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

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

What do you think Spence still has doubt about on the last page?

I agree with all of you that the abundance of characters and possible suspects was hard to keep track of. I therefore was very thankful that all the loose ties were neatly tied up.

At one point I became seriously afraid that all 4 persons in the picture somehow ended up in that one little village, and wasn't sure how I would take that.... It wasn't the case thankfully

All my little annoyance are forgiven however by the humor in this book! I laughed at Poirots misadventures so often! Lovely

If this one is turned into a TV episode I do hope they made it as funny as possible! Poirot pottering about in his 'guest house', disinterring the telephone from under a pile clutter haha

I prefer reading with a book on my lap, but just for fun I downloaded the audiobook (it falls in my scribd subscription) to listen to on a walk over the weekend. I agree that Hugh Fraser really adds a lot of fun, sometimes I forget that I'm listing to him as he does make the characters come alive for me.

Tara wrote: "Susan in NC wrote: "I’m really looking forward to this, but won’t be able to start for a few days. I thought I had read all the Poirots years ago, but I’ve realized I don’t think I read the later o..."

I'm also really enjoying their Summerhayes's adventures. Either one on their own would have had a totally different experience I think.

Feel free to indulge in spoilers here.

The postman brought me a new book, which means that it's almost time for our next Poirot: Mrs. McGinty's Dead

This far in our Poirot journey I haven't read most of the books for this year yet. This book was published in 1952 and features Ariadne Oliver, whom we last met in Cards on the Table. I'm curious to see what her role will be this time.

Enjoy :-)

Im doing well with catching up! Just three stories left to go.

It really surprises me how much I like the stories. I think the overlying theme of the works of Hercules works will tying them all together. Somehow I have more patience with these short stories then with those from the other collections we have read.

Thank you Judy! I'm still stuck in music exams, they got a bit delayed by the whole viral situation that in combination with my job in the hospital increased my stress levels even more! Well mid april things will be less complicated ( I hope I hope), the next Poirot arrived on my doorstep today so I'll be ready to join you then :-)

Glad you enjoyed it Susan!

I came here too say that the month of march is proving a bit too much for me. I have exams for music school and work is crazy with the corona stress (I work as a floor manager in a hospital). I cannot keep up my reading, so instead of stressing even more about that... I will see you all in april again!

Thanks! How did March sneak up on me? (I think I write the same comment every year ;-)).

So this month we have short stories ahead of us. That will be a bit divisive because not everyone is a fan of those... but it's again a different offering of Poirot. Never boring here! Enjoy :-)

Really, you found him obnoxious from the start? hm I just accepted him as a hard-working, yes okay philandering man, the typical doctor in my eyes haha
and Gerda to be too obnoxious for words with her 20 pages long (I know heavy exaggeration) mental debate over whether or not to reheat their dinner.

But I also was quite convinced that it was John who was going to be the murder victim.

And, Jill, please tell us which obnoxious character you were talking about!

This was so enjoyable! I read on Wikipedia that Agatha felt she ruined a perfectly good book by introducing Poirot. I can sort of see that, not that I think it was ruined by Poirot of course! But it also didn't really need Poirot to succeed as a mystery. What do you think?

I read the first third in one go. What a set up! I'm thoroughly impressed again with how different every Poirot is from the preceding one.

By the way, for those who also read Five Little Pigs by Agatha Christie, were you also struck with the plot similarities? (Spoiler brackets for those who haven't and don't want to know) (view spoiler)[ Talented artist, obsessed with finishing this one painting of this one girl, using her and other women for the benefit of his art. And then we have the poison delivered in a beer bottle, also here an explanation is given of why the bitterness would not have been tasted and also here there is a weird messing about with finger prints on bottle and glass (hide spoiler)]

But overall I don't think I'm really in the Dalgliesh groove yet.

I did like the clinic atmosphere and even the staff meeting where I saw many of the characters we also have at our department (I work in a hospital), but the detailed focus into their personalities didn't yield anything useful.

I haven't but I see it's by Somerset Maugham and just under 200 pages... so that situation might be remedied shortly ;-) After our monthly group read Ashenden by W. Somerset Maugham I am interested in reading more from this author, as I guess Ashenden isn't the best example of his work.

Please be sure the keep the other thread free of spoilers but go all out here!