A Caribbean Mystery by Agatha Christie – Book Review
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Miss Marple goes on a holiday in the sunny Caribbean and finds herself mildly discontented that nothing ever happens in the tropical paradise… until she suspects a murder.
The Moving Finger by Agatha Christie – Book Review
This mystery, technically one of Christie’s Miss Marple novels, barely scrapes into the Marple series, since the much-loved elderly sleuth only makes an appearance three-quarters into the book and remains little more than a cameo. I’d go as far as say that the novel didn’t really need her and is strong enough to stand on its own.
They Came to Baghdad by Agatha Christie – Book Review
My previous Christie novel was set in Jordan, and this entertaining standalone spy thriller continues the Middle Eastern pattern.
Before the Coffee Gets Cold by Toshikazu Kawaguchi – Book Review
Clunky but likeable surprise hit from Japan that offers a rather unique and whimsical take on the good old time travel trope.
Appointment with Death by Agatha Christie – Book Review
Petra in Jordan is one of my top bucket list destinations in the world. So while I can’t go there in real life, it was pretty exciting to discover it as the backdrop to one of Dame Agatha’s murder mysteries.
Secondhand Time: The Last of the Soviets by Svetlana Alexievich – Book Review
I put off reading this book forever, mostly because I was intimidated by its sheer doorstop size. In the end, this requiem for the Soviet era proved to be both an easy and hard read. While perhaps not the pick if you’re looking to lift your spirits in the time of a global pandemic, it’s a book that fully deserves the term “masterpiece”.
One, Two, Buckle My Shoe by Agatha Christie – Book Review
This is only the second Christie novel in my re-readathon that I genuinely don’t remember ever reading before. I had the right instinct about who dunnit all along, but this Poirot mystery still boasts plenty of surprises and twists.
The Sittaford Mystery by Agatha Christie – Book Review
I couldn’t recall much about this stand-alone murder mystery other than a few stray details, but that’s an unfair reflection on the novel. While it may not be one of Christie’s true classics, it definitely deserved to be remembered better.
Evil Under the Sun by Agatha Christie – Book Review
Evil Under the Sun marks an important milestone in my re-readathon – if Wikipedia is to be believed, I’m now precisely halfway through Christie’s back catalogue of detective novels with the book review no. 33! Since I officially committed to this challenge back in August 2018, I should probably complete it by August 2022. Let’s hope that the world is in a decent shape by then, or at least limping back to normality.
Passenger to Frankfurt by Agatha Christie – Book Review
I felt that it was time to strategically sprinkle in another of Christie’s big-time stinkers into my re-readathon. Like The Big Four, Passenger to Frankfurt is another of Dame Agatha’s failed attempts at a spy novel about a world-wide conspiracy out to destroy the existing social order. While the former is just plain terrible, the latter also has the dubious distinction of being probably the weirdest book Christie ever penned, and not in a good way. It was first published in 1970 to mark her 80th birthday, and, at the most charitable, it can be seen as a window into Christie’s view of the world she found herself in the twilight of her years.
