I just realised that I completely forgot to update the scores on the doors... and after all that effort to catch up.
So, for those who have not yet given up...
After Dorothy there were 136 left to read.
After Sleath there were 135 books left to read.
Finally.... after Agatha I am now left with 134 books left to be read.
Wednesday 9 April 2014
Sunday 6 April 2014
Never lets me down
The final one in the series is a tried and tested favourite and she never lets me down!
#### SPOILER ALERT ####
The ABC Murders - Agatha Christie
I always get a happy feeling when I open up a Christie book. I know the chances of her letting me down are minimal.
In this one Mr Poirot is being sent letters that very kindly announce exactly when murders are about to take place. They also challenge him to find the killer and to stop him if he can. Although Mr Poirot does not seem to be doing a lot of active detective work (to the despair of his sidekick Captain Hastings) we can be sure that the little grey cells are working hard in the background.
Apart from a nice killer who announces his work we also have a killer presented on a plate with a cherry on top.... and there is no way that the man presented is the man committing the murders. Oh... don't get me wrong, he looks good for it but the whole thing just does not feel right. In the end the reader is vindicated and the real killer is revealed but this is not after we have had a few red herrings and some clever showing off from Poirot.
The good thing about this one is that we are told the murders are connected but seem really random. There seem to be no links between the victims although Christie drops a few plausible possible ones here and there but it all seems to be left to fizzle out and lead to nothing. The first two murders are women, the next two are men. There seems to be a suggestion of the women having violent partners but then the men killed seem "normal" enough and not violent or linked by business deals, profession or anything else... other than the fact that their names follow the ABC pattern. This time around we have a hot shot investigator cop on the case, Crome. He seems to be busy trying to make a bit of a name for himself and sometimes thinks that Poirot is more of a hindrance than a valued contributor. However, Poirot is part of the team set up to investigate the murders and to not getting through the entire alphabet so Crome has to put up with him. More help comes from what I would like to call the united front of victims. Family members and friends of the deceased have come together with the aid of Poirot to see if between them they can figure out who the killer is. As Poirot says, people always know more than they think they do and by talking it out the group seems to make some kind of slow progress. They meet several times to see what they know and seem to be on the trail of the killer at one point. But, alas it is all to no avail in the end as when we actually find out who the killer is it is a delicious surprise. I would never have got it right as it is someone totally unexpected... but it works! The reasoning behind the killing is, as always personal gain but the length the killer has gone through to get what he wants is awesome. He has put himself in a very mice position to be able to influence and guide the investigation along and seems to be a master at misdirection.
As usual Christie delivers a delicious story that very pleasantly meanders to the right conclusions. It is especially fun to see Hastings' frustration with Poirot not seeming to do anything. However much the cops seems to be doing they are not really getting to the answers any quicker than Poirot from the comfort of his armchair and that kind of makes me chuckle. The whole story is nicely put together and the characters have some body to them. All in all a very pleasant Christie novel.
Title: The ABC Murders
Author: Agatha Christie
331 pages
Harper
ISBN# 978-0-00-781557-9
#### SPOILER ALERT ####
The ABC Murders - Agatha Christie
I always get a happy feeling when I open up a Christie book. I know the chances of her letting me down are minimal.
In this one Mr Poirot is being sent letters that very kindly announce exactly when murders are about to take place. They also challenge him to find the killer and to stop him if he can. Although Mr Poirot does not seem to be doing a lot of active detective work (to the despair of his sidekick Captain Hastings) we can be sure that the little grey cells are working hard in the background.
Apart from a nice killer who announces his work we also have a killer presented on a plate with a cherry on top.... and there is no way that the man presented is the man committing the murders. Oh... don't get me wrong, he looks good for it but the whole thing just does not feel right. In the end the reader is vindicated and the real killer is revealed but this is not after we have had a few red herrings and some clever showing off from Poirot.
The good thing about this one is that we are told the murders are connected but seem really random. There seem to be no links between the victims although Christie drops a few plausible possible ones here and there but it all seems to be left to fizzle out and lead to nothing. The first two murders are women, the next two are men. There seems to be a suggestion of the women having violent partners but then the men killed seem "normal" enough and not violent or linked by business deals, profession or anything else... other than the fact that their names follow the ABC pattern. This time around we have a hot shot investigator cop on the case, Crome. He seems to be busy trying to make a bit of a name for himself and sometimes thinks that Poirot is more of a hindrance than a valued contributor. However, Poirot is part of the team set up to investigate the murders and to not getting through the entire alphabet so Crome has to put up with him. More help comes from what I would like to call the united front of victims. Family members and friends of the deceased have come together with the aid of Poirot to see if between them they can figure out who the killer is. As Poirot says, people always know more than they think they do and by talking it out the group seems to make some kind of slow progress. They meet several times to see what they know and seem to be on the trail of the killer at one point. But, alas it is all to no avail in the end as when we actually find out who the killer is it is a delicious surprise. I would never have got it right as it is someone totally unexpected... but it works! The reasoning behind the killing is, as always personal gain but the length the killer has gone through to get what he wants is awesome. He has put himself in a very mice position to be able to influence and guide the investigation along and seems to be a master at misdirection.
As usual Christie delivers a delicious story that very pleasantly meanders to the right conclusions. It is especially fun to see Hastings' frustration with Poirot not seeming to do anything. However much the cops seems to be doing they are not really getting to the answers any quicker than Poirot from the comfort of his armchair and that kind of makes me chuckle. The whole story is nicely put together and the characters have some body to them. All in all a very pleasant Christie novel.
Title: The ABC Murders
Author: Agatha Christie
331 pages
Harper
ISBN# 978-0-00-781557-9
Little bits here... little bits there... little bits everywhere
Ok... coffee made, next book on the list.
#### SPOILER ALERT ####
The Ghosts of Sleath - James Herbert
Although this one was a bit gorier than I was expecting at some times it was still a good story.
It is all about a small, peaceful English village that gets decidedly less peaceful as the book goes along. It all starts with the local priest calling in a psychic researcher. The person who goes to investigate is David Ash. He is a man with a past and who has been toughened up by the frauds and idiots he has seen in his investigations into the paranormal. He is one of the best in the business and nothing spooky gets past him. He, off course, has a bit of a past and this is hinted at throughout the book. We find out exactly what it is that haunts him in the end and it ties in nicely with what is going on in the main story line. David is a man who has not been unaffected by what has happened to him in the past but it seems that it takes what is going on in the village to make him really connect with the knowledge within himself.
The story starts with David going to the village and almost crashing his car because he sees a young boy standing in the middle of the road. Straight from the word go you kind of know that it is not a real boy David sees and it immediately outs your senses on alert for the next creepy thing. Fortunately we do not have to wait long as we are introduced to Ellen and her dead son, Simon. She is the reason that David was called in and her story links us very nicely to the next ghost in the village. Simon's dad. Apparently burned to death inside a mysterious fire in a haystack and now come back to haunt the son he did not think was his and torture the wife... oh and to drown his son in the bath... possibly again?!
David is in Sleath to meet the village priest, the reverend Lockwood. The priest does not seem to be a well man and he also seems to be hiding something, a thing that seems to have gone unnoticed by his daughter (he predictable love interest for David). Throughout the story we find out that the Lockwood are a bunch a creepy degenerates that have been trying to cheat death for the past couple of centuries and all this seems to have created a bad... BAD vice in the village. It seems that the powers of planet bad are focusing all their powers on the people in the village and everything around it. The village pond starts to develop a strange depth, the wood from the stocks is bleeding on it's own and things are shaken up at the local inn (and not just because David and Grace are getting jiggy in the bedroom) and... my personal favourite.. the local poachers in the middle of the forest come across a mass of body parts floating around in a clearing in the woods (that was the creepy bit I kind of skipped along a bit).
In the end all the ghostly activity centres around the old Lockwood estate and a mad heir.. well several mad heirs but more specifically the one in the present time and lots in the past. The heir is properly "reclaimed" by the dead and after a lot of mayhem David gets out alive by the skin of his teeth. Once evil is conquered things get back to normal and village life resumes as if nothing had happened.
I enjoyed this one, apart from the flying around body parts. Sure, the whole story with David and Grace is a bit convenient and the fact that their minds really open up to one another and connect when they first kiss is a bit "whatever" but nonetheless Grace is a nice enough character and it is a bit of a shame to lose her at the end of the story. David is a bit of a tortured soul who is trying to get over the death of his sister and his betrayal at the hands of some ghosts which makes for a character with a bit of body and interest to him. Reverend Lockwood is the tortured soul in the whole thing.. the one that is almost redeemed as he has seen the error of his ways. Phelan is a fun character who brings a bit of light relief as a cheeky Irishman and also turns out to be a fine psychic investigator with a past.
All in all, a good one... apart from the flying body parts.
Title: The Ghosts of Sleath
Author: James Herbert
408 pages
Harper Collins
ISBN# 0-00-647597-3
Catch up time
I have decided it is time to have a little catch up so am settling down for a mega session and promise not to leave this chair until I have done all the outstanding reviews!!... Well, I may get up to make myself a coffee but..... apart from that I am focused and ready to go.
#### SPOILER ALERT ####
Whose Body - Dorothy L. Sayers
I had heard about Sayers and her books from several sources. She has been acclaimed as on of the best and first crime writers in England so I was looking forward to reading one of her books to see what she was like. I am afraid to say that I was a bit disappointed with this one. I did not like the main character at at, our dear Mr Wimsey comes across as a bit of a self indulgent guy who does a bit of interfering in police business and to just rock up at crime scenes wherever he wants without having to explain himself. I didn't find him entertaining, intelligent or seemingly capable of catching anything more than a cold. To be honest I found his butler a more interesting character. At least he had some personality and did some actual work to solve the case. I am not sure if it was his speech in the book as well. From reading the way he speaks it it seems that he is dropping-his-aitches all over the place and he seems to sounds more like a common criminal than a supposedly intelligent Lord... oh yeah.. did I forget to mention this... He is a Lord. I found it hard to reconcile the way he spoke with his position in society.
So, okay.. the story. There is a body that has turned up in the bath of a gentleman who is very obviously not the killer. Cue the incompetent policeman who jumps to the wrong conclusions, thinks the body is someone it isn't and arrests the wrong guy (and girl). From then on our Mr Wimsey is on the case to defend the innocent and get one over on the coppers and the chase is on to get the right bad guy. There are a few red herrings that are introduced but unfortunately for the story, the real killer (Dr Freke) is introduced in a way that you kind of know that he must the killer from the second time you feast your eyes on him. The timing of his introduction and the way he behaves sets off all your spider senses. Although he has been quite clever in the way he has gone about the murder it is not enough to compensate for having read through all the pages of Lord Peter Wimsey being his good, indulgent self. It all ends with a nice confession and the whole thing is wrapped up neatly.
There is some promise of interesting character development with Mr Wimsey as there are hints of some "troubles" he has had in the past and about how his choice of being a detective has come about but unfortunately none of it is developed in this one. He seems clever enough, just ab it annoying and self indulgent. I may have to try another one to see if this promise if fulfilled but I hope Mr Wimsey improves on further reading.
Title: Whose Body
Author: Dorothy L. Sayers
206 pages
New English Library/Hodder & Stoughton
ISBN# 978-0-450-03129-8
#### SPOILER ALERT ####
Whose Body - Dorothy L. Sayers
I had heard about Sayers and her books from several sources. She has been acclaimed as on of the best and first crime writers in England so I was looking forward to reading one of her books to see what she was like. I am afraid to say that I was a bit disappointed with this one. I did not like the main character at at, our dear Mr Wimsey comes across as a bit of a self indulgent guy who does a bit of interfering in police business and to just rock up at crime scenes wherever he wants without having to explain himself. I didn't find him entertaining, intelligent or seemingly capable of catching anything more than a cold. To be honest I found his butler a more interesting character. At least he had some personality and did some actual work to solve the case. I am not sure if it was his speech in the book as well. From reading the way he speaks it it seems that he is dropping-his-aitches all over the place and he seems to sounds more like a common criminal than a supposedly intelligent Lord... oh yeah.. did I forget to mention this... He is a Lord. I found it hard to reconcile the way he spoke with his position in society.
So, okay.. the story. There is a body that has turned up in the bath of a gentleman who is very obviously not the killer. Cue the incompetent policeman who jumps to the wrong conclusions, thinks the body is someone it isn't and arrests the wrong guy (and girl). From then on our Mr Wimsey is on the case to defend the innocent and get one over on the coppers and the chase is on to get the right bad guy. There are a few red herrings that are introduced but unfortunately for the story, the real killer (Dr Freke) is introduced in a way that you kind of know that he must the killer from the second time you feast your eyes on him. The timing of his introduction and the way he behaves sets off all your spider senses. Although he has been quite clever in the way he has gone about the murder it is not enough to compensate for having read through all the pages of Lord Peter Wimsey being his good, indulgent self. It all ends with a nice confession and the whole thing is wrapped up neatly.
There is some promise of interesting character development with Mr Wimsey as there are hints of some "troubles" he has had in the past and about how his choice of being a detective has come about but unfortunately none of it is developed in this one. He seems clever enough, just ab it annoying and self indulgent. I may have to try another one to see if this promise if fulfilled but I hope Mr Wimsey improves on further reading.
Title: Whose Body
Author: Dorothy L. Sayers
206 pages
New English Library/Hodder & Stoughton
ISBN# 978-0-450-03129-8
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