Baby it's cold outside and no one can heat up the pages like Agatha Christie! With her literary fireside chats of escapades and danger, Agatha is once again lighting up your life with her words of excitement and tales of what just might happen to you, if there was no lockdown that is. And just how do you keep new potatoes???
If you are into short stories, this has your name all over it. If you like stories in fun-size like little chocolates, this is also for you and it includes The Chocolate Box, the only story where Poirot makes a mistake. You will find Poirot in some of these but not all of these stories.
We are taking a break from the first ten Hercule Poirot novels, previously featured:
The Mysterious Affair at Styles
Murder on the Links
Poirot Investigates
The Murder of Roger Ackroyd
The Big Four
The Mystery of the Blue Train
Peril at End House
Lord Edgware Dies
Murder on the Orient Express
Three Act Tragedy
It kicks off with Three Blind Mice, which has turned into the longest running play ever: The Mousetrap. Peachy is not into plays but she wants to see this now. With the record-setting recent snowfall here especially this month, the setting could not be more significant. The Mystery of Hunter's Lodge is also in Poirot Investigates.
We meet Miss Marple, the other major Christie detective, in A Christmas Tragedy. Though Christmas is over for this season the Christmas spirit is keeping everyone going through this cold winter! New Year's Eve cheer is included in The Coming of Mr. Quin so wear your best harlequin diamonds. You'll also meet the famous sleuthing couple Tommy and Tuppence in The Red House.
If the beach is more your style, you'll find that here too and it's in Europe: entirely a vacation. Problem at Pollensa Bay is not nearly the problem of lockdowns and neither is The World's End in presumably gorgeous Corsica. Escape your own problems! And Mr. Parker Pyne is delightful and we wish he was part of the New York social circuit. We liked the full circle of Sanctuary, and Christmas Adventure closed it all quite nicely.
The Penultimate tale, The Manhood of Edward Robinson, was definitely our favorite in all its Gatsby-esque glory.
Midwinter Murder is Highly Recommended by Whom You Know!
https://www.agathachristie.com/
About the Author
Agatha Christie is the most widely published author of all time and in any language, outsold only in the Bible and Shakespeare. Her books have sold more than a billion copies in English and another billion in a hundred foreign languages. She is the author of eighty crime novels and short-story collections, around thirty plays, two memoirs, and six novels written under the name Mary Westmacott
She first tried her hand at detective fiction while working in a hospital dispensary during World War I, creating the now-legendary Hercule Prior with her debut novel, The Mysterious Affair at Styles. In 1930, Miss Jane Marple made her first full-length novel appearance in The Murder at the Vicarage, quickly becoming another beloved and enduring character to rival Poirot's popularity. Additional series characters include the husband-and wife crime-fighting team of Tommy and Tuppence Beresford, private investigator Parker Pyne, and Scotland Yard detectives Superintendent Battle and Inspector Japp.
Many of Christie's novels and short stories were adapted into plays, films, and television series. The Mousetrap opened in 1952 and is the longest running play in history. Academy Award-nominated actor and director Kenneth Branagh helmed the acclaimed major motion picture Murder on the Orient Express in 2017 and its sequel, Death on the Nile, starring in both films as the Belgian detective. On the small screen Poirot has been most memorably portrayed by David Suchet, and Miss Marple by Joan Hickson and subsequently Geraldine McEwan and Julia McKenzie.
Christie was first married to Archibald Christie and then to archaeologist Sir Max Mallowan, whom she accompanied on expeditions to countries that would also serve as the settings for many of her novels. In 1971 she achieved one of Britain's highest honors when she was made a Dame of the British Empire. She died in 1976 at the age of eighty-five. The one-hundred-year anniversary of Agatha Christie stories and the debut of Hercule Poirot was celebrated around the world in 2020. Whom You Know will never stop celebrating it!
