4:50 to Paddington by Agatha Christie

 

Title:  4:50 to Paddington

Author:  Agatha Christie

Narrated by:  Emilia Fox

Publisher: HarperAudio

Length: Approximately 8 hours and 8 minutes

Source: Purchased from Audible.

Who is your favorite audiobook narrator?  I have always loved Alison Larkin and enjoy her narration of classic stories such as the Jane Austen novels.  I also love Lorelei King and her excellent narration of the Stephanie Plum series.  I’m adding a new favorite narrator to my list, Emilia Fox.  To me, she will always be Georgiana Darcy from the 1995 Pride and Prejudice, but she has many other film credits to her name.  She is also an excellent voice actor.  Her narration for 4:50 to Paddington was excellent with different voices for each character and she acted out the story.  It made it a pleasure to listen to on my long car trip to Michigan.

4:50 to Paddington is the November selection for the #ReadChristie2022 Challenge.  The prompt is “a story featuring train travel.”  This is a Miss Marple Mystery and it’s original title in the United States was What Mrs. McGillicuddy Saw!

Elspeth McGrillicuddy is in a train watching out her window when a second train passes running parallel.  In the window she sees a man strangling a woman in the other train.  She is horrified and immediately reports it.  With no body, the authorities are sure that Mrs. McGillicuddy has imagined the event.  Troubled, she turns to her friend Miss Marple for help.  Miss Marple isn’t feeling well physically, but she is still able to use her smarts to determine what train the murder occurred and where the likely place was that the body would have been disposed of.  She also enlists her young friend, Lucy Eyelesbarrow to infiltrate the family where she believes the body was disposed of, Rutherford Hall.  The Crackenthorpe family is completed.  As the patriarch crankily rolls the roast, his children stand to inherit the estate and considerable money upon his death.  Once the body is found and a murder is confirmed, Miss Marple requests Inspector Craddock from Scotland Yard to assist in solving the murder.

I thought this mystery was inventive and delightful.  I did not guess the ending.  I like how Miss Marple was involved in the mystery from afar.  She was the brains behind the entire operation.  I love how she had to prove that a crime had even happened before working on who had committed it.  I also loved the characters, in particular Lucy Eyelesbarrow.  I like that she had a romance of her own in the story. 

I realized while listening to this audiobook that The Girl on the Train by Paula Hawkins heavily borrowed from this Agatha Christie classic.  The narrator of The Girl on the Train also sees a murder from her train window, but as an unreliable witness, she is not believed. 

Favorite Quote:

“The truth is people are an extraordinary mixture of heroism and cowardice.”

Marple: Twelve New Mysteries by Agatha Christie

 

Thank you, Partner @bibliolifestyle @williammorrowbooks for a review copy for Marple:  Twelve New Mysteries by Agatha Christie.

What character would you like to see new stories/books/movies about?

Marple is twelve new stories by twelve modern authors featuring Agatha Christie’s famous sleuth, Miss Marple.  The authors include:  Naomi Alderman, Leigh Bardugo, Alyssa Cole, Lucy Foley, Elly Griffiths, Natalie Haynes, Jean Kwok, Val McDermid, Karen M. McManus, Dreda Say Mitchell, Kate Mosse, and Ruth Ware.  I’ve read and enjoyed other books by many of these authors.

 I read Marple one story at a time to savor the new mysteries.  I was hoping I would be able to pick out one story that I loved the most, but I enjoyed them all.   That was great to me as often in collections some stories are of higher quality than the rest, but in this collection, they are ALL entertaining. It was wonderful to get new Marple stories.  I loved the callbacks to original stories and that her nephew Raymond and his wife Joan popped up a lot. 

Miss Marple had adventures in a lot of new settings in many different decades.  A common theme was that Miss Marple is the kind of old woman that people overlooked or talked down to, but she was really the sharpest one of all.  I also enjoyed that there was diversity in the characters in the stories as well.

As an environmental engineer I loved this exchange in Miss Marple Takes Manhattan:

“I thought you were lying in a gutter somewhere!” Raymond Exclaimed.

“The sewer system wouldn’t allow for that,” she said.

Marple is the October selection for the #ReadChristie2022 Challenge.  The theme this month is “a story with multiple settings.”  This book certainly had multiple settings!

Other Favorite Quotes:

“Miss Marple sighed.  It wasn’t the first and it wouldn’t be the last time she was dismissed as a silly old woman with one foot in the grave, and she reflected, it was in such strong contrast to the way Miss Bella was treated by her Caribbean community.” A Deadly Wedding by Dreda Say Mitchell.

“And do you know the worst part, Jane?  He’s right.  Age is cruel, and crueler still to women.  A woman becomes a ghost when she stops being worth looking at.” – The Disappearance by Leigh Bardugo

Review Copy from William Morrow Books as part of the Bibliolifestyle Book Tour.  Thank-you! I received a complimentary copy of this book. Opinions expressed in this review are completely my own.

Destination Unknown by Agatha Christie

 

Would you travel to a destination unknown if given the opportunity?

Destination Unknown was the August selection for the #ReachChristie2022 Challenge.  I read it back in August and was intrigued.  This is more of a spy thriller than a standard Christie mystery.

Tom Betterton is a top US nuclear scientist in the 1950s who has relocated to England and remarried.  He goes a trip to Paris and disappears.  What has become of him?  Hillary Craven has decided to end her own life when she is interrupted by a British government agent who asks a woman who does not fear death to help out her government. Where will Hillary’s new duties as a spy take her and will she find Tom Betterton?  Why other scientists disappearing from Western countries during the midst of the cold war?

I really want to see this as a Hitchcock film.  I thought it was a very interesting story.  I liked how the top scientists were recruited and were living together in a secret community. It was also interesting that Christie chose to have Betterton work on atomic science with enough truth to the matter to make it sound plausible, but it was really a McGuffin like in a Hitchcock movie.  I liked Hillary Craven’s character and seeing the journey unfold through her eyes.  I did think the action slowed down as the book progressed.  It had a satisfying ending.

Book Source:  Purchased from Amazon.com

The Murder on the Links by Agatha Christie

 

The Murder on the Links was the May selection for #ReadChristie2022.  The theme of the month was “A Story Set in Europe.”  Murder on the Links is set in France and is one of Christie’s first novels published in 1923.

Hercule Poirot and his friend Captain Hasting are off to France in this novel to meet a client.  They arrive too late as their client has recently been murdered when they arrive.   There are many suspects for this crime.  Poirot’s French nemesis, Monsieur Giraud, is also on the scene investigating and he likes to spend a lot of time mocking Poirot. 

The Murder on the Links unfortunately was not my favorite Christie novel.  There were many red herrings at the end. I was annoyed.  I also HATED the romance in this novel.  Sidekick Hastings acts like an idiot.  He falls in love at first sight with a young lady and because of this love he acts in a very idiotic way making many questionable decisions.  For someone that has been working with Poirot on solving mysteries, it seemed very odd.  It also had an “ick” factor to it with what I thought of as an older man chasing after a very young woman.

Overall, The Murder on the Links was an okay story that I do not need to read again.

Book Source:  Purchased on Amazon.com for my Kindle.

Why Didn't They Ask Evans by Agatha Christie

 

Why Didn’t They Ask Evans was the April selection for the #ReadChristie2022 Challenge?  I read it earlier this month and found it to be a delightful mystery.  This standalone mystery fits the prompt “featuring adventure.”

Bobbie Jones is playing golf when he comes across what appears to be an accident.  A man appears to have inadvertently fallen off a ledge and is laying dying. While waiting for help to arrive, the dying man tells Bobbie, “Why Didn’t they Ask Evans?”  He is not sure what this means but figures out it must be something important after he is almost poisoned when revealing this phrase to the dying mans supposed relatives.  Bobbie’s neighbor, Frankie, or Lady Frances Derwent also thinks this is interesting and the two partner up to solve the crime.  Who is the murdered man, why was he murdered, and who is Evans?

I enjoyed this mystery.  It was a lighthearted madcap adventure.  Bobbie and Frankie were both great characters.  I loved their story with the hint of romance.  I did figure out part of the mystery, but not all of it and was surprised as always by the ending.  I only wish there were more adventures starring these two as I would love to read them.  Have you watched the new show Why Didn’t They Ask Evans on Britbox?  I think I am going to get Britbox just to watch it!

Overall, Why Didn’t They Ask Evans?  was a fun and enjoyable Christie mystery.

Book Source:  I purchased this book for my Kindle from Amazon.com.

The Sittaford Mystery by Agatha Christie

 

What types of books do you like to read when winter weather keeps you indoors?

The Sittaford Mystery was the #ReadChristie2021 selection for December.  The theme was 'A story set during bad weather.'  I didn’t get a chance to read it until the end of January, but I’m glad that I did.

On a Friday night with a winter storm brewing, six neighbors have a séance.  The message from  beyond is that “Captain Trevelyan … dead…murder.”  His friend Major Burnaby rushes through the storm only to indeed find Captain Trevelyan dead.  Captain Trevelyan may have lived a low-key life in a rural village, but there seem to be plenty of people with a motive to kill him.  Was it his mysterious nephew, Jim Pearson, who arrived in town the day of the murder?  His other nephew that is supposed to be in Australia?  Who are the mysterious tenants that have leased his home?  Clues are around every corner and Inspector Narracott, reporter Charles Enderby, and Jim Pearson’s fiancée Emily Trefusis are on the case.

I enjoyed this mystery, and it was a perfect winter weather read.  I really loved the character of Emily Trefusis.  She had spunk and was the driving force behind the investigation.  Her wit and humor made the novel for me.  I once again did not figure out the murderer in this one.  I was surprised at the end, but it all did make sense. 

The characters were all fun and interesting in this novel, except for Emily’s fiancé Jim Pearson.  We don’t learn much about him and Emily’s descriptions of him make him seem easy to manipulate.  I was rooting for Charles and Emily to end of up together.

The Sittaford Mystery is a standalone Christie novel.  I started watching a Miss Marple episode titled, “The Sittaford Mystery,” that is from 2006.  I only made it about twenty minutes into the episode. Besides the book not being in the Miss Marple series, the plot up to that point had nothing to do with the novel.  The music for the episode was also quite terrible. Are there any other films or shows of this mystery that are more enjoyable?

Overall, The Sittaford Mystery was another enjoyable Agatha Christie mystery.

Book Source:  Purchased from Amazon.com

The Man in the Brown Suit by Agatha Christie

 

Title: The Man in the Brown Suit

Author: Agatha Christie

Narrated by:  Alison Larkin

Publisher: Alison Larkin Presents

Length: Approximately 8 hours and 23 minutes

Source: Review Copy from Alison Larkin Presents.  Thank-you!

Agatha Christie continues to delight me.  The Man in the Brown Suit is the January selection for the #ReadChristie2022 challenge with the theme “Inspired by Agatha’s Travels.”  Agatha Christie used incidents and settings from her around the world trip with her first husband as inspiration for this novel.  I had no idea what this novel was about and found it was a fun travel novel filled mystery that I greatly enjoyed. 

 Anne Beddingfeld has recently lost her father and is trying to determine how to move forward in life.  After witnessing the death of a man on the train line, she starts to investigate the crime.  She uses her very small inheritance to purchase a ticket on a ship to South Africa.  Along the way she meets a motley crew of characters.  Will she be able to solve the mystery and how is everyone else involved?

 Anne is a delightful character and is the primary narrator of the novel.  She is looking for adventure and romance.  Alison Larkin is one of my favorite audiobook narrators and she brings a unique voice and humor to Anne’s narration.  Sir Eustace Pedler’s diary entries break up Anne’s narrative.  Larkin had a different voice for these entries, and they were hilarious as well.  Sir Eustace was very full of himself.  The novel also introduces Colonel Race who appears in three more Christie novels, including Death on the Nile.

 The Man in the Brown Suit was published in 1924 and is one of Christie’s early works.  I enjoyed it.  It was different than her other novels that I’ve read.  I would call this one more of a romantic thriller than a detective story.  I loved the adventure, the settings, the romance, and the humor.  Are any of Christie’s other novels similar to The Man in the Brown Suit?

 Overall, I enjoyed The Man in the Brown Suit, and this audiobook version was a charming narration of the story.