Frances’s Comments (group member since Aug 21, 2017)

Frances’s comments from the Reading the Detectives group.

Abby wrote: "Hi all,

I’m new here as well as new to Agatha Christie books! I have thoroughly enjoyed Christie’s writing and especially the innocent and—almost—fantasy settings of old European places (I live in..."

Hi Abby, and welcome,

To answer your question, I don't get frustrated by Poirot's arrogance, because he is really only stating the truth, that he is able to think out all of those solutions and see through all the pretences that people put on. So while he is certainly not humble, he isn't overstating his abilities either. Of course in real life, he would probably be insufferable, but in Christie-world, I enjoy him very much.

As I said in the intro thread, I can't believe it's been three years! I really enjoyed reading the Poirot's from beginning to end, and look forward to reading Curtain which for some reason I think I had "saved for later" for many years. Now that I have completed reading the series, I think it is indeed time to read this, and I am enjoying a new-to-me Poirot to finish up.

I understood that Christie wrote this novel in the 1940's with a plan to have it published posthumously as a way to ensure that Poirot did not live on after her death (which appears not to have been successful, as her estate has allowed someone else to write further episodes of Poirot). This perhaps explains the discrepancy between our last view of Poirot in Elephants Can Remember as still fit and able and the very frail and elderly man we meet in the opening chapters.

I agree, it is good to see Hastings again and I can't imagine he won't find a new life partner pretty soon.

I am afraid I felt very differently about this read-I was not at all engaged initially and eventually gave up, skipped to the end to read the solution but even that was a bit disappointing. Not sure why it didn't work for me, but look forward to some of the other reads for this month.

I can't believe it's been three years! I really enjoyed reading the Poirot's from beginning to end, and look forward to reading Curtain which for some reason I think I had "saved for later" for many years. Now that I have completed reading the series, I think it is indeed time to read this, and I will enjoy a new-to-me Poirot for January.

I also think that what was presented as the solution was real, and was Christie's solution to the mystery. I think many of us have simply felt that it was less well written, and the plot devices were a little more obvious (perhaps because she'd used them before) and it was more confusing to follow than earlier books.

I really enjoyed this one (I just read the Adventure of the Christmas Pudding) and thought it was a lovely little tableau of the traditional English Christmas with just the right amount of "foreigners" to make it interesting. In this case Poirot and Desmond, the latter being foreign in the sense that he is not "one of them", add an edge to the family party, and the "sister" who is slid in beneath our notice.

The plot issue I stumble over is, if this wasn't meant to be the Christmas pudding, why are all the other bits in it? The bachelors button, the coin, etc...I don't think they'd have been washed off and pushed into the substitute pudding, would they?

Really enjoyed reading this one at this time of year.

Robin, it remains remarkable, and probably helped slow her decline, that she remained active and engaged, even if the product wasn't as brilliant as her earlier work. Like a declining friend or relative, I still enjoy spending time with Dame Agatha, Poirot and Ariadne, even if not at their best.

I was also quite disappointed but as I mentioned in the non-spoiler post, I believe she was felt to be suffering from some form of dementia by this point in her life and was probably struggling to keep a plot together, and came up with a reasonable facsimile of one (just not terribly satisfying for those used to her great plots). Quite poignant in a way that it was titled Elephants Can Remember if she was struggling with her memory by that time.

I've just finished and agree that it wasn't one of her good ones.

I know that she was in failing health from the early 1970's on and some speculate that she had Alzheimers (apparently there was a study that looked at things like the richness of her vocabulary or complexity of her sentences, and one could see a gradual decline in both over the later novels). It remains remarkable to me that she continued to write into her 80s.

I have started this and finding it a bit all over the map-for example it's hard to figure out who all the people Ariadne talks to are. I would agree with Robin, that I generally find Ariadne Oliver irritating, and as it seems a fairly clear "self-portrait" over-all, it seems a very self-deprecating one!

I thought we were just reading the one short story along with Elephants Can Remember-I have another collection of Poirot stories and think we've read them all in previous months

I remember that as well.

I didn't think she was kidnapped-I thought it was made very clear to her that it would be somewhere she could go for a rest and that she would be free to leave-which in fact she did at the end.

I really enjoyed this, but was also very aware of the classist assumptions.

While Tey attributes Betty's failings to nature/being her mother's daughter, it could also be having had a rather neglected childhood and then the trauma of a sudden removal from her home and family into the house of strangers (even though the strangers likely treated her better than her own parents did). This would have been quite distressing and might well have led her to become overly attached to her foster brother, and panic when he was going to leave her. (I think of the children in the Narnia books, but they at least all went together).

I was also quite taken aback by the horror at the Sharpe's having to do their own housework, particularly as neither worked. It was also unusual to me to have a grown man who stilled lived with and was looked after by a maternal figure, and Marion Sharpe was quite wise to point this out to him-she certainly wasn't going to take that role on.

Despite all the above reservations, I really enjoyed this book, and look forward to reading the rest of Tey's work.

Rosina wrote: "I've found that actually remembering to take a book (real or Kindle) means that the queues disappear and I'm deal with with amazing promptness, and never get to read my book!.."

That's like taking an umbrella to prevent the rain!

I have finished reading this so will move over to the spoiler thread.

Tara wrote: "Does anyone have thoughts around the doctor/patient romance Poirot facilitates? While I'm happy that Norma can find someone that truly loves her, emotions in that type of dynamic can be quite compl..."

I cringe whenever I read things like this, clear boundary violations and would get him struck off today, particularly in Psychiatry. Not to mention he's taken a very vulnerable young woman who's recently been in love with someone else and now wants to take her away from everything she knows. Another one of those times when Christie's problematic ideas re love and relationships mars an otherwise fun read.

In retrospect, all those instances of Ariadne dropping bits of hair and the comment about her changing her appearance with a new hairdo should have tipped us off about one of the women not being who they seemed, but I didn't figure it out either!

Recently finished so will head over to th spoiler thread. However I did enjoy Poirot and Oliver together again, and agree with Susan's references to all her new hairstyles, and that she keeps dropping bits of pinned on hair was quite funny.

The two in the lead were my two favourite choices so I would be good with doing both!

Abigail wrote: "I was really impressed with this book, despite (or because of?) its breaking all the rules of a mystery. As others have mentioned, Campion is very much a sidelined observer through most of the book..."

Great points, Abigail! This is one of those books I finish and want to talk about with others so really appreciate yours and others comments here.

I've just finished it and was also really struck by how well Allingham set atmosphere, and her description of the odd societies that form in some situations-not just the band of "vets" that lived in that well organized replica of an army barrack, but also the little society around the church and parish priest, and how so many of them, including Avril's own wife, had then been preyed upon and manipulated by Mrs Cash.

Which brings me to another thing I struggled with-how Mrs Cash exerted her control over everyone. Perhaps she had the same sort of ?magnetism ?charisma ?force of character as her son, but certainly there would have been no legal or even moral support for her activities should someone not pay up-would shame at having needed to borrow money be enough to keep hundreds of people in thrall to her-including the Baker who gave Havoc his van to travel to the coast?

Also, while I understand Avril's innate simplicity and godliness in risking his own life to meet Havoc alone, would he really put his family at risk by giving him all he needed to know to find the treasure, and by extension, the 2 couples? Did he really believe that they were now out of harms way?