I’m always delighted to come across a Christie mystery I’ve never read before. This Poirot and Hastings adventure, dedicated to Dame Agatha’s beloved dog Peter, is held back from the true vintage status by some glaring plot weaknesses, but still had enough ingenuity and light humour to keep me happy from page to page.
A fun collection of crimes solved by the one and only Hercule Poirot, with a bonus Miss Marple short story. I was slightly disappointed that only one of the stories is actually set at Christmas.
A sorta-sequel to The Secret of Chimneys, this high-spirited thriller is equally enjoyable, and showcases Dame Agatha’s criminally underrated sense of humour.
Another Australian cinema classic I always meant to watch for the last twenty years, Lantana is a moody and incisive examination of trust and fractured relationships, finely interweaving complex character drama with a police investigation.
An early thriller that turned out to be much more enjoyable than I initially expected. It’s a silly romp with a far-fetched plot that requires a healthy suspension of disbelief, but you get a sense that it was written with tongue firmly in cheek.
This foray into the swinging sixties doesn’t seem to be highly thought of among Agatha Christie fans, but I enjoyed it quite a lot, maybe because the idea of Hercule Poirot among mods and beatniks is just too much fun.
A standalone spy thriller set during Cold War and inspired by Dame Agatha’s journeys in the Middle East, Destination Unknown is a fairly decent quick read that doesn’t really stick in the memory for either good or bad reasons.
The last Miss Marple mystery Christie wrote is also the very last Miss Marple novel in my re-readathon. Bidding farewell to Dame Agatha’s old lady detective probably put me in a more sentimental and forgiving mood, because its flaws surely would have annoyed me more otherwise.
One of Christie’s more unusual novels, this later-day Miss Marple mystery has a memorable setting and some interesting ideas, but it’s held back by a lack of focus and its various elements don’t quite gel together.