I went straight from reading Blyton’s Famous Five books to Agatha Christie and it is decades and decades since I read any of her mysteries (apart from a slim volume called Black Coffee which was originally a play and was worked up into a book by Charles Osborne.)
I’ve seen quite a few people have been reading Christie so when I saw this one in my library I thought I would give it a go and see if I still found her work to be enjoyable. It was quite a surprise to me that I did enjoy this one as I had read a few snidey newspaper articles, basically saying her books were only for those of little intelligence and even smaller vocabulary. I had seen a version of this book dramatised for TV but I think it was quite different from the book. You’ve probably seen it too but the book is still worth reading. It’s a Poirot and Hastings book, the tale being told by Hastings and of course Inspector Japp pops up too, but his character is somewhat less chummy and amusing than the Japp of TV fame.
I thought that crime fiction fans might be interested to read the William McIlvanney article which appeared in today’s Guardian. I loved his books when they were first published in the 1970s. He managed to capture the atmosphere of Glasgow in print, which is more than can be said of Denise Mina whose books are set in Glasgow but are completely devoid of any Glaswegian class, gallusness and banter, something which I find unforgivable as a Glaswegian myself. McIlvanney is apparently the forgotten man of Tartan Noir, what a shame. He inspired Ian Rankin to write his Rebus series, transferring the setting to Edinburgh, the city which he has experience of.
I have read Black Coffee too and thought it would be a great play for a local high school to do but of course they do the same old ones. Nice article about McIlvanney. I have not read him must rectify that soon. I did just pick up a Mina book at the used book store.
Peggy Ann,
It would be a good play for high schools, I don’t even think they can spare the time for doing much in the way of school shows here, everything is geared to passing exams. You should be able to get old McIlvanney books rather than the reprints. Mina is not my favourite, I’ve only read one and thought it should have been so much better, given the setting!
I love Christie novels – they are clever and funnier than the TV series portray them to be.
Anbolyn,
They are better than the TV series, I especially dislike the updated Marples that we seem to be getting now. They take such liberties with the stories.
I’m a Christie fa – as you may know. I’ve read this one and watched the TV version. Whilst the TV versions are entertaining they are not as good as the books and in some cases are not really very like the books, which irritates me – but I still think David Suchet is Poirot!
I’ll go over to read the article later on – I haven’t read anything by McIlvanney, so a new author to look out for. Interesting about Mina – I borrowed one of her books from the library (can’t remember which one!) and took it back mainly unread as I couldn’t get going with it.
Margaret,
I agree with you about Suchet. It annoys me that the more modern versions have been got at by the PC people and the endings have twists which would probably have Christie ‘birlin’.
You should be able to get McIlvanney from your library. I can’t even remember which Mina book I did get to the end of, I just remember being disappointed by the whole thing. She seems to be popular though.
I was in a Christie film once! The dead body on the Yorkshire Moors! That was me! In Evil under the Sun!
Evee,
What a wonderful claim to fame! That’s a Peter Ustinov as Poirot film I believe. Next time it’s on TV I’m going to be glued to it waiting for your entry – or is it exit! Can you do a blogpost about your experiences on the set?