Halloween Party by Agatha Christie

Agatha Christie, and her endearing detective, the Belgian, Hercule Poirot is back on my humble little blog. After a hiatus of more than a year, I finally picked up a story featuring perhaps the most entertaining and interesting detective in fiction. There aren't a lot of good Christies left for me to read and I'm slowly going through her bibliography to ensure I don't finish everything too soon. In the spirit of Halloween I picked up and read the Halloween party, even though I'm reviewing it now.

Plot Summary:

An innocent children's Halloween party is being held in a small town near London, during the course of the party a child makes an innocuous remark about witnessing a murder some years back, she did not know at that time that it was murder but now she knows. The child is found murdered after the party ends. Did someone got spooked or did some malignant outsider step in the house and kill her? Ariadne Oliver, prolific mystery novel author and Poirot's friend was also present at the party and she believes that some malevolent person is behind the killing of the child. So, she goes to London to meet Poirot and once again Poirot has to use his little gray cells to solve this most perplexing murder.

Five Little Pigs by Agatha Christie

Young Carla approaches M. Poirot for his help in investigating a murder committed 16 years ago. Her mother was accused and then convicted for killing her husband, Carla's father, Amyas Crale. Crale was a famous painter and womanizer. He was known for his artistic temperament and promiscuous ways. He had several lovers in the past but used to always return to his wife. Things were different now, Elsa, his latest muse is a sublime young beauty. The middle aged Amyas has fallen for her and now wants to marry her despite him being married and having a little daughter.

Middle aged men often fall prey to their carnal desires but this man has gone too far he is keeping his muse and his wife under the same roof. The result is that foolish painter is found poisoned. His wife is accused of murder, the evidence and the battery of witnesses against her is too strong. She is convicted and dies in prison. Carla, her only daughter believes that her mother was innocent and that now she wants closure for herself and her mother. Poirot now has to investigate a murder committed 16 years ago.

The Hollow aka Murder After Hours by Agatha Christie

Plot Summary

It is a sunny, warm and cheerful day. M. Poirot has been invited over to lunch by the Angkatells at the Hollow, their beautiful abode in the country. The Angkatells are Poirot's neighbors in the country just outside London. Henry and his eccentric wife Lucy Angkatell have also invited their old friends Dr John and his wife Gerda Christow, the Angkatell's are also having over some more of family and old acquaintances staying with them at the Hollow.

Poirot leisurely walks over to the Hollow expecting a scrumptious lunch and good conversion. Alas, what poor Poirot gets is murder! Dr Christow has been shot and his lying on his back, blood is slowly dripping from him into the blue water of the swimming pool, standing over him is his wife Gerda Christow with a gun in hand.

Review: Its been often said that Dame Christie books especially the ones which feature Poirot and written after the second world war are weaker then their antecedents, so is this true for the 1946 piece of detective fiction "The Hollow"?

Best Hercule Poirot books

   As promised in my post of the Best Agatha Christie books. I have finally come up with a list of Hercule Poirot's top 5 books. But for those of you who have been living on Pluto and don't know who Poirot is. He is a fictional   detective who was created by Agatha Christie and debuted in 1920 in The Mysterious Affair at Styles. Poirot is perhaps the most famous fictional detective after Dr Watson's best friend. He has appeared in books, radio, cartoons, comic books, movies, Television and even in Video games.

Poirot started his career with Belgian police and ended it with an obituary in the NY Times. Poirot's use of the "little grey cells" is legendary among Classic mystery buffs. I was first introduced to the Belgian detective who is often mistaken as French in the movie "Death on the Nile" which was brilliantly portrayed by Peter Ustinov.

The Mysterious Affair at Styles by Agatha Christie

Arthur Hastings who is convalescing from his injuries that he has incurred during the great war, is invited by an old friend to stay with him at Styles, Essex. Styles is ruled by the old but kind Mrs Inglethorp who has recently married a young guile man called  Alfred Inglethorp. Soon Hastings discovers that Styles is filled with Conjugal and financial problems.

One fateful night Mrs Inglethorp is taken seriously ill, her body goes through violent convulsions and she dies. later, a doctor confirms that the old woman had been poisoned through strychnine. Hastings suggests to the remaining family members to call in a detective. A detective who is an old friend of Hasting and would investigate the matter discreetly, A detective who is a Belgian, A detective whose green eyes light up when he has an idea and is living in the village because wherever he goes murder follows. can you take a guess who?

Best Agatha Christie Books

On recently completing the 25th post of my blog, I thought of doing something special. Since Dame Christie is probably the most popular author in the Mystery Genre and the most popular on my blog, I decided to do a double treat a best of Agatha Christie from all her books and another Best of Hercule Poirot. later on I will do a best of Miss Marple because I'm still to go through a few Marple's. So lets start with the best Agatha Christie books.

Top 5 Agatha Christie Books:

Hercule Poirot's Christmas by Agatha Christie

Hercule Poirot's Christmas by Agatha Christie

The Lee's have gathered at their father's home for Christmas. A millionaire twice over Simon Lee evokes strong passion among-st his children. When Simon lee a day before Christmas announces his desire to change his will to include new members it is evidently not taken well with his family.

While the Lee's are having dinner and coffee downstairs they suddenly hire a blood curling cry from the floor above. They all rush towards their father's chamber but the door is locked from inside. They break down the door and find Mr Lee's throat slit and his blood splattered all over the room.

Luckily Poirot is at hand to help the local police solve the crime.

Review: I have often stated that the best Poirot books are the one's where he works alone where he does not have his Watson around i.e. Arthur Hastings. This one is another example in support of that deduction.

The Murder of Roger Ackroyd by Agatha Christie

Poirot has retired for the 100th time and is settled down in an obscure little town where he dreams of growing marrows and smoking his peculiar small cigarettes, but crime follows the Belgian Detective even if he does not go looking for it.

In this case Poirot has to deal with the Murder of Roger Ackroyd, Ackroyd is a man whose life is shrouded with mystery and suspense, he knew that someone was blackmailing the women that he loved and before she took her own life she sent him an evening post detailing who the guilty party was. But Ackroyd was found dead in his study stabbed through the neck. We begin from here and as Dame Christie says in this 1926 book: "to punkie who likes an orthodox detective story, murder, inquest, and suspicion falling on everyone in turn"

Poirot Investigates the most famous case of his career.

Review: This was the first Poirot I read infact it was one of the first Detective novels that I have read and the book had such an affect on me that I can still do a detailed review and tell you the story chapter by chapter. so let's get to it; The mystery is invariably interesting, it is very well written, characters are well drawn and the best part of the book is that Poirot is less cocky then usual and also becomes the butt of jokes of the Narrator's witty Sister. Poirot does not hog the limelight he comes and goes in the book, he is not missed in his absence and neither it is felt that he is too overpowering over the other characters in his presence.

This book also corroborates my theory that the best Poirot books are the ones where he does not have a "Watson" i.e. he works alone. The affable Arthur Hastings who is Poirot's sidekick is not missed at all. I think that Hastings had become a channel for Christie to show her frustration over Poirot because I have observed that it is always Hastings that gives the impression that Poirot is more egoistic then he actually is.

About the Mystery, it has one of the best twist endings of all time. This book is the true earth shattering book of the mystery genre which changed the rules of the Detective fiction, the paper back edition that I have has 360+ pages but I breezed through these especially through the end.

This book is not only one of the best Poirot's, it's also one of the best Christie's and also one of the best of the Detective Fiction genre. Strong Buy!!

Rating:

Where can you get it: http://www.flipkart.com/books/0007282540?pid=5kw3fajdme&_l=CJHVEqJO3veuHytbACc9dw--&_r=zWseKvNpSSCYGJ%20OVotaFg--&ref=14abe0fe-8180-4cc3-8a1d-69b8751d22dc

The Body in the Library by Agatha Christie

The Bantry's wake up to an unexpected visitor in their house. The servants have found the dead body of a platinum blonde in the Library, The Bantry's say they do not know who the girl is or how she got inside the house, but that denial by the Bantry's is no consolation to the wagging tongues of the villagers who accuse and start incriminating Colonel Bantry. Mrs Bantry realizes this fact and calls in the cavalry AKA the old St Mary Mead sleuth herself Miss Marple.

But then the Police find another body of a young girl whose is found burnt inside a car, is the body in the library in any way connected to the body in the car? Marple and the Police are confronted by a long list of suspects and a family whose head is a brave, crippled old man, but they all hide more then one secret.

Review: Dame Christie wanted to something sensational put a body of an unknown girl in the library of the most unobtrusive people and then unravel the mysterious puzzle from there. The characters are various in the book and all of them get a good amount of screen space, Christie puts them in situations where there personalities become vivid and colorful. I liked how she plays around with an old man and his muse, the idea of cripple age yearning for beautiful vivacious youth is appealing as a side story to the murder mystery.

This is another Marple book where we also see Sir Henry, I have read a few Marples and genuinely think her books on an average are better or as good as Poirot's, although the outstanding ones are from the latter. Also I have heard there is an inhouse joke about Poirot sorry but I couldn't spot it.

I will never ever agree to the way she solves crimes by giving some obscure village analogy and then using that to solve the crime it is just fantastic to believe that one can learn so much from a simple village life. but that said Marple mysteries are the de facto torch bearers of cosy mysteries and are very enjoyable.

This one starts out as a Cracker and ends in a whimper, figuring out the murderer is not very difficult. I was hoping to be proved wrong but was disappointed. I can't reveal much about that without giving something away. Read this one for the premise and the characters.

Where can you get this: Easily available online on FlipKart, Infibeam or any of the local stores, the cover is real nice go for it!

Peril at end house by Agatha Christie

Poirot and Hastings are enjoying there vacation on the Cornish Rivera. Very soon they meet the beautiful and lively Nick. Nick is leading a charmed life she has had several very close encounters with death. A large painting fell over her bed while she was sleeping, a large boulder came tumbling down where she was bathing, the brakes of her car failed when she was going out and now Poirot discovers a hole in her hat and a bullet shell. The infallible Poirot and his faithful Watson Hastings offer to protect mademoiselle Nick.

Nick appoints the two as her protectors and invites the two to her house called the "end house". A small group of family, neighbors and friends are invited to the end house that day to watch the fireworks on the 6th of November but amidst the fireworks a shot is fired and as Poirot and Hastings are walking towards the house there is a dead body lying on the floor.

Review: The pair of Poirot and Hasting are back and this time they must prevent a murder as well as solve one. This book came as highly rated and someone have even called it a Hidden gem, I'll tell you what whenever I read a book I always in the very few chapters take my guess at the murderer , then I keep on linking events in the book to the murderer. To be very frank this isn't much of a mystery a careful reader can easily figure out who the murderer is. That said I do think that overall the book is not bad, it is fast paced and does not seem lengthy.

Dame Christie has explored some new themes in this one like drugs and its abuse, also one good think in this book is the chemistry between Poirot and Hastings. The banter between the two is enjoyable. One big negative that I felt was that most of the characters have Been left underdeveloped which is quite unlike the queen of crime, another negative is the racist references to Jews, domestic helps and foreigners. This one is not highly recommended.

Where can I buy it: flip kart, landmark any books store won't cost more then 150 rs