Review: ORDEAL BY INNOCENCE, Agatha Christie

• 
  this edition (large print) supplied by my local library
  
• first publishd in 1958, this edition 2011
• HarperLuxe from Harper Collins Publishers
• ISBN 978-0-06-287968-4
• 349 pages

Synopsis (Christie.com)

The Argyle family is far from pleased to discover one of its number has been posthumously pardoned for murder – if Jacko Argyle didn’t kill his mother, who did? 

Dr. Arthur Calgary takes a ferry across the Rubicon River to Sunny Point, the home of the Argyle family. Two years before, the matriarch of the family was murdered and a son, Jack, was convicted and sentenced to spend the rest of his life in prison. Throughout the trial Jack had maintained his innocence, claiming he was hitchhiking on the night of the murder and he had been picked up by a middle-aged man in a dark car. Unable to locate this mystery man the police viewed Jack’s as a lie. 

Calgary was the stranger in question, but he arrives too late for Jack – who succumbs to pneumonia after serving just six months of his sentence. Feeling a sense of duty to the Argyles, Calgary is surprised when his revelation has a disturbing effect on the family – it means one of the family is a murderer.

My Take

More about the book (from Christie.com)

Two years after Jacko was convicted of the murder of his adopted mother and has died in jail, his alibi steps forward. Dr Calgary had been out of the country during the trial and only heard news of it upon his return. Certain that Jacko was innocent, Dr Calgary takes it upon himself to investigate the past.

A psychological endeavour on Agatha Christie’s part, this story signifies a shift in style from some of her earlier, light works, and focuses largely on conversation, memory and perception, as each sibling suspects each other of the murder of their somewhat eccentric foster mother. The book was dedicated “To Billy Collins with affection and gratitude”. It was he who had convinced Christie to leave her one-sided deal with the Bodley Head, the publishers of her first six books, and to switch to William Collins Sons & Co in 1926. Now known as HarperCollins, they are Agatha Christie's UK and US publishers to this day.

It was first published in 1958 and it was in 1984 that the story was first adapted for film. It starred Donald Sutherland, Faye Dunaway and Christopher Plummer, and featured an interesting soundtrack that is often thought to conflict with the atmosphere of the film. In 2007, the story featured Miss Marple as part of the ITV television series, played by Geraldine McEwan.

In 2018 new TV adaptation of Ordeal by Innocence was broadcast with an all-star cast, including Bill Nighy, Eleanor Tomlinson and Anna Chancellor.

It is 10 years since I last read this and I am re-reading it for my Agatha Christie reading group.
It was chosen for our discussion because it is a stand alone, so we will be following our discussion with the viewing of the 2018 TV adaptation.

We are told in reviews that the book was one of Agatha Christie's own favourite novels, and featured a interpretation of her holiday home, Greenway House. Also that the reason this was not a "Poirot" was that when she wrote this book Christie was free to do whatever she wanted as she was not in any financial need that period and wanted to write something that would be enjoyable for her.
We spend a lot of time (along with the characters) thinking about who the murderer is, and also about the fact that the innocent are suffering too. We are presented with each of the family in turn for assessment. Did you finally guess who it was?

I haven't actually created a list of questions this time, so it will be interesting to see how the discussion goes.
Some suggestion of themes

• Guilt vs Innocence
• Why is no-one pleased by Dr. Calgary's assertion of the alibi?
  
• Nurture vs Nature - in particular why didn't Rachel Argyle's great "experiment" work?
  
• Did Calgary do the right thing? Or should life have gone on with the case unsolved?
  Remember that Calgary's revelations eventually led to  Mary's husband Philip becoming fixated on solving the murder and so there was in fact another murder and an attempted murder. 

Characters
Leo Argyle
Rachel Argyle
Mary Durrant
Philip Durrant
Jacko Argyle
Mickey Argyle
Tina Argyle
Hetser Argyle
Kirsten Lindstrom
Gwenda Vaughan
Arthur Calgary

My rating: 4.5

My original review

My list of Agatha Christie books.

Review: THE MIDNIGHT HOUR, Elly Griffiths

• 
  this edition supplied by my local library
  
• published by Quercus UK 2021
• ISBN 978-1-78747-759-9
• 337 pages
• #6 in the Brighton Mysteries

Synopsis (publisher)

An old man lies dead and it looks like poison, but his wife isn't the only one who had reason to kill him.

Brighton, 1965

When theatrical impresario Bert Billington is found dead in his retirement home, no one suspects foul play. But when the postmortem reveals that he was poisoned, suspicion falls on his wife, eccentric ex-Music Hall star Verity Malone.

Frustrated by the police response to Bert's death and determined to prove her innocence, Verity calls in private detective duo Emma Holmes and Sam Collins. This is their first real case, but as luck would have it they have a friend on the inside: Max Mephisto is filming a remake of Dracula, starring Seth Billington, Bert's son. But when they question Max, they feel he isn't telling them the whole story.

Emma and Sam must vie with the police to untangle the case and bring the killer to justice. They're sure the answers must lie in Bert's dark past and in the glamorous, occasionally deadly, days of Music Hall. But the closer they get to the truth, the more danger they find themselves in...

My Take

You'll see from my list below that I have really only dabbled in this series, and it is 5 years since I have read one of them. I found this one a perfectly acceptable read rather than being over the moon with it like I am with the Ruth Galloway series. I think the reason is that I much prefer the Ruth Galloway character (and the setting) to Max Mephisto.

I found the creation of the new PI duo, Emma Holmes and Sam Collins an interesting concept. Emma Holmes is a former policewoman and the wife of Detective Inspector Edgar Stephens. Edgar is a good friend of Max Mephisto (from the war years) and so you can see the relationships are a bit tangled. I thought the sharing of information that goes on between the detecting strands is a bit unrealistic and at times Emma forgets she is no longer a policewoman.

For what its worth, the new duo goes on into the next book in the series THE GREAT DECEIVER.

My rating: 4.5

I've also read

• 4.6, THE CROSSING PLACES - Ruth Galloway #1
  
• 4.6, THE JANUS STONE - Ruth Galloway #2
• 4.6, THE HOUSE AT SEA'S END - Ruth Galloway #3
• 4.5, A ROOM FULL OF BONES - Ruth Galloway #4
• 4.8, DYING FALL- audio book - Ruth Galloway #5
• 4.5, THE GHOST FIELDS, Elly Griffiths - audio book - Ruth Galloway #7
• 4.7, THE OUTCAST DEAD, Elly Griffiths - audio book - Ruth Galloway #6
• 4.7, THE WOMAN IN BLUE - Ruth Galloway #8
• 4.7, THE CHALK PIT - Ruth Galloway #9
• 4.4, THE VANISHING BOX - Brighton Mysteries #4
  
• 4.6, THE STRANGER DIARIES - Harbinder Kaur #1
  
• 4.5, SMOKE AND MIRRORS - Brighton Mysteries #2
  
• 4.4, THE POSTSCRIPT MURDERS - Harbinder Kaur #2
  
• 4.7, THE LANTERN MEN - Ruth Galloway #12
• 5.0, THE STONE CIRCLE - Ruth Galloway #11 
• 4.8, THE DARK ANGEL - Ruth Galloway #10
• 4.7, THE NIGHT HAWKS - Ruth Galloway #13
  
• 5.0, THE LOCKED ROOM - Ruth Galloway #14
• 4.6, BLEEDING HEART YARD - Harbinder Kaur #3
• 5.0, THE LAST REMAINS - Ruth Galloway #15

The Brighton Mysteries (Fantastic Fiction)

   1. The Zig Zag Girl (2014)
   2. Smoke and Mirrors (2015)
   3. The Blood Card (2016)
   4. The Vanishing Box (2017)
   5. Now You See Them (2019)
   6. The Midnight Hour (2021)
   7. The Great Deceiver (2023)

Review: HERCULE POIROT'S SILENT NIGHT, Sophie Hannah

• This book made available as a review copy by NetGalley - an e-book, but it will be available later in the year in hard copy.
  
• Pub Date 04 Oct 2023
• HarperCollins Publishers Australia, HarperCollins

Synopsis (NetGalley)

The world’s greatest detective, Hercule Poirot – legendary star of Agatha Christie’s Murder on the Orient Express, Death on the Nile and A Haunting in Venice – puts his little grey cells to work solving a baffling Christmas mystery.

CAN HERCULE POIROT SOLVE A BAFFLING MURDER MYSTERY IN TIME FOR CHRISTMAS?

It’s 19 December 1931. Hercule Poirot and Inspector Edward Catchpool are called to investigate the murder of a man in the apparent safe haven of a Norfolk hospital ward. Catchpool’s mother, the irrepressible Cynthia, insists that Poirot stays in a crumbling mansion by the coast, so that they can all be together for the festive period while Poirot solves the case. Cynthia’s friend Arnold is soon to be admitted to that same hospital and his wife is convinced he will be the killer’s next victim, though she refuses to explain why.

Poirot has less than a week to solve the crime and prevent more murders, if he is to escape from this nightmare scenario and get home in time for Christmas. Meanwhile, someone else – someone utterly ruthless – also has ideas about what ought to happen to Hercule Poirot . . .

My Take

I think Sophie Hannah has done a good job in re-creating Hercule Poirot, but perhaps Inspector Edward Catchpool is not a good replacement for his old offsider Arthur Hastings.

Catchpool's mother requests Poirot's help in solving one murder and preventing another. The possible second victim is due to be admitted to hospital early in the New Year and to spend his remaining days there. If Poirot can work out who committed the original murder then perhaps her friend Arnold will be safe. There seems to be no reason why the second murder should take place, there is no evident link between the first victim and Arnold, and yet Arnold's wife is convinced the hospital is an unsafe place.

Poirot is confident that the solving of the first murder will take him only a couple of days and that he and Catchpool will be free to return to London in plenty of time for Christmas. However he has not taken Catchpool's mother's determination into account, and the lengths that she will go to. Add to that a mix of very strange and at times unpleasant characters, an inept local police investigator, and something in the past reaching out into the present .....

This is the 5th book by Sophie Hannah in this series, and I recommend that if you are still to give it a try, that you make Hercule Poirot's acquaintance. I doubt that you will be disappointed.

My rating: 4.4

The Hercule Poirot series

  1. The Monogram Murders (2014)
  2. Closed Casket (2016)
  3. The Mystery of Three Quarters (2018)
  4. The Killings at Kingfisher Hill (2020)
  5. Hercule Poirot's Silent Night (2023)

I have already read

4.3, THE MONOGRAM MURDERS - #1
4.2, CLOSED CASKET - #2
4.4, CLOSED CASKET - audio
4.4, THE MYSTERY OF THREE QUARTERS - audio book #3
4.4, THE KILLINGS AT KINGFISHER HILL - audio book #4  

Review: MURDER IN THE MIND, Bruce Beckham

• 
  this edition available as an e-book on Kindle (Amazon)
  
• #6 in the DI Skelgill series
• ASIN ‏ : ‎ B0181DH4BK
• Publisher ‏ : ‎ Lucius; 1st edition (2 January 2016)
• Print length ‏ : ‎ 240 pages  

Synopsis (Amazon)

SUMMONED TO AN ISOLATED maximum-security hospital, DI Skelgill inadvertently catches the eye of a notorious female serial killer. Does she read his censorious thoughts? Is this the trigger that turns a routine investigation into a rollercoaster of murder, mayhem, escapes and hostage taking? And what of the establishment? Are these crises purely coincidental, or is some conspiracy afoot? Could it be blackmail, corruption, a power struggle ... or something altogether more sinister?

In this, the sixth stand-alone Inspector Skelgill mystery, search teams comb the moorland for clues, while the maverick Cumbrian detective finds his mental sinews stretched to their very limit.

My Take

Another outing with Detective Inspector Daniel Skelgill, and another where you learn just a little more about him.

Skelgill agrees to give a prize at the police charity auction of a weekend's fishing which will involve the hooking of a thirty pound pike. The winner is a psychologist at the maximum security prison where he is investigating the theft of some stores. His investigation has already brought him into contact with a convicted serial killer, a former nurse convicted of poisoning a number of patients. And then he discovers some of the others in responsible positions at the facility are not quite squeaky clean either.  

I'm enjoying the varied plots in these not-quite-cozies.

My rating: 4.5

I've already read

• 4.4, MURDER IN ADLAND- Skelgill #1
• 4.5, MURDER IN SCHOOL - Skelgill #2
• 4.5, MURDER ON THE EDGE  - Skelgill #3
• 4.5, MURDER ON THE LAKE - Skelgill #4
• 4.4, MURDER BY MAGIC - Skelgill #5
  

Review: THE STRANGERS WE KNOW, Pip Drysdale

• 
  This edition an e-book made available on Libby by my local library
  
• Originally published 2019
• Publisher: Simon & Schuster Australia (December 2, 2020)
• Length: 336 pages
• ISBN13: 9781760854522

Synopsis (publisher)

Imagine seeing your loving husband on a dating app. Now imagine that’s the best thing that happens to you all week …

When Charlie sees a man who is the spitting image of her husband Oliver on a dating app, her heart stops. Her first desperate instinct is to tell herself she must be mistaken – after all, she only caught a glimpse from a distance as her friends laughingly swiped through the men on offer. But no matter how much she tries to push her fears aside, she can’t let it go. Because she took that photo. On their honeymoon.

Suddenly other signs of betrayal start to add up and so Charlie does the only thing she can think of to defend her position – she signs up to the app to catch Oliver in the act.

But Charlie soon discovers that infidelity is the least of her problems. Nothing is as it seems and nobody is who she thinks they are ...

My Take

Another really good read from Pip Drysdale. What I like about Drysdale's books is that just when you think you know where the plot is going, it takes a sharp unexpected twist. 

Charlie's husband Oliver has been careful to not exactly describe for her what his job involves. And he is away a lot. They haven't been married long, but she loves him and trusts him, until she begins to have doubts.

It seems to me that Charlie is too quick to jump to believing the worst about him, and I was quicker to see the truth than she was. But on the other hand, Oliver isn't as squeaky clean, as innocent, as she hopes he is.

My rating: 4.7

I've also read 

4.2, THE NEXT GIRL

Review: BETRAYAL IN THE COTSWOLDS, Rebecca Tope

• 
  this edition published by Isis (large print) in 2023
  
• #20 in the Thea Slocombe series
• ISBN 978-1-39912564-2
• 306 pages

Synopsis (publisher)

A handsome, if slightly shabby, stone house in Upper Oddington is home to Umberto Kingly, as well as his three dogs, and will be Thea Slocombe's latest house-sitting assignment. Without even a local shop, Thea expects the location to be one of her quietest, until the serene atmosphere is shattered with a fatal hit-and-run.

The ensuing high-profile police investigation plunges Thea deep into the victim's complicated family dynamics and the rift that had already torn it apart. She cannot help wondering if the reverberations of scandal have led to a deliberate and murderous assault.

My Take

I have read two in this series before.

Thea Slocombe generally does house sitting, but this time she is taking on looking after 3 dogs as well, for 5 days, while their owner makes a visit to Europe selling antique clocks.

On the first day she looks out of an upstairs window to see a car pulling up outside in the street. A youngish woman gets out and is almost immediately mown down by a speeding car which not only seems to aim for her but also doesn't stop. Stunned by what she has seen, and convinced that the victim knew the driver of the car, Thea contacts a policewoman whom she knows well from earlier cases that she has been involved.

When it turns out that the victim is the niece of the man she is doing the house sitting for, Thea cooperates with the police to try to discover the reason for the murder. And what a dysfunctional family is revealed!

The plot eventually becomes very complex, and to my mind the author was struggling to hold it all together.

My rating: 4.4

I've also read

4.4, A COTSWOLD KILLING - #1
4.3, A GRAVE IN THE COTSWOLDS- #8

Review, MURDER BY MAGIC, Bruce Beckham

• 
  This edition available as an e-book on Kindle (Amazon)
  
• ASIN ‏ : ‎ B00YF6HR9M
• Publisher ‏ : ‎ Lucius; 1st edition (May 27, 2015)
• Print length ‏ : ‎ 301 pages
• #5 in the Inspector Skelgill Investigates series 

Synopsis (Amazon)

A SPATE OF VICIOUS ATTACKS upon valuable Herdwick sheep, the sudden disappearance of a foreign hiker, and the unexplained drowning of a woodland hermit – a series of apparently unconnected events – draw Detective Inspector Daniel Skelgill to the white-knuckle passes and isolated dales of deepest Lakeland.

Straws in the wind suggest there is sorcery afoot – and a connection to an equally sinister trade in human traffic – Skelgill and his team risk dire consequences as they strive to infiltrate the secretive ring and expose its evil perpetrators.

In the fifth Inspector Skelgill novel, the maverick British detective faces what is his greatest challenge yet, as he wrestles with an error of judgement that could leave his career – and his life – in tatters.

My Take

I'm enjoying the fact that there are so many in this series (apparently 21 now) to dip into. I am reading them in order as I believe that will give me the best view of character and plot development. 

The action in this one takes Skelgill and his Sergeant Jones travelling to the Ukraine to try to work out why people from there appear to be turning up in Cumbria. That seemed to be a little stretch in credibility but it resulted in some interesting plot lines. 

My rating: 4.4

I've also read

• 4.4, MURDER IN ADLAND- Skelgill #1
• 4.5, MURDER IN SCHOOL - Skelgill #2
• 4.5, MURDER ON THE EDGE  - Skelgill #3
• 4.5, MURDER ON THE LAKE - Skelgill #4