Death in the Clouds

Hercule Poirot.. we meet again.
This time, on board of a plane. And a murder happens. Spoiler ahead...

He solves it in the last chapter.

Peril at End House

Yup.. another Agatha Christie novel starring the infamous Hercule Poirot, a Belgian detective I haven't come to love. (too conceited for my taste)

This novel succeeds The Murder on the Blue train, which I've also read. It's actually the Poirot novel I've read before this one. Not that I intentionally chose this one as m next read. It was as much a surprise for me that the previous novel was mentioned.

So, Hercule is retired.. but it seems he still gets into the middle of trouble. This time not during his leisure time at the Riviera, but while he is enjoying the English countryside with his friend Captain Hastings.
They stumble, actually Poirot stumbles, right into the mystery of a girl whose life has been threatened several times.
The mystery of it dumbfounds Hercule Poirot as it keeps on unraveling. But it wouldn't be Poirot if it didn't have a sudden turn at the end in which everything is nicely pointed out. (that's what I don't like about it, it's all so neatly explained).

But every rain cloud has a silver lining, and this book I didn't like so much, filled in a spot of my centennial challenge. 16 'years' to go!!

I do have a final note. Due to some whimsical, not particularly thought through decisions of myself, I'm actually reading another mystery novel at this time (Magpie Murders by Anthony Horowitz). It's been strange to see how I was meddling these two books. As they both star peculiar detectives, one is Belgian, the other German and their setting is the English countryside, not far from London, it's easy to get mixed up. (and then they claim that women can do two things simultaneously^^)

The Sittaford Mystery

Agatha Christie..
An author I've come to know quite well while pursuing my Centennial Challenge. She was one hell of a productive writer, to say the least and while it's not so easy to find novels from the early years from this 100 year spanned challenge, I'm bound to find one or two Christie novels.

So, I read one again. It almost feels like cheating when I choose one of these quaint little detective novels to tick of yet another year, but when this challenge sometimes feels like it has endured for a 100 years, I'm easy on myself.

First of all.. my opinion on 'whodunnit' novels hasn't changed. It's like a B-movie, which you know you wouldn't willfully pick up or choose to watch, but sometimes when you're just surfing the channels you get stuck in one of those little drama's and you end up watching it until the end because you want to know how it ends.
This novel is much the same.

The premise if fairly easy. It all starts with a seance, a haunting message, after which a body is found. It's not entirely a closed room mystery, but it doesn't expand much further than the boundaries of the town in which the murder happens.

The novel has a very good pace and instead of drawing the conclusion out of a Hercule Poirot hat, we are sitting on the shoulder of a young woman, Emily, who is trying to find the murderer to acquit her fiancee. We know what she knows and it's not until the last 10 pages where she withholds information for the reader, which is then revealed in an climactic break through.

Yep.. that's about it. Maybe there's more depth to it that I didn't notice, I won't argue with that. It's just not something I'd remember for long. I already have trouble recalling the names of the characters present, and it's been only yesterday that I read its conclusion.

The mystery of the blue train

This is Agatha Christie at her best. She's given life to a peculiar little flemish detective, Hercule Poirot, who's the main antagonist in this story.
I've read other novels by her... and The Mystery of the Blue Train may not be her best work, it's entertaining to say the least.

First, I'll explain the title. It's pretty straight forward and maybe even a bit childlike. What do we care what color train it is? 
Well, the Blue Train that plays such an imminent role in this novel, was a well-known train when this novel was being written. It's not grown out to be the next Orient Express, but it was nonetheless part of general knowledge back then what this Blue Train alluded to.

The mystery itself is not very peculiar. A woman murdered, jewels missing and a handful of suspects.
Of course, as in every mystery, events have to take a few wrong turns before the solution is given.
That's why I don't like mystery novels. It's too predictable and it needs a lot of stuffing that's actually not that interesting.

I stuck with it though. Probably out of respect of Agatha Christie and her flemish creation, Hercule Poirot.

The Unexpected Guest

When I say that I breezed through this book, it's saying that it took me only five days to finish this little thing.
The page count is mostly responsible for the rapid readthrough, but I must say that I enjoyed it a bit, despite my affliction concerning crime novels.

Agatha Christie seems a bit of a tired writer to me, not really putting forward the extra kick in her novels I truly yearn for. It's like I'm reading a script, rather than a fully grown novel.
In the Unexpected Guest that feeling doesn't come to live until the middle of the novel.
It opened rather well, it had my attention right away with its unusual premise..

which is.. a man stumbles upon a crime scene after having ridden his car into a ditch during heavy mist. The woman holding the gun is still in the room.
Instead of calling the police, the 'guest' tries to doctor a way out of this mess for the woman he barely knows.
Then the inquery starts off course, which is a little dull in my opinion.
Agatha Christie is commonly known and loved for her exquisite dialogues, but I just don't like reading what they are saying. If I liked that, I would just watch more movies instead of reading novels. It's not tangible.
And it's the only way how Christie can get away with her famous knack of putting you on the wrong track.
In The Unexpected Guest, she tries and succeeds multiple times to make you change your mind, and even though the eventual answer never crossed my mind, I wasn't taken aback.
For that to happen, I must be immersed in the novel first and that just didn't happen.

Well, the formula worked for her and it seems to work for a lot of people.
I'm just hard to please.

The A.B.C. Murders (A Hercule Poirot Mystery)

As I'm not advancing in The Sorrow Of Belgium, which is a marvellous book so far, but it's one to keep your head at and it seems I'm mostly too tired to focus much on what I'm reading.

That's why I read the novel I'm about to discuss a little. Detective novels aren't my thing, to say the least we kind of go our seperate ways. I see why people read them and why they love reading them, but I don't just don't. It's the same with the television shows, the only reason I used to watch CSI Miami was for hilarious Horatio and that's it. But enough on my personal taste.. 

I did read this novel by Agatha Christie, one of the most accomplished closed room mystery writers. In that aspect the ABC Murders was an exception since it follows the makings of a murderous lunatic who kills according the alphabet. Poirot is baffled to be adressed by this fiend and sets out to find this man and stop his killing. 

As I'm being careful to not spoil to much for future readers, in the end you still get that Agatha Christie flair most of her fans will love and I must say it's not bad Hercule Poirot is supposed to be Belgian, even if it's not from the flemish speaking part. I still feel proud when my country is named in an international novel. 

I admit, I was tentative at first, picking this novel because of my centennial challenge, but I wasn't disappointed. The ABC Murders gave me a clean, fresh and almost crisp story, considering it's almost 80 years old. Definitely one you should try, even when it's not your style. It is never a bad thing to break routine once in a while. 

Review of And Then There Were None

Ten people, each with something to hide and something to fear, are invited to a lonely mansion on Indian Island by a host who fails to appear but leaves a recording accusing all of undetected murder. Cut off by his orders, one by one each die according to a nursery rhyme Ten Little Indians. A confession in a bottle solves how nobody remains alive. (Goodreads)

When I started reading this I didn't know what to expect. Not this anyway.
This is a delightful little 'closed room mystery' without much decorations. It was written very straightforward and in a no nonsense style which held your attention securely in check. If it had been more elaborate I don't think I would've stuck to this novel the way I did. It has been a long time since I have read a novel in one sitting.
Of course this isn't deep moving literature, it's like taking a breath from having to think and just relax.

What can I tell you about the storyline?
Not so much without giving major spoilers.
10 people are being summoned to an island under different pretenses. They have all commited a crime of some extent without being severely punished for it. Some unknown individual has found this out and is intent to punish them for it.
When the guests start dying one by one and without an obvious culprit, suspicion reigns their hearts and minds.
It makes for one hell of a ride.

I'm definitely going to read more of Agatha Christie and I'm hoping other novels are as good as this one.

Personal rating: 4 stars