"The Mysterious Mr. Quin" by Agatha Christie

I really like the Mr. Quin mysteries.  Really, REALLY like them.  I read a few of them previously, in those seasonal Agatha Christie collections, and I liked them so much that I picked up this anthology that has nearly all of the Mr. Quin stories in it.  (WHY did they decide to leave a couple out?  So annoying.  Now I have to track those down.)

The Mr. Quin stories all revolve an aging gentleman named Mr. Satterthwaite who has spent his life cultivating a peerless taste in art of every kind.  He knows many, many people, and often happens to be at someone's estate when someone is in dire straits, or encounters desperate people while on holiday, and so on.  Then the mysterious Mr. Harley Quin will show up and give Mr. Satterthwaite a helpful hint or a nudge of some kind, and events will take a sudden turn, usually for the better.  Several suicides and murders are avoided, some grave disappointments are averted, and some crimes are solved over the course of the book.  And many of the stories have just a touch of eeriness, but no actual creepiness.  

This would have been a great collection to read in October around Halloween, and I'll probably reread it in the autumn in a couple of years, once I have forgotten how most of the mysteries turn out.  That way, they will be fresh and delightful again.  Happily, I only remembered the solution to one of the stories I had previously read, and I only remembered it about a page before we got to the reveal.  Quite delightful.

My favorite stories in the collection were "The Face of Helen," "The Dead Harlequin," and "The World's End."

Particularly Good Bits:

Mr. Satterthwaite put away the little set speech he had prepared, and hastily rummaged for sympathy and friendship in the bottom drawer of his mind (p. 183, from "The Face of Helen).

He was a sensible young man, and, as such, uninteresting to Mr. Satterthwaite, who was an artist and a connoisseur in life (p. 249, from "The Bird with the Broken Wing").

If This was a Movie, I Would Rate It:  PG-13 for several murders, discussions of and depictions of suicide, and other crimes.

This is my 8th book read and reviewed for my fifth Classics Club list.

"The Mysterious Affair at Styles" by Agatha Christie

My sister-in-law sent me a copy of The Mysterious Affair at Styles as part of a little book box last year.  She sent it to me to cheer me up when I was having a really stressful time, and it definitely worked!  Even though it took me a few months to read the book itself, having it to look forward to was a definite morale booster, as were the neat goodies that came with it.

This is not only the first book featuring the great detective Hercule Poirot, it's Agatha Christie's debut novel.  It's full of all the elements you would expect from a Poirot mystery:  a seemingly unsolvable crime, lots of suspects, some red herrings, and a solution that eventually makes sense.  Plus, we get to see Poirot and Hastings become friends, which is so fun!  

Is this my favorite Poirot mystery?  Don't think so, but it doesn't have to be.  I enjoyed it a lot, and I'm glad I've finally read it!

Particularly Good Bits:

"You gave too much rein to your imagination.  Imagination is a good servant, and a bad mater.  The simplest explanation is always the most likely" (p. 84).

If This was a Movie, I Would Rate It: PG for murder and the tiniest bit of strong language.

This is my second book read and reviewed for my fifth Classics Club list.

"The Murder on the Links" by Agatha Christie

My mom gave me the gorgeous Chiltern Classics edition of The Murder on the Links for Christmas, and I promptly started reading it on Christmas Day.  And finished it a few days after New Year's.  And took almost a month to get around to reviewing it.

I swear this isn't because I didn't enjoy this mystery!  I definitely did -- it had some lovely twists I didn't see coming, plus a couple that I thought I saw coming but was not quite correct about.  Hanging out with Poirot and Hastings was delightful.  Watching Hastings fall in love without noticing was adorable.  

I don't have anything particularly long-winded to say about this book.  That's partly because it simply is a good mystery, and I have no bones to pick with it.  And it's partly because I did read this almost a month ago and then fell prey to the busyness of January and failed to review it until now.

I would like to mention that I do rather like Hastings, and I know a lot of Poirot fans don't.  My affection for him stems pretty much entirely from his portrayal by Jonathan Cecil in several of the 1980s Hercule Poirot films starring Peter Ustinov.  Cecil plays Hastings as so sweet and likeable, albeit definitely not bright, and I shall probably always be fond of him as a result.

If This was a Movie, I Would Rate It: PG-13 for murder, insinuations about people having extramarital affairs, and a sprinkling of old-fashioned cuss words.

This is my 49th book read and reviewed for my fourth Classics Club list!  One more to go, and I'll have read and reviewed 200 classics since 2014!

"Midsummer Mysteries" by Agatha Christie

I did it!  I read all four of these season-themed Christie collections in four consecutive seasons!

It's the little things in life, amiright?

The short stories in this volume include stories about Hercule Poirot, Miss Marple, Mr. Quin, Tommy and Tuppence, and Mr. Parker Pyne.  Plus a story or two with none of them.  I've grown so fond of Pyne and Quin that I have actually picked up collections of stories about only them, because I'd like to read more!

I'd say my favorite stories in this are "Jane in Search of a Job" and "The Rajah's Emerald," which happen to be two of the stories with no famous detectives in them.  I also really liked "The Oracle at Delphi" and "The Incredible Theft."

I most definitely did NOT like "The Idol House of Astarte," which was creepy.

I just learned that Harper Collins is doing two more collections similar to this: Capital Christie and Country Christie, and now I want those too.  So far, it seems like you can only buy the former in the UK, and the latter won't be released until September.  I will probably wait until September and then see if I can't order them both from someplace like Waterstones that ships to the US.  Or maybe they'll have them in the US by then too.

Particularly Good Bits:

The book she took with her to read was not the excellent one on Grecian Art recommended to her by her son but was, on the contrary, entitles The River Launch Mystery.  It had four murders in it, three abductions, and a large and varied gang of dangerous criminals  Mrs. Peters found herself both invigorated and soothed by the perusal of it (p. 165, "The Oracle at Delphi")(I love that last line because that's what good mysteries do for me, too.)

If This was a Movie, I Would Rate It:  PG for crimes such as murder and abduction and theft, and the sorts of violence you might expect Agatha Christie to write about.  No rubbing gore in the reader's face, in other words.  There are a handful of mild curse words, and some very polite dialog mentions about people having romantic affairs, etc.

This has been my 41st book read and reviewed for my 4th Classics Club list.

"Curtain: Poirot's Last Case" by Agatha Christie

This is sad and melancholy and was hard to read.  I'm glad I randomly read it because I wanted to finish off a hardcover anthology and not because I was reading all the Poirot stories in order, because if I was reading them in order and got to this as the very last one, I would now be very depressed.  Instead, I have plenty of jolly Poirot mysteries to enjoy in the future still.

Poirot and faithful Hastings end up at Styles, the same house where the very first Hercule Poirot mystery takes place.  They have to catch a diabolical fiend who is responsible for a strong of deaths, and also protect Hastings's daughter from said fiend.  Poirot is in failing health, and seeing him through the kind eyes of Hastings was sometimes almost enough to bring me to tears.  So I wouldn't say I enjoyed this book, really.  I doubt I will reread it.

If This was a Movie, I Would Rate It: PG-13 for descriptions of some poisonings, discussions of marital infidelity, and a smattering of bad language.

This is my 39th book read and reviewed for my fourth Classics Club list.  Although Curtain was published in 1975, which is after my usual cut-off for when I will consider a book a classic, it was written during WWII.  So I think it suits.

"Sinister Spring" by Agatha Christie

Like Autumn Chills and Midwinter Murder, this is a collection of short mysteries by Agatha Christie that all take place in a particular season.

Hands down, my favorite short story in here was "The Girl in the Train," which was funny, quirky, and exciting all at the same time.  It made me think alternately of P. G. Wodehouse and F. Scott Fitzgerald, which is no mean feat!

I also very much enjoyed "Have You Got Everything You Want?" (I'm becoming a Parker Pyne fan) and "The Soul of the Croupier" (I'm also becoming a Mr. Quin fan).  

If This was a Movie, I Would Rate It: PG for various crimes such as murder and theft, and attendant mild violence.

This is my 37th book read and reviewed for my fourth Classics Club list.

"Midwinter Murder" by Agatha Christie

Like Autumn Chills, this is a collection of short stories by Agatha Christie that are all set in a specific season.

I'd previously read only one story in this, "Christmas Adventure," which stars Hercule Poirot.  He's in several other stories, and there are also some with Miss Marple, Tommy and Tuppence, and some other semi-regular characters of Christie's.

Aside from that one, which I like a lot, my favorite stories were "The Manhood of Edward Robinson," which had a lovely twist, and "The World's End," which delighted me with the way it ended.

The subtitle to this book is "Fireside Mysteries from the Queen of Crime," and these stories are absolutely as cozy as that implies.  I'm really glad I picked up all four of these seasonal Christie collections, and I'm looking forward to the spring and summer editions!

If This was a Movie, I Would Rate It: PG for murder, mild innuendo here and there, and a couple instances of mild cussing.

This is my 35th book read for my fourth Classics Club list.

"Autumn Chills" by Agatha Christie

Over the past few years, HarperCollins has put out four seasonal collections of Agatha Christie short stories.  I've collected them all up, and I decided to try to read them all over the coming months, each during the season where they take place.  I began with Autumn Chills because I wanted to read it for the #AMonthOfMystery challenge on Instagram.  I didn't finish it before November, so it didn't count for that challenge, but that's okay!  I had a lot of fun reading one of these short mysteries every couple of days.

And then this review sat in my drafts for a month.  Because my life has just been so blasted busy!  That means I don't actually remember which stories were my favorites anymore, except that I wholeheartedly loved "The Case of the Rich Woman."

If This was a Movie, I Would Rate It: PG for murder, mild innuendo here and there, and I think maybe a couple instances of mild cussing?

This was my 28th book read from my TBR shelves for the 2024 Mount TBR Challenge and my 33rd book read and reviewed for my fourth Classics Club list.

"And Then There Were None" by Agatha Christie

Oh. My.

I picked this up in an airport bookstore on the way home from visiting my parents earlier this month.  I really was in the mood for a mystery, but hadn't brought any with me, and this seemed like a perfect read for October, especially since I have been participating in the #AMonthOfMystery challenge on Instagram again this year.

What a wild ride this book is!  I almost don't want to say too much about it because I didn't really know anything about the plot before reading it, and that was a perfect way to go into this book.  All I knew was that it was a group of strangers who are on an island together, and then people start dying.  Which sounded kind of like the movie Clue (1985), and I am pretty sure the makers of that movie were referencing this book in several places -- I will have to rewatch it to be sure, though.

Anyway!  This book is thoroughly shocking, in the sense of making me think, "Holy cow, THAT happened?!?" over and over and over.  I read it in a day and a half.  Brilliant stuff -- I can see why it is generally considered one of Christie's absolute best.

If This was a Movie, I Would Rate It: PG-16 for some pretty violent and gruesome murders.

This has been my 20th book read and reviewed for my fourth Classics Club list, my 52nd book read from my TBR shelves for #TheUnreadShelfProject2023, and my second read and reviewed for #AMonthOfMystery this year.

"The Murder of Roger Ackroyd" by Agatha Christie

My favorite part of this book was figuring out that Hercule Poirot was in it before he was actually mentioned by name.

My least-favorite part of this book was figuring out who the killer was about two-thirds of the way through the book, and being right.  I really hate that.  I pretty much demand that the detective and the villain in a mystery book or show or movie should be smarter than I am.  If I figure things out before the big reveal, I feel cheated.  I don't try to figure them out -- I even actively try NOT to.  But sometimes, it happens, and then I'm kinda bummed.  Especially since several people told me to avoid spoilage on this, and that I was going to really enjoy the reveal.  Oh well, it was still a fun Hercule Poirot mystery :-)

This one is kind of a locked-room mystery and kind of a house-party mystery, and also a cozy-village mystery.  A rich guy gets murdered, lots of people who were at his big estate for a party are suspects, and so are lots of people in the village.  There are some obvious suspects and some not-so-obvious ones, and Poirot's little grey cells get quite a workout before the end.

Particularly Good Bits:

It is odd, when you have a secret belief of your own which you do not wish to acknowledge, the voicing of it by someone else will rouse you to a fury of denial (p. 225).

"It is completely unimportant," said Poirot.  "That is why it is so interesting," he added softly (p. 288).

If This was a Movie, I Would Rate It: PG-13 for murder, some innuendo and talk about unwed mothers, and a smattering of mild bad language.

This has been my fifth book read from my fourth Classics Club list, and also my 53rd book read from my TBR shelves for #TheUnreadShelfProject2022.

"Hallowe'en Party" by Agatha Christie

I have discovered that I like Agatha Christie's books about Hercule Poirot, just not so much her Miss Marple books.  This is a Poirot book, so I gave it a go after seeing it around on Bookstagram early in October.  My library had it, so that was a win!

I enjoyed this book pretty well, though it could have been considerably shorter if we hadn't had to read the same information repeatedly.  Whole conversations and experiences were repeated in full instead of summarized, which I found tedious.  Also I was annoyed by the constant harping on "obviously this murder was done by a crazy person."  Way too many characters said exactly the same thing.  And Poirot never believed them, so it was obviously a red herring meant to mislead us, except it was too obvious, so it didn't work.

Sooooooo... this was a fun one-time read, but not a Poirot I'll be buying a copy of so I can reread it.  And that's okay.  My bookshelves are glad of this, hee.

The plot revolves around a girl getting murdered at a Halloween party after boasting that she had once seen someone get murdered.  Semi-retired Hercule Poirot is called in to help investigate, and mystery-solving ensues.

If This was a Movie, I Would Rate It: PG-13 for murder, lots of people assuming the murderer's motive was sexual, and discussion of unwed pregnancy.  It's fairly tame, but not for kids.

This is the sixth mystery book I read for #AMonthOfMystery.  It was such a fun challenge!

"Hercule Poirot's Christmas" by Agatha Christie

I have discovered a newfound appreciation for Hercule Poirot over the last couple years.  I entirely blame Kenneth Branagh and his 2017 adaptation of Murder on the Orient Express.  

I read almost this whole book yesterday, and it was great fun!  I mean, great fun considering it's a book about a severely dysfunctional family and murder and so on.

Poirot isn't even in the first third or so of this book, which is all about this old man and his children, most of whom hate each other.  The old man gets killed, Poirot and some British policemen get called in to solve the crime, and the rest of the book is about that.

This was a fast read, and I'm happy to say I did not solve the crime before the hero did, which is the sort of mystery I like best.

Particularly Good Bits: 

"I believe the present matters -- not the past!  The past must go.  If we seek to keep the past alive, we end, I think, by distorting it.  We see it in exaggerated terms -- a false perspective" (p. 33).

If This was a Movie, I Would Rate It: PG-13 for a lot of talk about a man having illegitimate children through his many love affairs, and a pretty gory murder.

This was my 4th book read and reviewed for the Literary Christmas reading link-up hosted by In the Bookcase, my 13th for my third Classics Club list, and my 51st for #TheUnreadShelfProject2020.

"Murder on the Orient Express" by Agatha Christie

I read this once before, as a teen -- it's probably the first Agatha Christie mystery I encountered.  I'm not a huge fan of hers, but this particular story charms me for some reason.  I really enjoyed the 2017 movie version (review here), but it'd been probably twenty years since I last read this and I couldn't remember enough of it to tell just how much the movie changed.  I did remember the solution to the case, though.  

The story, just in case you're somehow unaware of it even though it's one of the most famous murder mysteries of the 20th century, is about a man getting stabbed to death on a train.  Detective Hercule Poirot just happens to be on that train too, and he sets about trying to figure out which one of his twelve fellow passengers is the murderer.  

The solution is outrageous and stretches my credulity... and yet, I totally dig it.  It might not be the most logical mystery ever, but somehow, it feels very right.  I'm not at all sure how Christie pulled that off.  I read the whole thing in a little over a day because it races along at such a jolly pace, and is so bright and fun -- a perfect summer read!

If This was a Movie, I Would Rate It:  PG for murder and discussions of kidnapping.  I would let my 10-year-old read it if he wanted to.

This is my 18th book read and reviewed for my second go-round with the Classics Club and my 10th for the Mount TBR Challenge 2018.