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Post by dem bones on Oct 31, 2011 17:31:54 GMT
Dilemma. Just hit p. 105 (of 189) - will never get this finished before the rerun of the David Suchet version tonight. i'm still playing it safe by suspecting everyone Christie grants a few lines of dialogue, but no doubt Poirot had it solved several chapters ago. He's just shown Mrs Ariadne Oliver his notes relating to the investigation. The most recent addition is the word "Elephants." i'm slow on the uptake so you'll have to excuse me but, speaking of Mrs. Oliver. who seems to have shared a number of Poirot's adventures, i assume she is based on Christie herself? In Halloween Party, handsome, long-haired Michael Garfield, the talented landscape gardener who transformed the disused quarry into a thing of beauty for the late Mrs. Llewellyn-Smyth, has this to say about her. "A best-seller. People wish to interview her, to know what she thinks about such subjects as student unrest, socialism, girls' clothing, should sex be promiscuous and other things that are no concern of hers."
"Yes, Yes," said Poirot, "Deplorable, I think. They do not learn very much, I have noticed from Mrs. Oliver. They learn only that she is fond of apples. That has now been known for twenty years at least, I should think, but she still repeats it with a pleasant smile." After learning nothing useful (?) from the frosty headmistress, Miss Emlyn, Poirot tries his luck with Elizabeth Whittaker, a teacher at the Elms, who mentions a minor incident at the party when the hostess, Mrs. Rowena Drake, dropped a vase, seemingly after spotting someone in the library she wasn't expecting. Mrs. Drake didn't go in to confront them, and made no mention of the episode after Joyce's murder. Could it have been her husband Hugo, a cripple on account of his polio? And i'd best mention Miranda Butler, thirteen, a likeable girl with quite a morbid turn of mind (she asks Poirot if he believes that people really are" are born to be drowned or hanged?") Miranda was close friends with Joyce. She was also just about the only child in the community didn't make the party, as she was tucked up sick in bed. Her widowed mum worries about her playing in the quarry garden so much, what with a country overrun by escaped lunatics, and all of them off their heads on Flower pot. She's very close to hippie genius Michael Garfield, something which evidently didn't ring alarm bells in the late 'sixties like it would today. Finally for the time being, we've learned from the solicitor, Mr Jeremy "Bring back hanging" Fullerton, that the missing Au Pair's name was Olga Seminof, an orphan from Eastern Europe, and it's quite possible she was entirely innocent of forgery, and the dubious codicil was the work of interested parties trying to cheat her of her rightful inheritance (Fullerton doesn't share this tasty snippet with Poirot - he just has very loud and detailed thoughts). Secondly, the incident involving the landlord of The Green Swan, his wife and a fatally stabbed Romeo, may not be incidental to the ongoing investigation after all. The victim was young Ferrier Leslie, a bent lawyer investigating the legitimacy of Mrs Llewellyn-Smythe will on behalf of the her disinherited nephew and his wife, Hugo and Rowena Drake! You're not following any of this, are you? i can't say as i blame you. let's have another one for the gallery instead. Agatha Christie - The ABC Murders (Fontana 1962, originally 1936. Cover shown is from Fontana 7th impression from 1971) Tom Adams Blurb: A is for Andover and Mrs Ascher battered to death.
B is for Bexhill and Betty Barnard strangled.
C is for Sir Carmichael Clarke clubbed and killed.
"One can only chalk up yet another defeat at her hands ... once again she has led us up the garden path with her usual blend of duplicity and fairness. A little masterpiece of construction." - Nicholas Blake, The Spectator.happy halloween from sunny whitechapel, pulp city.
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Post by andydecker on Oct 31, 2011 18:09:22 GMT
You're not following any of this, are you? Sure I am following, now it gets interesting how much it will differ from the movie version I don´t think that Miss Christie had the ending of the adaption in mind.
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Post by killercrab on Nov 1, 2011 2:35:26 GMT
Agatha Christie - The ABC Murders >>
I followed The Walking Dead with Suchet's ABC Murders last night. I thoroughly enjoyed it as it didn't follow the expected Christie formula , instead the suspect was identified early on to the viewers and like Columbo the story was a game of cat and mouse as Poirot tried to catch the murderer! Great stuff with plenty of humour involving a stuffed caiman...
KC
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Post by dem bones on Nov 1, 2011 19:33:52 GMT
'fraid i gave into temptation and watched the Poirot adaptation of Halloween Party last night, and, if it is faithful to the novel, seems things are shortly to take a turn for the very weird indeed! i really liked that, between them, Mark Gatiss and director Charles Palmer brought the latent Gothic horror aspects to the forefront. Out from the novel go Superintendent Spence and his sister Elspeth, in comes Mrs. Goodbody, a cackling trad witch who is given the best of their dialogue, but i didn't spot any other major deviations from the original. And what a lovely church! reminded me of St. Mary's, Harrow-on-the-Hill, but is probably some place else!
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Post by andydecker on Nov 2, 2011 12:07:04 GMT
There really is the same murder/motive in the novel, older woman, younger guy as a murderous pair, because of money, sex and thrill? So I guess only the lesbian teachers are modernized? Who would have guessed.
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Post by Craig Herbertson on Feb 27, 2014 9:15:03 GMT
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Post by Craig Herbertson on Mar 10, 2014 19:46:33 GMT
recent acquisition. Really getting into Christie now that I have accepted the absurdity of the criminal formula
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Post by Jojo Lapin X on Mar 10, 2014 20:41:11 GMT
Christie was an extremely slick writer, perhaps the slickest. Her texts offer absolutely no resistance; you are barely aware that you are reading something.
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Post by Craig Herbertson on Mar 10, 2014 20:46:25 GMT
Christie was an extremely slick writer, perhaps the slickest. Her texts offer absolutely no resistance; you are barely aware that you are reading something. Spot on. I just reread Orient Express reviewed above by Dem. Old age means I can never remember the endings so as well as being marvelously entertained I was completely surprised and out thought yet again. As you say, when you examine the writing with a critical eye it's absolutely seamless.
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Post by Dr Strange on Mar 21, 2014 15:50:55 GMT
There's an essay written by Raymond Chandler called "The Simple Art of Murder", in which he is does a very thorough (and very funny) hatchet job on the whole "golden age detective" school. Of the solution to "Murder on the Orient Express" he says, "Only a halfwit could guess it".
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Post by Craig Herbertson on Mar 21, 2014 16:39:51 GMT
There's an essay written by Raymond Chandler called "The Simple Art of Murder", in which he is does a very thorough (and very funny) hatchet job on the whole "golden age detective" school. Of the solution to "Murder on the Orient Express" he says, "Only a halfwit could guess it". Shit, I could have been close!
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Post by dem bones on Mar 23, 2014 15:53:41 GMT
Agatha Christie - Ten Little Niggers (Fontana, 1981: originally Collins, 1939) Tom Adams Blurb: Agatha Christie's most famous thriller – ghoulish, nerve-tearing.
A detective story with no detective !
10 people are invited to a fabulous mansion on nigger Island off the coast of Devon. Though they all have something to hide, they arrive hopefully on a glorious summer evening... But soon a series.of extraordinary events take place: the island is suddenly bathed in a most sinister light... panic grips the visitors one, by one ... by one, by one ...This is the Christie i've been holding out for. Have read countless variations on the theme - 'Michael Slade's Ripper, John Coyne's The Legacy, most recently, a rematch with Phil Caveney's soft-rock 'n roll variation, Bad To The Bone - but never had a copy of the Dame's blueprint until this edition turned up at the market this morning.
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Post by Jojo Lapin X on Mar 23, 2014 18:32:34 GMT
Agatha Christie - Ten Little Niggers (Fontana, 1981: originally Collins, 1939) Blurb: Agatha Christie's most famous thriller – ghoulish, nerve-tearing.
A detective story with no detective !
10 people are invited to a fabulous mansion on nigger Island off the coast of Devon. Though they all have something to hide, they arrive hopefully on a glorious summer evening... But soon a series.of extraordinary events take place: the island is suddenly bathed in a most sinister light... panic grips the visitors one, by one ... by one, by one ...This is the Christie i've been holding out for. Have read countless variations on the theme - 'Michael Slade's Ripper, John Coyne's The Legacy, most recently, a rematch with Phil Caveney's soft-rock 'n roll variation, Bad To The Bone - but never had a copy of the Dame's blueprint until this edition turned up at the market this morning. There is nothing like it in her oeuvre. It is remarkably sinister. As far as I know, all adaptations into film and theater changed the ending; it will be interesting to see what you think of it. "Gloomy" does not begin to do it justice.
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Post by Craig Herbertson on Mar 23, 2014 18:53:33 GMT
Agatha Christie - Ten Little Niggers (Fontana, 1981: originally Collins, 1939) Blurb: Agatha Christie's most famous thriller – ghoulish, nerve-tearing.
A detective story with no detective !
10 people are invited to a fabulous mansion on nigger Island off the coast of Devon. Though they all have something to hide, they arrive hopefully on a glorious summer evening... But soon a series.of extraordinary events take place: the island is suddenly bathed in a most sinister light... panic grips the visitors one, by one ... by one, by one ...This is the Christie i've been holding out for. Have read countless variations on the theme - 'Michael Slade's Ripper, John Coyne's The Legacy, most recently, a rematch with Phil Caveney's soft-rock 'n roll variation, Bad To The Bone - but never had a copy of the Dame's blueprint until this edition turned up at the market this morning. There is nothing like it in her oeuvre. It is remarkably sinister. As far as I know, all adaptations into film and theater changed the ending; it will be interesting to see what you think of it. "Gloomy" does not begin to do it justice. Read this again every recently. Classic at any level. Getting quite into Christie
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Post by David A. Riley on Mar 23, 2014 19:50:46 GMT
There is nothing like it in her oeuvre. It is remarkably sinister. As far as I know, all adaptations into film and theater changed the ending; it will be interesting to see what you think of it. "Gloomy" does not begin to do it justice. Read this again every recently. Classic at any level. Getting quite into Christie Coincidentally I rewatched the old black and white film of it on DVD, And Then There Were None, yesterday afternoon. Of course they chickened out with the ending, though other than that it was quite good, but not a match to Christie's original.
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