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

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

Upon Request a spoiler thread!
Please go on right ahead, I will come back here when I am ready for it ;-)

Just to be clear this is the book we're discussing here The Mysterious Affair at Styles

I know! It is really interesting to look back at the beginning. I always just accepted Poirot as a given, and now here he is.... freshly over from Belgium, hitting upon an interesting mystery quite by accident!

Do you think I ought to open a thread for each book, or update this one every month?

This is the first thread I ever opened, so let's see how it goes!

The first book is The Mysterious Affair at Styles.

Excerpt from http://www.agathachristie.com/stories...

Agatha Christie’s first novel, The Mysterious Affair at Styles, was the result of a dare from her sister Madge who challenged her to write a story. The story begins when Hastings is sent back to England from the First World War due to injury and is invited to spend his sick leave at the beautiful Styles Court by his old friend John Cavendish. Here, Hastings meets John’s step-mother, Mrs Inglethorpe, and her new husband, Alfred. Despite the tranquil surroundings Hastings begins to realise that all is not right. When Mrs Inglethorpe is found poisoned, suspicion falls on the family, and another old friend, Hercule Poirot, is invited to investigate.

As I have become attached to reading a nice Agatha-mystery each month I will continue on by reading through the Poirots in reading order as published by agathachristie.com (http://s3.amazonaws.com/agatha-christ...).

Hi there! I am sorry to have disappeared and left you all with a cliffhanger... work got in the way. But now it's all over and a new year is ahead.

I will go and open a buddy read, unofficial, informal and completely free to join at any time by anyone who wishes to read some Poirot. I'll go by the reading order as posted by agathachristie.com and read one book per month (http://s3.amazonaws.com/agatha-christ...)

For those of you who have also become addicted to their monthly dose of Agatha Christie: Adrian and I will start reading Poirot as a buddy read from January onwards till ... infinity? (there are so many of them! ;-))

I wasn't going to join in since I 've gotten addicted to Agatha Christie and was planning on reading through the Poroits... But my secret santa gave me a Ngiao Marsh omnibus! So it's on! Haha looking forward to reading through another year with you all again!

Here's a bit more information on the upcoming movie:
http://www.agathachristie.com/film-an...

That sounds really interesting and your group page already looks well thought out! As a loyal fan of this group, I'll gladly follow you there too :-)

Annabel wrote: "My latest theory is that Christie's childhood is the explanation."
Exciting! Tell us more :-)

I really like your observations about the characterization by Christie. I also really admire that and in this book, I especially liked the way she made her young American couple speak so differently: quick, to the point, short words, fast-paced.
People may say her books are "easy" to read but I think they miss so much! There's is so much comedy, and so many references, and just, I think, sheer fun in her writing.

How fun that we all were so eager to start with the next one this time! I also had to pace myself, in order to fully enjoy the September reading experience I had to consciously choose other books first ;-)

I really liked this one, and such good timing to read it in the summer! (at least here in the Netherlands it is quite sunny).

I also thought that Miss Marple was just going along with her nephew's plans and trying to be pleasant company, I did find it a bit weird that she did not immediately perk up at the mention of a murder and quite a juicy story at that!
Perhaps that shows she didn't really think there was much truth in the major's stories anyway.

I'm only about 20% in but I'm really enjoying that Miss Marple is center stage in this one. She is involved from the first moment and really gets her mind going.

Oh, I just found out about the Agatha Christie festival in Torquay:
https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/intern...
Anyone going?

Did anyone find it odd where the detective had gone off to? When he is introduced to us, we get told how Trent and Scotland Yard Inspector Murth compare cases and try to beat each other to the punch. But aside from the investigation of the house, we never hear from him again. I expected him to reappear in the last chapters at the very least.

Yes, I'm still debating whether or not to wait for the new edition.... I also was impressed by the cover Judy!

Oh my, I seem to be the only one here who thinks the descriptions hilarious at times. I think it's very humorous, but I have to agree that the writing doesn't seem very consistent. Almost finished, and very tempted to read the other two books.

That's interesting, thanks Judy! Imagine the luxury of being able to hold back a good book like this

Is it known why the book wasn't published earlier?
I thought perhaps she wasn't satisfied with it and withheld it, but so far it seems like the perfect Agatha Cristie: funny and witty, the atmosphere is well set and it has an interesting set up.

Thanks for the tip! I'll certainly listen to it.

After reading the whole thread a tip in return ;-) audible has a "secret" subscription plan too. But it requires you to call their service desk and actively ask for the silver plan. Which ought to be half price and half the yearly credits.

I am a big audible fan! I have a long daily commute and sometimes after a long working day you just want to stare out of the train window, listen to a story and shut out all the people around you. Enjoyment certainly depends on the right reader though!