Reviews - Agatha Christie
Jan. 20th, 2010 02:32 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
wilderthanMurder at the Vicarage (Agatha Christie)
From the murky world of Philip Marlowe in Los Angeles, to a little British village. I hadn't read any of the Miss Marple books -- I began with a Poirot one -- and thought I'd start from the very beginning. Miss Marple was certainly more likeable than Poirot -- a busybody character, with her nose in everybody's business, but without Poirot's more odious eccentricities. She's kind of fun. It's interesting how, in both Agatha Christie books I've read, the narrator is at a distance from the detective who actually solves things. I thought the vicar, the narrator of this story, was sweet -- and I was actually glad about the little bits about him and his wife, and at the end. I got to like a few of the characters quite a bit, and hope that they're recurring in the later Miss Marple books.
Agatha Christie's pretty good at misdirection -- I changed my mind about who was the culprit several times -- but I imagine you get used to that, reading her work. I don't think I'll look to her work for great subtlety, but it's fun for a quick read.
The Body in the Library (Agatha Christie)
Another Miss Marple story! I really do like her more than Poirot: much less egotistical -- though I'm basing on that on only having read one Poirot book, I suppose, so maybe I didn't get the whole of Poirot's character. I liked that this one wasn't in the style of a first person narrator's account, like the other two I've read. Ultimately I think I preferred that, because a lot of the charm of the first Miss Marple book came from the character of the vicar, but it was nice to have it a bit different, too.
I didn't find the mystery very intriguing with this one, largely because I couldn't figure it out for myself. Possibly that was me being dim, and having a headache, etc, etc, but even when I got to the last few pages I wasn't perfectly sure whodunnit until it spelled it out.
Still, it was pretty fun to read -- like a snack between meals.
From the murky world of Philip Marlowe in Los Angeles, to a little British village. I hadn't read any of the Miss Marple books -- I began with a Poirot one -- and thought I'd start from the very beginning. Miss Marple was certainly more likeable than Poirot -- a busybody character, with her nose in everybody's business, but without Poirot's more odious eccentricities. She's kind of fun. It's interesting how, in both Agatha Christie books I've read, the narrator is at a distance from the detective who actually solves things. I thought the vicar, the narrator of this story, was sweet -- and I was actually glad about the little bits about him and his wife, and at the end. I got to like a few of the characters quite a bit, and hope that they're recurring in the later Miss Marple books.
Agatha Christie's pretty good at misdirection -- I changed my mind about who was the culprit several times -- but I imagine you get used to that, reading her work. I don't think I'll look to her work for great subtlety, but it's fun for a quick read.
The Body in the Library (Agatha Christie)
Another Miss Marple story! I really do like her more than Poirot: much less egotistical -- though I'm basing on that on only having read one Poirot book, I suppose, so maybe I didn't get the whole of Poirot's character. I liked that this one wasn't in the style of a first person narrator's account, like the other two I've read. Ultimately I think I preferred that, because a lot of the charm of the first Miss Marple book came from the character of the vicar, but it was nice to have it a bit different, too.
I didn't find the mystery very intriguing with this one, largely because I couldn't figure it out for myself. Possibly that was me being dim, and having a headache, etc, etc, but even when I got to the last few pages I wasn't perfectly sure whodunnit until it spelled it out.
Still, it was pretty fun to read -- like a snack between meals.
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Date: 2010-01-20 02:34 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2010-01-20 11:16 am (UTC)