Read Recently -- April -- Mysteries
The Mirror Crack'd from Side to Side by Agatha Christie
This is my first Miss Marple mystery. I haven't run out of Poirot mysteries yet, but I've got enough that it's hard to remember which ones I have when I get to the bookstore. I got this one from my Dad last year.
As the story begins, Miss Marple is an elderly woman (the book never really says how old, but old enough that she has a caretaker (a well-meaning woman who is one of those people who never really listens to their charges and who doesn't take the elderly at all seriously), and is nostalgically remembering how her village used to be and, of course, how her garden used to be. A nearby manor-house is bought by a movie star and her husband; one of Miss Marple's friends is the person the house was bought from and of course that woman is invited to the big house party. She is surprised to see a look on the star's face that, in retrospect, she can only describe as reminding her of the the climax of "the Lady of Shalott": "The mirror crack'd from side to side/'the doom has come upon me,' cried the Lady of Shalott". And then a woman who was talking to the star falls over dead, poisoned.
It soon becomes apparent that no one could have wanted to poison the victim, and since she and the Star were drinking the same drink everyone assumes that the Star was the intended victim. Warnings start appearing at the manor, and more people start dying. Can Miss Marple find the killer in time?
This was kinda fun, and Christie didn't cheat at all. The mystery itself is actually intriguing, and all hinges on that quote. Recommended.
Irish Tweed: a Nuala Anne McGrail novel by Andrew M. Greeley
So. Ummm. While Nuala and the Kids confront schoolyard bullies and Catholic educators gone over the top into "comic-book supervillainy", Dermott reads another old diary about an Irish woman coming to America. I swear, there's supposed to be a mystery in this one, but I'm damned if I can remember what it was. So, I guess it kinda fails as a mystery, though there's still the "hanging out with people whose stories you enjoy" factor, if you've enjoyed the rest of the series.
Is that a recommendation? I don't know.
This is my first Miss Marple mystery. I haven't run out of Poirot mysteries yet, but I've got enough that it's hard to remember which ones I have when I get to the bookstore. I got this one from my Dad last year.
As the story begins, Miss Marple is an elderly woman (the book never really says how old, but old enough that she has a caretaker (a well-meaning woman who is one of those people who never really listens to their charges and who doesn't take the elderly at all seriously), and is nostalgically remembering how her village used to be and, of course, how her garden used to be. A nearby manor-house is bought by a movie star and her husband; one of Miss Marple's friends is the person the house was bought from and of course that woman is invited to the big house party. She is surprised to see a look on the star's face that, in retrospect, she can only describe as reminding her of the the climax of "the Lady of Shalott": "The mirror crack'd from side to side/'the doom has come upon me,' cried the Lady of Shalott". And then a woman who was talking to the star falls over dead, poisoned.
It soon becomes apparent that no one could have wanted to poison the victim, and since she and the Star were drinking the same drink everyone assumes that the Star was the intended victim. Warnings start appearing at the manor, and more people start dying. Can Miss Marple find the killer in time?
This was kinda fun, and Christie didn't cheat at all. The mystery itself is actually intriguing, and all hinges on that quote. Recommended.
Irish Tweed: a Nuala Anne McGrail novel by Andrew M. Greeley
So. Ummm. While Nuala and the Kids confront schoolyard bullies and Catholic educators gone over the top into "comic-book supervillainy", Dermott reads another old diary about an Irish woman coming to America. I swear, there's supposed to be a mystery in this one, but I'm damned if I can remember what it was. So, I guess it kinda fails as a mystery, though there's still the "hanging out with people whose stories you enjoy" factor, if you've enjoyed the rest of the series.
Is that a recommendation? I don't know.