Poirot's Little Grey Cells

Hello everyone!

My first Agatha Cristie novel was the very famous, "Murder of Roger Ackroyd" which made me feel extremely naive and dippy. Anyone who has read that book will understand my feelings of being left out in the cold and subsequent trust issues related to other Agatha Christie novels. I have always loved mysteries and thrillers, although my love for the former almost eclipses other genres.

During my preteen and early teens, I was obsessed with reading Nancy Drew, and Hardy Boys. I have bought and borrowed many other thrillers, crime and mystery books by authors such as John Grisham, Robert Crais, Dan Brown, etc (very basic, I know) but it was Agatha Christie's novels that remained my favourite in this category. To me, the only close contender is JK Rowling's "The Cuckoo's Calling" and "The Silkworm".

Miss Marple, and Hercule Poirot happen to be my most adored out of the whole lot and I usually read novels with these two in them. Miss Marple is an old lady who lives in St. Mary Mead and is the unlikeliest amateur detective. She is called a "fluffy old lady" in many of the books but has very good manners and lofty standards of behaviour, with the occasional eavesdropping and light gossiping.

Geraldine McEwan as Jane Marple [image from agathachristieweb.blogspot.com]

Hercule Poirot is a celebrated private detective from Belgium, living in London. He is described by is friend Hastings as follows, " He was hardly more than five feet four inches but carried himself with great dignity. His head was exactly the shape of an egg, and he always perched it a little on one side. His moustache was very stiff and military. Even if everything on his face was covered, the tips of moustache and the pink-tipped nose would be visible."

David Suchet as Hercule Poirot [image from www.iseaworld.com]

In October, rather than studying and socializing, I read four of Agatha Christie's novels.

Dumb Witness (1937)

Hercule Poirot receives a letter from an old spinster, Emily Arundell. She is afraid that her someone is trying to kill her and beckons Poirot to find out who that  person is. Fascinated by the letter, he decides to help her but it is already too late, Miss Arundell is dead before the letter could even reach Poirot.

The Murder on the Links (1923)

"For God's sake, come!", say the final lines of a letter written by  Monsieur Paul Renauld, its urgency obvious. Poirot agrees to go to to France at the request of M. Renauld only to find out he has died before Poirot could even reach France. A love letter in the over-sized coat that the victim was wearing raises red flags in Poirot's mind. Before long, another body is discovered, killed in an almost indistinguishable manner.

Lord Edgware Dies (1933)

Lord Edgware's estranged wife is heard openly discussing her plan to "get rid" of her husband. When Lord Edgware is found, stabbed in his house, his wife is the main suspect. It confuses the police as she is seen in the house, visiting her husband before he died but she was also at a dinner party many miles away at that exact same time. How was it possible for her to be at two places at the same time?

Appointment with Death (1938)

Raymond Boynton telling his sister: "You do see, don't you, that she's got to be killed?", words which Poirot overhears one night in Jerusalem. The person being discussed is Mrs Boynton, a sadistic old tyrant who seems to enjoy dominating other people, especially her family. When she is found murdered in Petra, Poirot rushes to solve the case in the next 24 hours.

 Moo x