Top Ten Favourite Agatha Christie Mysteries
Submitted by DeadlyM on Mon, 11/10/2003 - 10:44
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- Death on the Nile (Slightly biased due to the fabulous film with Mia, Angela, Bette, and my favourite Poirot actor ever - Ustinov)
- Nemesis (I like the continuation of a story from A Caribbean Mystery, and the interring a dead relative in the garden theme strikes a chord, for some reason...)
- Murder in Mesopotamia (Archaeologists and Hysteria. Yum.)
- Evil Under the Sun (Diana!!! Ustinov again. Maggie! I know, not supposed to be influenced by the movie adaptations. But I am, and I make no apologies for it. Whenever I re-read, I hear Diana's imperious voice, what can I say?)
- By the Pricking of my Thumbs (Have to have a Tommy & Tuppence. They're so lovely!)
- The Mysterious Mr. Quin (I adore this book. It's not that popular in most rankings I've seen, for some reason, but I adore it. Gloomy, dark, spiritual, ballerinas... you can't beat it, really.)
- Murder for Christmas (because this could so easily be one of my family Christmases.)
- Peril at End House (Where we learn yet again that you should NEVER screw with the masterful Belgian.)
- A Murder is Announced (Hee. Village life. So gossipy. So inbred. So could be true. Could, in fact, be a blueprint for murder.)
- The Mirror Crack'd From Side to Side (Too fabulous and showbiz-y for words. And one of the more surprising twists, for me.)
I can't believe I've never read any Agatha Christie. What a slacker. I've seen a few of the movies though, and reviewing the quotes page for Death on the Nile really makes me want to see it again. I do think that page misquotes my favorite line though: "Cripes, never have I seen such a serpent in a first class cabin!" Actually, I might have it wrong myself. It might be "large serpent" (I'm not sure which is funnier: the implication in the first statement that he has seen such serpents in the less expensive cabins, or the implication of the second statement that smaller serpents are not unheard of in first class cabins). The other thing I might have wrong is the word "cabin" for "compartment."
Jim in Agatha Christie-less life Shock! Wow. That's a pretty serious oversight. Get thee to a used or independent bookshop, online retailer, or charity shop of your choice post haste! I'm going to have to get back to you on the quote, however - what with the library being at home, and the Listing Frenzy at work - unless cmonster wants to weigh in, as I bow before her mighty AC knowledge?!
:-) On the bright side, I think my wife has read them all, which has consequently made her pretty sharp at figuring out most other whodunits in the first third of the book or so. We've got to have some AC around here. I'll definitely give her a try one of these days.
I can look it up when I get home tonight, but a quick whip round Google leans toward a "large serpent", which I agree, makes you wonder about the other sizes of serpents in first-class cabins.
Are these in any of order of favouritibilitynessnous ?
Like Jim, I have never read any AC, but have just taken delivery of a beautiful set of AC books for future reading.