Hercule Poirot – Page 4 – Cannonball Read 17

“Never, never will you use the brains the good God has given you.”

Poirot Investigates (Hercule Poirot, #3) by Agatha Christie

January 4, 2020 by narfna Leave a Comment

Have been reading this in bits and pieces since November, but got a hankering to finish it this morning. I also realized it fits in with my only reading books by or about badass ladies in January, because Agatha Christie was certainly a badass lady. I don’t do short stories very often, for a lot of reason, but mainly because the idea of them exhausts me. You get invested for so little payoff, over and over again. But I think I might have to rethink […]

A Study in Spoilers

The Murder of Roger Ackroyd by Agatha Christie

August 3, 2019 by Ellesfena 2 Comments

(I realize I’m crossing fictional detective streams here with my review title, but it felt appropriate.) The Murder of Roger Ackroyd is often considered one of Agatha Christie’s best novels, and I’ve been excited to get to it as I work my way through all the Poirot novels in order. However, when I started reading it, I realized I was already familiar with the story. While the first two Poirot novels and short story collection are narrated by Poirot’s friend, Captain Hastings, the captain doesn’t […]

“Arrange your ideas. Be methodical. Be orderly. There is the secret of success.” – Not Hastings

The Murder on the Links (Hercule Poirot, #2) by Agatha Christie

July 23, 2019 by narfna 2 Comments

Okay, first of all, Hastings is an *idiot*. I don’t think I quite realized that in the other books I’ve read with him in them. He’s supposedly modeled after Watson from the Sherlock Holmes stories, an audience surrogate character, but Watson gets an unfair rap about his bumbling—a side effect of his characterization on film rather than evidence in the canon—whereas Hastings is genuinely a boob, and one that doesn’t realize the extent of his boobitude. In this one, not only does he get everything […]

When It Feels Like It’s Getting Late, I Will Reveal You

Death on the Nile by Agatha Christie

April 13, 2019 by Ellesfena Leave a Comment

As much as I love mysteries, I’ve never really gotten into the classics of the genre. I read And Then There Were None at far too young an age and it scared the absolute crap out of me–that was it for Agatha Christie, up until a few months ago when there was a Kindle sale on Murder on the Orient Express. I read it and thoroughly enjoyed it. Hercule Poirot’s mannerisms tickled me, and I loved the big cast and the bottle episode feel of […]

The first Christie book I haven’t liked.

The Big Four (Hercule Poirot, #5) by Agatha Christie

January 26, 2019 by narfna Leave a Comment

At first listening to this audiobook, I was enjoying myself quite a bit. Poirot was there, Hastings was there, back from Brazil, and aren’t we all having a good time now that this mysterious man has shown up in the bedroom, and then expired. Except pretty quickly after that, I realized in fact that the book was not good, and I was not enjoying myself, and even though I did listen to the whole thing in its entirety, I did not *listen* to the book […]

If you confront anyone who has lied with the truth, he will usually admit it – often out of sheer surprise.

April 5, 2018 by melanir 2 Comments

Inspired by the recent movie adaptation I figured I should finally pick this book up and read it. I… can’t think of a single thing to say about it, except to say that I feel like a bad person for not liking it more. I tried, I really did, but I honestly think this is one of those books that only works if you don’t know the ending. As the ending of the book is one of the most famous who-done-it twists in all of […]

Zirza on A Gothic Classic for a ReasonIt's one of those wish-you-could-read-it-again-for-the-first-time books. I loved it.
Emmalita on “It came to something when you found yourself hoping that the footsteps you heard were ghosts.”I loved the ending! I don’t think it’s been out long enough to talk about why though.
Dixie on Track Her Down by Melinda LeighI am just starting Track Her Down and I have read them all in order till now and thought I...
Roland of Gilead on How can you give us the gift of a crazy character named Rando Thoughtful and then just as suddenly take that gift away? We need to talk, Uncle Stevie.I came across this randomly years after it was written because I was searching "Random Thoughtful. But I have the...
Emmalita on “Only you, Em, would refer to heartbreak as a distraction. I think I would have a more sympathetic response if I asked to marry a bookcase.”Oh my goodness, Gallifrey was beautiful. I’m sure her mittens were gloriously murdery.

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