Agatha Christie

[sixret]

A week tomorrow, the new Poirot novel, "The Monogram Murders", will be published worldwide.

Three guests at a fashionable London hotel have been murdered, and a cufflink has been placed in each one’s mouth. Poirot must arrange the bizarre pieces of the puzzle to discover the truth...

[snugglepot]

It's funny, I am a huge Agatha Christie fan but this has no interest for me. I simply do not want to read a book about Poirot by someone who is not Agatha Christie.

[pete9012S]

Thank you Chrissie,John and Sixret for your kind good wishes.
Our anniverary trip has gone well and it is nice to be in my wife's 'good books' for a change...long may it last!!!

This book about Poirot has definitely divided opinions.
As a lifelong Agatha Christie fan I personally have to read it.
My library has just emailed to say they have received an advance copy and as I was the one who suggested they order it I will be allowed to have the book 1st in my area.
I shall report my findings without any spoilers in due course either here,on Harley's forum or perhaps on the main Agatha Christie forum itself.

[Poppy]

I found two Agatha Christie books today in the Charity shop for 50p each: N or M? and By the Pricking of My Thumbs - both in the 'Tommy and Tuppence series' apparently? They both look interesting so I will take a look at them after The Body In the Library which I am very much enjoying!

[Katharine]

From what I can remember, 'N or M' is a good story, not sure if I've read the other one or not.

[Chrissie777]

I found two Agatha Christie books today in the Charity shop for 50p each: N or M? and By the Pricking of My Thumbs - both in the 'Tommy and Tuppence series' apparently? They both look interesting so I will take a look at them after The Body In the Library which I am very much enjoying!

Poppy, I can highly recommend watching the Tommy and Tuppence TV series. Francesca Annis plays Tuppence and James Warwick is Tommy. They are a lovely couple.

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Agatha-Christie ... d+Tuppence" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Read the customer reviews!

[Katharine]

That reminds, me, I bought my parents that series as a thank you present for all the help they gave us when my youngest daughter was born. I was hoping to borrow it once they'd watched it - that was 8 years ago!!! I'm sure they've watched it several times by now, so best I ask to watch it before they wear it out.

[Moonraker]

You'll love N or M?, Poppy. One of my most re-read books of Agatha's!

[sixret]

I love both! But would suggest that you read N or M? first.

[Poppy]

Thanks everyone! I look forward to reading them! N or M? in particular.

[Poppy]

After finishing and highly enjoying The Body In the Library (and I reviewed it!) I have moved onto a book I picked up at the Library by Christie: Five Little Pigs. I am three chapters through and again, I am captivated by the sinister plot and luring style of writing. But I have heard the Poirot books are more confusing than Miss Marple books - is this true?

[rosy_posy]

I haven't found the Poirot books particularly confusing. Some of them are quite intricate, but they're simple enough to be understood, I think. And Poirot himself is an adorable character.

[sixret]

Credit to Amazon U. S
S.J. Watson Interviews Sophie Hannah
is the New York Times bestselling author of .

SJ: In The Monogram Murders, you channeled the voice of the legendary Hercule Poirot. How was writing a longstanding character invented by someone else different from writing your own?

Sophie: Not as different as you might think. I know Poirot so well, from reading all the Christie Poirot novels lots of times. In a way, writing this book felt similar to writing about a real person I was very familiar with. It was a bit like writing an episode in the biography of someone I greatly admire.

SJ: What is your all-time favorite Agatha Christie mystery?

Sophie: That’s a tough one. Currently, Sparkling Cyanide - so clever and surprising - but I change my mind all the time. My favorite Poirot novel is After The Funeral.

SJ: What kind of research did you do prior to sitting down and writing The Monogram Murders?

Sophie: I reread all the Christie Poirots, and I booked a week's holiday at Greenway, Agatha Christie's former holiday home in Devon. I hoped that inspiration would strike if I went there, and it did. On the first night there, I propped myself up in bed with my laptop, about five metres away from an enormous portrait of Agatha, and starting putting together my plot. By the time I left at the end of the week, I had the whole story in my mind and on my computer - every last detail. If I were a superstitious person, I would say that Agatha helped me...but of course I'm far too sensible and rational to suggest that! (Or am I?)

SJ: What do you think are some of the quintessential traits of an Agatha Christie mystery? Did you try to incorporate any into The Monogram Murders?

Sophie: I tried to incorporate what I think of as all the crucial ingredients of a Christie/Poirot novel: a gleeful delight in storytelling; an outlandish/apparently impossible opening scenario that is later revealed to be eminently possible; the perfect combination of ease and pleasure for the reader with a challenging intellectual puzzle; a profound intelligence that at no point makes the reader feel stupid or condescended to; the centrality of motive and psychology; the combination of a light/feel-good experience for readers with a sophisticated awareness of the dark depravity of human beings. Christie, more than any other crime writer, is able to include polar opposites in her novels - light-dark, easy-difficult - without either ever detracting from the other.

SJ: Do you think Agatha Christie would have been pleased with The Monogram Murders?

Sophie: I can't speak for her. I fervently hope so! Wherever she is, I hope she's pleased!

[sixret]

Yes, it's true that Poirot books are trickier than Miss Marple books as a whole.

Thank you for the review, Poppy.

[sixret]

Copy from Amazon.

Monogram Murders review:

Almost a century ago in January 1920, the famous fictional Belgian detective Hercule Poirot was introduced by Agatha Christie in the novel The Mysterious Affair at Styles. After forty-two adventure-filled novels set between World War I and World War II, with some of the later novels set in the 1960s, The New York Times splashed an obituary on its front page when he died of heart complications in the final novel Curtain which was published in September 1975.

Almost forty years later, detective Hercule Poirot is resurrected and makes a triumphant return in The Monogram Murders: The New Agatha Christie Hercule Poirot Mystery by poet and crime novelist Sophie Hannah. Best known for relying on his `little grey cells' for solving crimes, the story is set in the early years of Poirot's career and is told from the perspective of a new character, Inspector Edward Catchpool of the Scotland Yard, who asks for Poirot's help in solving a troubling series of murders as it's "a diabolically clever puzzle that can only be solved by the talented Belgian detective."

The Monogram Murders begins on an ominous note when one February evening in 1929 a distraught woman named Jennie enters a London coffee shop where Hercule Poirot is having a quiet supper. With a disheveled appearance and strange look, it's not difficult to guess she's terrified. When Poirot offers to help her, Jennie made cryptic and puzzling remarks and was adamant that no one can help her because she's as good as dead and that the crime must never be solved. When two women and a man are found murdered in a hotel with monogrammed gold cuff links inserted into their mouths that same night, it becomes all too apparent that no ordinary sleuthing work will help solve the case.

Detective Poirot is unable to make sense of the murders and wonders if it has any connection with the woman he encountered at the coffee shop. While he tries to piece together the jigsaw puzzle, the murderer is preparing to snuff the life out of a fourth victim. The story follows Poirot as he wades through layer after layer of baffling clues and mysteries in his quest to solve the strange murders and it will require all his wit, wisdom, brilliance, subtlety, creativity and deductive prowess if he is to find the murderer before it's too late.

Bestselling author Sophie Hannah's fine writing and the complexity of the plot are the strong points of this new Hercule Poirot mystery. Recreating and resurrecting an iconic detective who has been laid to rest by the queen of thrillers is a daunting task, yet Sophie has done a commendable by going back to the early years of Poirot's career which has allowed her to the freedom to toy around with her characters and at the same time avoid the pitfalls of having to deal with his death. What we have in the end is an absorbing story true to the legacy of its original writer, and in the process created a major event for mystery lovers the world over.