Titles, Actresses, and of Course Murder… Oh My!
First Edition UK Cover 1933
Title: Lord Edgware Dies
Author: Agatha Christie
Going through my own personal Agatha Christie Crime Collection challenge, next on my list for April was 13 At Dinner. My copies are leather bound editions with 3 titles per volume, in no particular order, so I thought my eyes were just going bad when I couldn’t find the title. Finally I settled on 13 Problems and thought I was ready to go, but opening it up, something didn’t feel right. So it was back to the internet to check over my list.
That’s when I discovered that 13 At Dinner was originally published as Lord Edgware Dies, and low and behold, I actually have a copy of THAT. The story follows the trail of a woman suspected of murdering her husband because, quite frankly, she told everyone he would and then he drops dead. It happens during a dinner party at which there are 13 guests, hence the republished title. But that doesn’t explain why they chose to retitle the book.
I was doing a little research into this phenomena, and discovered that this happens quite often especially in crime fiction. For Christie alone, there’s a fabulously long list of retitles, mostly between the first edition UK and the first edition US:
After the Funeral (UK) = Funerals are Fatal (US)
Death in the Clouds (UK) = Death in the Air (US)
Destination Unknown (UK) = So Many Steps to Death (US)
Dumb Witness (UK) = Poirot loses a Client
(US) Five little Pigs (UK) = Murder in Retrospect (US)
4.50 From Paddington (UK) = What Mrs McGillicuddy Saw (US)
Hercule Poirot’s Christmas (UK) = Murder for Christmas (US)
Hickory, Dickory Dock (UK ) = Hickory, Dickory Death (US)
The Hollow (UK) = Murder after Hours (US)
Lord Edgware Dies (UK) = Thirteen at Dinner (US)
The Mirror Crack’d From Side to Side (UK) = The Mirror Crack’d (US)
Mrs. McGinty’s Dead (UK) = Blood will Tell (US)
The Mousetrap (UK) = Three Blind Mice (US)
Murder in the Mews (UK) = Dead Man’s Mirror (US)
Murder is Easy (UK) = Easy to Kill (US)
Murder on the Orient Express (UK) = Murder in the Calais Coach (US)
One, Two, Buckle my Shoe (UK) = The Patriotic Murders (US)
Parker Pyne Investigates (UK) = Mr. Parker Pyne, Detective (US)
Poirot’s Early Cases (UK) = Hercule Poirot’s Early Cases (US)
The Sittaford Mystery (UK) = Murder at Hazelmoor (US)
Sparkling Cyanide (UK) = Remembered Death (US)
Taken at the Flood (UK) = There is a Tide (US)
Ten Little Niggers (Original UK) = And Then There Were None (Current UK) = Ten Little Indians (US)
They do it with Mirrors (UK) = Murder with Mirrors (US)
The Thirteen Problems (UK) = The Tuesday Club Murders (US) T
hree-Act Tragedy (UK) = Murder in Three Acts (US)
Why Didn’t they Tell Evans? (UK) = The Boomerang Clue (US) T
- taken from http://www.gaslightbooks.com.au/checklists/mchanges.html
While looking into that little curiousity, I stumbled onto another bit of fun. One of the characters in this particular Poirot adventure is based off a real historical person. Inspired would be more correct, as Ruth Draper
Draper was known for her monologues, ability to become something new with few props, and to immitate anyone. When Christie discovered Draper she thought “[...] how clever she was and how good her impersonations were; the wonderful way she could transform herself from a nagging wife to a peasant girl kneeling in a cathedral. Thinking about her led me to the book Lord Edgware Dies.” (from Christie’s autobiography
Apparently, Draper loved to perform at parties as well as on Broadway. It was said that she would watch people, taking note on all their little quirks and behaviors, and then turn what she gathered of them into one-person sketch, worthy of all sorts of accolades. She traveled throughout Europe as well and was quite the sensation. The character of Carlotta Adams is one in the same, aside from the small little detail that she doesn’t live to the ripe age of 70 because she gets wrapped up in a murder mystery.
I’m enjoying my weekly sit downs with Christie, and Lord Edgware Dies has been no exception. Its fun, interesting, and Poirot always keeps me on my toes.
Another Cozy Coffee Read
Title: Roast Mortem
Author: Cleo Coyle
Publisher:BerkleyPrime Crime
Genre: Cozy Mystery
Length: 350 pages
Buy Roast Mortem
If you haven’t noticed, I’m a sucker for cozy mysteries. Although I loved them as a child (and had read everything Sherlock Holmes related that I could get my hands on by the time I was ten) I didn’t begin revisiting this passion for whodunits until my post-college years while working as a bookseller at Half Price Books.
Cleo Coyle’s On What Grounds was actually the first of this popular genre I’d ever read and she got me hooked! After discovering her, I dug into the same author team’s Alice Kimberly Haunted Bookshop series and then began branching out to other pleasantly clever authors like Rebecca Kent and Laura Childs. They are fabulous guilty pleasures, and I love the added feature of some series that provide me with baking tips and recipes.
The ninth in the coffeehouse mystery series, Roast Mortem is the first one that I haven’t waited to find in paperback in a bookstore, I couldn’t wait for my lazy browsing to turn up the next installment after doing a blog post on Holiday Grind a few weeks ago. I procured this copy in hardback from the public library across the street, but having read it already, still plan purchase at a later date to make my set complete.
I highly recommend this series, although I must admit that this one frustrated me in a way the previous books have not in the number of typos I discovered. I don’t blame the author, as a writer I am well versed in having moments when your fingers are trying to desperately keep up with your brain resulting in dropped r’s off “yours” and silly errors like “with” getting typed in place of “would.” But I would have expected editors from the Berkley Prime Crime crew to discover those and fix them. At least, I hope that if I get a book published one day, someone has helped me correct my little mishaps before its set before the public eye.
All in all, another fun piece from the Cleo Coyle writing team!
Continuing Adventures With Papa Poirot
Title: The Murder of Roger Ackroyd
Author: Agatha Christie
Genre: Mystery
Length: 194 pages
I do believe that The Murder of Roger Ackroyd is my favorite Christie yet, despite the departure fromHastings. The whole scenario is nothing short of clever, and Christie should be praised for the fun little twist of an idea. Of course, I won’t share that idea here, because that would spoil all the fun for fresh readers.
Just go into it knowing you will discover not just the necessary murder, but secret marriages, bastard children, private meetings after dark, moving furniture, missing money, and a curious puzzle involving the color of one’s boots.
Poirot is his usual, spunky and immodest self, proclaiming, “What one does not tell to Papa Poirot he finds out.” Indeed, M. Poirot, indeed, and here you’ve done it again. I love that little man!
For those new to my blog, I am reading through Christie’s Crime Collection in 23-24 months, starting this most recent January/ February with the intention of finishing the 23rd volume (there are three books per volume in my collection) sometime in November/December of 2013. Feel free to join me: http://www.shelfari.com/groups/79392/discussions/418226/Agatha-Christie
Hercule Poirot, mon ami
Welcome back to my blog, Mes Amis! I have finished yet another book in the Hercule Poirot series, and just as she has done in the rest, Christie has brought a small smile to my face.
Hercule Poirot by Ceska Soda
Poirot Investigates
As with every detective hero, Poirot manages to be cleverer and more astute than everyone with whom he comes in contact. He sees every clue and teases us with it, not telling us what it means until the end. He manages to be both exasperating and adorable, Hastings (and the reader) often want to wring his neck and simultaneously shake his hand while he lectures his younger ally on the use of his “little grey cells” in his brain. In the finale of one adventure,Hastings exclaims: “Poirot was right. He always is, confound him!”
I think my favorite thing about him is how often he toots his own horn. He has no sense of modesty and is constantly talking of himself in the third person, proclaiming his greatness and intelligence. When not speaking in the third person about how happy people will be to see the arrival of the “The Great Hercule Poirot” he’s is busy saying things like:
“I, who have undoubtedly the finest brain in Europe at present, can afford to be magnanimous!”
One would call him pompous, but with his short, round stature and that twinkle in his green eyes, how can you hate him? In fact, if he were real, I’d hope that he would call me ‘mon ami.’
Evenings With Agatha
www.damnyak.ca
Title:Murder on the Links
Author: Agatha Christie
Genre: Mystery
Length: 173 pages
One of the most wonderful parts of January has been the cold – and Agatha Christie. At the start of the year, I committed myself to a 23 month plan to read all of the Agatha Christie Crime Collection, of which I own a beautiful black and red leather set.
The picture may be old, but its the same fireside.
In the evenings, my daughter and I light the fire in the fireplace, turn on the radio (its one of those old school looking wooden ones from Target, complete with turntable, cd player, and tape deck) and jazz immediately warms the living room with sound.
I keep my Scentsy burners on constantly and this month we’ve had a lot of Honey Peared Cider, Weathered Leather, and Cozy Fireside going.
Ayla, my daughter, is 14 months old. The jazz comes on and suddenly its dancing time! We sway and swing until the tea kettle is ready (it doesn’t whistle to my utter chagrin), and then curl up together and I read aloud the selected Agatha Christie for the evening.
This is the one time of day that we spend in the living room, most of our ‘living’ happens in the library where all my books and Ayla’s play mats are. How silly of us that our living room is where we do all our reading on death and murder.
This arrangement is everything I imagined would be wonderful about spending time with my daughter, and Agatha always lives up to her end of the deal, with all the excitement of a three ring circus.
In this second installment of the Poirot investigations, Poirot cleverly and humorously antagonizes other detectives as he and the narrator, Hastings, solve the crime together. If I said anything more, I would give away all the best parts!
Christie the Queen of Mystery
Title: Mysterious Affair at Styles
Author: Agatha Christie
Join Hercule Poirot in Christie’s classic whodunit series, starting with the first! The lady of the house of Styles is poisoned and it’s up to Poirot and the narrator to uncover the culprit.
I’m sure you’ve heard that Christie is the mother of all mystery, and after reading my second Christie mystery ever, I must say I understand where that idea comes from. I was reading another blog today (http://resolution52.com/adventures-in-resolution52) and the writers really summed my thoughts on Agatha Christie and the mystery world up well when they wrote:
Agatha does it better – but, without Doyle, she probably wouldn’t have done it at all.
You can feel the cornerstone in the structure politely put in place by Doyle’s existence as a writer, but despite my deep love for Sherlock Holmes, you can tell Christie really mastered the whodunit art.
I’m on a mission to read all of Agatha Christie’s crime collection and starting at the beginning did not disappoint. Christie’s cozy mysteries make for pleasant little “FridayReads” (if you’re a twitter follower you know how much I love those) and I look forward to continue my year with Poirot! And soon after following with Miss Marple and the rest.
The goal is to finish the entire crime collection in 23 months, starting now. I’ll be reading three titles a month, so feel free to join me for some or all: http://www.shelfari.com/groups/79392/discussions/418226/Agatha-Christie
Believing the Lie – A Review
Title: Believing the Lie
Author: Elizabeth George
Publisher: Dutton, a member of Penguin group
Genre: mystery
Length: 610 pages
Dutton Books, to my surprise and excitement, kindly provided me with a copy of Believing the Lie, Inspector Lynley’s 17th book appearance, just weeks before its official release date. Despite this book being number seventeen in a series, and having never read any of George’s previous work, I often wondered which characters were reoccurring ones and which were unique to this title. The work and the character development was so seamless, this was unclear until nearly toward the end.
“[…] Darling, secrets and silence caused all of this. Lies caused this,” Inspector Lynley summarizes the novel of which he is supposedly the star. It is refreshing to read a crime writer who gives you such a large cast of characters in such detail, its surprising to find that the lead inspector is more like the wood frame that holds a canvas together than the paint that creates the work of art itself. He is ever in the middle of the action, but rarely the focus, he merely serves as the reason for the story’s existence in the first place.
George writes human tension beautifully. More than a typical mystery, George has written a well crafted drama involving social issues surrounding homosexuals, transsexuals, and the families who love but fail to understand them. During all this family drama, international culture issues, marital affairs, and even a child pornography ring, the biggest truth to be revealed of this murder mystery, is whether there has even been a murder at all.
Typically, when I read mysteries I take the cozy, less than 200 page ones for what I call “bubble bath books,” something I can read in one sitting in the tub. As much as I love those (my cotton candy for the soul), I say with the highest compliment intended, George does not write bubble bath mysteries. And quite different from those sorts of books, this one left me wondering: What Next?
Ghosts, Suffragettes, and Skirts, Oh My!
Although Rebecca Kent (also known as Kate Kingsbury or Doreen Roberts) is not English, her Bellehaven Finishing School is, as are all the household staff and students. Well to do Edwardian Brits send their daughters to the care of Meredith Llewellyn, a widowed headmistress who sees ghosts! Not just any ghosts, though, of course only ones that have been killed off before their time!
A sort of “Ghostwhisperer” (tv show starring Jennifer Love Hewitt portraying a woman who talks to ghosts and coerces them to go to the light) for lovers of period pieces and proper society and pesky suffragettes, Kent’s cozy mysteries are just the right medicine to hunker down with while recovering from a Spring cold, hayfever, and all those other things that come with the changing weather.
I’ve finished reading High Marks for Murder, am currently reading Finished Off, and cannot wait to begin Murder Has No Class. Although the series was cut off by the publishers trying to pinch pennies in this recession, the author has wrapped up some loose ends for us here on her website: http://www.doreenrobertshight.com/id4.html.
What’s Up With Those Templars?
So in Fall of 2009 I started a discussion thread in my book club about The Templars and Freemasons, and all those other secret societies that seem to have become lumped into one cohesive thought over that last few hundred years. I thought it would be fun and interesting (not unlike the Darwin study I’ve been doing lately). No one joined me.
My Book List was to Include:
Foucault’s Pendulum – Umberto Eco (fiction)
The Holy Bible – I am still using the Archaeological Study Bible put out by Zondervan (religion) as well as another version called ESV.
The Masonic Ritual or Guide to the Three Symbolic Degrees of the Ancient York Rite – Grand Lodge Free and Accepted Masons at San Antonio, Texas (religion/secret societies/ Freemasons/ occult)
Adoptive Rite Ritual of the Order of the Eastern Star together with the Queen of the South – arranged by Robert Macoy (religion/secret societies/Freemasons/ occult)
The Amaranth – Robert Macoy (religion/secret societies/ Freemasons/ occult)
The Templars – Piers Paul Read (history/religion/secret societies/ Freemasons/ occult)
The Meaning of Masonry – W. L. Wilmshurst (religion/ secret societies/ Freemasons/ occult)
Ivanhoe – Sir Walter Scott – (fiction / literature)
also for fun…
The DaVinci Code – Dan Brown (fiction/ mystery)
The Pickwick Papers – Charles Dickens (fiction/ literature)
Out of those, I read Foucault’s Pendulum (which was brilliant, as are all things Umberto Eco) and I just finished the book by Piers Paul Read.
Why did it take so long?
Piers Paul Read has an extensive history that spans three or so centuries – parts are fascinating and I couldn’t put the book down, and other parts were dull and I couldn’t wait to put the book down. What I discovered upon completion of the book, though, is that I was just being made more and more aware of how many interesting people there are in history that I should be reading biographies on! Eleanor of Aquitaine is mentioned a bit right around page 140 or so… There’s a picture of Richard the Lionheart in battle featured in the ‘centerfold’ pictures. I should know more about these people who are so well known among historians that every day people recognize their names too. Its not enough for me to recognize them – I want to KNOW them.
I noticed too that I tended to plod slowly through this book (and this topic in general) because it seems to create more questions than it answers. There is so much documentation of so many conflicting ideas. Were the knights actually crusaders for Christ? Were their actions even remotely compatible with the teachings of Jesus? Or, were they really devil worshipers like so many throughout history convicted them of being? Can the documented confessions be trusted? Or was it all just a a little too similar to events such as the Salem Witch Hunts?
The discussion thread for the book club is still open – join and add your thoughts there: http://www.shelfari.com/groups/32350/discussions/136727/Knights-Templar-Books-
Or, just tell me your opinion below. Also, if you’ve read something interesting on the Templars or the Freemasons, share the book and your review of it as a comment. I plan to continue my studies on the topic.
The Lovely Bones
I read this book a few years ago, actually, but with it being so wildly popular again I realized I never wrote a review.
The Lovely Bones is a bit tragic, terrible in its opening rape and murder, hazy with a metaphysical view of heaven, and sad as the family surviving the deceased fourteen year old attempt to function with one less person in the household. Its beautifully written despite its harsh plot points and terrifying point of view, but reading Alice Sebold’s memoir Lucky will help you understand her approach to the story. I highly recommend for 14-18 year old girls to read as a warning to pay attention to what’s going on around you and that the wise choices in life are not always polite nor do they quench certain curiosities.
