Death On The Nile

The 1930’s is the decade for the ReadChristie challenge and this one is from 1937, written just after a winter in Egypt. After the positively sprightly Poirot of the books I read for the 1920’s, which had him shimmying up a tree and jumping into cars, I was positively glad to find the more familiarly dapper character here!

The novel opens at the home of Linnet Ridgeway, Wode Hall, buried away in Malton-under-Wode, somewhere in a quiet shire of England. Fabulously wealthy and fabulously beautiful she has everything anyone could want; but when her best friend, Jacqueline de Bellefort arrives, and introduces her adored fiancé Simon Doyle, Linnett realises that youth, beauty and riches perhaps aren’t enough. . .

And so the story moves to Egypt and her honeymoon, cruising along the Nile with a select group of people that happens to include Hercule Poirot, all set to enjoy a holiday exploring the mysteries of ancient Egypt; but when Linnet is found dead he has another type of mystery to explore.

Murder In The Mews

November the 5th, 1937, fireworks night. ‘Penny for the guy, sir?’ asks a young boy, ‘Blimey, if it ain’t a cop all togged up!’ Good night for a murder remarks Chief Inspecter Japp, ‘Nobody would hear a shot, for instance, on a night like this.’

My second read for Kaggsy and Simon’s 1937 club and my second Mrs Allen! But this time it’s Mrs Barbara Allen and she’s been found dead in her bedroom, holding a pistol to her head. Both the door and window are locked from the inside so it must be suicide, but there’s something strange about the curve of her hand as she holds the pistol. . .

A young widow, Mrs Allen shares her house with a friend, Miss Plenderleith who seems just a bit too cool and efficient for Poirot and Japp. As they find more characters are involved, an attaché-case and a fast car, the mystery proves murkier than they first thought. And why does Miss Plenderleith look so anxious about the locked cupboard under the stairs, is she helping or hindering their enquiries?

This is a fun short story with Poirot and Japp getting along famously and ends with a celebratory lunch for the little grey cells

‘Upon my word, you take the cake! Come out and have a spot of lunch?.
‘With pleasure, my friend, but we will not have the cake. Indeed, an Omelette aux Champignons, Blanquette de Veau, Petits pois à la Francaise, and-to follow-a Baba au Rhum.’

 

 

The Murder on the Links

First published in 1923, this is my second read for this years ReadChristie challenge and Christie’s second novel featuring Poirot. Set largely in France, there are two villas, two bodies and two celebrity detectives. Because Monsieur Giraud, a young gun and darling of the Paris Sûreté is in on the case and aims to show Poirot that his methods are outdated.

It’s a clever plot full of beautiful girls, acrobats, mistaken identities and memories of an old crime but what I enjoyed the most were the characters. Apart from practically seeing the steam rising from Poirot’s collars when he had to deal with Giraud, which was fun; Poirot and Hastings are decidedly tetchy with each other. Hastings is exasperated at times with Poirots’ fussy ways and Poirot is often driven to distraction by Hastings

‘Mon Dieu, mon ami, but use your little grey cells. Is it not obvious?’

The Secret Adversary

This year the ReadChristie challenge has divided the year into quarters and given each quarter a decade. So for the first quarter it’s the 1920’s and the first outing for Tommy and Tuppence.

The novel opens in 1915 on board The Lusitania, when, as the boat is sinking, a man hands some vitally important documents to a young American women as she’ll have a greater chance of getting them to safety; they’re of the utmost importance to the war effort and must go straight to the American Embassy.

Skip ahead five years and Miss Prudence Cowley and Mr Thomas Beresford bump into each other in London, ‘Tommy, old thing’!, ‘Tuppence, old bean’!, the two twenty somethings greet each other. The war is over and neither has a job or any money and things are starting to feel desperate; at this rate Tuppence is going to have to go home to her father the archdeacon. But there must be something they can do to put off that dreaded fate? 

Off they go to a Lyons tea room for some hot buttered toast and sit munching listening to the scraps of conversation around them. Jane Finn, is a name mentioned by a ‘couple of Johnnies‘ – ‘Did you ever hear such a name?’ says Tommy. And that’s when they have their best idea; to pool their talents, form a business partnership and advertise themselves as ‘The Young Adventurers, Ltd!‘; ready to tackle any problem however dangerous and wherever it takes them.

Sleeping Murder

For the last book in this years ReadChristie Challenge, the method chosen was strangulation and the story chosen was a classic Miss Marple whodunnit.

Newly wed Gwenda Reed arrives in England before Giles, her English husband, to find a house for them to settle in to and when she sees Hillside, the small Victorian villa in Dillmouth, on the South coast she knows it’s home. But she has an odd feeling about the house, it’s almost as if she’s been there before; but she was born in India and grew up in New Zealand so how could that be true? Unsettled, she goes to London to stay with a cousin of Giles’, the artist Joan West and her husband, author Raymond West. His aunt Jane, is also coming up to town for a few days.

They take Gwenda to the ballet at Sadlers Wells and then, for Aunt Jane’s birthday they organise a small party to see Gielgud in The Duchess of Malfi . But as she hears the words ‘Cover her face. Mine eyes dazzle, she died young . . .’ Gwenda lets out a scream. It’s brought back a memory from her childhood, could she have seen someone being strangled in the hallway of Hillside? But that was years ago and no crime was ever reported or investigated, and then she remembers a name – Helen. But who was Helen? Alert to a fascinating puzzle, Miss Marple is only too ready to look after Gwenda. Now, if only she could get herself to Dillmouth. . .

Murder On The Orient Express

‘It was five o’clock on a winter’s morning in Syria.’

when a young English lady from Baghdad boards the Taurus Express with a British Colonel from India and a Belgian detective. From Aleppo to Istanbul to London, Poirot’s journey sounds as elegant as the opening sentence. First published in 1934, this is the golden age of train travel, when last minute tickets are found by a helpful and courteous concierge and yes, there’s even time to dine before departure.

As Poirot boards his sleeper train from Istanbul to London, he meets his old friend Monsieur Bouc, a director of the Compagnie Internationale des Wagons Lits, owners of the Orient Express. Their travelling companions include an American widow, a Russian Princess travelling with her German maid; an Hungarian Count and his wife and Samuel Ratchett travelling with his secretary Hector McQueen and English valet Edward Beddoes. But Ratchett is already uneasy, he’s been receiving death threats and tries to engage Poirot as a bodyguard. Of course Poirot turns him down, he’s ready to relax after his latest case in Syria, but the method for this months ReadChristie challenge is Stabbing so we know that’s not going to happen. . .

Appointment With Death

Holidaying in Jerusalem Poirot overhears Raymond Boynton telling his sister Carol ‘You do see, don’t you, that she’s got to be killed?”

Raymond and Carol are Americans on holiday with their step mother and siblings, Lennox (with his wife Nadine) and Ginevra. Also at the hotel are Jepherson Cope, an old friend of Nadine’s, Sarah King, a newly qualified doctor and Dr. Gerard, a French psychologist. Luckily, Sarah and Dr. Gerard are very nosy and Jepherson Cope loves to chat; because it’s through their conversations, while they busily observe, that we find out the Boynton family secrets.

Hatred is the motive for this months ReadChristie challenge and Mrs Boynton, the family matriarch is nothing but hateful. A domineering sadist who worked as a prison warden she keeps her grown up children as prisoners. No school when they were young, no friends, no social life or any life outside of their home. With no stimulation they have become scared, introverted and ashamed; Genevra, the youngest is disappearing into her own world. So why then are they on this holiday? Why has Mrs Boynton decided to let them see the world?

Death Comes As The End

Wow, what a page turner! The method for this months ReadChristie challenge is ‘pushed from a cliff’, and that was just the beginning as the bodies pile up. Death Comes As The End must hold some Christie records, not just for being her only historical mystery but also for the body count and the ingenious use of poison and other murder methods.

Set in ancient Egypt, Renisenb returns to her family home with her young daughter after her husband dies. Her brothers are there and just the same, Yahmose is still anxious and kind, Sobek is handsome and insolent, their wives Satipy and Kait squabble happily and her youngest brother Ipi is his usual arrogant and happy self. Esi, her grandmother is still as sharp as can be and Hori, her fathers business arranger, is as calm and wise as always. Even Henteb, the old family servant is still complaining that she’s the only one who does any work and gets no thanks for her loyalty. Everything is as it was and Renisenb feels that she can start to build a new life. But then her father Imhotep, returns from his business in the North and brings with him a very young and very beautiful concubine, Nofret.

With her arrival, jealousy, malice and hate find their way into the family compound. ‘Her place is here, in my household! And woe to any who dare ill-treat her.’ warns Imhotep and Nofret responds with her customary slow, mocking, catlike smile. But she’s not smiling when her body, broken and twisted, is found at the bottom of a cliff.

Death of an Author

Andrew Marriott, the Managing Director of Langston’s the publishers puts everything aside to entertain his star author Michael Ashe. But Ashe is worried about being stereotyped and thinks he might branch out into crime writing, on no account is that a good idea according to Marriott, ‘Crime stories are a legitimate branch of fiction, but they’re mere ephemerals, – selling like hot cakes today, and gone tomorrow.’

But what about The Charterhouse Case? asks Ashe, an excellent crime novel still selling 3 years after publication. Written by Vivian Lestrange, ‘he’s a damn fine writer. . . he can write as only one man in a million can write. . . He’s achieved the impossible,. . . by writing a crime story that is in the rank of first rate novels. His writing, his characterisation, and his situations all disarm criticism.’

Vivian Lestrange is also a recluse, so when Ashe persuades Marriott to invite him to dinner, they get the shock of their lives when not only does he agree to come but he’s a women!

Evil Under The Sun

A murder mystery set on Smugglers’ Island with nooks and bays called Pixy Cove, Gull Cove and Sunny Ledge is bound to be perfect summer reading and this was! Poirot is taking a holiday in the Jolly Roger, the islands only hotel and has for company a select group that includes the beautiful actress Arlena Stuart, holidaying with her new husband and his teenage daughter. But among the sun lotion, bathing costumes, cocktails and chatter Poirot notes to his companion

‘It is romantic , yes . . . It is peaceful. The sun shines. The sea is blue. But you forget, Miss Brewster, there is evil everywhere under the sun.’

The motive for this months ReadChristie challenge is Love, but not the icky squishy kind. When Arlena’s body is found dead, strangled; dark secrets, love triangles and hate come to the surface.