Christie hones craft in ‘Under Dog and Other Stories’ (1951)
Sleuthing Sunday (Book review): We go back to the early days of Poirot and Hastings as Agatha Christie irons out her order and method.
Agatha Christie
Miss Marple takes a vacation ‘At Bertram’s Hotel’ (1965)
Sleuthing Sunday (Book review): Marple is oddly disengaged in this crime story, but the slow-starting novel eventually kicks into high gear.
‘So Many Steps to Death’ (1954) pulls back Iron Curtain
Sleuthing Sunday (Book review): Even considering it’s a spy yarn rather than a murder mystery, this is one of Agatha Christie’s most outside-the-box novels.
‘There is a Tide …’ (1948) soaked with good characters, case
Sleuthing Sunday (Book review): Poirot comes in at the halfway mark, and his insights into people might be more important than his nose for clues.
Branagh delivers lavish adaptations of ‘Murder on the Orient Express’ (2017), ‘Death on the Nile’
Sleuthing Sunday (Movie reviews): Kenneth Branagh makes Poirot into a broad cinematic character. It’s not for purists, but the approach grew on me.
Spy-murder mashup ‘The Clocks’ (1963) is worth your time
Sleuthing Sunday (Book review): Christie’s playfulness is on display in “The Clocks,” where she gets amusingly cynical about the spy state.
Christie, Marple still sharp in ‘The Mirror Crack’d’ (1962)
Sleuthing Sunday (Book review): The author and her detective lament the new Development near St. Mary Mead, but crime-solving principles remain unchanged.
‘Ordeal by Innocence’ (1958) badgers the bystanders
Sleuthing Sunday (Book review): Agatha Christie shows that when everyone is a suspect, the guilty person catches a break, and the innocent suffer.
Party vibe makes ‘Dead Man’s Folly’ (1956) a fun read
Sleuthing Sunday (Book review): As Ariadne Oliver and Poirot team up at a Fete gone awry, the mystery is compelling but the solution is hoary.
‘4:50 from Paddington’ (1957) a padded Christie whodunit
Sleuthing Sunday (Book review): The reliable whodunit elements are in place, but this Christmas-set tale is unusually cold – not always in a good way.