Victoria’s Comments (group member since Mar 02, 2019)

Victoria’s comments from the Reading the Detectives group.

Judy wrote: "Carol She's So Novel꧁꧂ wrote: "Victoria wrote: "My edition of this book had a bonus chapter at the end, with Christie's original draft for the ending. ..."

Thank you for sharing that, Victoria! My..."

John Curran wrote the introduction to my edition, he talks about the notebooks in it. The edition was published in 2013 by Harper Collins. I got it in a boxed set of 7 Poirot novels, but I just checked on the Harper Collins website and found they still sell an edition with the John Curran introduction and the unpublished chapter.

Sandy wrote: "Jessica-sim wrote: "Audible has a dramatisation in their plus catalog and it’s such fun! 🤣
I don’t think it would work as a first time read, the characters aren’t really well introduced but if you’..."

I agree, I enjoyed it, but it won't be for everyone. At times the background sounds were really intrusive. Like one scene at breakfast where you get all the noises of people eating - I just don't think that added much to the experience.

But I liked the emphasis it put on Hastings' war experiences. In the book Hastings just says things like that he is looking forward to a peaceful rest. But in this adaptation, it's clear that Hastings is traumatised from his experiences at the front.

My edition of this book had a bonus chapter at the end, with Christie's original draft for the ending. It had the same outcome but done very differently. Poirot is called up as a witness in the court trial and does all his reveal while on the stand.

Susan in NC wrote: "That’s what it sounded like to me, an autograph book! But not for celebrities or athletes, for your friends and acquaintances. "

Some people did use them for athletes - this page (http://www.rugbyrelics.com/Museum/exh...) has an article about a collection of rugby union player thumbprints collected by a young woman early twentieth century. They mention near the end that as there are some blank pages left at the end of the album, they intend to add notable modern players to the collection.

Definitely a Holmes/Watson vibe going on, but I did like the shade Freemen threw on Doyle, with his mocking of Holmes' deductive reasoning :-)

Susan in NC wrote: "Judy wrote: "Good idea - I will do the same, I think. I think most British people find the Stephen and Matilda (as she is usually called) period confusing!"

Well, right there, good example, one of..."

And it doesn't help that Stephen's wife was also a Matilda!

Lady Clementina wrote: "Victoria wrote: "I've just finished the Benson Murder Case by S. S. Van Dine. .....Have you seen the William Powell adaptations? ."

I found the first one on youtube, The quality of the print wasn't the best, but it was still fun to watch. It seemed a lot faster paced than the book

I've just finished the Benson Murder Case by S. S. Van Dine. I picked up a set of 12 cheaply on kindle, to see what they're like. Interesting, but I don't think I'm going to read all of them.

Tokyo Zodiac Murders is another on my list. I’ve also got Murder in the Crooked House by the same writer, The Inugami Curse by Seishi Yokomizo and The Master Key by Masako Togawa, all recommended in a video by Books and Bao on YouTube. I’ll see which ones I can find when I can get to a bookshop

Judy, The Honjin Murders is one of the ones I want to read. It sounds good!

I've just finished The Decagon House Murders by Yukito Ayatsuji. It was written in 1987, but my Pushkin Vertigo edition was only released in English last year (I think there might have been one earlier English edition). It was fantastic, basically a homage to Christie's And Then There Were None. I thought it was a bit slow at first, and wasn't that excited by it, then it all suddenly clicked and I couldn't put it down.

Apparently there's an established tradition of golden age style mysteries in Japan (honkaku and shin honkaku), so I'm going to acquire a few more of them and read my way through them

Pulled my copy of this one of the shelf to read tonight. I remember reading it years ago. But I’m in the mood to relax with a reread tonight, so this will be perfect

I found this one at a local secondhand bookstore at the weekend, so I’m ready to start when I finish my current book

That's a great article, thanks Susan

Annabel wrote: "One of the things that always strikes me in this book is that Christie didn't really seem to know much about children. In the opening scene, the fact that there are so many children of different ag..."

I thought of it as something like an organisation such as Scouts. I know when my kids were in Scouts, at different levels, they had some joint events where kids were all different ages and the older kids did much of the organising

I’ve just finished. The scene where Colin first visits Poirot, Poirot asks him about his father, the good superintendent. That suggests Battle is Colin’s father, not Race.

I have to agree Jill, I didn't get the same feel from it that I get from a Marsh book.

Apart from the feel, I had a problem with the actual real murder being referred to only in passing and the matron faking her death was just strange.

But, it was way, way better than Sophie Hannah's Poirot - I've only read one of those and have no intention of reading any more of them!

Alleyn was the godfather to the journalist’s (Nigel Bathgate) baby, so presumably they remained friends. Maybe Marsh couldn’t think of any more reasonable ways to keep introducing a journalist into murder investigations

Sandy wrote: "I've finished but need to review the ending to see if I missed a motive..."

As far as I could tell, it wasn't much of a motive. Seemed to be that the murderer was tipped over from being a little dotty to being insane by all the tricks played earlier and because the victim was a bit rude and arrogant towards him. It seemed like Marsh cared more about discussing how to stage Macbeth than the actual murder part of it.

Sandy wrote: "...
I wonder if she knew this would be the last book and chose to return to the Dolphin for that..."

That would make sense if Death at the Dolphin was the first Alleyn book, but it isn't. I just looked up the list & apparently is #24. To go back to the beginning she would have needed to bring that journalist (Nigel?) back again.

But I really liked Death at the Dolphin so was happy to have Peregrine back again.

Just been looking over my bookshelves to see which ones I have. There are five I couldn't locate, but I would swear I have Secret of Chimneys and Crooked House at least, even if I probably don't have the other three. I'll hit up the secondhand bookshop next time I'm in town, they usually have a good range.