Crime for the Books by Kate Young (Book Beginnings & Friday 56)

 

Title: Crime for the Books

Author: Kate Young

Publication: 11 October 2022

Format: Kindle eARC via Crooked Lane Books & NetGalley

Amazon Description

Lyla Moody and her book club, the Jane Does, are hosting a Halloween party at Magnolia Manor, tailored after Agatha Christie’s A Murder is Announced, but when the lights come on after the staged murder, a real victim lies dead with a gunshot wound in her chest. The victim was an estranged relative of Elaine Morgan, operator of the B&B, who’d earlier been seen arguing with her about the fate of the property. Suspicion immediately falls on Elaine, and she’s arrested.
 
The Jane Does believe Elaine is innocent, and when they get the chance to team up with police officer Rosa Landry—a member of the club—they jump on it. But then, the club discovers that two more murders have been brazenly predicted online and in the Sweet Mountain Gazette—and that one of the intended victims is Rosa.
 
Lyla thinks she knows who the killer is, but the only way to find out is by laying a trap using Rosa as bait. But, like an Agatha Christie mystery, the truth is never what it seems. Lyla and her trusty book club will have to sleuth out the killer before Rosa meets her final chapter.

Ramble-y Teaserish Stuff

Yet again, Kate Young has made me go off my "read all of the Christies in order" plan and jump ahead from 1928's The Mystery of the Blue Train to 1950's A Murder is Announced. It's a re-read for me and also happens to be one of my favorite episodes of Agatha Christie's Marple with Geraldine McEwan playing Miss Marple. Sure, they made quite a few changes, but the cast is freaking phenomenal and I've rewatched it several times.

The long and the short of it: an announcement is placed in a local paper of a murder that is going to occur at a local residence and it is assumed by many to be an invitation to some sort of murder mystery party. Of course, it isn't, and an actual murder occurs and ....

Matthew Goode. Zoë Wanamaker. Keeley Hawes. Elaine Paige. Geraldine McEwan (my favorite Marple) .... and Catherine Tate as Mitzi. 

Read the book, of course. It's a good one. In spite of the changes, the episode is also a kick and appears to be readily available on all sorts of services. (There are, of course, multiple versions with multiple Marples .... the McEwan will always be my favorite off-the-page.)

Of course, we're not really here for the Agatha Christie ... though, really, one can never have too much.

This is the third installment of Kate Young's Jane Doe Book Club Mystery series and the book club is hosting an Agatha Christie themed murder mystery party at a local B&B. 

Sounds cozy, right? 

The ramble I did about the second in the series went into all the "why"s about this being a cozy series ...  but also the "why"s into how it is soooo not typical. [That one also included a bonus Christie read -- it really isn't any wonder why I love Kate Young so dang much.] I would probably call them more "cozy suspense thrillers" as every installment so far has kept me right at the edge of my seat and made my heart race in the way that most cozies don't -- but suspense thrillers do. 

There are some bits I probably would have cut from this. Like, there's a bit too much Brad ... but I'm also not finished with it so maybe that bit will resolve itself. Either way, this is a series I will continue to read and recommend as long as Kate continues to write them.

[FYI : The "Book Beginnings" this week isn't the first line or even the first paragraph ... but it is in the first chapter and needed to be done.]

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Friday 56 (share a blurb from the 56th page or 56% mark) is hosted at Freda's Voice 

& Book Beginnings (share the first few sentences) is at Rose City Reader

The Big Four by Agatha Christie (Book Beginnings & Friday 56)

 

Title: The Big Four

Author: Agatha Christie

Publication: 27 January 1927

Format: paperback & ebook

Amazon Description

A ruthless international cartel seeks world domination! Framed in the doorway of Poirot's bedroom stood an uninvited guest, coated from head to foot in dust. The man's gaunt face stared for a moment, then he swayed and fell. Who was he? Was he suffering from shock or just exhaustion? Above all, what was the significance of the figure 4, scribbled over and over again on a sheet of paper? Poirot finds himself plunged into a world of international intrigue, risking his life to uncover the truth about 'Number Four'.

 Ramble-y Teaserish Stuff

I couldn't decide what I wanted to read next so asked my child to "pick a shelf between one and three." So, being my child, he chose four and said that meant the stairwell corner shelves that are home to my Christie collection (and a few others). Even better? The next title on my chronological reading (and sometimes re-reading) happened to be The Big Four. Obviously my child is a genius of some sorts.

Sadly work was far too crazy to get anything really read and this is my first time for this one so I can't tell you yet how amazing it is (because Agatha ... and Hastings), but I did manage to grab the blips to be able to post something.  

 

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Friday 56 (share a blurb from the 56th page or 56% mark) is hosted at Freda's Voice 

& Book Beginnings (share the first few sentences) is at Rose City Reader

The Murder of Roger Ackroyd by Agatha Christie (Book Beginnings & Friday 56)

 

Title: The Murder of Roger Ackroyd

Author: Agatha Christie

Publication: 1926

Format: 1975 paperback

Amazon Description

Roger Ackroyd knew too much. He knew that the woman he loved had poisoned her brutal first husband. He suspected also that someone had been blackmailing her. Then, tragically, came the news that she had taken her own life with an apparent drug overdose.

However, the evening post brought Roger one last fatal scrap of information, but before he could finish reading the letter, he was stabbed to death. Luckily one of Roger’s friends and the newest resident to retire to this normally quiet village takes over—none other than Monsieur Hercule Poirot . . .

Ramble-y Teaserish Stuff

The Murder of Roger Ackroyd is the only one of Christie's books to make it onto the wretched "1001 Books You Must Read Before You Die" list... so, of course, I've been putting it off. Those kinds of lists tend to be rubbish. Sorry, but nobody needs to read Herman Melville and he appears on the list twice. But, it is Agatha and it was one her personal top ten of her own books and it is the next on the list for reading her novels in publication order ... so ... here we are. 

Even though it is only the third Poirot novel, it finds him having retired to the small village of King's Abbot where the only person who knows him is his old friend, Roger Ackroyd. Even his neighbors -- Dr James Sheppard and his sister, Caroline -- only know that he's a foreigner, though they do speculate on his past.

"My dear Caroline," I said. "There's no doubt at all about what the man's profession has been. He's a retired hairdresser. Look at that moustache of his."

I may have spurted some coffee.

Roger Ackroyd is, of course, murdered not long after the apparent suicide of his fiancée, Mrs Ferrars (who is said to have poisoned her first husband about a year prior). His niece, Flora, enlists Dr Sheppard's help in persuading the elusive Poirot into helping solve the mystery. She fears that her fiancé -- who also happens to be Ackroyd's stepson -- is being suspected and set up to take the fall. 

Got all that? 

You sure?

Seeing as how Poirot and Ackroyd had been acquainted, he agrees to help for the sake of helping, not as a paid job (he is, retired, after all).

"Not that I do not care for money." His eyes showed a momentary twinkle. "Money, it means much to me and always has done. No, if I go into this, you must understand one thing clearly. I shall go through with it to the end. The good dog, he does not leave the scent, remember! You may wish that, after all, you had left it to the local police."

"I want the truth," said Flora, looking him straight in the the eyes.

"All the truth?"

"All the truth."

Of course, being Poirot, he dives right in and what he is asking and why does not always make sense to those around him -- or, indeed, the reader. It is one of the many charms of Poirot, after all.

"Everything is simple, if you arrange the facts methodically."

And, with that, I will go back to reading and you can get to the Book Beginnings and Friday 56 ... and 156 .... since Christie always deserves more than just two blips. She also deserves at least a dozen more spots on that fool list.

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As always, Friday 56 (share a blurb from the 56th page or 56% mark) is hosted at Freda's Voice 

& Book Beginnings (share the first few sentences) is at Rose City Reader

The Secret of Chimneys by Agatha Christie (Book Beginnings & Friday 56)

 

Title: The Secret of Chimneys

Author: Agatha Christie

Publication: originally June 1925

Format: paperback

Back Cover Description

Ramble-y Teaserish Stuff

Somehow this was my first time reading The Secret of Chimneys and I am fairly certain that it is quite possibly one of my favorite light Christie reads. It was, of course, pre-disappearance and, in general, those do tend to feel a bit lighter than the post-Archie stories. There really isn't anything very strenuous about this one which often ends up with it getting negative reviews. It's a giant mish-mash of political and international intrigue, stolen & mistaken identities, murder(s), blackmail, kidnapping, treasure hunting ... and on and on and so on and so forth. Through it all, though, the story stays engaging in large part thanks to Anthony Cade. He's got the humor:

and he most definitely has the swoon-worthiness:

Please please please do NOT watch the catastrophic episode of the same name put out by ITV & Granada in lieu of reading the book. For one, Miss Marple didn't even exist in the Christie universe at the time. It's not her story ... and the story that was told in the show, even without the plunking in of Marple, is not the story from the book.

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As always, Friday 56 (share a blurb from the 56th page or 56% mark) is hosted at Freda's Voice 

& Book Beginnings (share the first few sentences) is at Rose City Reader

Tuesday Two-fer -- Agatha Christie's Crooked House & Kate Young's Reading Between the Crimes (Tuesday Intros & Teaser Tuesday)

Today's a bit unusual as I have two books for my Tuesday Intros & Teaser Tuesday. I started with Reading Between the Crimes, which is the second in Kate Young's Jane Doe Book Club series. My copy came from NetGalley thanks to Crooked Lane Books ... but after falling in love with the first one in the series, I would have gotten it anyway.

At the beginning of the second chapter the book club started to discuss their current read -- Agatha Christie's Crooked House. Somehow it was still on my ever-expanding TBR so I immediately grabbed a copy and read with great delight so as to not have the book club spoil anything for me.

I am ridiculously glad that I did.

I know. I'm a dork. We've been over this before at least a couple of times.

Of course, I couldn't read both without teasing both so there we have it. A Tuesday Two-fer. "First Chapter First Paragraph Tuesday Intros" is from the first paragraph or two of a book being read now (or in the future) and is hosted by Socrates' Book Reviews. "Teaser Tuesday" at The Purple Booker asks for a random line or two from anywhere in the book currently being read.

You could, I suppose, read one without the other. I wouldn't, though. Crooked House ties heavily into Reading Between the Crimes. Even if it didn't, why would you not take the excuse to read another book? I am more than okay with any excuse to read more -- especially when the "more" involved is Agatha Christie.

Crooked House was one of Christie's personal favorites and I absolutely feel that oozing through the words and pages. There is no Poirot or Marple or any of the other usuals. Charles has returned from duty during World War II with every intention of marrying his sweetheart Sophia. She wont' agree to anything of the sort because her eccentric and extremely wealthy and rather unscrupulous grandfather had just been murdered and there's the dark "whodunnit" cloud hanging over her family -- a very odd family who all live together at his very odd estate that's more like multiple houses mish-mashed together into one "crooked house" -- just like the nursery rhyme.

There was a crooked man, and he went a crooked mile,
He found a crooked sixpence against a crooked stile;
He bought a crooked cat, which caught a crooked mouse,
And they all liv'd together in a little crooked house.

Through his father, Charles has ties to Scotland Yard and decides to help solve the case so he and Sophia can live happily ever after. Of course, it isn't easy because everyone seems to have the means and motive ... and at the same time, no one seems to have the means and motive.

It's brilliant, of course, because it's Christie. I absolutely see why it was one of her favorites -- and well-loved by the Jane Doe Book Club. 

(See what I did there? Nice segue, eh?)

On the surface, the Jane Doe Book Club series might look and sound like a typical cozy. I knew not far into the first one that this is definitely not the case. It's cozy and suspense and psychological thriller all mish-mashed together ... kind of like the crooked house. I loved the first book -- On Borrowed Crime. The main character in the series is Lyla Moody. Lyla works for her private investigator uncle, has an ex-boyfriend who happens to be the Chief of Police, a current boyfriend who happens to be a Special Agent, a tight-knit group of friends who are also fans of mystery books and true-crime tales, and gets caught up under a very similiar dark "whodunnit" cloud when the husband of book club member and dear friend, Harper, is found murdered in the library of Lyla's family home.

There are many similarities between this case and the case in Crooked House, so Lyla (and her friends) use the book as a sort of guide to help them help Harper. Hence, my whole read them both (with Agatha first) plea. It's for your own good. And, again, why would you not take the excuse to read another book?

Cat Among the Pigeons by Agatha Christie (Tuesday Intros & Teaser Tuesday)

Title: Cat Among the Pigeons

Author: Agatha Christie

Publication: 1959 (reissue 17 March 2009)

Format: Kindle eBook

Amazon Description: 

Late one night, two teachers investigate a mysterious flashing light in the sports pavilion while the rest of the school sleeps. There, among the lacrosse sticks, they stumble upon the body of an unpopular games mistress—shot through the heart point-blank.

The school is thrown into chaos when the “cat” strikes again. Unfortunately, schoolgirl Julia Upjohn knows too much. In particular, she knows that without Hercule Poirot’s help, she will be the next victim.…

Ramble-y Teaserish Stuff

It's rare that I'll use the same book for back-to-back teaser posts but some just deserve it. 

For this past Book Beginnings & Friday 56 I used the Prologue for the beginning. I went with the first bit of Chapter One for today's Tuesday Intro. I almost did the next book on my list since I will likely be starting it within the next couple of hours, but that can wait. The explanation of where the title came from for today's teaser really couldn't. Well, it easily could have ... but ... oh never mind. 

I did make the horrible mistake of watching the Poirot episode this weekend (season 11, episode 2 if you're curious). Great casting but ... even though it's not my favorite Poirot novel, read the book. Watch the episode, too, if you must. The book is still better.

"First Chapter First Paragraph Tuesday Intros" is from the first paragraph or two
of a book being read now (or in the future) and is hosted by Socrates' Book Reviews. 

"Teaser Tuesday" at The Purple Booker asks for a random line or two
from anywhere in the book currently being read.

Cat Among the Pigeons by Agatha Christie (Book Beginnings & Friday 56)

 Title: Cat Among the Pigeons

Author: Agatha Christie

Publication: 1959 (reissue 17 March 2009)

Format: Kindle eBook

Amazon Description: 

Late one night, two teachers investigate a mysterious flashing light in the sports pavilion while the rest of the school sleeps. There, among the lacrosse sticks, they stumble upon the body of an unpopular games mistress—shot through the heart point-blank.

The school is thrown into chaos when the “cat” strikes again. Unfortunately, schoolgirl Julia Upjohn knows too much. In particular, she knows that without Hercule Poirot’s help, she will be the next victim.…

Ramble-y Teaserish Stuff

I cannot remember a time in my life when I was not a huge Agatha Christie fan. I grew up watching the movies every time they were on television and as soon as I was able I started reading the books off of my grandmother's bookshelf until I loaded up my own.  Back in 2015 I had every intention of reading/re-reading every Christie I could get my hands on. I then met NetGalley and it all went terribly awry .... much like the summer term at Meadowbank in Cat Among the Pigeons.

Goodreads lists the book as number 36 out of 42 in the Hercule Poirot series. It's not the best of the bunch and Hercule doesn't even show up right away, but it does have some fabulous moments and anything penned by Christie will always be better than most anything by anyone else.

Maybe I'll go back to trying to get through the entire Agatha Christie library. I may even have to forget that I just read the ones I did back in 2015 and start all over from the beginning. Perhaps I'll do series by series this time ... or the stand-alones first and then the series ... or ...

My little grey cells are hurting just trying to figure it out. 

As always, Friday 56 (share a blurb from the 56th page or 56% mark) is hosted at Freda's Voice & Book Beginnings (share the first few sentences) is at Rose City Reader.

Agatha Christie's The Man In The Brown Suit

About a zillion years ago (or, you know, in the late 1980s) a movie adaptation of Agatha Christie's The Man In The Brown Suit hit the small screen. I knew then that it was highly adapted since it took place in the present and not in the 1920s but, of course, I watched it anyway. I hadn't read the book but, as I've said before, many of my early years went by without my "read before you watch" obsession. TV favorites Tony Randall & Rue McClanahan took part and Stephanie Zimbalist played the main character. I absolutely loved her in Remington Steele.

Anyway, it was an enjoyable enough movie. Absolute made-for-tv fluff. And one that I remember just enough of years later to the point of not being in a hurry to read the book. I put it on my 20 Books of Summer list since I'm aiming to read all of Christie's novels in order and it was next ... and ...

Holy. Crap.

If you've read the book, don't be in a big rush to hunt down the movie (it's out of print ... but it is on YouTube if you MUST). If you saw the movie? READ THE BOOK.

In the book, Anne Beddingfield has led a rather boring and sheltered life, much to her dismay.

When she is suddenly orphaned after the death of her father she sees it as her chance to go out and become "Anne the Adventuress." [The book was actually serialized using this title, in fact.] A case of being in "the wrong place at the wrong time" leads her to snooping and poking her nose into two possible murder investigations -- including a cruise from England to Africa. It turns out that this is far more than "simply" murder but also of diamond smuggling and espionage.

One big ol' highlight for me: Colonel Race! I know Race thanks to Death On The Nile and Sparkling Cyanide and he is an absolute gem here in his first appearance! Even Anne thought so:

Of course, the idea of marrying him was gone just a short time later -- thanks to her deciding that someone else is even more worthy of her attention:

The "him" in question is one of several suspects (which, being a Christie tale, should come as no surprise) Sure enough, Anne gets into one heap of trouble after another trying to solve the mysteries at hand and, hopefully, clear his name. She is, after all, a Christie heroine. She's spunky. She's intelligent. She's unconventional. She's more than a little foolish at times. Through it all, though, she's fearless .... almost.

There's so much more to love about The Man In The Brown Suit than just Race and Anne (though I do lament immensely that Anne was a one-and-done character for Christie. She is really just so much fun). This is one of those books where even the annoying characters are at least enjoyably and purposefully annoying. The characters are wonderful ... the romance is darling (and I'm not a big fan of romance books as a general rule) ... and as for the mystery? Well, it's a Christie ....

Oooooh such a Christie.

In other words, she got me all sorts of discombobulated.

I thought I nailed it. I didn't trust at all that even if my recollection of the late 1980s was in tact that the outcome would be the same and, as it turns out, I don't remember the ending of the movie version at all. I was in middle school, after all, so I may have fallen asleep before it was finished.

Whatever. She tricked me.

Again.

And I loved every minute of it.

Agatha Christie's The Murder on the Links

The Murder on the Links is the third of Christie's novels and the second featuring Hercule Poirot yet this was my first encounter with the story. The ITV series didn't air the tale (in all of its "made-for-tv-ness") until part way through the sixth season and I'm still only on the second. (I took a break from watching them on Acorn since they ARE so different and SO out of order. Still very watchable, of course, but I'd like to get more of them read before watching.)

Once again, Hastings is the narrator. In fact, he starts out the tale by breaking my heart into a million lit-crushing pieces:

Ah .... Hastings wouldn't have patience for me! Totally not his type. Of course, my Tom isn't what I ever would have considered to be my type so maybe my lit-crushing fantasies can continue ....

The woman in question Hastings meets while on a train returning to London from Paris. It is some time after The Mysterious Affair At Styles and he and Hercule Poirot were living and working together. While on the train the two talk about life, Poirot, and Styles. They part ways in much better spirits than they started (see? There's hope for my modern neuroticism!) but he doesn't get her name. She says it's Cinderella as she leaves.

Hastings returns to Poirot who is lamenting about being bored because there are no great criminals about to let him work his "little grey cells." Waiting for him in the mail, though, is a call for help from a man in France who feels he is in danger but does not wish to go to the police. He begs Poirot to come at once and, of course, the two take off for France but arrive too late. The man was murdered and his body found on a nearby golf course (the "links" from the title).

The local authorities already know Poirot and there is another detective milling around -- a French Sherlock-ish character who irritates Poirot (he refers to him as "the human foxhound"). There are also mysterious South Americans, family members household staff, a mysterious "secret," a supposed mistress and her "goddess"-like daughter (oh, Hastings ... you're such a dog sometimes. What about the girl on the train?), twins ... and the Cinderella girl and her sister.

Everyone is a suspect at one point or another, and Poirot is brilliant at picking apart what's what and who's who until everything is all solved and tidy again. Since this is told by Hastings, though, we're left quite in the dark at times just as he had been.

Oh, yes. I know the feeling well. At the same time, though, I often feel like giving my beloved Hastings a good shake because of how obvious it is that the "nothing" isn't "nothing" at all. Love him dearly, but Hastings definitely isn't the brightest bulb on the Christmas tree sometimes and definitely isn't in this outing.

I blame Cinderella.

Agatha Christie's The Secret Adversary

When I was young I had daydreams of growing up to be just like those great fiesty spitfire women I got to watch on weekend tv or read about in the books on my grandmother's shelves.

Like Emma Peel.

Or Nora Charles. 

Or Tuppence Cowley Beresford.

First introduced to the world in Agatha Christie's second novel, The Secret Adversary, Tuppence (whose given name is Prudence) is an old childhood friend of Tommy Beresford's. They meet up by chance after both having been released from wartime duties. They soon realize that they're without much in the way of funds or of prospects. Marrying into wealth isn't as easy as it sounds and neither is finding employment. Tuppence has an idea, though.

They decide to put an advertisement in the newspaper: "Two young adventurers for hire. Willing to do anything, go anywhere. Pay must be good. No unreasonable offer refused." Their joint venture, The Young Adventures, Ltd -- and one of my favorite literary pairings -- begins.

Before the advertisement can even be taken to the paper Tuppence is approached by a man named Mr. Whittington who overheard their conversation and wishes to engage her services. When she goes to meet him she gives him a false name (so as to not have it get back to her clergyman father), Jane Finn. At the time she doesn't recall hearing the name from Tommy -- she believes that she just pulled it out of thin air. Mr Whittington's reaction is quite peculiar and he demands to know what she knows and who she's learned it from. Of course, Tuppence has no idea what he's talking about but plays along to a degree and he pays her off but tells her to return the next day. Later, Tommy reminds Tuppence that he's the one who first told her the name "Jane Finn" and they decide that they have to find out more by investigating Whittington.

"Sort of thing one reads about in books." Oh, Agatha ... you funny, funny author.

Sooooo the next day the two head for Whittington's office only to find that Whittington and the entire company has vanished! Mysterious, right? And all of this just in the first 11% of the book -- there's a lot more to come!

This is not a murder mystery. It's more political espionage and intrigue than cozy. Even though it's typically not my preferred type of story to read,  I still feel like I have to love it.

Because it's Christie.

Because without it we never would have had the BBC Partners in Crime series of the early 1980's (or the upcoming series in celebration of Christie's 125th birthday).


Because of that I love Tommy & Tuppence.

I'm typically one of the first ones to spout out that the book is always better than the tv or film version. Well ... The Secret Adversary is old enough that it's in the public domain and free in the US. No reason not to get it and give it a shot. You may love it. You may want to stick with the on-screen version like I tend to, though.

Agatha Christie's The Mysterious Affair At Styles

This is going to be far more of a ramble than a "review" so bear with me.

Growing up, I was spoiled by superstations. The biggest culprits being WOR and WPIX -- Channels 9 and 11 out of New York City. They aired the greats. They introduced me to Laurel & Hardy, Twilight Zone, The Three Stooges, F-Troop, Charlie Chan, Jim Rockford, Cary Grant, Danny Kaye ... and Agatha Christie. My absolute favorites were And Then There Were None and Murder On The Orient Express (it amused me to no end that Charlie Chan and Hercule Poirot were so similar ... of course, both being played by the late great Peter Ustinov).

Anyway, being quite young when I first started to watch them, I had yet to fall in to the "Must. Go. In. Order." mindtrap once I realized that they actually came in book form as well. My grandmother had several Agatha Christie books on her shelves and I would read them as best as I could and as often as I could. When I started to acquire the ebooks to lead up to this year's birthday read-a-thon I realized that I may not have ever read the very first: The Mysterious Affair at Styles.

(Do yourself a favor and get a hard copy ... or at least make sure that 

your e-copy indicates that it has the illustrations. They're pretty nifty.)

The tale is a first-person narrative given by Arthur Hastings (much like John Watson tells the tales of Sherlock Holmes).

Yay! I big puffy-heart LOVE Hastings! Especially the ITV Hastings. Ooooh Hugh Fraser and those eyes ... SO much dreamier than the Hastings of my youth. Seriously. The best part of the TV adaptations has been the increased presence of Hastings as he only really appeared in eight out of thirty-three Poirot novels.

Anyway, back to the novel at hand.

Hastings is off to stay with his old friend, John Cavendish, and his rather dysfunctional family -- wife, brother, stepmother, her new husband, her niece and several servants. During an early conversation with John's beguiling wife, Mary, she asks Hastings what he might do with himself now that he's back.

So, yes. This is the first Hercule Poirot novel ... but we don't even see the little fellow until Hastings literally runs into him about 10% in:

It is quite the stroke of luck that Poirot is so close since, of course, a mysterious death occurs a short time later. It's John's stepmother and he asks Hastings to have Poirot investigate. Poirot agrees and Hastings tries to help.His earlier mention of using his friend's method of detection but having "progressed rather further" is seen to be a bit of an exaggeration.

Often left in the dark with what his little friend is thinking, Hastings still tags along hoping to come up with some way to be of use and show his worth.

Suspects are plentiful, of course. Even we, the readers, are left to wonder "who-done-it," what Poirot is thinking, and whether any of his "little ideas" ever mean anything at all. That's one of the glorious things, I believe. We go along for the ride with Hastings and the rest of the crew wondering what the heck is going on.

Arrests are made, acquittals are made, and at times even Poirot is frustrated that things don't seem to be falling into place. Then voilà! Poirot calls everyone together and reveals all -- arranging all of the facts into their proper places and making sense of it all.

Is it the best mystery novel ever written?
Of course not.
Is it well worth reading?
Mais oui, mes amis.