Total Eclipse of the Murder Monday
Aug. 20th, 2017 09:44 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
evelyn_bI'm posting this one a little early, because I'm about to embark on a mad quest to witness a thing going in front of another thing in South Carolina. Traffic might be bad. Wish me luck!
What I've Finished Reading
“When did you stop pitching on me as the murderer?” the murderer asks Poirot near the end of Death in the Air That’s when he learns that of course Poirot never did stop. He knows it’s true, but he’s still offended. No one likes to be seen through.
Don’t trust anyone who [spoiler!wants to help you solve a murder]; that’s the obvious lesson here.
One of the best things about Death in the Air is that it contains a proto-Ariadne Oliver, just one year before the introduction of Ariadne Oliver in Cards on the Table
The Toys of Death cheats a little, if you consider long confessional letters cheating, but it's a perfectly good mystery, with a stylishly complicated murder method and a pleasantly loathsome victim - here, a selfish novelist who cultivates relationships in order to gather material for his books and drops them when he's done.
There were three other novellas in Women Sleuths, which I read with diminishing enjoyment. Mignon Eberhart's The Calico Dog was about two young men, both claiming to be the kidnapped son of a wealthy widow. The Book That Squealed by Cornell Woolrich was about a librarian who stumbles on a crime, and is so full of cheesy movie cliches that I couldn't tell if it was supposed to be a parody or not - Miss Roberts, for example, is plain and unremarkable in her everyday getup, but transforms into a knockout when she takes off her glasses - the transformation is so acute that the detective who has been ignoring her for twenty minutes suddenly begins to stammer and asks her to a "picture show." The final story is a much later production about sad clowns and contains a two-page infodump about the history of clowning. Overall, I'm happy to have been introduced to the Coles, but equally happy to give this collection a new home in the free books box.
What I'm Reading Now
The ABC Murders by Agatha Christie. This is a re-read, so I know that [Spoiler! the apparently killer POV chapters aren’t really], but I don’t at all remember what the solution was. There are some references to future and past cases, probably a mix of intentional and unintentional repetition. Poirot describes the plot of Cards on the Table to Hastings, as an example of a tricky crime, and a stock victim description used ironically in Death in the Air (“She was a bright, happy girl with no men friends,”) is mocked here, too. I like this one a lot – a skillfully woven rug of suspense that will be skillfully pulled out from under me (even if I can’t remember exactly how).
There's nothing wrong so far with One Man Show by Michael Innes, but I don't understand why Avon Classic Crime Collection chose to market it as a bloodcurdling thriller. Maybe it turns into one later, but it's pretty arch and leisurely so far. Scotland Yard inspector John Appleby, who apart from having a corpse fall on him got next to no characterization in The Ampersand Papers, is here allowed to be skeptical of Modern Art. Also, an artist was found shot! Was he murdered? Probably!
What I Plan to Read Next
Murder in Mesopotamia!
What I've Finished Reading
“When did you stop pitching on me as the murderer?” the murderer asks Poirot near the end of Death in the Air That’s when he learns that of course Poirot never did stop. He knows it’s true, but he’s still offended. No one likes to be seen through.
Don’t trust anyone who [spoiler!wants to help you solve a murder]; that’s the obvious lesson here.
One of the best things about Death in the Air is that it contains a proto-Ariadne Oliver, just one year before the introduction of Ariadne Oliver in Cards on the Table
”Yes, a private investigator like my Wilbraham Rice. The public have taken strongly to Wilbraham Rice. He bites his nails and eats a lot of bananas. I don’t know why I made him bite his nails, to start with; it’s really rather disgusting, but there it is. He started by biting his nails and now he has to do it in every single book. So monotonous. The bananas aren’t so bad; you get a lot of fun out of them – criminals slipping on the skin. I eat bananas myself- that’s what put it into my head. But I don’t bite my nails. . .”
The Toys of Death cheats a little, if you consider long confessional letters cheating, but it's a perfectly good mystery, with a stylishly complicated murder method and a pleasantly loathsome victim - here, a selfish novelist who cultivates relationships in order to gather material for his books and drops them when he's done.
There were three other novellas in Women Sleuths, which I read with diminishing enjoyment. Mignon Eberhart's The Calico Dog was about two young men, both claiming to be the kidnapped son of a wealthy widow. The Book That Squealed by Cornell Woolrich was about a librarian who stumbles on a crime, and is so full of cheesy movie cliches that I couldn't tell if it was supposed to be a parody or not - Miss Roberts, for example, is plain and unremarkable in her everyday getup, but transforms into a knockout when she takes off her glasses - the transformation is so acute that the detective who has been ignoring her for twenty minutes suddenly begins to stammer and asks her to a "picture show." The final story is a much later production about sad clowns and contains a two-page infodump about the history of clowning. Overall, I'm happy to have been introduced to the Coles, but equally happy to give this collection a new home in the free books box.
What I'm Reading Now
The ABC Murders by Agatha Christie. This is a re-read, so I know that [Spoiler! the apparently killer POV chapters aren’t really], but I don’t at all remember what the solution was. There are some references to future and past cases, probably a mix of intentional and unintentional repetition. Poirot describes the plot of Cards on the Table to Hastings, as an example of a tricky crime, and a stock victim description used ironically in Death in the Air (“She was a bright, happy girl with no men friends,”) is mocked here, too. I like this one a lot – a skillfully woven rug of suspense that will be skillfully pulled out from under me (even if I can’t remember exactly how).
There's nothing wrong so far with One Man Show by Michael Innes, but I don't understand why Avon Classic Crime Collection chose to market it as a bloodcurdling thriller. Maybe it turns into one later, but it's pretty arch and leisurely so far. Scotland Yard inspector John Appleby, who apart from having a corpse fall on him got next to no characterization in The Ampersand Papers, is here allowed to be skeptical of Modern Art. Also, an artist was found shot! Was he murdered? Probably!
What I Plan to Read Next
Murder in Mesopotamia!
no subject
Date: 2017-08-21 07:23 am (UTC)LOL, I haven't read that one, but from what I have read of Michael Innes, that is almost certainly mis-labelling. Arch and leisurely, on the other hand, sounds pretty apt, although some are less leisurely, and a ridiculous amount of improbable things happen with dizzying speed. (You still have to read The Daffodil Affair one day just so you know I wasn't making up either the plot or the meta. Unless perhaps it was just a feverish dream...)
I don't think Appleby would do well in a blood-curdling thriller, though. He'd have to call in a hard-boiled PI to help.
Also, the US have mysteriously renamed Death in the Clouds, but have been content to leave The ABC Murders alone. I mean, and it had Death in the title this time! Are they never happy when they're not tweaking?
no subject
Date: 2017-08-23 04:18 am (UTC)Improbable things are happening in One Man Show! There's an art theft
ring at large and things are getting positively thrillerish, though we still spend plenty of time sloshing brandy around in overlarge glasses at this one dude's Stately Home.
no subject
Date: 2017-08-23 07:25 am (UTC)You could be right, although as a Brit, I am sadly only qualified to grumble about them changing it and probably mutter about the good old days. Perhaps a POirot-esque Belgian can come along and elucidate the finer points to us both!
though we still spend plenty of time sloshing brandy around in overlarge glasses at this one dude's Stately Home.
It wouldn't be right not to have brandy when there are art thefts and murders!
no subject
Date: 2017-08-21 01:20 pm (UTC)I am pleased to hear that Appleby has begun to sprout little tendrils of characterization. Perhaps they just teach them to repress that sort of thing at Scotland Yard? Alleyn sometimes tries pretty hard to repress his personality too.
no subject
Date: 2017-08-23 04:33 am (UTC)Scotland Yard knows better than to muck around with personality. Start giving your people leave to "express" their "interests," and next thing you know they're growing gigantic mustaches and pretending not to know which parts of the solar system orbit one another and all manner of nonsense. Who has time for that? No one with paperwork to do!
All Scotland Yard detectives are allowed one favorite author for incidental quoting and up to two esoteric interests, and they'd better not spoil it for everyone by abusing the privilege.
no subject
Date: 2017-08-21 03:24 pm (UTC)Bananas they get everywhere! Except pre-1540 England;p
no subject
Date: 2017-08-23 04:36 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2017-08-23 02:36 pm (UTC)