Typical Christie. This was her 1941 book.
A group of people ALL could have been the killer.
The surprise ending seemed to cute and complex (to me) to be believable.
Hercule Poirot takes a holiday in Devon.
During his stay, he notices a young woman who is flirtatious and attractive, but not well liked by a number of guests.
When she is murdered during his stay, he finds himself drawn into investigating the circumstances surrounding the murder.
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Peter Grainger is still the best author I know who doesn’t have a Wikipedia page.
That’s surprising since his fans are fanatics for his books.
His murder mysteries are different. Slow paced. Very little violence, sex, or profanity.
Detailed police procedurals.
The mystery is secondary to the relationships between characters. For example, in this 2020 book there’s a charming love story between a blind musician and Detective Sergeant Christopher Waters.
“He might be a nobody, but he was their nobody and their first case.”
The new Kings Lake Central murder squad is about to spend its first morning on team-building exercises and reviewing cold cases when the call comes in that the body of one of the city’s rough sleepers has been found in a shop doorway.
It happens, someone says, he isn’t the first to die on the streets and he won’t be the last, but the story the new team begins to uncover is far from routine. …
Amazon
The Wayward Pines Trilogy (2012–2014) is a mystery/thriller/science fiction novel series by American author Blake Crouch.
It follows U.S. Secret Service agent Ethan Burke as he unravels the mystery surrounding his unanticipated arrival in the small town of Wayward Pines, Idaho, following a devastating car accident.
The novels are Pines (2012), Wayward (2013), and The Last Town (2014).
In 2015, the novels were adapted into the television series Wayward Pines. …
For me the 2nd book in the series was not as good as the first. Though it does have the kind of cliffhanger ending that made me put book #3 on hold at my library.
Ethan Burke is now surprisingly the sheriff, seemingly in the confidence of Dr. Pilcher who runs the mystery town.
Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.
London, 1887. Ending at the Golden Jubilee of Queen Victoria. Her 50th anniversary.
This is a lightweight but entertaining read about an adventurous young woman who’s thoroughly modern in her outlook to life.
After burying her spinster aunt, orphaned Veronica Speedwell is free to resume her world travels in pursuit of scientific inquiry—and the occasional romantic dalliance.
As familiar with hunting butterflies as with fending off admirers, Veronica intends to embark upon the journey of a lifetime.
But fate has other plans when Veronica thwarts her own attempted abduction with the help of an enigmatic German baron, who offers her sanctuary in the care of his friend Stoker, a reclusive and bad-tempered natural historian.But before the baron can reveal what he knows of the plot against her, he is found murdered—leaving Veronica and Stoker on the run from an elusive assailant as wary partners in search of the villainous truth.
Amazon
Yrsa, born 1963, is an Icelandic author.
My Soul to Take is the 2nd book in her Thóra Gudmundsdóttir series.
Perhaps my last. Too many characters. Too complicated.
The killer revealed in a way that would not impress Agatha Christie.
Like the first book, the plot sounded interesting.
In the mystical Snæfellsnes region on Iceland’s west coast – at a New Age health resort in a renovated farmhouse – the body of a young woman is discovered, savagely beaten, with pins inserted into her feet.
Thóra Gudmundsdóttir, lawyer and single mother of two, has been retained to represent the resort’s owner and prime suspect.
But a fresh corpse is not the only abomination Thóra encounters here – for local legend says this place is haunted, and a bizarre series of inexplicable occurrences soon suggests it is so.
As Thóra digs deeply into the farm’s past, she unearths a shocking history of evil and depravity, and her once-solid view of reality begins to waver.
But a second murder, shockingly similar to the first, pulls Thóra back to earth by making two inescapable truths abundantly clear: the killer she seeks is very real and is not finished yet.
… first novel in the Poirot series set at least partly in the courtroom, with lawyers and witnesses exposing the facts underlying Poirot’s solution to the crimes.
The title is drawn from a song in Shakespeare’s play Twelfth Night. …
One reviewer remarked “it is economically written, the clues are placed before the reader with impeccable fairness, the red herrings are deftly laid and the solution will cause many readers to kick themselves.” …
wikipedia
Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.
Five connected stories.
Maud is an irascible 88-year-old Swedish woman with no family, no friends, and… no qualms about a little murder.
… funny, irreverent story collection by Helene Tursten …
Ever since her darling father’s untimely death when she was only eighteen, Maud has lived in the family’s spacious apartment in downtown Gothenburg rent-free, thanks to a minor clause in a hastily negotiated contract. …Now in her late eighties, Maud contents herself with traveling the world and surfing the net from the comfort of her father’s ancient armchair. It’s a solitary existence, and she likes it that way.
Amazon
James Patterson partnered with Brian Sitts to reboot the Doc Savage stories from the 1930s and 1940s.
In the NEW book (2022) — Dr. Brandt Savage, a professor of anthropology is kidnapped off the street by the enigmatic Meed and is schooled in the fine art of assassination.
In fact, Meed makes him something of a superman. Physically and mentally transformed.
But why?
Brandt is the great-grandson of the original Doc Savage. He has the right genetics to do what Meed needs him to do.
YES. It’s dumb. The plot makes no sense. Like the original pulp fiction, perhaps.
I’ll bet you can’t pronounce Yrsa Sigurðardóttir. 😀
Yrsa, born 1963, is an Icelandic author.
Last Rituals (2005) is the first book in her Thóra Gudmundsdóttir series.
Good, not great, is my review.
The premise is interesting:
At a university in Reykjavík, the body of a young German student is discovered, his eyes cut out and strange symbols carved into his chest.
Police waste no time in making an arrest, but the victim’s family isn’t convinced that the right man is in custody.
They ask Thóra Gudmundsdóttir, an attorney and single mother of two, to investigate.It isn’t long before Thóra and her associate, Matthew Reich, uncover the deceased student’s obsession with Iceland’s grisly history of torture, execution, and witch hunts.
But there are very contemporary horrors hidden in the long, cold shadow of dark traditions. And for two suddenly endangered investigators, nothing is quite what it seems . . . and no one can be trusted.
Amazon
Paul Theroux is a jerk. But the most skillful writer I can name.
And he’s had a house in Hawaii for over 30 years.
Under the Wave at Waimea is his 2021 novel. Good insight into surf culture.
Professional Hawaiian surfer Joe Sharkey, the protagonist of Paul Theroux’s superb new novel, “Under the Wave at Waimea,” is in trouble — even before he accidentally kills a bicyclist on a dark, rain-drenched road on Oahu’s North Shore.
An aging surfer comes to terms with mortality in Paul Theroux’s superb ‘Under the Wave at Waimea’
Old-timers recognize and are thrilled to meet “the Shark,” as he’s nicknamed.
But to the younger surfing crowd, 62-year-old Joe is “just another leathery geezer in flip-flops.”
In short, he’s feeling old.
“When did it happen?” he wonders. “It wasn’t sudden — no illness, no failure; it had stolen upon him.” …
The Shark starts to fall apart after the accident. His 38-year-old girlfriend has him tested, but it doesn’t seem to be related to Alzheimer’s.
Joe starts telling the same old stories. Over and over again. I did enjoy the ones about Hunter S Thompson in Hawaii. 😀
Theroux is in his 80’s now. I’m thinking aging is much on his mind.
There’s a flashback to Joe’s school days. How he became a surfer. Hawaiian kids at Joe’s school did not appreciate the Haole. White man.
It could be adapted for television.
Rick McCharles 