All the World's a Murder Monday
May. 15th, 2017 06:13 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
evelyn_bWhat I've Finished Reading
The Hound of Death was a great collection of short stories, about 2/3 spooky unexplained events and 1/3 cynical humans being cynical. Some of them are excellent, and some are just fun. I'm predisposed to enjoy Christie whenever she stretches her muscles (or doesn't, for that matter), so I would probably have enjoyed this walk on the spooky side even if the stories had been less well-constructed in general. One man fakes a haunting in order to cause his aunt's death, another is changed into a cat, for some reason, but gets better. There's a case of possession and a seance gone horribly wrong, and a few other things besides. "The Call of Wings," about a rich man who changes his life after hearing mysterious music, is an interesting experiment in inspiration.
What I'm Reading Now
Enter Sir John by Helen Simpson and Clemence Dane:
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Despite some unseemly concern for "breeding" and its tales, Enter Sir John is not bad. The prose is brisk rather than witty and the theatrical cast is not quite as memorable as any of Ngaio Marsh's companies - which isn't really fair, and besides, there's time yet. A young actress was overheard in a heated argument with the wife of the manager; a short time later the wife was found dead, her head bashed open with a poker. Martella Baring, the actress, can't remember a thing so she supposes she must have killed poor Magda and there's nothing to be done about it. Things look pretty black for the ingenue, but maybe not everything is as it seems?
Sir John Saumarez, nee Simmonds, is a successful actor-manager who takes an interest in Martella because he met her once in an audition and thought she had potential. Can he apply the technique of his art to the problems of daily life, and succeed where the defense failed, despite being a nosy outsider unconnected with the case in any way? Since this is a book, the answer is probably yes. After resolving to overturn Martella's conviction, Sir John repeats the phrase "It isn't as if I were in love with her," three times in as many pages and fantasizes about casting her as Kate in The Taming of the Shrew. This can't be helped, I guess; there's no aphrodisiac like a murder charge.
Best things about this book so far: the street on which the murder takes place - populated with drowsy and irritated witnesses who are too put out by all that noise in the middle of the night to process what they might be witnessing - and the totally unmethodical and irrational jury whose deliberations are given a whole chapter to themselves.
What I Plan to Read Next
More Christie, probably! It's time for Lord Edgeware Dies, which I haven't read but which has a nice matter-of-fact title, and then MURDER ON THE ORIENT EXPRESS, which was so good that it changed my life! though probably not in any immediately useful way.
The Hound of Death was a great collection of short stories, about 2/3 spooky unexplained events and 1/3 cynical humans being cynical. Some of them are excellent, and some are just fun. I'm predisposed to enjoy Christie whenever she stretches her muscles (or doesn't, for that matter), so I would probably have enjoyed this walk on the spooky side even if the stories had been less well-constructed in general. One man fakes a haunting in order to cause his aunt's death, another is changed into a cat, for some reason, but gets better. There's a case of possession and a seance gone horribly wrong, and a few other things besides. "The Call of Wings," about a rich man who changes his life after hearing mysterious music, is an interesting experiment in inspiration.
What I'm Reading Now
Enter Sir John by Helen Simpson and Clemence Dane:
She crossed to the witness-box, self-possessed, but with eyes a little puzzled, that opened wide to take in the court from this new angle. A watcher in the gallery admired her every pose. Breeding! thought this watcher. It tells; guilty or innocent, it tells.
:|
Despite some unseemly concern for "breeding" and its tales, Enter Sir John is not bad. The prose is brisk rather than witty and the theatrical cast is not quite as memorable as any of Ngaio Marsh's companies - which isn't really fair, and besides, there's time yet. A young actress was overheard in a heated argument with the wife of the manager; a short time later the wife was found dead, her head bashed open with a poker. Martella Baring, the actress, can't remember a thing so she supposes she must have killed poor Magda and there's nothing to be done about it. Things look pretty black for the ingenue, but maybe not everything is as it seems?
Sir John Saumarez, nee Simmonds, is a successful actor-manager who takes an interest in Martella because he met her once in an audition and thought she had potential. Can he apply the technique of his art to the problems of daily life, and succeed where the defense failed, despite being a nosy outsider unconnected with the case in any way? Since this is a book, the answer is probably yes. After resolving to overturn Martella's conviction, Sir John repeats the phrase "It isn't as if I were in love with her," three times in as many pages and fantasizes about casting her as Kate in The Taming of the Shrew. This can't be helped, I guess; there's no aphrodisiac like a murder charge.
Best things about this book so far: the street on which the murder takes place - populated with drowsy and irritated witnesses who are too put out by all that noise in the middle of the night to process what they might be witnessing - and the totally unmethodical and irrational jury whose deliberations are given a whole chapter to themselves.
What I Plan to Read Next
More Christie, probably! It's time for Lord Edgeware Dies, which I haven't read but which has a nice matter-of-fact title, and then MURDER ON THE ORIENT EXPRESS, which was so good that it changed my life! though probably not in any immediately useful way.
no subject
Date: 2017-05-15 07:47 pm (UTC)LOL, various detectives/suspects would attest to this!
The Hound of Death is the one I always think is The Pale Horse and isn't. I wonder if I've ever read it? (I think I have and was annoyed because I thought it was The Pale Horse, and it wasn't.)
Upcoming Poirot alert?
no subject
Date: 2017-05-16 02:33 am (UTC)Luckily, I've never read The Pale Horse, so I can't mistake innocent non-Pale Horse books for it and be disappointed. The Hound of Death is worth reading on its own merits (maybe look for it under its less confusing American title, Killer Puppy).
no subject
Date: 2017-05-16 08:28 am (UTC)LOL, are you making that up?
no subject
Date: 2017-05-16 06:21 pm (UTC)