#ReadThis @AgathaChristie @HarperCollins @Morrow_PB #HalloweenParty Hallowe'en Party by #AgathaChristie #Thirty-Fifth #35 #HerculePoirot #Mystery #ReadChristie2022
In this wicked heat wave in Manhattan it's time to look to fall if only in a book! But this isn't just any book: it's Agatha Christie. Again setting a record for most author reviews posthumously also, Agatha Christie is winding down her Hercule Poirot tales and this is sadly the third to the last. Who know bobbing for apples could be so deadly, and covid germs have nothing to do with that!
Poirot as a character is indeed legendary and he is from the pure imagination of Agatha Christie.
"I am quite sure," said Hercule Poirot. "When a thing arranges itself so, one realizes that it must be so, one only looks for reasons why it should not be so. If one does not find the reasons why it should not be so, then one is strengthened in one's opinion." (p. 233) We agree with nearly all of his philosophies except for the fact that he is not into being comfortable. Though at times athleisure can be fashionably horrifying, you cannot beat jeans and a sweater and sneaks and perhaps we could reinvent him for today.
Agatha wins us over one more time on page one where in the very first sentence she uses whom correctly. (High five in heaven.)
All Catholics know the Holy Days of Obligation and All Souls Day play a part here and the visual of flowers in Paris markets is wonderful. Remember, all takes place in England where there is no Thanksgiving (obviously Thanksgiving is a celebration of religious freedom from England!) and it is funny to see the characters' take on it in November.
Pay attention to motives, relationships and character. As per usual, we will not give it all away but by book thirty-five, finally Peachy guessed who the murderer is quite early on correctly. This is rare and does not reflect on the quality of the book but maybe the amount of time we have spent with Agatha and Hercule by now.
"Old sins have long shadows," quotes Poirot. (p 99)
Someone is just ALL WET.
Halloween Party is Recommended by Whom You Know.
Previously on Whom You Know, we have raved about Agatha:
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
https://www.whomyouknow.com/2020/11/readthis.agathachristie.perilatendhouse.peachydeegan.harpercollins.williammorrow.html#.X7lGvGhKg2w
Lord Edgware Dies
Murder on the Orient Express
Three Act Tragedy
and we took a break from only him and did him with others in Midwinter Murder
and returned to only him with Death in the Clouds
The ABC Murders
Murder in Mesopotamia
Cards on the Table
Murder in the Mews
Dumb Witness
Death on the Nile
Appointment with Death
Hercule Poirot's Christmas
Sad Cypress
One Two Buckle My Shoe
Evil Under the Sun
Five Little Pigs
The Hollow
The Labors of Hercules
Taken at the Flood
The Under Dog and Other Stories
Mrs. McGinty's Dead
After the Funeral
Hickory Dickory Dock
Dead Man's Folly
Cat Among the Pigeons
The Clocks
Third Girl
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!
