Agatha Christie - Poirot Part 4

With these 4 books Agatha Christie has really hit her stride when it comes to Poirot's books.  She's been writing to good reviews and success and her name has grown in prestige.  She's also remarried to Max Mallowan who is a renowned archealogist and as different from Archie Christie, her flashy fighter pilot first husband as possible.    In these 4 books we have some of her more clever plots and it feels like she's really enjoying writing out these puzzles which makes them a pleasure to read.

Murder in Mesopotamia (1936) - Reading this book reminds me that Agatha Christie had real personal experience in the field of archaeology.  I love seeing how the dig sites are set up, how the work is distributed, and how the members of the dig live because I know she experienced much of this herself.  In this book we have Mrs. Leidner - Lovely Louise - who is feeling threatened and nervous to the point that her husband hires the very practical Nurse Leathern to look after her.  Louise's fear is dismissed as just nerves until one afternoon she is discovered dead in her room.  Poirot steps in to help with a murder investigation and he and Nurse Leathern proceed to work as a team.  The investigation is very straight forward.  They interview, they check alibis, Poirot sends telegrams but Agatha does a fantastic job of making the mystery itself having some interesting twists - not everything is what it seems.  I very much enjoyed this one.  It's probably one of my favorites to read though I always seem to forget just how much I enjoy it until I pick it up for a reread.  4 Stars


Cards on the Table (1937)- Mr. Shaitana likes to collect things - unusual art and priceless artifacts but his favorite is unusual people.  His greatest piece of performance art is a dinner party with 8 guests followed by games of Bridge and ending with a murder.  Because 4 of Mr. Shaitana's guests were murders and 4 were detectives.  And so the game begins.  Was Mr. Shaitana right about his 4 murderers?  Were they really murderers?  And which one had felt driven to protect themselves?  The chase is fun to watch as Poirot, Mrs. Oliver, and Superintendent Battle are really on their game.  I do feel like Agatha Christie is having a good time writing this.  You can almost feel her thinking up the next twist behind the words.  Is a challenging and carefully constructed book all without feeling too forced and definitely keeps you guessing.  My primary problem is that the murder takes place around a game of bridge and so there are little mentions and discussions throughout the book.  I don't know the faintest thing about the game other than it takes 4 people and uses cards so I think I missed a few clues.  Even with that minus it's a fun read and it's always fun to watch it all play out.  4.5 Stars

Dumb Witness or Poirot Loses a Client (1937)- It's not uncommon for Hercule Poirot to receive pleas for help through the mail but when there's a month between the writing of such a plea and the actual mailing it catches his attention.  Doubly so when the writer of the letter, an elderly woman who suspects her family of trying to kill her, turns out to have died in the weeks that followed her writing Poirot.  Determined to help Emily Arundell, even if his help is too late to save her, Poirot examines her last few weeks hoping to find out who she was scared of and why.  Captain Hastings indulges Poirot in what he considers an academic exercise until suddenly it isn't.  This is a solid mystery and Christie does a good job of leaving us clues as the book goes along.  However, there isn't all that much that makes this stand out from her other books.  I also could have done without Bob the dog's conversation.  It didn't quite work with her matter of fact, practical writing style.  4 Stars

Death on the Nile (1937)- This is one of Christie's better known books and for good reason.  It's one of her many locked room type books except in this case the locked room is a boat cruising down the Nile.  The cast of characters is jammed full of memorable personalities.  We have the romance author who has cast herself as the expert on sex, her long suffering and sullen daughter, a nice British woman and her devoted son, an Italian archaeologist, an outspoken Communist, a strict wealthy American woman, her nurse and impoverished cousin, and a brilliant but quiet doctor.  However, all eyes are on a trio of characters - Linnet - incredibly wealthy, incredibly sure of herself and recently married to Simon who is none of these things and trailing behind is Jacqueline of the fiery temper who was Linnet's dear friend and previously engaged to Simon.  For the most part the story progresses strictly through Poirot's eyes.  We don't see an event if he doesn't see it and we don't know anything he doesn't know.  It adds an interesting element to how the mystery unravels.  I love that Colonel Race fills the role usually filled by Hastings because he's one of my favorite reoccurring characters and I love seeing how Poirot and Race interact. I can't even begin to count how many times I've read this book and each time I get the same amount of delight watching the story unfold and the end is just as shocking.  If you have read some Christie but not read this one you need to pick this one up right away and if you've never read Christie this is a great one to start with.  5 Stars