Women on Wednesday - Agatha Christie

This weekly event is hosted by Susan at Rocks n' Reads West of Mars. 


She says: " Every Wednesday, write about a book you loved that’s written by a woman. Celebrate a woman author whose books you love. Talk about a book you’re dying to read. "

To those who frequent my blog, it would be no surprise that Agatha Christie features in my Women on Wednesday meme. I'm a great fan of 'The Queen of Crime' and I've spent many an hour willingly getting myself embroiled in a mystery, trying to guess a killer, and of course, being wrong with my predictions.


I started reading Agatha Christie more than 4 years ago and I've read most of her books, starting from the extremely popular And Then There Were None to the fairly obscure novels like A Daughter's A Daughter written as Mary Westmacott. Her detectives are legendary by themselves: be it Hercule Poirot, Jane Marple, Tommy and Tuppence Beresford or Captain Hastings. The most popular detective is of course Hercule Poirot, the Belgian detective with his moustache and his 'little grey cells'. But my personal favourite is Miss Marple - an unbelievably brilliant old lady with a keen eye for detail, who solves mysteries that have baffled trained detectives.


Most of Christie's mysteries are deceptively simple. The plot is laid out immaculately, the suspects are identified and you're allowed to guess. It's like an interactive guessing game!  Her imagery of quaint English villages, especially in Miss Marple mysteries, is another reason I adore her books. Christie took a cue from Conan Doyle and his legendary detective Sherlock Holmes and gave us another unforgettable line of mysteries. Another speciality of Christie's books are that they are mysteries you can read again and again. Rereading is, in Christie's case, an opportunity to watch the master at work. 


There are several film adaptations of Agatha Christie's books, but in my opinion, none of it can capture the excitement of staying awake at night, unable to put down the book, turning over a page knowing it contains a whole new revelation! Enjoy that rare, wonderful reading experience. You can join the Marple Poirot Holmes challenge which is my little tribute to Agatha Christie.


 Featured on Women on Wednesday:
November 25, 2009 - Louisa May Alcott 
December 2, 2009 - Enid Blyton 
December 16, 2009 - Nayantara Sahgal 
December 23, 2009 - J. K. Rowling

Miss Marple's Final Cases - Agatha Christie

Rating : 5/10

Review:

I went into the book looking forward to a set of whodunnits, vintage Christie style, but was left disappointed. The book is an undeniably below-par collection of Miss Marple cases. It's not really asking for too much, since people always expect a lot from Agatha Christie's books, after having read masterpieces like And Then There Were None, Why Didn't They Ask Evans, Murder on the Orient Express etc. And though many people believe and I agree too, that Hercule Poirot is a far more fascinating detective, I have a soft corner for Miss Marple, which was the reason I picked this book. The book is average at best and pathetic at worst. It's very unfair how Hercule Poirot gets a spell-binding, fascinating send-off with his final case Curtain, while Miss Marple gets this raw deal. The stories in the book were: Sanctuary: Not bad. Simple but neat plot. A typical, calm Marple mystery. Strange Jest : Again, a very simple plot. There are no layers, nothing to ponder about, no clues out for the reader to make guesses ( which is by far my most favourite thing about mysteries ). In short, the story is like fast food. It's a fast read, but is there anything rich and wonderful about it? No. Tape-Measure Murder: I cannot believe that they made the fatal mistake about this tale. The title is such a give-away in an otherwise tight tale! Cardinal Rule of Mysteries: Let not the title say more than it should. The Case of the Caretaker: Irritatingly predictable story. Miss Marple Tells a Story: Very typical Christie, but I enjoyed it. It kept me on my toes till the last paragraph. Greenshaw's Folly: Again, a typical Christie story which has become my problem. I've read so much of Christie that my mind immediately wanders to all possibilities and in the end when the twist is revealed, I'm not surprised at all. 2 additional and pointless supernatural stories, The Dressmaker's Doll, In a Glass Darkly, were included in my book. They start off sufficiently scarily with a spooky narrative, but are damp squids in the end.