The start of this book sees an experienced hiker somehow fall to her death at the bottom of a ravine in a Columbus, Ohio park.
Suspicious.
Her daughter, Maggie, doesn’t believe it was an accident, and Rebecca’s ex-husband is her prime suspect. But he’s a well-connected ex-cop and Maggie is certain that’s the reason no one will listen to her.
PI Roxane Weary quickly uncovers that the dead woman’s ex is definitely a jerk, but is he a murderer? …
The lead character is a treat. Victoria Jones, a penniless but astonishingly audacious young Brit with no actual life skills, finds her way to Baghdad in an attempt to woo a young man she’d only met briefly.
A stranger dies in her room.
Robert Barnard: “Fairly preposterous example of thriller-type Christie, but livelier than some. Engaging heroine and unusually good minor characters – archeologists, hotelkeeper, etc. The plot concerns attempts to prevent The Big Three (Britain was one of them then) from coming together and making peace. …
In her third thriller (“The Guest List” and “The Hunting Party”) Lucy Foley keeps you guessing with multiple first person narrators and short chapters designed to leave you hanging.
The star of this twisted tale is Jess, arriving in Paris from London to visit her half-brother, Ben. …
Turns out Ben is missing and Jess can’t get any answers from the denizens of number 12, rue des Amants. …
Mickey Gibson, single mother and former detective, leads a hectic life similar to that of many moms: juggling the demands of her two small children with the tasks of her job working remotely for ProEye, a global investigation company that hunts down wealthy tax and credit cheats.
When Mickey gets a call from a colleague named Arlene Robinson, she thinks nothing of Arlene’s unusual request for her to go inventory the vacant home of an arms dealer who cheated ProEye’s clients and fled. That is, until she arrives at the mansion to discover a dead body in a secret room—and that nothing is as it seems. …
In the blink of an eye, Gibson has become a prime suspect in a murder investigation—and now her job is also on the line until she proves that she was set up.
Before long, Gibson is locked in a battle of wits with a brilliant woman with no name, a hidden past, and unknown motives—whose end game is as mysterious as it is deadly.
This may have been the first Agatha Christie I ever read.
As a Reader’s Digest Condensed Book back when I was a kid.
Quite groundbreaking as one of the first serial killer stories.
10 people on an island. No way to leave.
One by one they are murdered in this spooky house.
Like most upper middle class Brits of her age, Agatha was somewhat racist. And even more antisemitic.
She got better over the decades, eventually casting homosexuals in positive roles. Surprisingly, the famously conservative old lady even voted to join the EU.
It was first published in the United Kingdom in 1939, as Ten Little Niggers,[3] after an 1869 minstrel song which serves as a major plot element. The US edition was released i 1940 with the title And Then There Were None, taken from the last five words of the song.
The book is the world’s best-selling mystery, and with over 100 million copies sold is one of the best-selling books of all time.
My theory is that Nora is increasingly moving away from romance. In this book no bodice is ripped until well into the second half of a long book.
This one is about identity theft. The conman not only takes the identity and steals the money — but also murders the victim.
Morgan Albright … bought a small house in the perfect neighbourhood outside of Baltimore, living with a friend and working two jobs to make ends meet.
Morgan’s life is happy and fulfilling, and she is making progress on her financial and career goals.
Her perfect world is shattered when someone breaks into her home and murders her roommate.
At first, the police assume it was a random act of violence, but after discovering the killer stole Morgan’s identity and her entire savings, they realize the crime fits the profile of a serial killer named Gavin Rozwell. …
l learned a lot from this book. Roberts does a lot of research into the back stories of her characters. In this case, Morgan has to move home with her Mom and Grandmother and reinvent her life working in a small town.
Yes the plot is a bit cheesy. And the characters a bit cliche.
A surprising life story for such a successful author.
Enter historian Lucy Worsley, whose declared intention is to rescue Christie, who died in 1976 at the age of 85, from the misperceptions that cling to her life and her works of fiction. …
… she revisits the most notorious episode of Christie’s life: her disappearance for 11 days in December 1926 …
Her gift for dialogue and for manipulating social stereotypes, as Worsley demonstrates, was formidable, keenly attuned to the proliferating class anxieties of the 20th century; numerous characters are, interestingly, transitional or dispossessed in some way …
Over the past few years I’ve been reading her 70+ books. Many are very good.
Agatha Christie 1950
Despite the books, magazines, TV adaptations, movies — Agatha had money troubles most of her life.
When asked “occupation“, Agatha stated “House Wife” her entire life.
She loved buying and maintaining homes. Loved shopping. Did have a social life.
Yet she was incredibly prolific and productive as a writer. Her plots she jotted down in notebooks.
One of the things I like best about Agatha are her books in exotic settings. She loved to travel. And her second husband was an archeologist. Agatha spent a lot of time with him on his digs in the Middle East.
The Bullet That Missed is #3. Also charming and funny.
As this installment opens, the four septuagenarian members of the club—former MI6 agent Elizabeth Best, retired nurse Joyce Meadowcroft, psychiatrist Ibrahim Arif, and longtime union organizer Ron Ritchie—are investigating another murder from their cold-case files.
It seems that Bethany Waites, a local TV journalist, was about to crack a huge tax avoidance scheme when her car went over a cliff 10 years ago …
The mysteries are complex, the characters vivid, and the whole thing is laced with warm humor and—remarkably, considering the body count—good feeling.
Rick McCharles 