I think Christie's seem less convoluted after you read Sayers or Allingham. I re-read Christie during busy times at work - so probably 5 or 6 a year. I just re-read the ones with Ariadne Oliver this year and appreciated the humor in them much more reading them now.

19:59 again. And Christie got the idea for Miss Marple from a Sayers character called Miss Climpson!

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:and damn, nobody did it better.

Dorothy Sayers did it better!

But the Agatha Christie’s are a lovely read anyway

I was about to post the exact same thing!

I've been rereading them too, though I also prefer Hercule Poirot.

I think they are classics and I love them even when they are not great.

Sometimes the mysteries are SO convoluted and rely on so much happening. Look at Death on the Nile - the killers plotted this extremely complicated murder, and everything had to go exactly. But they were seen by the maid, so killer #2 had to kill the maid in close range with a knife and get away with hiding the body and not being discovered. Then, for body #3, the first killer had to speak loudly enough for killer 2 to hear, run and get a gun, stick it into the room and kind of blindly shoot the woman who was about to reveal what she saw.

THEN, once caught, killer 2 kills killer 1 and then kills herself. The whole thing is bizarre when you look at it objectively.

Anonymous wrote:Love all Agatha Christie.
Endless Night didn’t feature Poirot or Marple, different than her others, but I loved it just the same. Had a haunting quality to it, but I guess that speaks for many of her books.

She also wrote some short stories. One featured a character known as “the gunman” and I’ve been meaning to track it down— had the same haunting quality to it.

The audiobook of Endless Night is great for a road trip.

Anonymous wrote:I went through a huge Agatha Christie phase when I was younger, but haven’t read her in years. I was more a fan of Hercule Poirot and his little gray cells than Miss Marple, though.

The Miss Marple TV shows are good. They convey have much she gets away with due to being treated like an invisible old woman.

I would recommend the biography of Christie by Lucy Worsley.

Anonymous wrote:and damn, nobody did it better.

Ten Little ****ers
Whoops
Ten Little Indians
Whoops again
And Then There Were None
Okay, that ought to do it.

Love all Agatha Christie.
Endless Night didn’t feature Poirot or Marple, different than her others, but I loved it just the same. Had a haunting quality to it, but I guess that speaks for many of her books.

She also wrote some short stories. One featured a character known as “the gunman” and I’ve been meaning to track it down— had the same haunting quality to it.

I went through a huge Agatha Christie phase when I was younger, but haven’t read her in years. I was more a fan of Hercule Poirot and his little gray cells than Miss Marple, though.

Anonymous wrote:and damn, nobody did it better.

Dorothy Sayers did it better!

But the Agatha Christie’s are a lovely read anyway

Margaret Yorke has some good ones. The Ellis Peters Brother Cadfael series is good.

^ and LOTR, of course.

Yes, I reread old favorites regularly. I have a few Agatha Christies I like, some Terry Pratchett, and Emma (the best Jane Austen, IMO).

and damn, nobody did it better.