Sinister Spring

Sinister Spring: Murder and Mystery from the Queen of Crime by Agatha Christie

Published by Harper Collins UK

ISBN 9780008470906

This is a delightful collection of Agatha Christie short stories that have some connection to the spring season. The book contains a good mix of stories featuring her recurring characters--Miss Marple, Hercule Poirot, Tommy and Tuppence, Mr. Parker Pyne, Mr. Satterthwaite, and Harley Quin. If you're new to Agatha Christie, this would be an excellent introduction to her work. If you've been reading Christie for years, like I have (about half a century now!), it's like a lovely visit with old friends and a couple of surprises thrown in. This collection is the latest in the seasonal series, all of which are wonderful and well worth reading. Every time I sit down with a Christie I know I am going to have a happy reading experience and this book was no exception. It did not disappoint and I highly recommend it.

Stories included:

The Market Basing Mystery

The Case of the Missing Lady

The Herb of Death

How Does Your Garden Grow?

Swan Song

Miss Marple Tells a Story

Have You Got Everything You Want?

The Jewel Robbery at the Grand Metropolitan

Ingots of Gold

The Soul of the Croupier

The Girl in the Train

Greenshaw’s Folly

I received a copy of the e-book in exchange for a fair review. I thank NetGalley and Harper Collins UK.

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Marple

 Marple: Twelve New Stories

by Agatha Christie; Naomi Alderman; Leigh Bardugo; Alyssa Cole; Lucy Foley; Elly Griffiths; Natalie Haynes; Jean Kwok; Val McDermid; Karen M. McManus; Dreda Say Mitchell; Kate Mosse; Ruth Ware

ISBN 9780008467319

Love. I’ll just start there. I loved Miss Marple as soon as I was introduced to her. I don’t remember what book it was, but I could not get enough of the character. I have always wished that Agatha Christie had written more Marple stories. I enjoy Poirot, but do wish that instead of the huge number of novels and short stories featuring him, there were more with her. Still, I read all the Miss Marples and kept wishing. Now comes this wonderful book, in which 12 contemporary writers have created short stories featuring Jane Marple. The love continues.

I loved this book. I was unsure how I would feel about it at first, thinking I might be disappointed, but not reading it wasn’t really an option and it became clear almost immediately that I needn’t have worried. It was a joy to read about Jane’s new adventures, some of which took place around the time as the original stories and some that were set in the future. In one story, Miss Marple is involved with the young adult granddaughter of her nephew, Raymond West! That would put her well into her 100s, but that’s OK. 

The stories were well-written and stylistically varied. As with any collection, I had favourites—the ending of the last story was fabulous! Some stories placed Jane in entirely new places with new people, while some unfolded in more familiar settings with familiar people. It was fun to hang out for a while with Sir Henry Clithering and the Bantrys again. Some stories made reference to some of Miss Marple’s original cases, but it is not necessary to have read the originals to enjoy this book. 

I felt that all of the authors stayed true to the essence of the character. That’s not to say that these stories were indistinguishable from the stories Christie wrote—there were subtle differences. But that’s to be expected and did not in any way detract from my great enjoyment of the book. I cannot recommend it highly enough. 

I received a free e-galley in exchange for this unbiased and fair review. I thank NetGalley and the publishers, HarperCollins UK.

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Happy Mail!

 We arrived at our door this morning with our weekly shop done and dusted, and spotted the postman a couple doors down. He looked up and I waved to him. He turned and started walking towards us. This was a hopeful sign, because it meant he had some small parcels that would not fit through the slot in our postbox. I was hoping it would be a book or two. Oh happy day! It was exactly what I'd hoped it would be! Two books--yippee!

The first was one I'd asked Bill to find a used copy of--Agatha Christie's second Tommy and Tuppence book, which is a collection of short stories--Partners in Crime. Someone mentioned it on a recent podcast or booktube video and I thought, 'Well, I haven't read that for yonks. Time for a re-read.' I thought it was on my e-reader, but although I have lots of her other books, I don't have that one. Next I checked the e-book section of the library website. They don't have it either. So Bill looked for it and found an ex-library copy, which is now mine. 😁

The other book is another one I'm excited about. I learned of it a couple weeks ago on an episode of the Shedunnit podcast titled The Many Afterlives of Hercule Poirot. The author was really interesting and the book sounded fabulous. I told Bill about it and unbeknownst to me, he found it and ordered it, only telling me it was on the way a couple days ago.

I can't wait to dive into this one! I am a couple hundred pages away from finishing the chunky novel I started the other day, so I will try to finish that today or tomorrow at the latest so I can start my new ones. I don't think I could make myself wait much longer than that!

I highly recommend the Shedunnit podcast if you're a fan of Golden Age detective fiction. It comes out every other week on Wednesdays and is usually around 25 minutes long. The topics are varied and it's clear that Caroline Crampton does a lot of research for each one. Often there are guests who are experts on whatever the topic is, as with the author of my new book. Check out the episode page here and have a listen to one that strikes your fancy! 😊

And now, back to my reading!

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