SheriC > Recent Status Updates

"The Plymouth Express" 4 stars. Still no magnificent moustaches or egg-shaped head, but this is the first Poirot where I guessed the whodunnit before the reveal. Also, lots of almighty little gray cells!

"The Clergyman's Daughter" 3 stars. Only the 2nd Tommy & Tuppence I've read, and this one was much more interesting. The mystery and solution wasn't all that much, but T&T characters were charming.

"The Coming of Mr. Quin" 4 stars. Again, using a version of the parlor storytelling device, but in this case instead of just telling the story, it is a group of people actually involved in the mystery, figuring it out as they re-tell it to themselves.

"A Christmas Tragedy" 3 Stars. The mystery was interesting, but I dislike the story framing of a group of people sitting around and telling a spooky (mystery in this case) story to each other. I thought that device went out of fashion after the Victorian period.

"The Chocolate Box" 3 Stars. Seems a little hastily put together. Perhaps too short to really develop the story or characters. Poirot gets his little moment of unconscious arrogance, but I missed his extravagant moustaches and egg shaped head.

"Three Blind Mice" 4 Stars. You can tell this was originally a radio drama from the structure and the characters. This may be the first AC I've read that doesn't have a recurring detective. She's packed it with misdirects and red herrings, but whodunnit is not hard to guess.

Good Lord, that foreword! Agatha Christie reminiscing on the gluttony of the good old days. The thought of drinking straight cream, and worse, raw cream makes me shudder.

Re-shelving. I never got to even open this one before the start of the festive challenge

Another one I need to review

Finished this one, oh boy I'm so behind on my reviews!

Ahhhh, I've missed Peter Grant and his smartassery

Loved this. Review incoming

Not the best Nancy. Review incoming

I'm really struggling with this one. The dreaded FPPT. Having trouble remembering who all the characters are, partly because I don't really care about any of them or the plot. Thinking about DNF.

This was fun getting to see Nancy and Bess together without George for such a long time.

Granted, I've skipped 4 books (because I already read those), but quite a jump in Hannah's visibility. But some things remail eternal: our villains are loud, crude, bad mannered, overdressed, over rouged. This time, Nancy sets out to save little orphan twins from being adopted and exploited by some show business people.

Apparently this is one of the series where the 1965 rewrite is a completely different story, unrelated to the original. So instead of reading in tandem, I'll read the 1934 edition first, then this one.

"Masque" by Ed Gorman (1990) - Nothing new or inventive, and the writing isn't even very good.

"The Middle Toe of the Right Foot" by Ambrose Bierce (1890) - Now this is some good writing. Somehow both gothic and concise. Beautifully grotesque sense of place and description of the main character. Clever little plot twist.

"Mariana" by Fritz Lieber (1960) - So disturbing. Sort of a sci-fi Bluebeard story, but without the actual Bluebeard.

Martha’s constant corrections of Suki’s word choice is more than annoying, it’s rude. The girl has obviously got some sort of tic that causes her to substitute similar sounding words. It’s not ignorance and she hasn’t asked for help with it. She’s literally the only person who has shown any interest in Martha or demonstrated any caring for her at all and all Martha can do is constantly correct her.

Kicking off my Christmas reading with a new version of an old classic. I don't remember the circumstances under which I acquired this audio, read by Michael Page, but hoping it's a good one.

Martha needs a kick in the pants. She's so annoyingly passive. She's incredibly self involved. She doesn't "give" or "help" others as an expression of caring, she does it entirely to satisfy her own sense of self-worth. Other people are meaningless to her, except as a means of self validation.

The writing is a little clumsy and obvious, but I’m interested in the characters and where the story will go

First chapter impression: Annoying main character, but promising to have a satisfying character arc. Set up to be emotionally needy, desperately useful in hopes of some scraps of appreciation from anyone, endlessly taken for granted, and that's only when people bother to notice her at all. Militantly anti-romance, perhaps because that's how she avoids rejection.

No idea what to expect of this one. Picked up at a Friends of the Library sale.

“The Marble Hands” 1915 Capes - maybe where De Palma got the idea for the ending to Carrie

“Making Friends” 1987 Raisor. Ah the adulterated Halloween candy trope.

EDIT: apparently there are still parish clerks, go figure. But the modern role is somewhat different than in 1912, when the expectation was that they lit stoves and candles, dressed the rector, and readied the church for services.

"The Kirk Spook" 1912 (Swain) Not sure of the point of this one, but amused by opening (in jest?) assertion that soon no one will have met a parish clerk, as the profession is nearly extinct. And indeed it is, so extinct that if the story hadn't gone on to describe the duties, I'd have no idea what it was.