
Followed by Hercule Poirot's Christmas
Borrowed as audiobook 
Opinions are my own

Sunday, August 4, 2024

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
Followed by Death on the Nile
Borrowed as audiobook from Hoopla
Opinions are my own


Monday, January 9, 2023

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
Borrowed as audiobook from Hoopla
Opinions are my own


Friday, January 6, 2023

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
Followed by The ABC Murders
Borrowed as ebook from Hoopla
Opinions are my own