ACRC Carnival 2010 #5

Welcome to the May 23, 2010 edition of Agatha Christie monthly Blog Carnival.

Many thanks to those who contributed links to the Carnival this time.
We have 30 contributions from 11 contributors this time in a bumper edition.

There are some new features this time

• Featured blog.
  If we featured every post this blogger writes about Agatha Christie, we'd have a full carnival without any other submissions. Make sure you visit this remarkable blog regularly.
• Discoveries:
  This will be a category you can submit entries for from now on. These are Agatha Christie related news items and web pages that you've come across that this community would be interested in. Whenever you come across an interesting item, remember to share it with us.

Do visit the participating blogs and leave comments if you have read the books.

Spread the word too about the existence of this blog and the monthly opportunity it offers to showcase reviews about Agatha Christie books.

If you'd like to be part of the Agatha Christie Reading Challenge, it is never too late to start. Check out the other postings on this blog and my main Agatha Christie Reading Challenge postings which will lead you to the lists of titles etc. You can now join the Agatha Christie Reading Challenge too, so just click on the link and sign up.

Read at your own pace, write a review on your blog, go to the Carnival collecting space and put in the URL, your details, and a comment about the post.

Advance Notice: On 15 September 2010 Agatha Christie would have been 120 years old.
Here at the Blog Carnival we will be taking part in world wide celebrations with a blog carnival tour from 1-30 September.
Participants will volunteer for a day in September to host the carnival.  Your post of course must be related to an Agatha Christie topic. Indicate your interest in being a stop on the blog tour by leaving a comment or emailing Kerrie.

Today's 11 Contributors - please see the items below for exact URLS of their posts.

• MYSTERIES in PARADISE
• BooksPlease
• Joyfully Retired  
• Miss Lemon's Mysteries.
• Reactions to Reading
• BlackSheepBooks 
• Savidge Reads
• My Life As Seen Through Books 
• An unfinished person (in this unfinished universe) 
• Fervent Reader
• Zhen's Summer Cafe

Featured Blog

Margot Kinberg asks Was Shakespeare right? at Confessions of a Mystery Novelist....,
Kerrie says " Every post on Confessions of a Mystery Novelist is an illustration of an incredible knowledge of Agatha Christie's books (as well as others). Margot Kinberg is a mystery novelist and professor, who loves to read and talk about mystery and crime fiction."

General

Melinda reviews DESTINATION UNKNOWN at BlackSheepBooks.saying, "Although the style of this book is unmistakeably Christie, it’s not one of her typical books."

Margaret reviews PASSENGER TO FRANKFURT at BooksPlease, saying, "Published in 1970 this is an unusual novel for Agatha Christie - a strange and puzzling spy story."

KerrieS asks Which is YOUR best Agatha Christie?  at MYSTERIES in PARADISE, saying, "What are your top 10 Agatha Christie reads? An interesting exercise to pick them out." It is not too late to contribute your top 10 so far. Kerrie has still to put a post together aggregating the contributions.

Miss Marple

Simon Savidge reviews Why Didn't They Ask Evans? at Savidge Reads. "Some people have said this was a ‘light hearted romp’ in Christie’s career and there is a feeling of an adult ‘Famous Five adventure’ about it, well more a slightly hapless duo in this case. Don’t let that stop you reading it though because the characters are superb."

Tommy and Tuppence

Redux #29 - "The Secret Adversary" by Agatha Christie at My Life As Seen Through Books, says, "There was something decidedly unrealistic and theatrical about this book. The coincidences are extreme, the characters find information at exactly the right moment, somehow survive situations where they would end up dead in the real world, and enjoy an unbelievable amount of good luck. However, none of this lack of realism really hurt the novel.""

Hercule Poirot

unfinishedperson presents Appointment with Death posted at An unfinished person (in this unfinished universe), saying, "The journey toward discovering the killer is worth the ride. The end of the journey, though, was less than satisfying..."

Melinda presents Elephants Can Remember by Agatha Christie posted at BlackSheepBooks. This is one of my most favouritest Agatha Christie novels. I adore Poirot (although not more than Miss Marple) and I’m quite fond of Ariadne Oliver with all her foibles, so this makes for a comfy, cosy mystery with characters I love.

Margot at Joyfully Retired presents Book and Movie: Murder On the Orient Express at Joyfully Retired, saying, "I strongly recommend both the book and the movie. The dvd for the movie had special features that were excellent and included an interview with Agatha Christie's grandson."

KerrieS reviews THE THIRD GIRL, Agatha Christie - audio at MYSTERIES in PARADISE, saying, "THE THIRD GIRL is one of the most satisfying Agatha Christie's I've "read" recently. In fact I think I'll have to put it in my top 10. There was plenty to enjoy about it from the characters of Ariadne Oliver and HP's secretary Miss Lemon, to depiction of the "new" British society of the late 1950's, with girls going out to work, and young people experimenting with drugs."

Bernadette reviews THE MYSTERIOUS AFFAIR AT STYLES posted at Reactions to Reading, saying, "It really is impressive how well this book stacks up given its age and its place in Ms Christie’s canon. I doubt there are many authors who have produced such a solidly accomplished first novel that is also perfectly readable and enjoyable ninety years after its release."

Julie reviews HICKORY DICKORY DOCK posted at Fervent Reader. "For the very first time in a full-length novel, Hercule Poirot’s ultra-efficient secretary Miss Lemon makes an appearance. She is under a lot of stress lately, as evidenced by a few mistakes she makes in typing letters for Poirot. Ordinarily, Miss Lemon does not make mistakes."

KerrieS asks Just how old was Hercule Poirot? at MYSTERIES in PARADISE, saying, "Hercule Poirot has a client, a young woman, who comes to see him saying she thinks she has murdered someone. She won't sit down and shuffles on her feet, refusing to meet his eyes. And then she blurts out that he is too old and flees. So just how old is he?"

KerrieS discovered this review of THE ABC MURDERS (1936) posted at The Agatha Christie Reader. The reviewer says "The ABC Murders follows on nicely from "Why Didn't They Ask Evans". While the latter book is a solid-enough romp (oh, that sounds like faint praise, but you know what I mean - it's robust run-around fun), The ABC Murders does some very remarkable things with a similar set up."

ng kai-lee presents Just another Christie: TAKEN AT THE FLOOD at Zhen's Summer Cafe-.In the autumn of 1944, Hercule Poirot was sitting at a club during an Air Raid where an old Major blabbered on a boring story nobody wanted to hear about. Two years later, the same story came to haunt Poirot as he got himself involved in the affairs of the Cloade family.

Short Stories

KerrieS presents Forgotten Story Collections: Agatha Christie posted at MYSTERIES in PARADISE, saying, "Many people who read Agatha Christie novels ignore the fact that she wrote some terrific short stories.
In my quest to read the works of Agatha Christie (novels and short stories) in the order in which they were written, I have identified 21 short story collections. So far I've read 82 short stories in this particular reading challenge."

KerrieS reviews THE LISTERDALE MYSTERY, Agatha Christie posted at MYSTERIES in PARADISE, saying, "This is a funny little collection of stories, some quite entertaining and others a bit pedestrian.
If there is a theme that Christie is exploring then it is probably the nature of love. In The Listerdale Mystery, Philomel Cottage, and Accident, which I thought were best in the collection, she plays with the twist in the tale, the unexpected ending."

Elizabeth presents Dead Man's Mirror at Miss Lemon's Mysteries, saying, "HP is in top form as he tackles three nagging murders -- two are locked-room murders and one a cold-blooded poisoning...."

Updates

Margaret presents an Agatha Christie Reading Challenge Update at BooksPlease, saying, "I've still got a long way to go, although I've read five more books since my last update."

KerrieS presents ACRC: Short Stories, Update #8 at MYSTERIES in PARADISE, saying, "Update: I've read 8 short story collections and 94 short stories. I think Agatha Christie must have been working continuously on them. Perhaps they were good money earners."

KerrieS presents ACRC Update - 17 May 2010 posted at MYSTERIES in PARADISE, saying, "Update: I've been on a bit of an Agatha Christie kick this month."

Discoveries

While reading and thinking about Agatha Christie... posted at The Great Dark Wonder, "This blogger raises some interesting questions about how well Agatha Christie depicted the "lower" classes."

And Then There Were None: A Film Discussion Guide posted at Doug Geivett's Blog"A set of 15 questions related to "And Then There Were None" (USA, 1945), directed by René Clair, is the original film adaptation of the famed Agatha Christie novel."

Woman: Agatha Christie posted at Le Sphinx, "A mixture of covers and pictures of Agatha Christie."

This Week in the Circuit posted at The Classics Circuit  "This blog post marks the beginning of the Golden Age of Detective Fiction tour. Many Agatha Christie posts are included."

It's possible Agatha Christie had Alzheimer's: posted at The Great Dark Wonder  "This blogger says "I read Postern Of Fate, the final book she wrote, a few years ago and then told every mystery fan I knew to avoid it.""

A review of The Complete Christie: An Agatha Christie Encyclopedia posted at dekdum.com blog, saying, "An interesting reference book to check."

Agatha Christie: Mystery Figure game "Join the murder mystery hunt just begun on the Agatha Christie site."

Pera Palace Hotel - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia  "An article in Wikipedia on the Pera Palace Hotel in Istanbul where Agatha Christie wrote MURDER ON THE ORIENT EXPRESS".

Caricature/Cartoon - Hercule Poirot the Belgian Detective of Agatha Christie's Novels Sells Apartments in Rodentia. posted at Shafali's Caricatures. "This wonderful caricature is accompanied by some background about Hercule Poirot and a list of the novels he featured in."

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That concludes this edition.

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