December 2018: A round-up of my favourite reads over the past year

Hello, dear readers, and welcome! With the holiday season almost upon us, what better time than now to share with you some of my favourite reads over the past year! Most of them are titles that the Canada Water Crimes & Thrillers Reading Group tackled. Some are quite old; others less so—though even a number of the more modern ones have a period feel. They’ve nearly all got a link to Agatha Christie, too, in one small way or another.



Closed Casket by Sophie Hannah writing as Agatha Christie

Lady Playford, author of the beloved Shrimp Seddon mysteries (whose precocious ten-year-old heroine leads of a gang of child detectives), invites Poirot and Catchpool to a family house party at her rural Irish mansion where she announces that she has changed her will, disinheriting her two children in favour of her terminally ill secretary. Hannah’s characters are at once complex and yet instantly recognizable. Even the supporting cast is beautifully drawn. I was immediately attracted to the ageing Irish cook who takes one look at Catchpool and says, ‘I knew I was right—you’ve got that look about you!’

“…I asked the obvious question, to which she answered, ‘The look of a man who drinks water all through the night!’ She said this as fiercely as if she were accusing me of baby farming or some equally hideous crime, then pointed to her mouth and said, ‘Dry lips—I can see them from here!’”

She enigmatically goes on to relate a seemingly unconnected story about a nephew who had once stolen some peppermints from a bowl and had broken the bowl in the process. Although I wasn’t expecting an explanation for these bizarre and unfathomable utterances, I was truly delighted with it when one finally came. That kind of sums up how very generous this book—and its author—is. Cozy thrillers don’t get much cozier…and certainly no more challenging.

Magpie Murders by Anthony Horowitz

Magpie Murders has been lauded for its cleverness. Stephen King (no less) tweeted this of it: “It’s as good as an Agatha Christie. Better, in some ways. Cleverer.” It’s certainly more complex (almost to a fault), though I wouldn’t say it’s cleverer. If you’ve heard of it, you’ll probably already know that it’s a book within a book, first an Agatha Christie style whodunnit set in the 1950s by the (fictitious) recently deceased crime writer Alan Conway. Conway’s detective is Atticus Pünd—a cipher for Hercule Poirot—and the setting is classic Poirot territory, the quiet rural village on Saxby-on-Avon. When the busybody of a housekeeper at the manor house dies in a fall down the stairs, Pünd is called in but resists the call, only accepting the case when Sir Magnus Pye, her employer, is later murdered. Anyone who likes Poirots will probably enjoy this part. In style it reminds me a little of Dead Man’s Folly. There are clues, naturally, but they are by far outweighed by the number of red herrings.

The second half of Horowitz’s book concerns itself with the apparent suicide of Alan Conway, Pünd’s creator. We are no longer in cozy mystery mode anymore. Conway is a nasty piece of work and there are many of his acquaintances who would wish to see him dead. Susan Ryeland, his editor at Cloverleaf Books, is determined to investigate. Horowitz goes to great length to make this part of the novel as realistic as he can. We get mentions of Agatha Christie Ltd. and Sophie Hannah; indeed, even Agatha Christie’s grandson Mathew Pritchard turns up as a character. We are taken into the mind of an author at work: how they name characters; how they create settings; where their ideas come from; what their bookshelf contains (I’m glad to say mine holds up pretty well). It’s all fascinating stuff, at least to a writer of the genre. And yet, for all that, if you want to solve either of these mysteries, I suggest you stick to good old motive, means, and opportunity.

The Clock Strikes Twelve by Patricia Wentworth

When this was written in the 1940s Patricia Wentworth was as popular with readers as Agatha Christie was, and it’s easy to see why, for it belongs to the needle-clicking spinster who runs rings around the police trope. On New Year’s Eve 1940 the head of a large, well-to-do English family announces at dinner that one of their number has betrayed them. He doesn’t say who or how, but he proposes to sit in his study till midnight, waiting for the guilty party to come and confess. I expect you can guess what happens. As luck would have it, Miss Maud Silver is staying in town with her niece. She agrees to investigate his murder at the family’s request—though not everyone is happy with this.

This is a densely-written narrative in the third person, with different people’s emotions on show as we move through a single scene. In a lesser writer’s hands this could be a mess, but Wentworth makes it work for her, and the overall effect has a film-like quality, like a camera moving slowly round a room. The plot is really rather good, and you’ll be delighted to know that Wentworth sets traps for people like me, who vainly consider themselves to be hardened armchair detectives. The characters are enjoyable enough, though their dialogue does tend to err on the side of Noel Coward. Miss Silver’s continual coughing worried me terribly. And be prepared for some sexist drivel.

The Family Vault by Charlotte MacLeod

This title—by the woman who was hailed the American Agatha Christie—was suggested to the Crimes & Thrillers reading group I attend by one of my readers (and now firm online friend) in Canada, and I find it absolutely incredible that I’m only now getting to discover this wonderful series featuring the amateur sleuths Sarah Kelling and Max Bittersohn—for the fact is its author Charlotte MacLeod is virtually unknown here in the UK.
Great characters, great story, an attractive pair of detectives; quite simply a fab introduction to what promises to be a truly excellent series. But you probably know that already and have known it for years.

Recipes for Love & Murder by Sally Andrew

Try as I might, I cannot think of any link to Agatha Christie for this one. It reads like an Alexander McCall Smith novel realized with a little less humour though with an actual murder to solve. In this case our detective is a cook who writes an advice-for-the-lovelorn column in a small-town South African newspaper. Tannie (“Aunty”) Maria, divides her time between chasing up culinary and housekeeping clues (that the police fail to recognize as being significant) and cooking meals for her friends. Loads of local colour and a thoroughly enjoyable read.


This month's special offer

This month’s special offer is for Gooseberry: Octavius Guy & The Case of the Thieving Maharajah (#1). Fourteen-year-old Gooseberry once helped solve the mystery of the Moonstone. Now fate is about to throw him a new case, sending him sleuthing round the Victorian capital once more. Offer ends on December 31st 2018. Perfect for the holiday season! You’ll find links and details on my website.

“Sometimes you see a book and just know you’re going to love it…An absolute treat for fans of Collins’ novel and a successful novel in its own right.”—Emma Hamilton, LibraryThing Early Reviewer (5 stars)


Happy reading and happy holidays to you all!

Michael


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