Mark Pghfan’s Comments (group member since Mar 06, 2014)

Mark Pghfan’s comments from the The Parlor PI's group.

I do love the teaching!

I fortunately have all the DVDs and can watch at any time!

Enjoying it so far. And yes, I've been to that book store. I love to go to New York, though its been a year and a half since my last visit. The book store is perfect--old books, new ones, shelves all over the place--a browser's paradise!

I thought Jessica might be a little too hip, but I'm not especially married to her old fogey persona either.

I guess you all remember that I was teaching some mystery classes in a local life-long learning program here in Pittsburgh. With the onset of COvid-19, they were cut short, and in-person classes are still suspended at least through the summer. As a result I am teaching my class "Golden Age Mystery Writers" starting next Tuesday, via Zoom. There are 60 people signed up (yikes!). I am not especially confident in doing the hosting and teaching on Zoom, but I'm giving it a try. Wish me luck!

Got my copy at Barnes and Noble. Unfortunately, my library can't get books for me other than what they have themselves. The interlibrary system is still not in place. I see Murder of 12 is very recent and only in hardback now anyway.

Great! Thanks, Tina.

Manuscript for Murder is available from my library while Murder of Twelve is not and has a substantial wait list.

Are we going ahead with the Murder She Wrote book for July? Manuscript for Murder? If so, I'll try to get it from the library, since we are partially open.

Ustinov's first was Death on the Nile. While I really don't think of him as Poirot, the movies were entertaining. He made six of them, some of them TV movies.

I'm almost done with the Styles re-read and am even more impressed that ever with it. All the pieces are falling in place and Poirot is just like he is throughout his canon. And poor Hastings. A faithful narrator but hopelessly lost!

As far as MoTOE goes, the Finney version is by far my favorite. The Suchet version seemed anticlimactic after that one, and frankly I was not impressed by how they changed Poirot's reaction at the end--it seemed like it was put in just to allow Suchet to overact. In the book, Poirot was not at all troubled by the solution.

If you are at all familiar with Christie, you certainly must never let even the smallest detail pass. That is really her forte!

Hi, L-M. Glad you could join us!

An Orient Express adaptation would have been great, in the days when such liberties were taken with the book as were done later on. I guess I'm thankful we have the wonderful ones we have.

I'm glad you agree with me on the cleverness and perfection of Christie's very first book. A wonder, for sure!

I doubt Hastings was part of the plan, but Evie, who I think was the brain behind this, saw an opportunity to once again
throw suspicion onto Alfred.

I am actually reading the book as opposed to listening to the audio by Hugh Fraser. And I watched the Suchet version last night. Ah, those were the days, when they kept to the book and produced an excellent adaptation. And it is hard to believe that the TV version is 30 years old!

Just 100 years ago, Agatha Christie's very first published novel appeared: The Mysterious Affair at Styles. We meet Poirot for the very first time in this book. He is describes as:

"Poirot was an extraordinary looking little man. He was hardly more than five feet, four inches, but carried himself with great dignity. His head was exactly the shape of an egg, and he always perched it a little on one side. His moustache was very stiff and military. The neatness of his attire caused nim more pain than a bullet wound."

A bit changed over the years, in the description of the moustache as well as the absence of the limp reported just after the above description. I am always impressed by the consistency of Christie's subsequent books, in that this initial effort blends so well into the rest. No first time author uncertainty here!

Anyway, Hastings has been invalided from WWI (this seems to take place about 1916) and is spending some time with his friend John Cavendish, who lives with his stepmother, in Styles Court, with his wife, his brother, and some other people. His stepmother is poisoned and Poirot is called in to this intricate mystery.

I can host Styles, if you'd like. Open discussion is fine with me. (I assume this means not in different parts and spoilers included.)

I like the Christmas in July idea. And I do hope the library will be open!

I think in Father Brown's eyes it was a crime but not a criminal act.

I've been thinking of a June title. I don't know abut where you are, but the libraries are still closed where I am at. Just recently, they are beginning taking email requests for books in our large library system, though I don't know how long that sort of thing takes.

One thought is that we could read The Mysterious Affair at Styles, in honor of its 100th anniversary. It is in the mystery package most of us got on our Kindle.

Of course, if there is another recommendation, which is available on Kindle, we could forego the library one more month. (I hope by then, our libraries will be open somewhat.