Agatha Christie Re-Reading Project #3: Books 8-10

The next three books up in my Agatha Christie re-reading project are the third books in the Poirot and Miss Marple series, and the second in the Tommy and Tuppence Beresford series. The earliest of these is the Poirot short story collection, published in 1924, followed by the Tommy and Tuppence linked short stories in 1929, with the Miss Marple novel coming more than a decade later in 1942. 

With these, two of them were pretty much as I remembered (and I rated them much the same as I would have done 40 years ago), but one of them was waaaay more yikes than I had clocked at the time, to the point of being uncomfortable to read now. This is the first time in the re-read project that I've concluded that yeah, probably not going to go there again. More information below!

Next up will be one of Christie's acknowledged masterpieces, the Poirot novel The Murder of Roger Ackroyd; the Marple novel, The Moving Finger; and the 1961 stand-alone novel, The Pale Horse. I am genuinely excited for these ones, they were three I rated very highly when I first read them in my teens and I'm keen to see how well they have lasted. As I am currently racing the clock to finish reading the Stella Prize shortlist before 23 May, I won't start these for a little while, but when I do, I imagine I'll whip through them quickly.

Poirot Investigates

Coming to this short story collection, I was peachy keen. I had a memory of really liking the Poirot short stories when I first read them back in the mid 80s, and was looking forward to the revisit.

I now think that my fond memories must be attached to the two later collections, Murder in the Mews and The Labours of Hercules, because booooy was this one a disappointment. 

Most of the stories are no better than vaguely ok as mysteries, and almost all of them are stuffed full of all the negative earlier Christie prejudices, which somehow seem even worse in a shorter form than in a novel-length outing. The racism towards Chinese people in The Lost Mine is level-up on anything else of hers (it's so confronting) and the excoriation of the working class is a bit nastier than usual.

That said, there are a few iconic stories that I enjoyed revisiting (The Adventure of the Clapham Cook, The Third-Floor Flat, The Affair at the Victory Ball), and Christie is never difficult or slow to read, so it was far from a total loss, but I would say this has been the least fun revisit so far, and is a volume I probably won't come back to again. 4.5/10.


The Body in the Library

We then went from the disappointing to the delightful :-) When I first read the Christies, my favourite Miss Marples were The Body in the Library and The Mirror Crack'd From Side to Side, and it turns out, 15 year old me was on the money, because this book is an absolute cracker.

Clever plot? Check. Great, vivid characters? Check. Miss Marple in her element? Check. Cameos by well-liked Marpleverse supporting characters such as the Bantrys, Sir Henry Clithering, and Griselda the vicar's wife? Check. Excellent reveal? Triple check!

There is a very mild aspersion thrown at the part-Argentinian professional dancer, Ramon, and some standard classist assumptions about people based on dress and appearance, but other than that, this one has no content notes, and is fun as hell. Highly recommend! 8.5/10.


Partners in Crime

This is a collection of Tommy and Tuppence Beresford short stories, but it is more like a TV series with an ongoing master plot rather than a set of unconnected stories. The schtick is that the Beresfords are tasked with taking over a private detective agency suspected of being an espionage receiving point, and trying to elicit information about the operation while pretending to be the detective (Blunt) and his confidential secretary.

With this set-up, it allows for each story / chapter to involve a self-contained plot as well as contributing to the master story. Tommy and Tuppence get embroiled in disappearances, murders, smuggling, and gang activity, as well as some might light-hearted adventures in solving puzzles, hunting for treasure, and matchmaking.

Because the Beresfords are a bit irritating, and also because Christie inserted the *very* irritating device of having them play at being a different famous fictional detective pair in each story, I didn't madly adore this one, but most of the stories were very solid and pretty fun, and a couple of the best ones were bangers (The Man in the Mist and Finessing the King). Overall, 6/10.


RUNNING LIST

Poirot books targeted (highlighted when read):

  1. The Mysterious Affair at Styles (1920): 6.5/10
  2. The Murder on the Links (1923): 6.5/10
  3. Poirot Investigates (1924, ss): 4.5/10
  4. The Murder of Roger Ackroyd (1926)
  5. The Big Four (1927)
  6. The Mystery of the Blue Train (1928)
  7. Peril at End House (1932)
  8. Lord Edgware Dies (1933) 
  9. Murder on the Orient Express (1934) 
  10. Three Act Tragedy (1935) : 6/10
  11. Death in the Clouds (1935)
  12. The A.B.C. Murders (1936) 
  13. Murder in Mesopotamia (1936)
  14. Cards on the Table (1936)
  15. Murder in the Mews (1937, ss) 
  16. Dumb Witness (1937) 
  17. Death on the Nile (1937) 
  18. Appointment with Death (1938)
  19. Hercule Poirot's Christmas (1938) 
  20. Sad Cypress (1940)
  21. One, Two, Buckle My Shoe (1940) 
  22. Evil Under the Sun (1941)
  23. Five Little Pigs (1942) 
  24. The Hollow (1946) 
  25. The Labours of Hercules (1947, ss)
  26. Taken at the Flood (1948) 
  27. Mrs McGinty's Dead (1952)
  28. After the Funeral (1953) 
  29. Hickory Dickory Dock (1955)
  30. Dead Man's Folly (1956)
  31. Cat Among the Pigeons (1959)
  32. The Clocks (1963)
  33. Third Girl (1966)
  34. Hallowe'en Party (1969)
  35. Elephants Can Remember (1972)
  36. Poirot's Early Cases (1974, ss)
  37. Curtain (written about 1940, published 1975) 
Miss Marple books targeted (highlighted when read):

  1. The Murder at the Vicarage (1930, Novel): 7.5/10
  2. The Thirteen Problems (1932, short story collection featuring Miss Marple, also published as The Tuesday Club Murders): 8/10
  3. The Body in the Library (1942, Novel): 8.5/10
  4. The Moving Finger (1943, Novel)
  5. A Murder Is Announced (1950, Novel)
  6. They Do It with Mirrors (1952, Novel) – also published in the United States as Murder With Mirrors
  7. A Pocket Full of Rye (1953, Novel)
  8. 4.50 from Paddington (1957, Novel) – also published in the United States as What Mrs. McGillicuddy Saw!
  9. The Mirror Crack'd from Side to Side (1962, Novel)
  10. A Caribbean Mystery (1964, Novel)
  11. At Bertram's Hotel (1965, Novel)
  12. Nemesis (1971, Novel)
  13. Sleeping Murder (1976, Novel)
Tommy and Tuppence and stand-alone books targeted (highlighted when read):
  1. And Then There Were None (1939): 8.5/10
  2. The Pale Horse (1961)
  3. The Secret Adversary (1922 novel): 5.5/10
  4. Partners in Crime (1929 short story collection): 6/10
  5. N or M? (1941 novel)
  6. By the Pricking of My Thumbs (1968 novel)
  7. Postern of Fate (1973 novel)

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