REVIEW: Murder on the Orient Express (audiobook) by Agatha Christie, narrated by Dan Stevens

Murder on the Orient Express is a mystery. I checked it out via one of the library Overdrive collections I have access to.

Review:

Poirot rides the Orient Express with wide variety of other passengers, from a Russian princess to an American woman who won't stop talking. At one point during the trip, Poirot learns that the train has stopped and a murder has occurred. The victim is a passenger he had found viscerally unpleasant, Mr. Ratchett. As Poirot investigates, he discovers many clues, none of which make sense.

REVIEW: And Then There Were None (audiobook) by Agatha Christie, narrated by Dan Stevens

And Then There Were None is a mystery. I listened to it via Audible.

Review:

Several people, all strangers to one another, arrive at a small, isolated island. Some believe themselves to have been invited by an old acquaintance, while others thought they were being hired by someone named U.N. Owen. All of them discover, too late, that these were lies designed to lure them into a trap. With no way to escape the island, the guests begin to die, one by one, in ways that eerily fit the "Ten Little Soldiers" rhyme.

The Mysterious Affair at Styles (audiobook) by Agatha Christie, narrated by Hugh Fraser

The Mysterious Affair at Styles is a mystery.

I've decided not to include any read-alikes for this.

Review:

This is the first Hercule Poirot mystery. I finished listening to it a few weeks ago and should have reviewed it sooner. I'll do the best I can.

This is set during World War I. Hastings is a wounded soldier visiting a friend in Styles. He thinks he'd make a good detective, and he gets an opportunity to prove that (or not) when Mrs. Inglethorp is found dead, apparently due to strychnine poisoning. Hasting enlists the help of Hercule Poirot, a Belgian refugee who was a famous detective in his home country, and in the end it's mostly Poirot figuring things out while Hastings occasionally assists and desperately tries to figure out what Poirot has deduced but won't tell him.

This was a complicated story made extra confusing by the fact that I couldn't keep any of the characters and their relationships straight. In that respect, this didn't really make for a good work-time audiobook – it needed a little more attention than I could give it. However, the narration was so good that I didn't mind.

I bought this during an Audible sale, not knowing that the narrator, Hugh Fraser, was the same person who played Hastings in the TV series. I remember thinking that the narrator seemed to be channeling TV series Hasting and was doing an excellent job of it, so it was a little embarrassing when I realized who he was.

At any rate, if you liked the TV series, Hugh Fraser's narration will probably appeal to you. Not only will his Hastings sound familiar (ha!), he does a wonderful job of imitating David Suchet's Poirot speech patterns. I need to remember to keep an eye out for Fraser's Poirot narrations in future Audible sales, or maybe even spend one of my precious credits on one.

The Secret Adversary (e-book) by Agatha Christie

I downloaded this for free from Project Gutenberg. It's the first of Christie's Tommy and Tuppence books.

Synopsis:

I'm not sure exactly when this took place, but it's sometime after the sinking of the Lusitania and the end of World War I. Prudence Cowley (known as "Tuppence" to her friends) and Thomas Beresford (Tommy) are two childhood friends who meet after a bit of time apart. Tuppence was, among other things, a nurse, while Tommy was in the military. Both are now at loose ends and more than a little strapped for cash.

Tuppence sees a man named Mr. Whittington about a job that sounds a little too good to be true. When she tells him her name is "Jane Finn," a name Tommy told her he'd overheard, Mr. Whittington angrily retracts the job offer, and Tuppence inadvertently becomes his blackmailer. Tuppence hopes to continue getting more money out of Whittington and maybe find out more about Jane Finn and why she's so important, except Whittington vanishes. Tommy and Tuppence put out an ad asking for anyone with information about Jane Finn to contact them, which is how they get into contact with Mr. Carter and Julius Hersheimmer.

Mr. Carter, an important man in British intelligence, tells Tommy and Tuppence a little more about Jane Finn. Apparently, in 1915 America and England drew up a secret draft treaty. Danvers, an American, was aboard the Lusitania, responsible for taking the document to the American Embassy in England. When the Lusitania was torpedoed, he gave the document to an American girl, Jane Finn, reasoning that a woman would be more likely to get a spot on a lifeboat than himself. He was right.

Although there was evidence that Jane Finn survived, no one was ever able to find her and the document was never recovered. After the war, Jane Finn was forgotten about, but now someone wants the document in order to discredit a few English statesmen and add fuel to the current Labour unrest. Mr. Carter's people have been unable to find the document or Jane Finn, so he hopes that Tommy and Tuppence will have a fresh way of going about things. He, of course, offers to pay them and provide them with whatever funds they require to get the job done, but, if they are caught by the enemy, they can expect no help from him.

Julius Hersheimmer turns out to be a filthy rich American who claims to be Jane Finn's cousin, looking for her so as to give her a fair share of his inheritance. Julius, Tommy, and Tuppence team up to try to find Jane Finn and the document, but they find themselves facing a terrifying and brilliant foe: Mr. Brown.

Review:

I was 10 pages into this book when I almost quit reading it. It wasn't at all what I expected. Granted, I haven't read many of Agatha Christie's books – one Miss Marple and one Poirot, I think – but what I've read was enough to make me at least expect a mystery starring an interesting detective/amateur detective. Tommy and Tuppence didn't seem particularly interesting to me.

I'm glad I continued reading, though, because The Secret Adversary turned out to be a lot of fun. While I've seen the book referred to as a detective novel and as a mystery, now that I've read it I consider it more of a thriller.