Quote:
Originally Posted by ATDrake
It'd definitely be worth it. Terra Incognita is even better than Medicus, which had a few rough patches due to it being Downie's first novel. TI has much smoother writing, plotting, and a pretty decent and harder-to-guess whodunnit, IIRC.
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I checked and I can get all the rest of the books from the library so I'll give it a go after (or during
) my
du Maurier foray.
Quote:
Originally Posted by ATDrake
But Endless Night is definitely worth the time to read if you've already got a copy or can get one through the library, gratuitous Miss Marple shoe-horning* notwithstanding. The Secret of Chimneys, IMHO, is rather more meh and I'd confine it to a library read unless you can pick it up dirt cheap.
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From the adaptation
Endless Night looks to be more psychological thriller than mystery so maybe watching it before reading it shouldn't be too ruinous.
Secret of Chimneys I might skip; the episode was meh as well.
Quote:
Originally Posted by ATDrake
* And now I'm kind of morbidly curious as to how they did slot her into the story. Probably not enough to go pick up the DVDs from the library, though.
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I liked the episode but her being there was definitely a forced insertion; she added absolutely nothing to it and could've been left out, IMO.
Quote:
Originally Posted by ATDrake
Finished Agatha Christie's The Murder of Roger Ackroyd, one of her Poirot novels and also among her personal favourites as listed in the "Clues to Christie" freebie.
Going in, I'd thought this might have been one of the ones which had a reputation for having a special twist to it (even if I wasn't quite sure if it was the particular twist I was thinking of), so I kind of kept on the lookout for it if indeed it was, and probably made a lot of subconscious assumptions as to whodunnit based on that.
In the end, the motivation and the howdunnit turned out to be a surprise, because even if I thought I knew whomighthavedunnit (and I did eventually start to think that I'd misremembered because all the evidence looked to be adding up differently), I couldn't quite figure out by what means or why the suspect I'd been keeping in mind would bother. But it all made sense in the end. And I did manage to guess one (out of the many) incriminating secrets that the suspects were holding back.
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I loved this one! I'd heard about the twist, like you, so I was paying particular attention, looking for something to stand out, and I was rewarded! Something one of the characters said made me go
huh? and when I cast my mind back it all fit in, even the motivation and the howdunnit (especially when people started telling the truth and revealing secrets). Definitely highly recommended
Quote:
Originally Posted by ATDrake
Now on to the next Poirot, The Big Four, which seems to have garnered a reputation for being one of the desperately sub-par ones. I'd thought about skipping it, but now I'm morbidly curious as to how terribad it is and it'll be interesting to see the transition from one of Christie's best to one of her worst.
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The Big Four was a chore to get through; can't wait to hear what you make of it. And if you have the slightest inkling to read
Black Coffee (the novel), spare yourself and just don't bother. It's a Christie play, but novelized by Charles Osborne. The writing, the characterization, the plot, everything is off (and, if you're an attentive reader, there's no missing the murderer upfront). It is, to use your word,
terribad 