My Agatha Christie Kick

Last fall I listened to my very first Agathie Christie book, And Then There Were None. Since then I have listened to another half a dozen mysteries by Christie and I look forward to more. Here they are:

Little did I know when I picked up this book on cd from the library that I was being introduced to Agatha Christie by what is considered one of her very best books. I don't know if that is good or bad. It's good because it made me want to read more but it's also bad because nothing since then has quite measured up. I loved And Then There Were None. What an amazing plot! Such a fun mystery and it kept me guessing until the very end. It was a little hard to listen to as are all of Agatha Christie's books because there are so many characters but I was able to sort them out pretty quickly. I would recommend reading this one rather than listening to it but I still loved it as an audiobook.

Review: 5/5 stars

These next books aren't actually books. These are the BBC radio dramatizations of the books, Murder at the Vicarage, 4:50 from Paddington, and Evil Under the Sun. They were each only about 2-3 hours in length and were full cast productions. They gave me an idea what it would have been like before TV, and the family gathered around the radio to listen to a show. I quite enjoyed them. I don't know how much of the books was taken out to shorten it down so much, but it felt like all the necessary information was presented fully and well. Vicarage and Paddington are both Miss Marple mysteries and Evil is a Hercule Poirot mystery. Miss Marple makes her very first appearance in Murder at the Vicarage so it could be a good place to start if you are interested in Miss Marple mysteries. At first I preferred the Hercule Poirot books but Miss Marple is growing on me.

Review: 3.5/5 stars

Nemesis was my first Miss Marple mystery and it was an interesting one. An old acquaintance of Miss Marple's asks her to do her amatuer sluething but doesn't tell her who was murdered or any of the circumstances of the case. He puts her into a situation and then she, in her odd ways, digs up a mystery and, of course, solves it. (That's not giving too much away, is it? :) ) Review: 4/5

The Mysterious Mr. Quin is a collection of twelve short mysteries. While each mystery is a separate story there are two characters that have a part in the solving of each mystery. Each story adds to the overall effect of the final conclusion. I enjoyed this one but started getting bored towards the end. I think there were just a few too many stories. Review: 3/5

The final Agatha Christie novel I listened to was The Secret Adversary. It was different from the others because it was more of an espionage story rather than a murder mystery. I liked it in the end but I like the murder mysteries better.

Review: 3.5/5

These books are all wonderfully clean and fun books to read. I'd recommend them to anyone who likes mysteries and also for those who like to read about England and its people and society.