Agatha Christie - one book at a time

At the end of last year, decided to embark on the task of reading all of the Agatha Christie books, in order, by detective. I am not sure I will achieve this within a year – so many books and so little time, and that’s comment could apply just to Agatha Christie’s books, let alone the wider world of books out there. Agatha Christie wrote about 80 detective novels and short story collections, the majority of which were Poirot stories. You can find a full list of her detective stories here or by detective here (well, Poirot and Miss Marple anyway).

Agatha Christie’s first novel was The Mysterious Affair at Styles, which is a Poirot novel. Given that for many people, their main knowledge of Poirot will be through the ITV television series, it is interesting to go back to the books themselves and build a fresh picture. For instance, Hastings is about thirty years old in the book (about half the age of Poirot), which is not the case in the TV series. But Poirot’s pernickety ways shine through, as does Captain Hastings’ somewhat inept grasp of what the evidence shows.



The Mysterious Affair at Styles is not only the first Poirot novel, it is actually Agatha Christie’s first published novel. It has everything you would expect from one of her stories (and I mean that in the nicest possible way), lots of suspects, dastardly doings and several potential red herrings. A most enjoyable read.

I actually read this book a couple of weeks ago and have also now read Christie’s second Poirot novel The Murder on the Links and am now most of the way through Poirot Investigates, which are short stories. I am enjoying myself so far, but I am hoping that I won’t end up feeling that I can crack the Agatha Christie ‘formula’ and work out who the criminal is in future novels.

The books are not always about just finding the solution though, but also the dilemmas of whether to ‘bring people to justice’ and are also somewhat surprising in their tone at times. For example, in one of the Poirot Investigates stories, the criminals got away with it, but when Hastings read in the newspaper that they “were amongst those killed in the crashing of the Air Mail to Paris I knew that Justice was satisfied”. Indeed.


Do you have a favourite Agatha Christie book, or have you embarked on a reading challenge? Let me know!


Read the book:

Last Rituals

Title: Last Rituals

Author: Yrsa Sigurdardottir

Number of pages: 432

Opening words:

The head caretaker, Tryggvi, stood idly by the coffee maker. The sound of boiling water dripping through the machine was the only thing to be heard in the empty building, which housed the university’s History department. Soon the bustling cleaners would arrive, chatting and giggling, dragging their carts and vacuums out of the housekeeping room. The caretaker revelled in the silence and the aroma of brewing coffee. He had been employed by the university for over thirty years and had seen his share of changes, not the least of which was the complete turnaround in the nationality of the cleaners who worked under his supervision. When he started they had all been Icelandic and understood his every word; now his interactions with his subordinates consisted of a series of hand gestures and loudly-spoken basic orders. The women were all immigrants, and all recent arrivals from south-east Asia, except for one woman of African descent.
Until the faculty members and students arrived for the day, he might as well have been working in Bangkok.

What’s it about?

A young man is found brutally murdered, his eyes gouged out. A student of Icelandic history in Reykjavik, he came from a wealthy German family who do not share the police's belief that his drug dealer murdered him. Attorney Thora Gudmundsdottir is commissioned by his family to find out the truth, with the help - and hindrance - of boorish ex-policeman Matthew Reich. Their investigations into his research take them deep into a grisly world of torture and witchcraft both past and present, as they draw ever closer to a killer gripped by a dangerous obsession...

What I thought:

Scandinavian crime novels are somewhat in vogue at the moment, although primarily Swedish (the most well know probably being Stieg Larsson) and some Norwegian books (such as Jo Nesbo). It is debateable whether Iceland is actually a Scandinavian country (the main reason it gets included as one is because Iceland used to be part of Denmark, and Denmark is part of Scandinavia), but regardless of this, the style of Icelandic crime novels bears a strong resemblance to the main Scandinavian genre, so if you like that genre Icelandic books are worth a go.

I got into reading Icelandic books when I went to Iceland a couple of years ago and have read several since. The plot of Last Rituals revolved around a murder that the police believed they had already solved, but the victim’s family, who the victim didn’t get on with, believed otherwise. Throw in a bit of witchcraft, a dash of humour and the (literary) darkness you would expect from this style of novel and that gives a sense of what this book is about. Don’t expect a high body count. The story is based around that one death and the subsequent investigation into the circumstances, but that means more depth and allows some of the groundwork to be laid for the rest of the series of these books.

I thought it was an interesting idea for a novel, although it did not deliver an entirely satisfying novel. I like a book that strays away from the Hollywood blockbuster type read and this was a decent start to a readable series.

Read the book:

Books on New Beginnings

January is a time for New Year’s resolutions for many people. I am never 100% convinced by making New Year’s resolutions – I think I know myself well enough to realise that I am setting myself up to fail!

That said, there is always the potential for a few ‘tweaks’ around the edges. One of the books that my partner has found really helpful is Getting Things Done. The book is designed to help you organise and take control of our life, be that at work or elsewhere. Interestingly, this book is seen as a bit cult-ish by some people, but my view is that implanting the whole of the system is probably a bit much, but it is worth giving some of the techniques a go.

If you are hoping for a fitter 2015, then there may be some good news for you if you are looking for a way to achieve this with minimal (although intense) effort. Fast Exercise is based on using ultra short bursts of exercise to achieve better health.

The resulting combination of those two books is obviously going to leave you with a lot of time on your hands, which is excellent for fitting in some fiction reading. It can sometimes be more inspiring to immerse yourself in a great story – and new beginnings and changes can be great material for this. So here are some books about new beginnings that might inspire.

You could try The Unlikely Pilgrimage Of Harold Fry - never has going out to post a letter taken quite so long. It is a tale of casting off the mundane and finding a purpose, through a gentle story of what becomes a walk from one end of the country to the other.

If you want something a walk that is bit harder edged, although not a work of fiction, you could read Wild: A Journey from Lost to Found, which is Cheryl Strayed’s account of her journey along the Pacific Crest Trail following the death of her mother and the end of her own marriage. The book is more inspiring than this description suggests!

You could also read Kate Atkinson’s Life After Life, which tells the story of a very literal new beginning. Ursula Todd is born several times on 11 February 1910, and as a result gets an infinite number of chances to live her life – and in so doing has the potential to make different choices and not make previous mistakes. An interesting concept, even if not entirely realisable in our own lives.



All of the books are here: