Jessica-sim’s Comments (group member since Jan 01, 2016)

Jessica-sim’s comments from the Reading the Detectives group.

Jan C wrote: "I recall my reaction the first time I read it - I threw the book across the room. It may ..."

Haha that's quite a reaction!

Ooohh thank you Judy! Now I know why dr Constantine seemed so familiar (currently reading my first Molly Thynne book).

Sandy wrote: "I'll start this off on a rather negative note (sorry about that). I'm not sure when I first read this or if even I had read it versus just seeing many film versions. Either way, I felt the solution..."

I certainly understand your feelings, I also struggle with the question of golden age detectives letting criminals go or taking matters in their own hands.

No matter how horrible the original deed, this group of twelve people all went to great lengths to pull of a great crime. It had taken a lot of preparation and still they all very deliberatly took part. They try to justify it to themselves as trial by jury and share the burden of killing by using a knife making it impossoble to determine which individual blow was the fatal one.

But putting that ethical issue aside, I did really enjoy the investigation. We have a nice enclosed setting, a constant set of suspects, a linear timeline and only conversations and deductions to go on. The conversations between Poirot, the doctor and mister Bouc were very funny, especially when Agatha treats us with a glimpse of their (very irrelevant to the case) inner dialogues in the first chapter of part 3.

Robin wrote: "I love the idea of having the appropriate music playing while reading. However, I couldn't bear the new film version. Fortunately I was on a plane and could stop it after it became so tedious I cou..."

I also conceded to watching the newest version on a plane earlier this year. I hadn't been looking forward to it, but since I was stuck on the plane for many hours I decided to go for it. I didn't really like it though. But I did enjoy this book! It was full of little hints and comic notes... Especially the scene in part 3 when Poirot and his compagnions go and sit down to think it all through.

I am very much enjoying the reading experience, for added flavour, I made a Spotify playlist with the soundtracks of both movies... In reading however I realize how many differences there are to the movie adaptations! I think the story is still very interesting even if you know the outcome.

Yay! Let's go :-)

Hi! Oh thanks for opening it up! pff I am a bit overwhelmed in family obligations and behind in my own project :-( But when I came in to open the discussions I gladly found you went ahead, thank you so much!

Murder on the orient express, it's my favourite too. I've listened to many different adaptations, but never actually sat down to read it in written form. So, I'm looking forward to it.

I finally managed to take the book home with me! (Took it to work with me on the 1st of November, put it on my desk and consistently forgot to put it in my bag again... Sigh). Looking forward to reading it this weekend.

Judy wrote: "I've fallen behind with Poirot, but am enjoying listening to some of the short stories, so am tempted to jump back in with this one.

Do you think I will cause problems for myself if I I read this..."

No worries at all! It's fun to read the stories in order to see some character development but mostly just progression of time and fashion. If you jump in now, you'll be perfectly fine.

A new month, a new Poirot! Though we, finally, get to read a proper novel again. This story was first released as a six series instalment in The American Magazine in 1933, under the title "13 For Dinner." Apparently, some American editions still care that ominous title, because of the superstition that sitting down thirteen to dinner means bad luck to the person who first leaves the table.

Enjoy all your spoilers here.

A new month, a new Poirot! Though we, finally, get to read a proper novel again. This story was first released as a six series instalment in The American Magazine in 1933, under the title "13 For Dinner." Apparently, some American editions still carry that ominous title, because of the superstition that sitting down thirteen to dinner means bad luck to the person who first leaves the table.

Enjoy!

I admit that having Hugh Fraser as the narrator always tempts me to get the audiobooks too, but for now I'll stick to collecting the paperbacks ;-)

Judy wrote: "Jessica, I think t was me who said that about Robin - might have been slightly wishful thinking, sorry!

Rosina, thanks for mentioning that the Lampreys turn up again- that's nice to know.

We'd ma..."

haha don't worry the surprise indeed wasn't very big ;-)

I'm finding it hard get involved with the story. One comment above suggests that Robin will wake up a bit and put her rose tinted glasses off, that would be interesting!

I presume that Agatha did not really foresee how successful her two elderly detectives would be and how long she would need to keep them in the running! I remember reading somewhere that she very consciously chose to use older leading characters as she was fed up with all the frolicking youngsters everywhere.

I think with this short book it was the first time that reading too many iterations of the same story bothered me somewhat. I remembered a lot of things from the longer story and yet somehow they didn't fit or happen here at all, which threw me off. The solution here is very different too, but it works just fine.

It's interesting how the longer version was used for the Poirot episode with David Suchet yet the writers then edited Hastings back into the tv episode Miss Lemon completely out of it!

I really enjoyed this one! Especially when Poirot tired to rile the ever so serious Miss Lemon up. In this short story I think it works well to have an unknown narrator. Even though we don't really know who is telling us the events, we still get the same funny reports on Poirot's behaviour.

I had absolutely no idea who the real killer was and I am not really convinced that the reader would be able to find the killer himself, the story is too short for that.

Robin wrote: "I can't stand the pain, so shall be a pain myself. I'll limit my recall of Poirot to the full length novels."

No problem! We'll see you next month then :-)

We have two short stories for the month of October. For now, I only open two threads as I think these stories are so short we can all join in quickly enough to not need a separate Spoiler thread. But if you really prefer one, let me know and I'll just open a new discussion.

Interestingly enough, the original short story for this month: The Mystery of the Baghdad chest seems to only be available as a separate ebook in the US. That is weird isn't it? What kind of copyright laws would make that happen?

You could also find it in these collections: The Mystery of the Baghdad Chest was published in US in The Regatta Mystery and Other Stories in 1939 and also in While the Light Lasts in 1997.

For the rest of us we are left with an expended version of the same story: The Mystery of the Spanish Chest. It was expanded by Agatha Christie herself in 1960. This longer version was adapted for television and starred David Suchet as Hercule Poirot in 1989.

At least we get a longer version in this month with only two Poirot stories! But I'm sure we all have enough reading on our plates to keep us occupied till November.

Enjoy!

For October we have two short stories. As they are indeed very short, I think we can keep one thread for each book, and not have two other spoiler threads. Unless you disagree?

This one is for: The Second Gong: A Short Story

which is available as stand-alone ebook for all ereaders.

The story can also be found two collections, but check the contents before buying them because various variations are around "The Witness for the Prosecution and Other Stories" and "Problem at Pollensa Bay and Other Stories."