Bring in the new and revisit the old!

I am starting with a sad one. As you know, I love Agatha Christie's books, but the latest one I have read, Postern of Fate, was hard to read. It is a Tommy and Tuppence story and the last book that she wrote. I didn't realise that when I read it, and despite it's plot brilliance, which really was gripping, I found it was full of repetition, inconsistencies, and discrepancies, very unlike Agatha Christie. I read afterwards that she was in the early stages of dementia, which makes me sad. The idea that her brilliant brain was still susceptible to such a destructive illness. Part of me wishes that the publishers had not published this book or that her editors had done their job properly, but another part of me feels that if it hadn't been published, we would never have seen how this sad disease doesn't discriminate - everyone is vulnerable. I am back to reading her earlier books, but it is tempting me to read her books in chronological order. I find it fascinating the differences between her older and more recent works and I have to keep on reminding myself that some of her books are more than 100 years old.

To cheer myself up a bit, I read A Christmas Case: A Posie Parker Novella by L.B. Hathaway, which I picked up in a charity shop - an ideal place to find surprises! The author admits that she loves detective novels and adores Agatha Christie's novels, and while this is very much in the style of Agatha Christie, she has a wonderful style of her own, and I loved the way this was written. It starts off at a house party on Christmas Eve, with each house guest being invited to tell a story about a mystery they have encountered in the past. The puzzles are original and unexpectedly resolved as you progress through the book. I really liked the characters and even thought it was a very busy set of stories, everything included was vital to the final conclusions. I am very excited to have discovered this new author and I am looking forward to reading more. The only disappointment is that it isn't sold on Hive, an independent bookstore.

As you know, I discover a lot of books in charity shops and our local post office in St Just-in-Penwith, which sells books in aid of Cancer Research UK. I love children's books and there are so many classics that I am still working my way through. I recently discovered Pollyanna, by Eleanor H. Porter, which when I started it, I thought was going to be very similar to Anne of Green Gables, another one of my favourites. But, while there are similarities, - both focus on very animaged orphans, there was also such a uniqueness to it. It was so simple,

and so heart-warming! Just a simple message throughout, delivered via a game, taught to her by her father and which educated a whole community into being glad rather than sad. I feel that if the whole world read Pollyanna, and played the game, it would be such a better place.

Another discovery is Strange Magic by  Syd Moore is the start of a series of books about the Essex Witch Museum. Rosie Strange inherits the dilapidated museum from an estranged relative and visits it before planning to put it on the market. But once there, she is pulled into a mystery with the curator, for whom she has mixed-feelings, to put some bones to rest in order to rescue a child who has been taken poorly after being possessed by a lost spirit. It is such an interesting plot - a little bit of romance, some history, and lots of mystery and adventure. There was a lot of cross-England travelling and I really enjoyed the descriptions of the people and places that they visited. The museum sounds wonderful and I would love to visit it. While there wasn't a cliff-hanger at the end, I want to know what happens next, so I am definitely going to order the next installation!

Finally, The Ancient Curse by Valerio Massimo Manfredi, described as "A crime so cruel it calls for revenge after millennia".  When I was growing up, I wanted to be an archaeologist. I didn't manage that and became a librarian instead, a career that I love and highly recommend. Anyway, back to the book. The style reminded me the M.L. Longworth books that I was reading over the Summer, and blogged about in July 2025. They were set in France, while this one was set in Italy, but they both bring regional food into the plotlines and the beautiful local countrysides. However, this Italian murder mystery is darker, and very interesting, with regards to ancient Italian history. It focuses on a series of very gruesome killings which have links to an unexplored tomb. Each victim has been brutally torn to pieces, and it is up to a young archaeologist to find out who (or what) is causing the deaths. Looking at the cover, I thought it might be a bit cheesy, but the plot sounded intriguing. It reminded me a bit of the Relic, by Lincoln Preston (a book which was good but terrifying), but it was less of a movie blockbuster, and more of a historical monster thriller. A great surprise and a little bit scary!

So, enough for now. Time to read. Let me know your thoughts and recommendations!

Endless Night - Agatha Christie

Okay, she can write.  That's how she made her name, I suppose - sold a few books.  And as ever there's an economy of style - "it's the narrative, Stupid".  Christie doesn't waste words; she keeps us on the action.  I was surprised in a "that's interesting way" to find myself making a link between Agatha Christie, The Doors and William Blake.  After that came a slight disappointment.  Endless Night, as expected, is rich with fantastic characters and intrigue.  To resolve her complex mystery, however - no, I didn't guess who did it - Christie does a complete character make-over towards the end; the villain suddenly acquires qualities, a history that had not been there before.  This left me imagining that the villain was a convenience - someone had to be guilty; and more importantly I imagined that like me Christie did not know who did it until she had invented her convenience.  The novel then loses its sense of being crafted from the start, clever clues and distractions woven into the plot - there were none.  As a result I will take a pause from her mysteries for now.  I will only return when I have forgiven her.  This should not take too long.

Book or film - Death on the Nile by Agatha Christie

So, which is better, the book or the film. Personally, I love them both. I love reading Agatha Christie's books. She had four series - Miss Marple, Hercule Poirot, Tommy and Tuppence, and the stories with no leading person. Agatha Christie is such an amazing person besides being such a creative author. She lead a very exciting life, learning to surf, accompanying her husband on archaeological digs, and she shares her experiences in her books. She is total genius, and it is so interesting reading her books through her whole history of writing, because you can see the changes in time and lifestyle, the decadence of the twenties, through the austerity of wartime, followed by the new freedoms discovered in the 50s. And her ideas for murder, so creative, and while the Poirot and Miss Marple, have a certain light-heartedness, the ones without a leading character, are altogether rather sinister, and sometimes quite macabre.

I have seen five films, and I like all of them, although The Mirror Crack'd with Elizabeth Burton, Rock Hudson, and Tony Curtis, was a bit too showy for me. I think I like the films, because they introduce me to a time which I will never experience. Death on the Nile and Murder on the Orient Express are both so decadent, and beautifully shot. I cannot imagine travelling through Egypt or Europe at such an elegant pace, drinking cocktails, admiring the scenery without the crowds, and experiencing it all without social media. I do love my gadgets, but I would also like to travel in a slower world. And the actors chosen for the roles are superb. Peter Ustinov and Albert Finney as Poirot, Bette Davies as a cantankerous old spinster, and Angela Lansbury in several different roles...just divine. I find that often, films with many famous actors, can detract from the story, but the casting choices hugely enhance these productions.

The story told in Death on the Nile is just fabulous, and only slightly different in the film, which loses three of the book's characters, or rather integrates them with the remaining ones. Nothing is lost. It is almost as though the book is being read to you, enhanced by the most beautiful scenery following alongside. I thoroughly enjoyed reading about a couple on their honeymoon, being tormented by a former lover. The plot is laid as each character's juicy background and potential motive, is described and you just get engrossed in all the connections and scandal, and the varying characters of all the people participating in this exotic trip. And, while we know there will be a murder, it doesn't actually occur until almost half way through the book. I won't spoil it, but it is a jolly fine read, and quite unputdownable!

Murder is Easy - Agatha Christie

Please look away now if you are easily offended.  The following sentences make some anachronistic reference to cats.

One of the things that I like about Agatha Christie, a quality that means that I have moved straight on to a new Christie novel, is that she was writing from a different age.  Her social comments then - for example, the tensions between different generations, give us some sense of how things have, and have not changed.

What stood out for me - as a lover of language - is the use of pussy, or 'old pussy' to describe the ageing spinster women in the village of Wychwood.  The phrase is somewhat pejorative; it describes single women who are gossips, inclined to be fanciful and likely to have a cat as their closest companion.  Christie uses the word with a casual affection, however; and her 'old pussies', as Miss Marple, or Miss Pinkerton in this case, ably demonstrate, are generally underestimated - they are the ones who solve the crime.

Which, of course, is what I didn't do.  I knew who the killer was from the first moment I met the character.  Then, having followed a narrative that introduced a range of other plausible suspects, my suspicions were confirmed - my chosen suspect was the one.  Christie, however, simply toys with her readers - me as well.  She allowed me a few pages of I knew I was right smugness before she upended the novel and showed me that I was wrong all along.  Well done you 'old pussy'
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