Dame Agatha I

Crooked House  

★ ★ ★ ★ ★ 

"Writing 'Crooked House' was pure pleasure and I feel justified in my belief that this is one of my best." Agatha Christie.

Definitely my favorite as well......

Aristide Leonides is dead of poisoning.... He wasn't a very nice man, yet he was a very rich man who took care of his family. Fully aware of his familys' shortcomings, he spoke the truth as he saw it, no matter whom he upset......

Living with him in the old mansion were: his two sons & their wives, his three grandchildren, his first wife's sister, his young and beautiful second wife, and his grandchildren's tutor.  All had alibis as well as the opportunity and motive for wanting the mean old man dead.

Charles Hayward (the son of a Scotland Yard detective) is engaged to marry aristide's granddaughter, Sophia Leonides. At Sophia's behest, Charles is the one to investigate and solve the murder; for until he accomplishes the task, Sophia will not marry Charles.

This was such a surprise ending....  I certainly never saw it coming nor did I ever see the clues for what they were.
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Sad Cypress: Hercule Poirot 

★ ★ ★ ★

I really enjoyed the differences in this book, as Poirot was blessedly absent for the most part. No matter how much I enjoy the mystery, sometimes I get tired of his pomposity...

Elinor Carlisle stands accused of poisoning, Mary, a younger woman she had every reason to hate & be jealous of.....  Mary, a working class girl, had been sent to Germany to be educated by  Elinor's Aunt Laura.  As Aunt Laura has had a stroke, Elinor receives an anonymous letter saying that Mary is buttering up Aunt Laura in hopes of gleaning her estate.

Elinor & her fiance, Roddy Welman (Elinor's distant cousin) immediately visit Aunt Laura....  When Roddy sets eyes upon Mary, he is smitten and Elinor promptly calls off the engagement....

Aunt Laura suffers a second stroke & begs Elinor to call for her solicitor so that she may make a will.....  At this point: Elinor promises her Aunt that Mary shall be taken care of; a vial of Morphine goes missing; and Aunt Laura dies in her sleep intestate....

Later, as Elinor cleans out her Aunt's mansion in preparation to sell it, she invites Mary (whom she has promised a goodly sum of 2,000 GBP) & Nurse Hopkins (Aunt Laura's nurse & Mary's mentor) to lunch.....  While Elinor & Nurse are out of the room Mary succumbs to a deadly dose of morphine.....

Elinor is arrested (as she was the one who made lunch), Aunt Laura is exhumed, and the good doctor Peter Lord (which I kept reading as "Lord Peter") call on M. Poirot to prove Elinor's innocence.

There are several more lesser mysteries involved which come together nicely with the main story.....  For Once I Figured out who the murderer was!
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Murder in Mesopotamia: Hercules Poirot  

★ ★ ★ 1/2

Nurse is called upon to write the murderous history of the archeological dig in Mesopotamia where the people are not whom they seem to be and the Leader of the dig's wife is murdered......

Archaeologist, Dr Lieder (who is devoted to his wife), has hired Nurse , to care for Mrs Leider, who has bouts of nervous terrors. Mrs Leider is not well liked as she does her best to dig at people causing them to hate her.......

Everyone has secrets & jealousies.......  However, it is Mrs. Leider with a well hidden past marriage and written death threats from her (assumed) dead husband who is being tormented the most and seems to have the most to hide.

When Mrs Leider is found dead in her room, with no one around to have "done it" and no witnesses, the fantastique Msr. Hercules Poirot (who just happens to be passing through) is called upon to help solve the murder.....  

Soon, another murder takes place..... one that silences the one who knows too much.  As Monsieur Poirot points out, everyone (including Nurse) is suspect and has reason to want Mrs Lieder dead......

The clues were actually there this time, I just couldn't put them all together......


Once again Dame Agatha had to get a racial slur in at the beginning of the book.... Honestly, I just can't see her reasoning by pointing out her own bigotry; as it isn't entertaining, pertinent to her story/plot, or enjoyable reading.
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A.B.C. Murders (Poirot)  


★ ★ ★

I liked this book up until the end and we found out who "Really" done-it.

Col. Hastings is visiting from his Ranch in South America & visiting (a retired) Monsieur Poirot when a murder is announced (yes, that's another title from a different book) via letter to Monsieur Poirot, on such a date in Andover there will be a murder.  The victim's name begins w/ A.  The letter is signed A.B.C.

In a bit of time another letter arrives... taunting Poirot... On such a date in the town of B.....  A young waitress, Betty B, is found strangled on the beach.... she was stepping out on an extremely jealous fiance. Again the letter is signed A.B.C.

So-on & so-forth.... C; a well off man whose first &; last name begin w/ "C", collects china pieces and whose wife is ill w/ cancer and D towns as well...... 

Except in D-town the person murdered last name begins w/ "E"......

What ties them all together is the London Train A.B.C. maps and a man selling silk stockings......

In the interim, several of the relations of the victims come together w/ Poirot & Hastings and form a detecting group....

The ending, how does Christie come up w/ these things?  No one could really ever figure them out....  Yer Monsieur Poirot, just puts his little grey cells to it and "Voila"!

The book held my interest (I read & finished it in bed last night)....  There was one really glaring bit of racism: having an immovable face like that of a Red Indian........  Wow, really?

Also, there was a certain bit of psychology (about liars & schemers & psychopaths) that reminded me of the Troll that I worked with......


I am trying to read them all..... but obviously not in order, just by what is available @ the Library when I go in.
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After the Funeral: Poirot  

★ ★ ★

Very interesting...Monsieur Poirot did not play a prominent part in this story. He came in towards the middle, listened to some inquiries he'd made and showed up again at the end....

Aunt Cora has always taken pleasure in blurting inconvenient truths... those which make people stop in their tracks. At reading of her brother Richard's will she purposely announces "But, he was murdered, wasn't he!" Which of course leads to her murder and an attempt on her "Lady's Companion" as well.....

Greedy, twisted, hypochondriacs...the lot of Rotters...all wanting more than their entitlement..... But Who Done It?
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