MYSTERIES in PARADISE

2 January 2011

Review: DUMB WITNESS, Agatha Christie

First published in Great Britain in 1937
aka POIROT LOSES A CLIENT
This edition published by Harper Collins 1994
ISBN 0-00-616808-6
251 pages
Source: Local Library

Publisher's blurb:
Everyone blames Emily's accident on a rubber ball left on the stairs by her frisky terrier. But the more she thinks about her fall, the more convinced she becomes that one of her relatives is trying to kill her. On April 17th she conveys her suspicions in a letter to Hercule Poirot. Mysteriously, he doesn't receive it until June 28th... by which time Emily is already dead.

Miss Arundell died on May 1st. Though her illness was short her death did not occasion much surprise...

But though Miss Arundell's death surprised no one, something else did. The provisions of her will gave rise to varying emotions, astonishment, pleasurable excitement, deep condemnation, fury, despair, anger and general gossip.

My take:

Hercule Poirot is placed in a difficult position because by the time he takes up Emily Arundell's commission she is already dead. He really could have just walked away. In fact, that is what Hastings thinks he should have done. But Poirot can smell murder, even though Emily's doctor is convinced she died a perfectly natural death of liver failure. Emily had recently changed her will, cutting out her immediate family who were all desperate for her money, and who originally were to have received considerable inheritances. And was this just a temporary measure to scare someone off? Had she really intended to revert to her original will, but died before she could?

If only Bob the dog could talk.. would he have been able to come up with the same final plot resolution as Hercule Poirot? That is the implication of the title, but I somehow don't think he would have. In the last few pages of the novel Poirot takes us painstakingly through the facts he assembled and the boxes he ticked, and we realise just how complex the plot really is.

My rating: 4.5
~~~~~~~~~
Apparently the concept of DUMB WITNESS was originally fleshed out in a short story The Mystery of the Dog’s Ball that remained unpublished until it was finally published in Agatha Christie’s Secret Notebooks: Fifty Years of Mysteries in the Making,

Sunday Salon: MiP celebrates 3rd blogoversary with book giveaway.

MYSTERIES in PARADISE was created 2 January 2008

Since then blogging has become almost an addiction

& I've made some great blogging friends

& been part of some great events!

To celebrate my blogoversary I have decided to pass on a copy of TAKE OUT by Australian author Felicity Young.
I received this as a review copy from the publishers Fremantle Press, so it has been leafed through by me, but I am a gentle reader!

I reviewed it in March last year and gave it a rating of 4.6.

I will send the book anywhere in the world, so, if you are interested in reading Australian crime fiction, enter by leaving a comment that gives me some information so I can contact you if you are the winner.

You have until Saturday 8 January to enter!

Another thing to do when you visit MiP
Tell me your top 10 crime fiction reads for 2010.
Visit this post and leave your list as a comment.

Posts in the last week:

What I read in December 2010

It is hard to explain why I read so many more books than usual when there was so much on.
Must have been the break from work!

There was a lot to choose from for my Pick of the Month and you'll see I have chosen BLOOD ATONEMENT by Dan Waddell (his second novel). He is really my "find of the year" - an author about whom I had heard absolutely nothing, picked up by chance at my local library, and really enjoyed. Read his books in order though.

4.4, LOVE YOU TO DEATH, Gail Bowen (28 December)
4.6, NEVER LOOK AWAY, Linwood Barclay (28 December)
4.5, THE RING OF DEATH, Sally Spencer (25 December)
4.5, A DUTY TO THE DEAD, Charles Todd (24 December)
4.7, ROOM, Emma Donoghue (23 December) - kindle
4.5, UNKNOWN, Marie Jungstedt (21 December)
4.5, NEGATIVE IMAGE, Vicki Delany (17 December) - kindle
4.6, BLOOD ATONEMENT, Dan Waddell (14 December)
4.5, THE UNCOMMON READER, Alan Bennett (12 December)
3.5, PLUM PUDDING MURDER, Joanne Fluke (12 December) - kindle
4.5, LET THE DEAD LIE, Malla Nunn (11 December)
4.6, THE FORGOTTEN MAN, Robert Crais (8 December) -audio
2.5, TAKE THE MONKEYS AND RUN, Karen Cantwell (5 December)
4.7, HERCULE POIROT'S CHRISTMAS, Agatha Christie (5 December)
4.4, AN UNHALLOWED GRAVE, Kate Ellis (2 December)
4.3, A CANTERBURY CRIME, Brian Kavanagh (1 December) - kindle

1 January 2011

Review: MAIGRET & the MAN on the BOULEVARD, Georges Simenon

Originally published in 1953 as Maigret et l'homme du banc
English titles:
Maigret and the Man on the Boulevard
Maigret and the Man on the Bench
The Man on the Boulevard
This edition, DALES Large Print Books, 2002
ISBN 1-84262-096-7
263 pages

Product description (Amazon)
Simenon's tenacious detective pieces together the life of a man who for three years lived a secret life-until he is found stabbed to death in an alleyway.

My take:

The concept of a murder victim having a secret life that his family knew nothing of is one that plenty of writers since Simenon have explored. But once Louis Thouret's wife states that her dead husband is wearing shoes and a tie that she has never seen, and then Maigret discovers that the firm that he supposedly works for has been out of business for three years, then there are other questions that Maigret absolutely must have answers to. What does Louis Thouret do during the day? Where does he keep the clothes he wears during the day, because he certainly doesn't leave home in them in the morning. Does he have another job? Where is his income coming from? Why was he in the dead-end alley where he was murdered? And finally - who murdered Louis Thouret and why?

By today's standards MAIGRET & the MAN on the BOULEVARD is a relatively short novel, and thus a quick read. Maigret is chafing a bit at the idea that as the Chief he should be giving the orders, and planning the investigation, rather than doing the spade work which he loves to do.

MAIGRET & the MAN on the BOULEVARD comes roughly in the middle of Simenon's publishing career, and for me epitomised what he was well known for - an economy of style, at the same time as masterful written dialogue.

It didn't feel dated either. My rating: 4.4

Other reviews:
Books to the Ceiling

I'll be using MAIGRET & the MAN on the BOULEVARD in the Vintage Mystery Reading Challenge and other challenges.

Review: MIDNIGHT CAB, James W. Nichol

Originally published in Canada in 2002 by Alfred A. Knopf
this edition published by Canongate
ISBN 1-84195-792-5
337 pages
Source: I bought it.

Publisher's blurb

A terrified three-year-old boy is found clinging to a wire fence at the side of a country road. The only clue found by authorities as to the child's identity is a photograph of two little girls and a letter.

Sixteen years later, Walker Devereaux is in Toronto to discover the truth about his biological mother. Working as an after-hours cabdriver, Walker befriends Krista, a smart-alecky, wheelchair-bound night dispatcher. Together, they search for a key to Walker's past. But their after-hours sleuthing veers them ever closer to another who has become the embodiment of desperate, violent, and sinister pathologies.

My take:

This is a novel with an interesting structure. Running parallel with the story of Walker Devereaux is the story of Bobby, a boy with real social problems. With great persistence Walker searches for his mother, following leads gleaned from the only items found on him. The year before, when he turned 18, he was allowed access to his custody files. As the book progresses we learn that there is some connection between Walker and Bobby - why else would we be told Bobby's life story? - but there are a few red herrings before we learn the truth.

I had a some problems with the time frame of the book. The author has indicated on some chapters what year these events are taking place in but I couldn't always make the time elapsed synch with these dates.

But it is a very readable story.

My rating: 4.5

Other reviews:

Petrona

Interesting..
In 2002, Knopf Canada published the Ontario author’s first book: Midnight Cab, about a young Toronto cabdriver attempting to solve a mystery from his past. “The book was just kind of thrown out there,” recalls Nichol, “and throughout the process, Knopf [kept] telling me that they weren’t sure it was going to be a crossover success. And it wasn’t.” Though Midnight Cab earned some good reviews and won the Arthur Ellis Award for best first crime novel, it ended up selling only a few thousand copies and then pretty much disappeared. More

MIDNIGHT CAB was shortlisted for the CWA Gold Dagger in 2004.

Also
One of the best series airing as part of the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation's The Mystery Project is Midnight Cab", which was aired in three runs of 13 episodes, 9 episodes, and 13 episodes (making a total of 35 episodes for the series). The first series probably ran in 1992, with the second series going into 1993-1994. The novel published in 2002 is a pre-quel to the radio series, and gives background to the central character, Walker Devereaux and his wheel-chair bound girlfriend Krista. More

I read MIDNIGHT CAB for #8 in the Canadian Book Challenge

Welcome To My Life*

Many thanks to Margot at Confessions of a Mystery Novelist for this meme which allows you to give a crime fiction view of the world to come in 2011. Check the origins on her post. By all means take the questions and answer them on your blog.

Following Margot's example, I've used crime fiction titles (from my TBR) to complete the answers to the questions.

I spent my New Year’s Eve: In A MIDNIGHT CAB with James W. Nichol

I’ve made a resolution to: WATCH THE WORLD BURN (Leah Giarratano)

I plan to quit my habit of: VIOLENT EXPOSURE (Katherine Howell)

I hope I’ll get to visit: DARK COUNTRY (Bronwyn Parry)

One project I didn’t finish last year but want to finish this year is: THE RULE BOOK (Rob Kitchin)

I want to learn: THE IMMACULATE DECEPTION (Iain Pears)

I’m not looking forward to: my DYING GASP (Leighton Gage)

My biggest dream for the year is: OPERATION NAPOLEON (Arnaldur Indridason)

I hope I don’t end up: DINING WITH DEVILS (Gordon Aalborg)

I’ll probably spend a lot of time: exploring THE LOCKED ROOM (Maj Sowal & Per Wahloo)

Happy New Year 2011

What New Year's resolutions did you make?

Mine look suspiciously like last year's but I think they are still all valid (and I have added one!)

take all those library books back and be more restrained in my borrowing in future.
Reduce Mount TBR
be a lot more restrained in my purchasing
Cull and dispose of those books that I'll never read again.

What about you? What are you going to do?