Kenneth McMahon
Much of what I enjoy about Crispin's Gervase Fen stories is missing here (the humour, the literary allusions, etc.) and instead what we get is a series of quick-fire mysteries wrapped up in 5-10 pages. Unfortunately, it reminded me of those Slylock Fox newspaper comic strips where you have to figure out a puzzle given some minimal clues. Sure, the solutions make sense but it's not really all that interesting in the end.
Surprisingly, it's the final story (“Deadlock”) that works best. Surprising because it doesn't feature Fen at all (neither does the preceding story) and also because as Crispin points out in the introduction, it aims more at creating an atmosphere rather than telling an anecdote. At 20 pages long (the longest story in this collection) it allows the mystery to unfold as an actual short story rather than a quick brain teaser.
As with most short story collections, this is a mixed bag of Christie's curios.
The Adventure of the Christmas Pudding
A nice Christmassy feel to what is a fairly slight, light hearted story.
The Mystery of the Spanish Chest
At the end of the story, Poirot calls this the perfect murder as Jock McLaren was able to remove two rivals - one by murdering him, and the other by framing him for the murder.
A perfect murder how? McLaren drugged Clayton's drink at the club... and then what? He anticipated Clayton sending himself a fake telegram and hiding in the chest during a party at a friend's house? More likely is that Clayton falls asleep in the cab and Mr. Perfect Murderer is left going “Uhhhhh...“
The Under Dog
A somewhat convoluted mystery which is given away by the title of the story. Honestly, I have to say I was lost throughout as to which character was which and who was in what room at what time. There are strange moments too as Poirot invites himself to stay in the house for weeks playing games on the inhabitants which involve him taking their fingerprints and measuring their shoe size. I was reminded of the titular character in Stephen Leacock's hilarious short story The Awful Fate of Melpomenus Jones who overstays his welcome while everybody else curses his presence.
Four and Twenty Blackbirds
A fun little curiosity involving an imposter.
The Dream
I guessed the resolution here early on probably because, again, it involves an imposter. Not a plot that makes much sense though. If the killers want to plant the seed of suicide, there are plenty of ways to do it without going about it the way they did. If they were intent on following through this plan though, why on earth would you involve one of the world's most famous investigators in your crime? Why not just use one of the newspaper men to get that idea out?
Greenshaw's Folly
Yet another imposter! Actually, this was the most enjoyable story in the collection for me. Unfortunately, it's let down by a slight plot hole. They want to pin the murder on the young gardener, but it's undone when the gardener leaves for lunch ten minutes early and therefore has an alibi. The murderers are aware that he often leaves for lunch early, so why on earth did they plan the murder for around that time? Why not do it an hour or two earlier?
Being originally from working class, northside Dublin, I already know that Roddy Doyle writes about places I know, people I know and language I know, but I was stunned by how much this book resonated with me. Parts of it could have been ripped from my childhood. Long forgotten memories suddenly reappeared - wrapping copies in wallpaper, hiding in the hot press, words I hadn't heard in years (“eccer”, “milling” “sap”), trying to say something funny so the other lads would like you better, and unfortunately, listening to the fights.
It brought back to me just how terrible it was lying in bed and hearing shouting and doors slamming. Of course, I hadn't forgotten that my parents had fought, but I had forgotten that feeling of listening to it. Memories came flooding back of trying to cover it with my ears, or saying over and over again to myself “Stop. Please stop. Just stop” as the lump in my throat got harder. My dad didn't do the things mentioned in the book, it was just shouting, but it was awful. Grown up problems suddenly invaded a child's innocence. Patrick trying to make sense of it was just heartbreaking - “I loved him. He was my da. It didn't make sense. She was my ma.” I can't imagine subjecting my son to that. My wife and I tend to give each other the silent treatment. I've never raised my voice to her. I wonder if that's something I subconsciously learned from childhood.
There's a great story in here, but it was too long drawn out. The opening in Transylvania, the arrival of the Demeter, and the hunt at the end are all memorable, but the entire middle section bogged the whole thing down. Van Helsing, especially, with his clumsy foreigner English was intensely irritating. I began this book almost a year ago and it took a long continuous slog of forcing myself to read a chapter here and there before abandoning the book again for a few weeks. I forced myself to read the last 100 pages this weekend and once I got back into it, it became an enjoyable adventure story again.
Incredibly contrived opening chapter. A doctor suspected a man of murder, and just happened to accidentally take a snapshot of him. Then just happened to carry that snapshot around with him. Then just happened to pass that snapshot and the story on to the major, who then just happens to carry it around with him so that he can tell the story to Miss Marple.
Once you get past that, it's decent enough entertainment, and to be fair even though it was spelled out early on, I still didn't have a clue who the murderer was right up to the moment of reveal.
Though the situations were entirely different, elements of Orwell's essay on his school days rang true for me too. The practice of memorising certain facts and passages in preparation for exams rather than actually engaging with the subject certainly existed 15-20 years ago in Ireland. I suspect it still does.
Orwell does a magnificent job of writing about the complexities of being a child trying to understand the world around him, giving voice to thoughts I'm not sure I ever considered. It was certainly a timely read personally, as my 5 year old son starts school this week. Thankfully, times have obviously changed for the better, but I do wonder how my son will view this new world.
I read quite a bit of Agatha Christie as a teenager and was always a fan, but somehow over the years I fell out of those kind of books. I've suddenly felt the urge to begin again, and this was the first one I happened upon, though it turns out it's actually the last Marple book. This doesn't actually play into the narrative at all.
While I was thoroughly engrossed in the story, even though not a whole lot happens, I was let down by the revelation of the killer. I suspected him somewhat throughout (only because of the whole ‘last person you would suspect' cliche) but thought better of it, because it didn't make sense that he would help this couple at all. I mean, why tell them of Lily Kimble's letter to him and her impending visit? He's going to kill her anyway, why not do it discretely?
I also found the Duchess of Malfi quote to be somewhat ridiculous. Now, I knew nothing about the play, but I find it hard to believe that Miss Marple who had just sat through it (and was possibly familiar with it anyway) didn't focus on the quote and it's meaning. In fact, it's not mentioned again at all, until the very end when Marple states that she was stupid for not spotting the significance. She had just watched a play where a brother has his sister killed for marrying a man he doesn't approve of, and she doesn't clue in at all as to how this might be relevant to the case at hand.
Otherwise, I liked it well enough, and am excited to continue catching up with Marple and Poirot.
A very entertaining man-on-the-run story even if like me, you've got limited technological knowledge. Intriguing escapades but much of the time I was wondering why this guy, who was always so sorry for hurting his loved ones by doing this, kept on doing it. Especially because there seemed to be no real reason for him continuing to hack beyond bragging rights.
Mitnick isn't particularly likable, constantly talking about other hacker's egos and arrogance, whilst saying lines like (paraphrased) “Who else but me would have the balls to hack the FBI whilst being investigated by them?” Actually, much of the excitement of the book was wondering when and how they were going to catch him.
